Redemption through His blood

Written to in the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ and they were known and referenced as a

lukewarm church.

In any case, Paul is writing to the church at Colossae and in writing to the church at Colossae

he is addressing an issue that was going on about their practices and how they worshipped God

and the way they mediated their worship through the worship of angels and how they

determined or measured their worship by their good deeds or by their practices and

the whole point of the book of Colossians is simply this, is pointing to Christ as the preeminent

one, pointing to Christ as the one that is above all things.

And Paul here in verse 9 begins by saying this, for this reason we also since

the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be

filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,

that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being

fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God,

strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, for all

patience and long suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has

qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom

of the Son of his love.

Now those verses we really have taken quite a look at week before last,

primarily those four things that Paul points to what the Lord has done, that the Father

has qualified us to be partakers through the work that he has done.

He has delivered us, he himself delivered us from the power of darkness.

He conveyed us, he translated us, he moved us out of darkness into the kingdom of the

Son of his love.

And in this last little phrase here, this little phrase again

may seem like it is not much, but in this last little phrase, we see

in this word redemption, and we see the way that Paul explains it, that

redemption was accomplished through the blood of Jesus,

through his blood, and he gave the result of that redemption

that was accomplished and how that redemption has been applied to

us through the forgiveness of our sins.

So that little phrase, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of

sins, we take for granted many times what seems like a small statement or a

phrase that we read in God's word, and a lot of times we pass over them quickly.

Has any of you ever done that?

Oh, I've heard that a million times.

Oh, I've read that before.

I'm just going to move on.

We pass over them quickly, and we assume we fully understand already what we've read, and

we are in such a hurry to get to the next verse or the next passage of

scripture that we fail to cherish the beauty

and the depth of the passage that we are looking at.

Again, I want to be very honest, and some may have

likely noticed over the course of the last couple of two or

three years, primarily, even the music selection has shifted.

You'll notice we're not singing those songs, most of those songs that we hear on Christian radio anymore,

although they might be known by everyone, they do not truly convey

doctrinal truth from the scriptures, and it is very,

very important when we gather as the church.

You know, when we gather as the church, and I pick on Hannah from time to time, like every week,

asking her, what is Colossians 3 .16 about?

And it's about singing praise unto the Lord, making melody in your hearts, right, singing

psalms and hymns and spiritual songs unto the Lord.

When we gather together as the church, we are gathered to what is referred to as

corporately.

Corporately means that we are together, and when we sing

these songs of praise and we lift our hearts to the Lord in song, we do that

corporately, we do that together, we do that united, and we are united

in one purpose, and that is to magnify and to exalt the name of

Jesus Christ, and primarily to exalt

the work that He has done.

And this term redemption, we glanced over that a couple of weeks ago

because it was at the last of that section that we went over, but I feel like it's very, very

important that we take just a little bit of time this morning and we look at this and we

understand and we know what God has done,

that God has redeemed us.

That redeemed means to be saved by the price or payment of a ransom.

Do you remember when we went over that a couple of weeks ago?

The ransom, the price that was paid for our sins, and Paul clearly lays this out, and

it's the beautiful thing about the Word of God for the preacher, that the Word of God is

clear and the Word of God is concise, that we have redemption, Paul said, pointing

to those who were practicing false worship, pointing to those who

trusted in their works, and he's pointing these people back to the Lord

Jesus Christ, the one and the only one who has

redeemed us, who has saved us, who paid the price for our sins

through His blood.

Now, I want to, again, I want to ask you some questions this morning.

If you were to listen to a variety of sermons from different preachers throughout the week,

let's just say, for example, that you chose every church up and down Chapman Highway, you found a

way to listen to every sermon, let's say there were 10 churches, I believe what we would

find is that in taking a survey of many of the sermons that are preached

on a weekly basis in churches all around us, now listen, I'm not saying Reformed

is better than any other church because we've got just as many problems as every other church around here, amen?

But what I am saying is this, we're striving to be a glory of God -centered, Bible

-saturated, missions -focused, Holy Spirit -empowered body of believers.

And we do that, and we know how to do that, by seeking the truth from God's Word.

But if you were to take 10 sermons from 10 different churches, and you listen to those, and you

carefully listen to those, I personally would say this, many

that you hear are likely trying to communicate truth about what the Scripture is saying,

or what the verses in the passage are saying, rather than simply teaching what the text of the

Scripture is saying.

Meaning this, that many times preachers think that they have to get up and they have to give you a thought that

God put on their heart and make that thought line up with the Scriptures.

No, the preacher's job, the preacher's responsibility, my responsibility to

God and to you is this, to preach to you what the text of the Scripture

actually says.

Now that requires patience, it requires study, it requires

diligence, it requires a swallowing of my pride.

Most Sundays,

Christ died for our sins.

And that is what must be proclaimed in the church of Jesus Christ.

Some may say, well, Rev Ramada don't have all that the other churches have to offer.

We don't have a tremendous youth program.

We don't have a tremendous children's program.

We don't have a tremendous music ministry.

But by the way, I'll tell you, I think that Debbie and April, they get up here and sing, they do a good job.

We don't have the buildings that other folks have, but I'll tell you what, just give me

Jesus and it'll be all right.

Our aim and our goal is to not be like every other church.

Our aim and our goal is not to be like every other person up and down the road.

Our aim and our goal is to promote the Lord Jesus Christ and His

finished work.

So I would say this, it'd be easy for us to quickly move on and get to what some may deem

or what some may consider to be more exciting and more well -known passages of

Scripture.

And in our hearts as Christians, we must desire

all of the word of God.

Not just the parts that make us want to shout, but the parts that make us want to moan in

agony.

The parts that make us ponder and consider the deep things of God.

So we might be filled, like Paul said, remember, and this is leading up here, so that we might be

filled with the knowledge of God.

That is the aim.

And by being filled with the knowledge of God, that we may love Him and serve

Him more faithfully and with greater diligence.

That's been a term that that Kenny, that we've learned in Sunday school the last few weeks.

Diligence.

Being diligent in what we do.

But that's the aim and that's the goal.

It is not just to get the warm fuzzy feeling at the time, but it's to get the truth of the word of

God.

So that when we don't have those warm fuzzy feelings, that we still have

hope in God.

And so all that Paul leads in here and he says in whom we have

redemption.

So how are we to worship God?

How are we to consider and think about redemption very quickly as we move forward here in the

Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 21, a section concerning religious worship

and the Sabbath day.

This is what the confession states.

The light of nature shows that there is a God who has lordship and

sovereignty over all, that he is good and he does good unto all and is therefore

to be feared, loved, praised, called upon and trusted in, served

with all the heart, with all the soul and with all the mind.

When we come to God's house, when we gather corporately to lift up the name of the Lord

in our songs, I would ask you this, are you worshiping God with your

heart, with your soul and with your mind?

I understand there are times where our minds desire to be elsewhere, but friends, it will do

all good if we will but focus our minds on the Lord

because the truth be told, where you focus your heart and where you focus your mind,

Jesus said, there is your treasure.

You want to know what you esteem highly?

Think about what you think about all the time.

Are you thinking about the Lord?

Are you thinking about the grace of God?

Is your mind and your heart fixed upon the Lord?

The confession goes on to state this, the acceptable way of worshiping the true

God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own

revealed will that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and

devices of men or the suggestions of Satan under any visible

representation or any other way not prescribed in the holy scripture.

So our worship, everything about this time, everything about how we look at the

word of God is to be laid out, to be guided and to be directed by the

word of God itself.

So in whom we have redemption when we consider this, I think about what John Calvin said in his

commentary on this passage.

He said, he now proceeds concerning Paul.

Paul proceeds to set forth in order all parts of our salvation, which is what we read that

are contained in Christ and that he alone ought to shine forth and to be seen

conspicuous above all creatures in as much as he is the beginning and the end

of all things.

In the first place, Calvin went on to say, he says that we have redemption and immediately

explains it as meaning the remission of sins for these two things

agree together.

This is our liberty.

This is our glorying in the face of death that our

sins are not imputed to us.

He says that this redemption was procured through the blood of Christ for by

the sacrifice of his death, all the sins of the world have been expiated.

Let us therefore bear in mind that this is the sole price of

reconciliation.

Redemption was necessary.

Redemption is necessary and redemption shall be necessary until the Lord

brings all things to a close, burns everything up and creates the new

heaven and the new earth.

Until that time, we as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ are called to

proclaim the message of Jesus Christ because today, as it has

always been since the garden and shall be till the end of time, men need to

be reconciled unto the Lord.

What does reconciliation mean?

Reconciliation means having an end to the war.

How many of you husbands have ever argued with your wives?

How many of you wives have ever argued with your husbands?

The wives, many of you may say, no, it's always the husband arguing with me because I'm the one that's right.

How many of you know what the book of Proverbs says, men, that it's better to dwell in the corner of a

housetop than with a brawling woman in a white house?

That's what the word of God says.

There needs to be reconciliation.

There needs to be an end of the war.

And men, many times we can do that simply by saying, I'm sorry, dear, you were

right and I was wrong because honestly, it's likely the case.

Sometimes, men, we can be very pig -headed.

You can say amen right there, men.

Or if you're scared to, just sit there like a big chicken, be

a man, own up to your mistakes and faults.

But all men are at odds with God.

From the day of our birth, we are at odds with God according to the word of God.

All have sinned, Paul said to the Roman church, all have sinned and come

short of the glory of God.

Therefore, we are at enmity with God.

We are the enemies of God.

I know this is not proclaimed.

You don't hear this on TBN, but the truth is this, according to the word of God, all

men are enemies of God and stand in need of reconciliation.

Now, simply us going to God and saying, God, I'm sorry for my sins does not

remedy the problem.

There is no redemption.

You can, as that last song April sung, you can go through the motions, you can say the prayers, you can

shed the tears, my friends, but those things do not earn you

salvation.

There is one that has earned us salvation and it is the person of Jesus

Christ.

By his death, burial, and his resurrection, we have been

redeemed by God, through Jesus Christ and the finished work of Jesus

Christ applied through the Holy Spirit.

So as we consider this redemption, what have we been redeemed from?

What have we been saved from?

We quoted to you week before last, the passage in Thessalonians, that we have been saved

from the wrath of God through Jesus.

We've been saved from the wrath of God.

We've been saved from several things concerning sin.

We've been saved from the penalty of sin.

Quoted to you a moment ago, the wages of sin is death.

What you deserve is to die lost and in your sins, go to a

hell that was prepared for the devil and his angels.

But God, in his mercy and in his love, sent Jesus

to die for our sins.

He and he alone redeemed us.

He saved us from the penalty of sin.

We no longer have to fear death.

We no longer have to be afraid of death.

The psalmist, when he wrote those words, the Lord is my shepherd, he was likely writing that

from an awful, facing an awful situation, from overwhelming circumstances,

but he wrote the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside the still waters.

He sets up, prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

He anoints my head with oil.

My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my

life.

There is no escaping death, but you do not have to fear death.

There it is appointed unto man once to die.

And after this, the judgment, that's in Hebrews chapter nine.

So we've been saved from the penalty of sin.

We've been saved from the power of sin.

What Christ has done has given us power over sin, where sin, as a

matter of fact, the apostle Paul told the church, sin shall not have dominion over

you.

Before you were saved, before you were born again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit of

God, sin was your master.

But when Christ came, when Christ saved you, you were given a

new master.

You were given a new hope.

You were given strength beyond what you had before.

You had the ability to overcome sin.

Now that does not mean that you will never sin, but sin shall not have the dominion over

you.

That's what the word of God teaches us.

We've been redeemed from the power of sin.

One day after a while, according to the word of God, that we are going to be saved from the presence

of sin.

Listen, won't that be good?

Man here understands that every day you get older.

Jackson, how old are you?

10 years old.

You ever wake up with body aches?

No.

Wait till you get a little bit older.

And you start waking up and your bones creak and your body aches.

And the first thing you do when you get up is just go, oh, I'm hurting.

It's the effects of sin.

One day, according to the word of God, that we will have a

glorified body.

What Jesus accomplished in other places in the New Testament, you'll see

redemption referred to in two different contexts.

One, to the redemption of the body, getting a glorified body.

And number two, you'll read it and you'll see it here in this context, that

redemption is not referring to a glorification of our body, but it is referring to the forgiveness

of our sins.

That we've been redeemed out of sin.

That God himself has done the work.

Now, how has God himself done the work?

He has sent his son.

You say, you repeated, you said that earlier.

Do you not realize you're saying that again?

Yeah, I actually absolutely do know that what I'm saying.

And it's intentional because we must keep proclaiming that one truth that

Jesus saves in him alone.

It was accomplished through his blood.

In the Old Testament, you'll see primarily in keeping in mind that

Paul's audience in all of the epistles, as the epistles are coming to the

churches, the New Testament churches there, as the epistles are coming, the New Testament churches

point of reference is still the Old Testament.

Now in the Old Testament, we read, if you would go there very quickly here, to

the book of Leviticus.

And I believe it's Leviticus chapter 17,

Leviticus chapter 17, verse 11.

And in Leviticus chapter 17,

verse 11, the word of God says this for, for the life of the flesh is in the

blood.

And I've given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your

souls.

For it is the blood that makes the atonement for the soul.

In the Old Testament, we have the, the tops and the shadows of what, of what the work that

Christ came to do was.

And it was through the, the shedding of blood that a temporary covering of sin was made,

a temporary propitiation, if you would have it, but not a full expiation, not a obliterating

of sin, not a doing away with it, but simply a covering of sin in the Old Testament under

those practices.

For in the New Testament, we read in the book of Hebrews, that the blood of bulls and goats is not

sufficient for our sins.

For there is still a remembrance of our sins.

And there was still a need every year of the high priest going beyond the veil of the temple into the

Holy of Holies and making a sacrifice year after year after

year.

But the Bible says of Jesus Christ, that he was not only our prophet, he was not only

our God's representative to us of who God is, but he is our priest, that he is

our representative to God.

And that unlike the earthly priest that had to do this year in and year out

repeatedly, the blood that he shed, the blood that he offered was a full

propitiation for our sins.

So he has redeemed us.

How has he redeemed us?

Through the blood.

One of the old songs says every hope that I have in this old sinful world is anchored

in the blood of the Lamb.

Though the billows are raging and we're tossed to and fro, there is peace beneath that

flow.

Only one thing will matter when the time shall come to die.

The treasures of this world won't mean a thing, but the joy of knowing

Jesus will vanish all my fear, for he took away death's

sting.

My hope is in the blood, in the precious Lamb of God.

There is no other fountain so sweet.

It has washed away my sin and give me peace and joy

within.

My hope is anchored in his blood.

The writer of Hebrew said, we have this hope as an anchor of the

soul, both steadfast and sure.

Oh friends today, I think about this, this, how the price that

was paid for our sins.

I think about how we have been delivered from the penalty of sin, from the presence or from the

power of sin.

One day we'll be delivered from the presence of sin, but friends, it is so very

important for you to understand and to know concerning the doctrine of the atonement and the

price that Jesus Christ paid, that it is more than simply

hearing the words that are being preached to you, but it's God doing his work of regeneration in

you, making you a new creature so that you have blessed

assurance, as the old song says, that God has forgiven you of

your sins.

See, the forgiveness of sins is something that doing good deeds cannot give you.

Doing good deeds cannot grant you the forgiveness of sins.

Doing good deeds makes you only think about what it is that you have done and how you compare to

this person or to that person, but the guilt of your sins still lingers.

But the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, washes us

from our iniquities, meaning the corruption, the guilt, the

weight, and the burden of our sin that weighed so heavily upon us before we were

saved is taken by Jesus Christ.

Are you bearing the weight of your sin today?

If you think, if you are bearing the weight of your sin and you think that you have been saved, know this, that according to

the word of God, you must be born again.

You need to be regenerated by the spirit of God and know that you have the forgiveness of

sins.

George Whitefield, when the great evangelist of the 18th century, I began reading

a biography about him, and I love in this biography, and I'm going to share that with you right now,

the testimony of Whitefield.

Though Whitefield was a great firebrand for God, I mean, he made such an impact in the

world in the 1700s preaching the gospel.

So many heard the gospel.

He preached the gospel so regularly, and there were so many converted.

And even today, there are lives of men and women who have been changed by what

George Whitefield, the gospel that he preached, because the gospel that he preached was not the gospel of a

man.

It was not another gospel, but it was Jesus Christ and him crucified.

But George Whitefield's testimony is this.

Basically near the end of Whitefield's first year at Oxford in the 1700s, he went to

school there at Oxford with Charles Wesley, the hymn writer, and John Wesley, one of the great Methodist

preachers, and he was part of a group that was called the Oxford Holy Club.

In this Oxford Holy Club, it was a group of 10 other men who met to pursue

religiously moral lives.

That was their aim, to pursue religiously moral lives, to try to be considered or

consider themselves right in the sight of God by rigid and strict disciplines of

righteous living.

But despite their rigid discipline in Bible study, in Bible reading, in prayer, in fasting, in

service, not one of these students was converted.

So stringent was Whitefield and his self -righteous efforts to earn salvation that his severe discipline

caused him to suffer lifelong physical weakness.

Urgently searching for acceptance by God, Whitefield was given a book by Charles Wesley in the spring of

1735.

It was a book on the new birth called The Life of God in the Soul of Man.

It was written by a man named Henry Scougal.

He learned that the way of salvation was not by his own religious works, but by divine regeneration.

Under tremendous agony of conviction, he realized, I must be born again or I

will be damned.

At age 21, Whitefield was regenerated by the Holy Spirit and placed his faith

in Christ.

And this was his testimony, his words.

He said, a man may go to church.

He may say his prayers.

He may receive the sacrament and yet not be a Christian.

Lord, if I am not a Christian, if I am not a real one, for Jesus

Christ's sake, show me what Christianity is that I may not be damned at last.

He said, I read a little bit further and he said it was discovered.

The writer wrote, oh, says the author that they know, they that know anything of religion know it

is a vital union with the Son of God.

Christ formed in the heart.

Oh, what a ray of divine life did then break in upon my poor soul.

God was pleased at length to remove the heavy load, to enable me to lay

hold on his dear son by a living faith and by giving me the

spirit of adoption to seal me as I humbly hope even to the

day of everlasting redemption.

But oh, with what joy, joy unspeakable, even joy that was full of

and big with glory was my soul filled when the weight of sin

went off.

And it was from this time that he went out and proclaimed the gospel to untold

thousands of people because the weight had been taken off of him, the weight

and the guilt of his sin had been removed by the work of Jesus

Christ.

And so the apostle Paul in order and in fashion speaks to those

Colossians who were practicing works -based faith, who were practicing idol worship,

who were practicing false forms of worship, who were seeking to mediate their worship through and

by angels, he said, listen, it is in Jesus Christ and in him alone that

we have redemption.

And this redemption was accomplished by the shedding of his blood.

And because he shed his blood, we have the forgiveness

of our sins.

In closing, if you'll flip back or turn back over to Ephesians chapter one,

Ephesians chapter one, and we're going to look at verse seven,

Ephesians chapter one and verse seven, what you see much throughout

the epistles, throughout the apostle Paul's letters and Peter's letters, James, Jude,

you'll see almost mirror images of the others within those letters many times.

And it wasn't just a random template because there were unique issues that each church

faced.

Jude addressed contending for the faith.

James addressed the issue of those who proclaimed that they could prove that they had

faith because they had works and so on and so forth, backwards and forwards that goes.

Paul's letters were written to those Judaizers who

were within the church that tried to get the Christian people to go back to the

works -based faith.

And and so in Colossians, the letter was written, you know, because why we've repeated that numerous

times.

But in the book of Ephesians, we have almost a mirror image of what we have just read in the book of

Colossians.

Paul says this in him, in Christ, we have redemption

through his blood.

The circumstances were different in each church, but the remedy was exactly the same.

No matter the circumstance that takes place in this world, no matter the, the root of the

false teaching, the problem is sin and the sin problem leads men

to death.

And the only remedy for the sin of mankind is the blood of Jesus

Christ.

In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness

of sins.

And then Paul went on right there and he said, according to the riches of God's

grace.

And people may ask, you may ask, is it possible that I've gone too far and that I'm so deep in

sin that God cannot reach me?

I am telling you, no.

As long as there is breath in your body, there is hope.

For to him that is joined to all the living, there is hope.

The blood of Christ cleanses us from our sins, according to the riches of his grace,

which he made to abound toward us.

And we see in this doctrine of the atonement, this doctrine, this rich full body doctrine,

we see that it is not something earned.

It is not something achieved by man, but it is something that was accomplished by Jesus

Christ that no other could do what he did.

Jesus Christ, we teach, we preach, we proclaim that Jesus Christ was fully

God and fully man.

Amen?

Amen.

He was fully man.

And it was necessary that he be fully God and fully man, because otherwise the

sacrifice that he made for our sins would be ineffective.

Had he not been fully God, he could not have bore, Jesus could not have borne the

wrath of God on the cross.

And had he not been fully man, he could not, his perfect life would not have been

sufficient, because had he not been fully man and fully God, redemption could not

have been accomplished or applied, but he was.

And so he was fully God, fully man, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died

our substitutionary sacrifice as the atonement for our sins on

the cross at Calvary.

And he was buried, literally buried, literally buried.

And on the third day, he literally and physically was raised from

the dead.

And later he ascended to the father where he ever lives,

according to the word of God, to make intercession for us.

That was the, that was the message in the songs that we sung a little while ago.

That was that full body rich doctrine of the atonement.

And we must take time not only to give lip service to the

truth of God in his word and what he has done, but we must take time to give our

minds to the truth of what God has done, to consider it fully.

I'll close with this.

Spurgeon said in a message that he preached in 1859, he said, believer, you may be

very poor and you may be very sick.

You may be very much unknown and you may be very much despised, but sit down

and review your calling this morning and the consequences that flow from it.

As sure as you are called God's child today, your

poverty of spirit shall soon be at an end and you shall be

rich to all the intents of bliss.

He said, wait a while.

That weary head shall soon be girt with a crown.

Stay a while.

That calloused hand of labor shall soon grasp the palm branch.

Wipe away that tear for God shall soon wipe away your tears forever.

Take away that sigh.

Why sigh when the everlasting song is almost on your lip?

The portals of heaven stand wide open for you.

A few winged hours must fly.

A few more billows must roll over you and you will be safely landed on the golden

shore.

Do not say I shall be lost.

Do not say I shall be cast away for it is impossible.

Whom he wants, loves, he never leaves.

We have that promise from God in his word.

I will never leave you and I will never forsake you.

Spurgeon went on to say, but he loves them to the end.

If he has called you, nothing can divide you from his love.

The wolf of famine cannot gnaw the bond.

The fire of persecution cannot burn the link.

The hammer of hell cannot break the chain.

Old time cannot devour it with rust nor eternity dissolve it with all its

ages.

Oh, believe that you are secure.

That voice which called you shall call you yet again from earth to heaven, from

death's dark gloom to immortality's unuttered splendors.

Rest assured, the heart that called you beats with infinite love towards you,

a love undying that many waters cannot quench and that floods cannot drown.

Sit you down.

Rest in peace.

Lift up your eye of hope and sing your song with fond anticipation.

You shall soon be with the glorified where your portion is.

You are only waiting here to be made meat for the inheritance and that done.

That being said, far from a world of grief and sin with God

eternally shut in, you shall rest forever.

Preached in 1859 and yet it is still true today.

In him, we have redemption through his

blood.

We have the forgiveness of our sins.

Do you find yourself today outside of the grace of God?

And do you recognize your need of salvation?

I wrote this down because I specifically wanted to ask this.

And if so, it is because the grace of God is leading you to repentance.

Some say, well, what must I do to be saved?

The Philippian jailer in the book of Acts asked this question.

What must I do to be saved?

And the apostle Paul's answer that he gave to that Philippian jailer is the answer that I'm going to say to you today.

If you ask this question, what do I need to do to be saved?

I'm saying this, what the word says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

and you shall be saved.

And if being born again, if being regenerated by the Holy Spirit, you will know that you have been

saved.

You will know it inside and it will show on the outside.

The apostle Paul reminded the church.

If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.

Old things are passing away.

Are you saved today?

Yeah.

Are you saved today?

Are you born again?

If so, the old things are passing away

and all things by the power of God are being made new in your life.

Are your desires changing?

Are your desires moving toward the Lord?

If so, you can rest assured that you have been saved by the grace of God.

Are the old things passing away?

If so, you can rest assured that you have been redeemed by the grace of God.

Are the old things passing away?

If not, you are yet in your sins and you stand in need

of the grace of God.

And I'm pleading with you today, seek God, believe

God, trust God for he has done all that is

necessary to accomplish salvation for you.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ today and you shall be saved.

Stand with us if you would this morning.

Oh God,

today once again, I thank and I praise you for your redemption.

I thank you for your great love and for your great mercy and for the great price that you paid

in sending your son to die for my sin.

For Lord, if there's anybody that deserves

death and hell, it's me.

Nevertheless, Lord, you

called me.

You regenerated me and you saved me and for that I give you honor,

glory and praise today.

And it is my prayer this morning that for those who hear the gospel,

that the gospel would be not only accompanied with joy for

those whom you have redeemed, but that it would be accompanied and that it

would be born with conviction of sin.

And in that conviction of sin, that the sinner would be drawn unto

you and that they would know and that they could understand that the weight

of sin has been already born by you.

So that those who hear the truth of the gospel might leave

with calm, blessed hope and assurance

that in Christ alone there is salvation.

Salvation full, salvation free,

grace, grace to live on,

grace to rejoice, grace

and strength for our journey ahead.

For it is in Jesus' name I pray and I praise you.