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 that 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 do 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 316 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 feel like it's very, very important that we take just a little bit of time this morning and we 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 the 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 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 Reformata 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 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, however, 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 the folk 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 we've been learning 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 us 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 wide 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 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 a 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.

We, 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? I hope everybody in 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 and 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 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 the work that Christ came to do was.

And it was through 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 Hebrews said, we have this hope as an anchor of the soul, both steadfast and sure.

Oh, friends, today, I think about this, 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 sin 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 away and born 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, 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.

And 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 and prayer and fasting and 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 proclaim 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 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 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 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 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 and 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 me 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 Corinthian 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 borne 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.