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Book: Ephesians
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Ephesians 1:7
I. The forgiveness of sins.
A. This is man's greatest need.
1. Without the forgiveness of our sins we are hopelessly
doomed to eternal destruction and separation from God.
2. God has already passed His sentence upon the sinner.
a. The wages of sin is death.
b. The soul that sinneth shall surely die.
c. God said to Adam, in the day that you eat, you
shall surely die.
3. Even if your sins were in ignorance, ignorance of the
law is no excuse, and those sins of ignorance must be
atoned for, that is why in the law God made provisions
for the atonement of sins of ignorance.
B. Listen to God's view of the unregenerate man.
ROM 3:9 What then? are we Jews better [than the Gentiles]? No, in no
way: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that
they are all under sin;
ROM 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
ROM 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh
after God.
ROM 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
ROM 3:13 Their throat [is] an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have
used deceit; the poison of asps [is] under their lips:
ROM 3:14 Whose mouth [is] full of cursing and bitterness:
ROM 3:15 Their feet [are] swift to shed blood:
ROM 3:16 Destruction and misery [are] in their ways:
ROM 3:17 And the way of peace have they not known:
ROM 3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
ROM 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to
them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God.
ROM 3:23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
C. Though God sees man like this, He still loves Him and desires
to redeem Him.
D. God had created man for fellowship, but sinning man cannot have
fellowship with a holy God.
1. What fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness?
2. What communion hath light with darkness? John said that
if we say that we have fellowship with God and we walk
in darkness, we lie and know not the truth but if we
walk in the light as He is in the light then we have
fellowship one with another.
3. Amos asked, "Can two walk together except they be
agreed?"
4. God's hand is not short that He cannot save, neither is
His ear heavy that He cannot hear, but your sins have
separated you from your God.
E. God had to first provide a righteous way to forgive our sins
before we could be restored to fellowship with Him.
1. That way was provided through His Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no
man cometh to the Father but by Me."
2. God placed on Him the iniquities of us all, and He died
in our stead.
3. God made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God through Him.
F. Surely near the top of the spiritual blessings that we have in
Christ Jesus is the redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of our sins.
1. The sentence for sin was death, there was no
circumventing the law.
a. HEB 9:22 And almost all things are by the
law purged with blood; and without shedding of
blood is no remission.
b. LEV 17:11 For the life of the flesh [is] in
the blood: and I have given it to you upon the
altar to make an atonement for your souls: for
it [is] the blood [that] maketh an atonement
for the soul.
c. Under the Law the goat or the lamb became the
substitute for the sinning man, and was slain
in his place.
d. Jesus came to be the sacrifice for our sins,
through Him we have redemption, even the
forgiveness of our sins.
II. According to the riches of His grace.
A. Paul speaks to the Romans of the riches of His goodness,
forbearance and longsuffering.
B. In Romans 9 he speaks of the riches of His glory.
C. In 11 he speaks of the depths of the riches of his wisdom and
knowledge.
D. In chapter 2 of Ephesians he speaks of the exceeding riches of
His grace.
E. In chapter 3 he speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ.
F. Again in chapter 3 he speaks of the riches of His glory.
H. Here the riches of His grace are associated with the
forgiveness of our sins.
1. God's justice demanded our death.
2. God's mercy sought a reprieve.
3. God's grace saved us. "For by grace are you saved by
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God,
not of works lest any man should boast."
I. Moses had been the mount receiving the law from God on the two
tables of stone. As he came back to the camp, he heard the
noise of the people singing as they danced and worshipped the
golden calf.
The two tables of stone which were in his hands, upon which God
had inscribed the 10 commandments, the first being, "Thou shalt
have no other gods, before Me. The second, "Thou shalt not make
unto thee graven image." Here they had broken the law so Moses
threw the stones upon the ground and the broke, which was a
symbol of the broken commandments.
EXO 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people [were] naked; (for Aaron
had made them naked unto [their] shame among their enemies:)
EXO 32:26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who [is] on
the LORD'S side? [let him come] unto me. And all the sons of
Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
EXO 32:27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put
every man his sword by his side, [and] go in and out from gate
to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and
every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.
EXO 32:28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and
there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
EXO 32:29 For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD,
even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may
bestow upon you a blessing this day.
EXO 32:30 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the
people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto
the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.
EXO 32:31 And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people
have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.
EXO 32:32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I
pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
EXO 32:33 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against
me, him will I blot out of my book.
EXO 32:34 Therefore now go, lead the people unto [the place] of which I
have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee:
nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon
them.
EXO 32:35 And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf,
which Aaron made.
EXO 33:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, [and] go up hence, thou
and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of
Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and
to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it:
EXO 33:2 And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the
Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the
Hivite, and the Jebusite:
EXO 33:3 Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in
the midst of thee; for thou [art] a stiffnecked people: lest I
consume thee in the way.
EXO 33:4 And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned:
and no man did put on him his ornaments.
EXO 33:5 For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of
Israel, Ye [are] a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the
midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put
off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto
thee.
EXO 33:6 And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their
ornaments by the mount Horeb.
EXO 33:7 And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp,
afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the
congregation. And it came to pass, [that] every one which sought
the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which
[was] without the camp.
EXO 33:8 And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle,
[that] all the people rose up, and stood every man [at] his tent
door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the
tabernacle.
EXO 33:9 And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the
cloudy pillar descended, and stood [at] the door of the
tabernacle, and [the LORD] talked with Moses.
EXO 33:10 And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand [at] the
tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped,
every man [in] his tent door.
EXO 33:11 And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh
unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his
servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of
the tabernacle.
EXO 33:12 And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring
up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt
send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou
hast also found grace in my sight.
EXO 33:13 Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight,
shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace
in thy sight: and consider that this nation [is] thy people.
EXO 33:14 And he said, My presence shall go [with thee], and I will give
thee rest.
EXO 33:15 And he said unto him, If thy presence go not [with me], carry us
not up hence.
EXO 33:16 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have
found grace in thy sight? [is it] not in that thou goest with
us? so [are] upon the face of the earth.
EXO 33:17 And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that
thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I
know thee by name.
EXO 33:18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
EXO 33:19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I
will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be
gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom
I will shew mercy.
J. I love this, God's justice demanded that He consume them in His
wrath, there was no way that He could justify or forgive what
they had done, so He retreats to His sovereignty. It is as
though He is saying I am God and I can do as I please, and I
will be gracious, to whom I will be gracious, and I will show
mercy on whom I will show mercy.
K. Oh the riches of God's grace toward us.
ROM 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
I. Thanks be unto God and the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ in
heavenly places, having chosen us in Him before the foundations
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will to the praise of the glory of His grace
wherein He has made us accepted in the beloved in Whom we have
redemption the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of
His Grace.
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