Bought At High Cost Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Most of us value something based on how much it costs.

A seller sets a price and a willing buyer pays it if he wants it bad enough. Now the devastation of sin left mankind without hope before a just God. Incredibly, Christ was willing to die to buy pardon for the likes of you and me. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, in your series from Ephesians, we're learning that we were bought at high cost and ought to live accordingly. You're absolutely right, and that's why the Bible says that we should walk worthily, worthily of our calling. In other words, what we should be doing is to live up as best as we can with the help of the Holy Spirit, live up to all the blessings that have been given to us in Jesus Christ.

And those blessings are extensive. I've written a book entitled The Inheritance of the Redeemed, claiming the spiritual treasures that are yours in Christ, and for a gift of any amount, we are making this book available. I need to emphasize that today is the last day that we are making this resource available to you, and we do it in order to help you walk with God by expanding all of the inheritance that we really do have in Jesus Christ. Here's how you can connect with us.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And even as you listen, and I trust that you'll get a copy of this book, I pray that you shall be greatly blessed as you begin to understand something about the inheritance of the redeemed. There's a friend who's known to my wife and to me who committed adultery, and you can imagine all that he went through. His marriage, by the way, has been saved thanks to some good counsel and a lot of accountability to put that thing back together after that mess. But you see, going through all of his sense of guilt and the alienation that he felt and the sense of helplessness of having devastated this relationship so badly, he made a study, which he gave me a copy of, entitled Things That the Bible Says God Does with Forgiven Sins. He casts them into the depths of the sea, the Bible says. He says, your iniquities, God says, I will acknowledge them no more. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us, the scripture says. It says that our sins are hidden from his eyes.

And you could go on. He must have found 15 or 20 different things that God does with forgiven sins. He sends them away. He sends them away. You say, yeah, but the consequences still are there.

Yes, they are. And at the end of this message we'll talk about that. But there is still, there is still a sense of cleansing and forgiveness that can happen even though the consequences are there.

Now look at how far we've come. The meaning of redemption is that Jesus bought us for himself. He bought us that we might be free in him. The means of redemption is through his blood. And I want you to know today that when you come to God, it must be always through Christ, through that new and freshly slaughtered way, as it says in the book of Hebrews. We come through that way into God's presence. Let me mention now the measure, the measure of redemption.

Here it is. It's in our text. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, underline it now, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

What is the measure? It is according to God's grace. Now notice it does not say that he saves us simply out of the riches of his grace, but according to the riches of his grace. There's a proportion there. You know, it is said that Rockefeller used to love to fill a pocket with dimes and then go into some of the poor areas of New York and just throw the dimes on the street and watch the children scramble for them.

Well, that was nice, I guess, but I'll tell you this. If you know anything about Rockefeller, he was giving out of his riches, but he was not giving according to his riches. If he had been giving according to his riches instead of dimes, it would have been dollars that he would have been giving.

He'd have been giving a proportion. And when God saves us, he doesn't save us simply out of the riches, but according to the riches, which the text says he lavished upon us in Christ Jesus. There's hope for those of you who think that you have gone too far.

There's hope for those of you who think that because of your past life ruined with all kinds of silly and foolish and devastating sins, there's hope for you because he lavished grace upon us. There's an old story I heard when I was a boy about a captain who was an old captain who was discussing with a young captain of a ship what to do when things got difficult. The old captain said, now, suppose you're out in the middle of the ocean and a storm comes up, what would you do? And the young captain said, well, I'd put out the anchor. And the old man said, well, what if the wind was even sharper and blew more sharply? And he said, I'd just let out more rope. And he said, well, what if the wind increased in philosophy? He said, I'd let out more rope.

Well, what if it even got windier? I'd let out more rope, the guy kept saying. And finally, the old man was exasperated and said, where in the world are you getting all this rope from? And he said, well, the same place that you're getting all of that wind from. Now, I want you to know that for every for every wind that blows, there is grace. There is grace. Where does God get all that grace from?

He gets it from himself. And and the more fiercely the wind blows and the more and even the greater than our sin. I mean, nobody knew that better than Newton, who committed many, many different sins as a slave trader and one time challenged some people if they'd be able to suggest a sin to him that he had not committed. He wanted to make sure that he he did them all. And yet there he was on the Greyhound.

That has nothing to do with what we usually think of the Greyhound being. He's sitting on this this vessel called the Greyhound and he's reading during the storm and he gets out the New Testament. And you remember how he read it and was soundly converted. He said, as he read it, it met my need exactly. And he, of course, gave us amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

Why could he write that? Because God's grace is according according to his riches, which he lavished upon us in Jesus Christ. My dear friend today, you can be redeemed if that is the desire that you have, which would be put into your heart by God. But you can be redeemed regardless of your past because God is exceedingly gracious. Here's what happened at Calvary. Jesus at Calvary, in effect, went to our bank and paid what we owed.

He wrote a check to cover the debt. He was treated like a sinner so that we might be treated as a saint. And you know the rest of the verses after seven and eight, talk about the mystery of his will. Says in verse nine, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ to put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven and earth together under the head, even Christ. That was God's intention. Do you see again, by the way, as we shall see here in the book of Ephesians, which makes us suspended between heaven and earth, do you see again how redemption is for God? You see, the reason that he redeemed us is that all things might be summed up in Christ.

He's going to bring sense out of the mess. And it's God who wants to do that for his own glory and for his own purposes. And we happen to get in on the blessings. Three times the text tells us in Ephesians one that we were redeemed for the praise of his glory, for the praise of his glory, for the praise of his glory.

And as I emphasized in the last message, there is no other reason to live. That's it for God. Now, what about people who struggle with their sin and they are overwhelmed by this polluted conscience, even though they've confessed it? Even though, and I'm speaking now at this point to believers who know Christ as savior and you've confessed your sin and you're absolutely overwhelmed and devastated by it. First of all, let us remember that the continuing consequences of sin make accepting God's forgiveness difficult, don't they? The continued consequences make it difficult to accept God's grace because it's easy to say, well, you know, I'm forgiven, but look at the devastation.

Yes, the devastation in some instances may continue. But as I emphasized a moment ago, forgiveness can genuinely be had, even though those circumstances are now beyond control. You know, the man who gave his wife AIDS and then said, I don't want to be saved.

I want to burn in hell where I belong. You see, what he was saying was even if I accept God's forgiveness and God's grace, it will not change those consequences. And that's right. That's right.

That's right. But forgiveness, genuine forgiveness is available nevertheless. Look at the story of Carla Faye Tucker in Texas executed, you remember, because she killed one or more people with a pickaxe.

It was a gruesome, ugly, awful murder. So far as we know, if her testimony is right, and it certainly seemed to be, she comes to saving faith in Christ and the forgiveness that she experiences does not resurrect the person she murdered. It doesn't change those consequences and the devastation to a family. And yet there she is, radiant, having accepted God's mercy and God's grace.

God went and took one of the slaves, bought her out of that whole drug culture, which is what she said she was on when she did these awful things, and cleansed her and made her a new person and reconciled her to God and gave her a new name so that she knows she belongs to God forever. And but the consequences are there. Yeah, that's right.

That's right. Secondly, accepting God's forgiveness is sometimes difficult because some people see guilt as necessary punishment, necessary punishment. I remember talking to a young man who was a graduate of a well-known Bible school and had really, really made some terrible, terrible decisions in his past, including fathering a child with one of his girlfriends and now she was not allowing him to see the child. It was, it was just one of those real, really ugly messes. But I remember seeing him so disheveled. He could not sleep.

He was in such agony. He is actually, was actually gifted for ministry. There's no question but that he had the abilities to, to really do a significant piece of work for God, but totally devastated. Can he experience forgiveness and cleansing though the circumstances do not change?

And the answer is yes. But you see, the reason he couldn't is because of this. He kept saying, I have to suffer for my sin. I can't just accept God's forgiveness. Well, I want to speak very plainly so that no one has any question as to what I mean when I say that that basically is the devil's lie. It's the devil's lie. You see, guilt is not God's punishment.

Guilt is what God lays on us until we are brought to repentance and cleansing and then guilt has done its work. After that, the devil begins to step in and say, ha ha ha, you don't deserve to experience God's forgiveness. Look at what you've done and you're a child of God.

Really? And you say that you belong to Jesus and you've studied the Bible and just look at your life. There comes a time when you say, be gone, Satan, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns it is Christ that died.

Yea, rather that is risen again and is even now on the right hand of the throne of God who also maketh intercession for us. You walk in the light of your redemption and you punt the consequences to God and you trust him to work in and through them as he wills. But you can be forgiven. You can be forgiven. And then finally, and this gets sticky now, one of the reasons people can't enter into the glories of God's freedom here of redemption according to the riches of his grace is because they intend to commit the same sin again. They intend to. It's so much a part of them. I speak today to some of you who have behavioral ruts that are so deep, whether it's anger or sensuality or addictions of a whole host and and those ruts are so deep and and everything is within you and you say that there's no way that I can change because I've tried to.

Well, I don't have all the answers for that by the way, but I do know this, that there are many people who make provision for the flesh in case they want to go back to their old life. Just in case we could write an entire book entitled Bridges People Refuse to Blow Up Lest They Decide to Use Them Again. Well, I knew I should break that relationship, but I just decided to keep her phone number in case. Or someone else says, I knew that I have a weakness in this area, but I went to that area of town where this happens just to see what was happening. Now, members and friends of Moody Church who've attended here a while will remember that I have told this before, but we have some new people with us today and you need to hear it too. Always remember that the best way to jump across a chasm is in one long jump rather than two short ones. Would you remember that? That's a big lesson. It's important.

Important. And when we deal with sin, we have to blow up all the bridges that keep tripping us up. And there are many people who simply will not do that, whether it is the breaking of friendships or the relocating or the whatever it might be.

We need to be willing to do that because it is true that if not, the devil would want us to accept God's forgiveness full, forgiveness and then full, forgiveness and then full. And that's it. That's it. There is more. There is more.

I'll tell you why. Jesus, Jesus purchased us for himself. He purchased us for himself. The meaning of redemption, he paid a price to set us free. The means is through his blood and the measure is according to the riches of his grace. And Paul says that we might live to the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glory. I hope that all of us in the quietness of our hearts, no matter where we're coming from, no matter our diverse experiences, our disappointments, our hurts, our aches, I hope that all of us are willing to bow before Christ in humility and say, Father, I determine through the strength of your spirit to live for one reason only and that is the praise of your glory.

Do in me that which seems good in your sight to bring it about. You see how the Bible teaches us, God, God is involved in our lives. The Father, the Son, the Spirit, we're number one on his list of things to take care of in the universe. Everything converges on God's people. And by the way, if you're here today and you're not one of God's people and you're distantly related to God and just intellectually related and you've never believed in Christ, if you desire to believe, I urge you to do that.

I urge you to believe in him. You know, there is a story that comes to us from Nazi Germany. The Nazis were going through some Jewish homes in a ghetto and they were killing the Jews and they were, they were doing some murdering along the way and one Jewish family, knowing that that was going to happen, took a lamb and just took the blood and put it there on the threshold of the door and then hid and hid the lamb, the dead lamb. And when the soldiers came in, they saw the blood and they assumed that it was human blood and they thought, well, people have already been here and taken care of these people.

So they went on. The Bible says that when Israel was in Egypt, God says, if I see the blood, you'll be exempt. I don't care how good you've lived. I don't care about the nice things you've done or the ugly things you've done, important though they are in a certain context, when you come to God, we all come together to receive together the forgiveness purchased by Christ through his blood. Only through that way we are exempt. There is no other way. May I read the text and then pray? In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished upon us with all wisdom and understanding.

What can we do? What can we do but give thanks for a redeemer like that? Join me as we pray. Our Father, we do want to thank you today that there is indeed more grace in your heart than there is sin in our past. We thank you for those who are overwhelmed by their sin.

My, there is so much hope for them, but we pray for those who are not overwhelmed but should be. We ask, Father, that our need shall be clearly seen, but then don't leave us there just showing us our need. Show us your grace. Show us your mercy and help us to know in sincerity that he giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sendeth more strength when the labors increase to added affliction. He addeth his mercy to multiply trials, his multiplied peace. His love has no limit. His grace has no measure.

His power has no boundaries known unto men. For out of his infinite riches in Jesus, he giveth and giveth and giveth again. Father, thank you, thank you, thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.

And to that I would add amen and amen. Out of the riches of his glory, he gives again and again and again. How many blessings are ours in Jesus Christ? We ought to try to understand those blessings even though we know we cannot fully understand them. I've written a book entitled The Inheritance of the Redeemed, claiming the spiritual treasures that are yours in Christ.

And today is the last day we're making this resource available, and in a moment, I'm going to be giving you some contact info. But first of all, let me look at some of the chapters of this book to help you to understand its importance. First of all, the doctrine of election. You've often struggled with the fact that the redeemed have been elect from the foundation of the world.

What does that mean? Justification. Did I just say personally that I was a graduate of a seminary before I fully understood justification? Oh, I know it was as if we had never sinned, but I did not know how extensive it was and what it means. We have access to God. We are sons and daughters. We have the spiritual power of the Holy Spirit.

And on and on it goes. I believe that this book is going to be a tremendous help to you in your Christian walk. And as I mentioned a moment ago, today is the last day we are making it available. For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. I'm going to be giving you that again so that you have an opportunity to write it down, or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. I want to extend to you my deepest thanks for your involvement in this ministry, the fact that we have so many people who contribute, who pray for us, and we consider you a part of the Running to Win family. Go to the phone right now and call us at 1-888-218-9337 or connect at rtwoffer.com. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Pastor Erwin Lutzer has concluded Bought at High Cost, the third message in a series on Between Heaven and Earth, taken from the book of Ephesians. Next time, we tackle the issue of eternal security, as Erwin Lutzer brings a message on Heaven Guaranteed. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.