Our Great Redemption - 2A

David Jay: Today, on Real Life Radio.
Jack Hibbs: You cannot commit a sin that is so great that is outside his ability to forgive. There is no way that you or anyone in this world can commit a sin that is so great that Christ will not forgive, that his blood cannot handle. The sin that will not be forgiven now is if you die rejecting Christ.
David Jay: This is real life.
Guest (Male): Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs.
David Jay: I'm David Jay thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible. Everything Pastor Jack Hibbs is doing has a home, jackhibbs.com. It's the place to catch the latest message, revisit a series, listen to the podcast stream Real Life Network, or find resources that'll help you stay steady in God's word. Whether you've got 5 minutes or an hour, start right there. The site keeps it easy to watch, listen, learn, and grow. Visit jackhibbs.com today and stay connected to what God is doing through this ministry. Visit jackhibbs.com. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues with his series now called The Book of Ephesians and a message titled Our Great Redemption Part 2. Ephesians is a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus showing every believer who they really are in Christ. And here in Part 2, Paul shows us just how far Jesus went to buy us back. You see, we've all sinned against God and it's a debt that we could never pay on our own. But Jesus stepped in and he's paid that debt in full, covering our past, our present, and even our future. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that God's grace doesn't just meet our every need. His grace overflows even beyond our expectations. So no matter how deep our sin may be, we can't out sin what Jesus has done for us. Now with his message called Our Great Redemption Part 2, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
Jack Hibbs: Turn to the book of Ephesians and talk about God's grace, God's redemption, and God's goodness today. You know, today was an amazing day. You could see 100 miles, visibility unlimited. You call the the tower at either LAX or John Wayne or Ontario and you get the automated information service and visibility, 73 miles. You know, and it's just incredible. And you can be today with the temperature the way it was, you can be at the beach today. And then you can turn around and look at the mountains and people are snowboarding. You got cars going snow ski snow skiing one direction and surfing in the other. Incredible. That is God's grace and God's goodness, I'll tell you. Listen, Ephesians Chapter 1 in our teaching tonight and we're going to be looking at the remaining portions of verse 7 and verse 8. And the title of the message is the same as it was last week and that is Our Great Redemption. And we're going to be talking about that. And I don't know about you, but this study is causing me and have and has caused me to stop and take a look at just what the scripture has in the way of this thing called redemption. We have a great and awesome redemption. Looking in my Bible, you can do it later looking in yours, but in my Bible, there are three pages dedicated to a couple of topics. And going through those three pages in my particular Bible, the first one was it gives an account of the creation record. The second thing I noticed, it gives the specifics about man's dwelling place in the Garden of Eden. And then thirdly, I see there in those first three chapters or first three pages, I should say, really that it then records man's fall out of the Garden of Eden and his alienation from God. Three pages. Then I counted 1,959 pages dedicated to one topic after those first three pages of the Book of Genesis. And they're absolutely committed to the act and to the work and to the completion of redemption. So early on the scene, man botches it up and and and soils and taints the garden. And then the entire rest of your Bible is committed to this thing redemption. And why is that the case? I think because we are so slow at catching on. God has written us a book concerning this incredible act of redemption. Last time together, we saw in verse 7 early on stating there to us in him, that is in Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all things and all wisdom, excuse me, and prudence. Now listen to this. We saw last time what we have in Jesus, what we have in him. And what we have in him is this very thing redemption. We saw that the word redemption means to be paid ransom in full, that there is a ransom hanging over our heads. Jesus stepped in and paid it. The word also means to conceal an obligation or to no longer hold someone to the obligation. He's paid the debt. We saw three main things in our study last time that Jesus made repayment for sins debt that we couldn't do. The second thing we saw that is that he removed the curse of the law from us. And we saw also the release from sin's control in our life. We saw in the middle portion of verse 7 what we have in him is forgiveness. We have been granted forgiveness by what Jesus has done. This word forgiveness we saw last time meaning to pardon from judgment. And we'll talk more about judgment tonight. We saw two things connected to forgiveness. And that is that the world is in need of personal forgiveness tonight from Christ because they are personally alienated from Christ. The world needs forgiveness, but we also saw that the Christian, the church needs forgiveness practically. That is in a communal way. If we are Christians tonight, but we are living in sin, God's not listening to us. He's not communicating with us and to us. I had the opportunity this morning to speak to Ontario Christian High and it was a pleasure and there was a tremendous amount of kids in that chapel. I couldn't believe it. But you know, some of the kids were really listening to what had to be said and some of them were like just looking around at, you know, whatever and and doing their thing. And you could see teachers trying to get their attention to have them pay attention and just not caring. And I made mention to them, has your Christianity become boring? And that wasn't a moment of inspiration. It was a moment of observation. Just looking at them. I just had to stop in the middle of the tracks and say, hey, has your Christianity become boring? And it in here a word I said, I don't know. I they you know, thank God some were listening. But the thing is, when you get a glimpse of what Jesus has done for us, you have a tendency to get excited. Somebody asked me last week after second service, do you ever get down? And thank God my wife was walking by and I just pointed to her. And and I said, did you hear what he just asked? And she said, what was it? And I said, he just asked if I ever get down. And yeah, I do. But you know, so often I stand up here and you don't seem to think so. Those of you who don't know me, you think, well gosh, he's always up. Well, it's because I've been nursing off the Bible by the time I stand up and talk to you. I'm Bible pumped. And if you're in the Bible, you know, you're it's going to change your attitude. It's going to change your life. And you get excited. It's it's the other things in life that pull you down. And so if you get excited about what Christ has done for you, you're going to have a tendency to rejoice over this thing called redemption and forgiveness that he's done for us. He's done a great thing and we need to be excited about it. We saw last time also that what we have in him is the riches of his grace. We'll talk more about this also, but riches, it is the fullness of his riches, the fullness of Christ's wealth literally. That's what the word means in the Greek. I had to look it up and kind of blew me away. It literally means his riches. Well, what does he own? Well, he owns a lot. Does that mean I'm supposed to drive around in a Well, I don't think so. I think he's talking about real riches, not bogus pretend riches. All of his abundance has been given to us. Then the word grace, that's divine influence or favor. And when we were going through this last week, I said something that caught a couple of you off guard and you came and spoke to me or you wrote me some notes. And I mentioned this. So everybody ready? Everybody waiting and listening? Yeah, you probably got it last time just fine, but I said something along these lines that whenever forgiveness is extended to somebody, it means that somebody had to pay. And that the person who pays by issuing forgiveness is always the one that is sinned against. The violator is never the one that pays. You send somebody to prison today and you know, they go in for what's supposed to be rehabilitation. But who pays? You and I pay. $36,000 a year we pay to keep them in. But who really pays? The society pays for the wrong that was done against it. That person goes into jail or to prison and really doesn't pay. They lose a little bit of their freedom that they forfeited for committing a crime. And even that may not even happen. Who pays? The one who has sinned against always pays. It's the way God has established it. But look at verse 8 where we come tonight and we ask this question or actually we make this statement that Jesus has redeemed us back. You ought to jot that down. In verse 8, Jesus has redeemed us back. And we're going to look at a couple of things concerning that. It says here which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. This word abound is a great word. It means to super abound. Isn't that great? It means to super abound in quantity and in quality, to be super excellent, to be super in over abundance, to be more than what is needed, more than enough. That's what that little word means in the Greek language. It means enough. So what is enough? He is made to abound toward us. What is abounding toward us with more than enough? It is grace. It is the grace that God has given to us. His grace is abounding. Paul says where sin abounds, grace does much more abound, which is great news because if you are tonight uh beaten by sin and you you are just eating dirt, so to speak, and you feel that God won't forgive you or God will not cleanse you, the fact of the matter is God is reaching out to you and he's saying to you, and I've said this so many times you you already know what I'm going to say, but I love to say it and I love to be reminded of it. You cannot commit a sin that is so great that is outside his ability to forgive. There is no way that you or anyone in this world can commit a sin that is so great that Christ will not forgive, that his blood cannot handle. The sin that will not be forgiven now is if you die rejecting Christ. That's the ultimate sin now, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Yes, we sin and yes, the world is outside these walls sinning right now with a great efficiency by the way and a great amount. But when one sinner repents and comes towards Christ and asks for forgiveness, the fact of the matter is his grace covers all your past, all of your present. And though he saves you and redeems you and cleanses you from all past, his grace and blood so powerful that it even takes care of your future. And that 's an amazing thing.
Guest (Male): You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And now let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.
Jack Hibbs: Jesus has redeemed us back. Listen, jot it down. By paying the price, I'm going to rattle off these scriptures for time's sake. You jot them down and look at them later. Jesus has redeemed us back, first of all, by paying the price. Romans 2:4 says that the riches of his goodness and his forbearance and his long suffering has been extended to us. He's paid the price. And not only paid the price, he's given us his goodness, his forbearance, his long suffering, the riches of his goodness. Not only do we have the riches of his grace and the riches of his goodness, but in Romans 2:4 it says of his forbearance and of his long suffering. And you may not know what those words mean, but you're glad that they're in your Bible because all the time that you and I were sinning in our ignorance or maybe in our even rebellion against God, he was long suffering to execute judgment on us. Aren't you glad? I am glad. If I would have died before June 22nd, 1977, I would have been toast in hell tonight. I'm glad of his forbearance. I am glad of his long suffering. Romans 11:33 oh, the depth of his riches, both in the wisdom and knowledge of God. He's paid the price and he's made available to us these riches. Ephesians 1:7 we're reading it right here. It says right here, in him we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Ephesians 1:18 the eyes of your understanding, this is a prayer of Paul's, being enlightened that you might know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Ephesians 1:18 Ephesians 2:7 says that the ages to come God might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. Ephesians 3:8 Ephesians 3:8 says unto me, Paul says, who am least than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles, that's us, the unsearchable riches of Christ, riches. Ephesians 3:16 that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory. The riches of his glory. What is God redeemed us back from in Jesus Christ? From absolute poverty. The Bible says though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor that we might become or that we might receive the riches of Christ in him. Isn't that amazing? Are we all paupers? And you might say, well I am. You know, I looked at my checkbook and it's negative $1.98. Well, you know what? That's your earthly account. But there's a heavenly account if you're a born again believer tonight and that heavenly account is plump, it is full, it is well established in Christ. The riches have been provided for us. And you might say, well how does that equate into my life? I'm in need now. It means, you know what? You're never going to go homeless. It means that all of your necessities will be taken care of. It means that God will watch over you and provide for you. He will stand alongside you. He has redeemed you back. The Bible says that which what the moth and the canker worm has eaten, God will some time in our life, maybe sooner, maybe later, he will repay or replenish that which the world has consumed. What has he redeemed us back from also? A next thought. He's done it by cancelling our our debt and our future debt also. We had a debt against God that we could not pay. We racked up sin debt that we could never pay. Jesus stepped in and not only paid the debt of the past, but he's also covered the future. We talked about that a moment ago. A next thing that we need to consider about what Jesus has redeemed us back from and what he's done for us by taking us out of sin's grip and out of the really the dividends that sin we're going to be that sin was going to be paying us. He has done this by securing the transaction. And listen to this. Jesus paid the price for our sins and he has secured that transaction. It's not going to be undone. It won't be dismantled. We can't launch a rocket out into space and blow up some portion of heaven to where the the data log system gets messed up and your name gets blotched out. Can you imagine? I We were on vacation one time and we were coming down out of Oregon and we stopped in San Francisco and I took took out my first Interstater card and I put it in the thing in the teller and it went and it says call your branch. I'm surprised it didn't come out and cuff us. So then we get down home, you know, and call the bank and come to find out we we have there hadn't been a deposit in our account for a month. And we're on a vacation. Yeah, I'll take two of those. So I go to the personnel office. What's going on? What do you mean what's going on? I don't have any money. We're right in the middle of buying our house. So this would have been 1986. We're in the middle of buying our house and get these phone calls from these people getting notes. What's happening? Well, somebody made a a keystroke error. I never got a You never got a paycheck where I worked. They automatically deposited in your account. Well, guess what? It never made it. Not only it never made it, they several payments, several installments never made it into my account. It made it into somebody else's account who never said a word about it. And we were broke. I don't know why why did I bring that up? Transaction. Jesus not only paid it and took care of it, it's securing him. How secure? Well, Colossians 1:13. Colossians 1:13 says he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us or transferred us from the kingdom of or into the kingdom of his son, of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the first born or the preeminent one over all creation. Philippians 2:6. What a great verse this is. Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. That is with the Father, but made himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of human flesh or men. And being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient even to the point of death upon the cross. Jesus tonight will never again be what he once was in eternity. That rhymes. Isn't that cute? Maybe you can remember that. Jesus will never be the same what he was in eternity. A lot of people In fact, I need to warn you if if I can do this in 15 minutes and get all this stuff out, there's stuff in here to really grab your attention. And that's one of them. That's the first one. Jesus, what he was in eternity past is what he's not in eternity future. And I'm not violating the fact that he does not change. He does not change. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And he was God in past. He's God now. He's God of the future. He's never changing. But something went on in this redemptive act of God that changed, so to speak, Jesus Christ. And that is before eternity came, he was God and not God man. He was God. But when he was born as a baby, he was the God man. 100% God, 100% man, the great incarnation. It's the greatest miracle in the history of the universe that ever will be. And when he died upon the cross, he was still a man and he was still God. And when he was put in that tomb, he was God and he was man. And when he rose from the dead, I'm making this Am I getting excited about this? It's because there's people at your door tearing this down. Because when he rose from the dead, he was God and he was man. And he so secured our salvation in that great transaction that when he became a man, he became a man forever. Tonight, at the right hand of God the Father is the man, the Bible says, Christ Jesus. That is radical. You have a brother, so to speak, at the right hand of God the Father. You have a savior who is pure God and pure man. That is the great doctrine of the incarnation of Christ. Remember the Emmaus road? Remember when the disciples were walking down the Emmaus road and Jesus walks up alongside them and he goes, hey, what are you guys so down about? And they say, what are you a stranger around here? Haven't you heard what's going on? They didn't recognize him. He says, well what things? Oh, only about Jesus Christ, the greatest, most precious thing that's ever happened. We believed that he was the Messiah, but you know what? It's been 3 days. And he says, you know what? Didn't the Scripture say that Christ must suffer and be rejected by this nation and be spitefully treated by the Gentiles and be crucified and 3 days later rise from the dead? The Scripture says that he took bread and broke it and their eyes were opened and they understood who he was. There's a lot of reasons why that's true, why they didn't or didn't recognize him. He was scarred, I'm sure, from the events that had happened 3 days earlier and in his resurrected body he bore those scars. We know that's true in the Book of Zechariah and the Book of Psalms.
David Jay: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called Our Great Redemption Part 2. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Book of Ephesians. It's a series through Paul's letter to the Ephesians discovering the riches, the walk, and the warfare of every believer. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
Jack Hibbs: Hey, I'm very excited to promote this new book by Dr. Tim LaHaye, not only a mentor of mine, but a precious friend. He has written a book, How to Study Bible Prophecy for Yourself. Remember Dr. Tim LaHaye is the one that brought you the remarkable Left Behind series. I bet with all of your knowledge of Bible prophecy, there's still a hole somewhere. And this book is going to help you as you walk you through How to Study Bible Prophecy for Yourself.
Guest (Male): How to Study Bible Prophecy for Yourself. Get it for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com.
Jack Hibbs: Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry. And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode.
David Jay: This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.