Get Out of Jail Free

We open the word of God to 1 Peter 1. I'm going to begin reading in verse 17 through verse 25. And these verses help to illuminate our text for the morning from Ephesians chapter 1. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, in which he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 17.

And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your vain manner of life received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who by him do believe in God, who raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing that ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

For all flesh is like grass, and all the glory of man is like the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

And may we by his grace experience that marvelous redemption. The Apostle Paul is praising the Lord. He is singing one of the most beautiful hymns of praise found anywhere in the word of God.

It begins in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3 and keeps on going down to verse 14. And he sings the praises of God the Father, and he sings the praises of God the Son, and he sings the praises of God the Holy Spirit. And one theme keeps bursting forth in his hymn of praise to the of the glory of his grace.

You say, what's so remarkable about this, that Paul should be singing a hymn of praise? Well, I wonder if I would be singing a hymn of praise if I were in the situation that Paul was in. Paul was a prisoner of the Roman Empire. He had just gone through an arrest.

He was arrested unjustly. He'd gone through a shipwreck. Now he's in Rome, and he's going to be tried.

And it's possible that he could have his life taken from him. And so here he is, chained to a Roman soldier, bursting forth in this magnificent first chapter of Ephesians, glorifying God and praising Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now we have noticed the blessings of God the Father in verses 4, 5, and 6. He has chosen us, he has adopted us, and he has accepted us.

Verse 6 ends, to the praise of the glory of his grace through which he hath made us accepted in the Beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, in which he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. I want you to imagine, if you will, a prisoner in jail. Now, it's not likely that most of us have ever been prisoners in jail.

Perhaps you have been. Here is a prisoner in jail. Not only is he a prisoner in jail, but he has been found guilty and he's going to die.

And not only is he in jail and guilty, but he is bankrupt, he's broke, he can't afford to get any counsel, he can't afford to buy his way out, he can't afford to get any legal help, and if he could, his position is such that he is not likely to win the case. This is the picture of the unsaved person before he meets Jesus Christ. You see, in verses 4, 5, and 6, we have the blessings from God the Father, and in verses 7 and 8, we have the blessings from God the Son.

He has redeemed us, he has forgiven us, and in verse 8, he has enriched us with his grace. He has redeemed us through his blood, he has forgiven us by his grace, and then he has enriched us with this very grace that has made possible our forgiveness. If this doesn't make a person want to sing praises to God, you must have an awfully hard heart.

These three blessings from God the Son take care of the three basic needs that every sinner has. There is the bondage of sin, but Jesus has redeemed us. There is the burden of sin, but Jesus has forgiven us.

And there is the bankruptcy of sin, yes, but Jesus has enriched us. So all we're going to do this morning is plumb some of the depths of verses 7 and 8 and find out how marvelous it is to belong to Jesus Christ. I don't know what attitude you brought to church today.

You may be wrestling right now with a tremendous problem. You may have a great burden that is just pressing against you. I don't know.

It may be that your being here at the Moody Church is the only peace, the only oasis you have in a life that's filled with a great deal of trouble and difficulty. I don't know. But this I do know.

If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have something to sing about, because of the blessings that he has given to us. Let's take the first of these blessings. Jesus Christ has redeemed us.

This takes care of the bondage of sin. The plight of the sinner is something that really ought to break our hearts. Sin is so deceptive.

The Bible talks about the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is such a deceptive thing. Sin promises freedom, and it always brings bondage.

A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

Here was a young man who said, I'm tired of staying home. I want to live my own life. I'm going to leave home.

I don't need my father. I certainly don't need my big brother. I'm going to leave home, and I'm going to enjoy life.

I want freedom. Sin came along and said to him, certainly you deserve freedom. Satan has been talking this way for a long, long time.

He said to Eve, why in the world do you want to be a woman when you can be a God? Why do you want to be under the guidance and the control of God when you can run your own life? Sin always promises freedom, and for a while it seems as though we've achieved freedom. We're doing what we want to do, and we're enjoying doing what we want to do. We're spending our money, and we're using our time, and we're enjoying it.

Then something happens. We discover that freedom does not really mean doing what I want to do. That's the worst kind of bondage, because this young man in the parable that Jesus gave—we call it the parable of the prodigal son—the young man in this parable went broke.

Not long after, there was a famine in that land, and he began to be in want. He went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. He started off with a great deal of freedom, but now he ends up in bondage.

Sin always does this. You say, there's nothing wrong with working for somebody. No, all of us are employed by somebody.

But actually, this young man was not simply in bondage to his employer, he was in bondage to the pigs. The pigs were better off than he was. They were being fed.

He was going hungry. Sin always promises freedom, and it brings bondage. I may be speaking to someone right now who is living it up.

You're enjoying it. You've come to the big city of Chicago, and you're going to just be yourself and do your own thing. I would say to you, on the authority of the Word of God, sin always promises freedom and sin always brings bondage.

It brings mental bondage, remorse, and regret. It brings physical bondage. There are multitudes of people today who would love to be set free from some godless habit.

It brings emotional bondage. It brings spiritual bondage. In fact, Paul writes about this over in chapter 4 of Ephesians, in verse 17.

This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not, live not, as other Gentiles walk, in the emptiness of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness or the hardness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. Here is a picture of bondage. Now, Paul tells us in these verses that we have redemption, and he spells it out so beautifully.

He says to you and to me, we don't have to be in bondage. There is a redemption. He tells us, first of all, who the person is that redeems us, in whom we have redemption.

And that word whom refers to the last word in verse 6, beloved, through which he hath made us accepted in the Beloved One. Now, the Beloved One is Jesus Christ. When my Lord Jesus was being baptized, the voice from heaven, Father, said, This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

When my Lord Jesus was on the mount of transfiguration, shining forth with the glory of God, heaven spoke again, and the Father said, This is my Beloved Son, hear ye him. The Beloved One is Jesus Christ, and he is the Redeemer. Now, my friend, if I had an only Beloved Son, I think I'd protect him.

If I had an only Son who was my Beloved One, I think I would hold on to him. But my Bible says, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. The amazing thing is this.

Though the Lord Jesus Christ is the Beloved One, and the heart of God the Son and the heart of God the Father are held together by great bonds of love, both God the Father and God the Son so loved lost sinners that God the Father was to give his Son, and God the Son was willing to give his life. The Redeemer is the Beloved One. It's not Moses.

You're not going to be redeemed by the law. The law just puts you under a curse. It's not John the Baptist.

You aren't going to be redeemed by baptism. It's not some preacher or some church or some ritual. The person who redeems is Jesus Christ, the Beloved One.

He is able to redeem, and he is willing to redeem. He tells us not only who the person is that redeems us, the Beloved One, but he tells us the price of the redemption, in whom we have redemption through his blood. There are some people who don't like this word blood.

They call it a slaughterhouse religion. They say that we're very traditional and we're certainly holding on to an old-fashioned idea. It always amazes me a man like Winston Churchill can speak to the British Empire and say, All I can promise you is tears and sweat and blood, and people will applaud that.

In this, our bicentennial year, one of our patriots can say that the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of the patriots, and people applaud that. But let a preacher stand in a pulpit and say, Look, my friend, the only way to be redeemed is by the blood of Jesus Christ. And people say, We don't want to hear that.

You know why? When you talk about redemption through blood, you are saying that people cannot redeem themselves. Most people want to look into the mirror and say, You're a pretty good fellow. Oh, you have your faults, and you occasionally do things you shouldn't do, but you're better than most.

In fact, most are not as good as you are. And if you keep working at it, you're going to make it to heaven. You're a pretty good person.

When you come along and say, No, you've got to be redeemed by blood, you're saying several things. You're saying, Number one, the wages of sin is death. Now, people don't want to believe this.

People want to believe they can sin and get away with it. And you say, Oh, no, there has to be blood given for your redemption. Well, then that means I'll die for my sins.

That's right. Then you'd better trust the Redeemer who did die for your sins. The reason people don't like to hear about blood is because blood knocks them right off of their pedestals and says, You're not high way up there.

I'm sorry, you're right down here with all the rest of us. All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now, there are three words in the New Testament that are translated redemption, and these words are so beautiful.

All three of them are applied to Christians. There's the word that means to purchase in the slave market. Now, you'll remember that there were some six million slaves in the Roman Empire.

And in Ephesus, you could go down to the slave market, just like in the city of Chicago, people go down to the used car market and here's the used car place and you buy yourself a used car. You could go down to the slave market and here were children and men and women, young, old, slaves, bodies for sale. And the word that God uses for our redemption is to purchase in the slave market.

There's a second word that's used to purchase for oneself. You see, Jesus didn't go down into the slave market of sin and shed his blood to purchase us for the devil or to purchase us for ourselves. He went down and purchased us for himself.

What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? You're not your own. You're bought with a price. And so we are purchased in the slave market.

We are purchased for himself. There's a third word that's used. This is the word that just rejoices my heart.

It means to purchase and set free. You see, I can purchase a slave and sell him. I can purchase a slave and keep him a slave, but not so with the Lord Jesus.

Our Lord Jesus Christ purchased us that he might set us free. Can't you just see some man going down into the slave market? And there stands a very handsome youth who's been captured in some war, and he's got chains on his hands and his feet. And the man says, how much for that boy? And they quote him a price.

And the boy says, I wonder what he's going to do with me, because a slave master could do with a slave almost anything he wanted to. And the man says, I've purchased you. Come with me.

And the boy goes with him. And the man takes off the shackles from his legs and from his arms. And he says, young man, I have purchased you to set you free.

That's the word he's talking about. You see, my friend, we are purchased by Christ. We are redeemed by his blood to be set free.

You say, isn't there any other way he could have set us free? No, no, it's been laid down in scripture from the very beginning that the life is in the blood. I found that out in the intensive care ward of a hospital. As I lay there on that bed and they were pumping fluid into me, and the doctor said, get as much blood in him as you can.

What? That's where the life comes from. So when you shed blood, you're giving a life. And Jesus Christ shed his blood and gave his life that we might be redeemed, purchased out of the slave market and set free.

Now, someone says, pastor, back in the Old Testament, they brought the blood of animals. They brought lambs and goats and oxen. Yes, they did.

That was a picture of the coming of our savior who would once and for all shed his blood. But you see, the blood of animals can't take away sin. The blood of animals can't redeem anybody.

In the first place, it's animal blood and not human blood. An animal can't die for a human. In the second place, it's not voluntary.

No animal ever volunteered to die. When Passover season came along, the lambs didn't get in line and say, I want to be first. You see, Jesus, when he died for you and me, it was not only human blood.

He was a man, the God-man, but it was perfect blood. And it was voluntarily given. And his sacrifice God has accepted.

Now, there may be one person in this congregation who's never been redeemed. I say to you, the person who redeemed you is Jesus Christ, the beloved one. The price that he paid is his blood.

He tells us here that we have this redemption. There is a future redemption, the redemption of the body, but he's talking about a present redemption. In him we have right now redemption.

We are redeemed through his blood. You know what that means? Christians are free people. Paul writes to the Galatians and he says, Stand fast, therefore, in this liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage.

Oh, how many people there are who are under the yoke of bondage, bondage to religion, bondage to tradition, bondage to law, bondage to sin. And Paul says it's a present possession. We have redemption.

We are walking in freedom. Now, the second blessing our Lord gives to us, we have redemption that takes care of the bondage of sin. We have forgiveness that takes care of the burden of sin, the guilt of sin.

Let me talk to you about guilt. You see, just as sin promises freedom and always brings bondage, sin promises pleasure and always brings sorrow. Always.

That prodigal son was enjoying life. He was just having a great time. He had money.

He had friends. When you have money, it's not hard to get friends. He was living it up and eating it up and drinking it down.

Then he ran out of money. Then his friends left him. Then a famine came and he had to pawn his ring and sell his shoes, and now he's down in the pig pen.

And he says to himself, you know, I wanted to leave home, but the lowest servant in my Father's employ has more to eat and to spare than I do. I'm foolish. Sin promised me pleasure, but it brought me sorrow.

Now, why does sin bring sorrow? Oh, you say, I know people who live in sin. They don't have any sorrow. You don't know their hearts.

You know why sin brings sorrow? Sin separates people from God. And when you're separated from God, you have a feeling of guilt. It all started with Adam.

When Eve tempted Adam and Adam succumbed and the two of them had sinned against God, they felt guilty. Guilt is that combination of fear and dread and judgment and shame. That's what sin brings.

And here's our prisoner in jail, in prison, and not only is he in bondage, but he's carrying a burden. When David had sinned, he said, my sin is ever before me. And the telephone would ring, and he'd say, I wonder what that is.

And somebody would come to see him. He'd say, I wonder what he knows. I may be talking to someone like that just now.

Your sin is ever before you. There is that growing guilt, guilt, guilt. Now, somebody has to do something about this burden of sin.

The sinner has broken God's law, so he's an offender. He's abused God's blessings, so he's a thief. He's resisted God's love, so he's a rebel.

What's going to happen to him? May I say to someone here just now who has never trusted the Savior, you are wasting the blessings God has given you. He's given you a body, a mind, abilities, a world in which to live, money and strength and opportunity, and you use it for yourself. The Word of God says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Now, this word forgive means to send away. It's a beautiful thing, to send away. It sort of reminds you of Psalm 103.

As far as the East is from the West, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Here is the sinner carrying the weight and the guilt and the burden of sin. And along comes the Savior and says, no need for you to carry that.

No need to be guilty. I've already carried it on the cross. I've already paid the price for it.

Now let me take it. One of the most interesting graves I have ever seen is the grave of John Bunyan over in Bun Hill Fields in London, right across from Wesley's Chapel. As you walk through the little cemetery, here is a grave, and on that grave is this statue and this engraving.

And on one side of the tombstone is Pilgrim carrying his heavy burden. On the other side is Pilgrim at the cross, and the burden is going down into the empty tomb. And that's what this word is all about.

Forgiveness. It means to send away. Now, the Jewish people in the congregation would have known what Paul was talking about, because once a year they had their Yom Kippur, their day of atonement.

And the high priest would get the two goats, and he would kill the one goat and shed its blood, in whom we have redemption through his blood. He would take the second goat, put his hands on the goat's head, confess the sins of the people, and then they would take that goat and lead it away. The forgiveness of sins.

The taking away of sins. Now, all of that was simply symbolical. With us it is real and literal with the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's no need for anybody here to carry sin. No need to feel guilty. In him we have redemption.

That takes care of the bondage of sin. The forgiveness of sins. That takes care of the burden of sin.

That's what John the Baptist meant when he said, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. There's a third blessing here. According to the riches of his grace.

Here we have the fact that Jesus Christ has enriched us. He has redeemed us. That's the bondage of sin.

He has forgiven us. That's the burden of sin. He has enriched us.

That's the bankruptcy of sin. You see, just as sin promises freedom and brings bondage, just as sin promises pleasure and brings sorrow and guilt and burden, so sin promises enrichment. And it always brings poverty.

There sits the prodigal son with the pigs, hungry, homesick, broke, because sin always brings bankruptcy. Now you say, I know many sinners who are rich, certainly materially. I'm talking about spiritual riches.

There are those who are rich in this world, but not rich toward God. There are those who have this world's goods, but not the next world's goods. Paul is saying here, Jesus Christ enriches us.

The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. That's the whole theme of Ephesians. Be rich.

We have the riches of his grace in chapter 1 verse 7. We have the riches of his grace in verse 7 of chapter 2, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace. Over in chapter 1 verse 18, we have the riches of his glory. The eyes of your heart being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

We have the same thing over in chapter 3 verse 16, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory. Chapter 2 verse 4, we have the riches of his mercy. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love with which he loved us.

In fact, it gets to the point where Paul just has to say in verse 8 of chapter 3, unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. I don't know what you may have in your bank book, but I want you to know that through Jesus Christ we have riches that cannot be traced out. In fact, we're so rich in Jesus Christ, Paul says, it's just unsearchable.

And I notice here that God gives to me not out of his riches, but according to his riches. Here's a man who's worth billions of dollars and he hands you a dollar. He gave you out of his riches.

Here's a man who's worth billions of dollars who hands you a million dollars. He gave to you according to his riches. God doesn't just simply dribble out little blessings out of his riches.

He abundantly shares with us according to his riches. And Jesus Christ has enriched us. I don't know if they're still doing it in the United States, but it used to be that when a prisoner was released from the prison, they gave him a suit of clothes and a certain amount of money and they sent him on his way.

I remember the night I was released from prison. He set me free from the bondage of sin. He gave me a suit of clothes.

He forgave me and dressed me in his righteousness and said, now get out there. You're mine. And I said, but Lord, what do I live on? Oh, he said, I meant to tell you this.

I'm making you rich. I'm not just giving you 20 bucks until you get a job. I'm sharing with you all of my riches.

We are enriched according to the riches of his grace. Now, all of this sounds so simple, doesn't it? Jesus Christ has redeemed me once I was in bondage. Jesus Christ has forgiven me once I was under the burden of guilt.

Jesus Christ has enriched me once I was just flat broke, spiritually bankrupt. It is easy for me, but oh, what it cost him. You see, for him to set me free, he had to become a prisoner.

They bound him. They pushed him down to the judgment hall. They treated him like the least of the scum of the earth.

Talk about losing your civil rights. He lost his. If anybody ever was treated uncivilly, he was.

You see, he became a prisoner that I might have redemption. He became a sinner that I might have forgiveness. Oh, you say, Pastor, you've gone too far.

No. He was made sin for me, who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree. God treated him like a sinner that he might be able to treat me like a son.

He became poor that I might be rich. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor that you through his poverty might be made rich. Oh, do you see, that's the gospel.

He became a prisoner that I might have redemption. He became a sinner that I might have forgiveness. He became poor that I might be rich.

Is it any wonder Paul is singing praises to God the Son in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace? Do you right now have redemption? Heavenly Father, these truths thrill our hearts because we know how unworthy, how undeserving we are. We're thankful that Jesus Christ in his grace has made all of this possible. Now Father, may the hearts of the children of God rejoice because of these marvelous blessings.

And I pray that those here today who know not the Savior might come and trust the Savior, and be set free, and be forgiven, and be enriched, and enter into abundant eternal life through Christ. This is our prayer in Jesus' name, amen.