Sermon Tone Analysis

When A.J. Gordon was pastor of a church in Boston, he met a young boy in front of the sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously.

Gordon inquired, "Son, where did you get those birds?"

The boy replied, "I trapped them out in the field."

"What are you going to do with them?" "I'm going to play with them, and then I guess I'll just feed them to an old cat we have at home."

When Gordon offered to buy them, the lad exclaimed, "Mister, you don't want them, they're just little old wild birds and can't sing very well."

Gordon replied, "I'll give you $2 for the cage and the birds."

"Okay, it's a deal, but you're making a bad bargain."

The exchange was made and the boy went away whistling, happy with his shiny coins.

Gordon walked around to the back of the church property, opened the door of the small wire coop, and let the struggling creatures soar into the blue.

The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ's coming to seek and to save the lost -- paying for them with His own precious blood.

"That boy told me the birds were not songsters," said Gordon, "but when I released them and they winged their way heavenward, it seemed to me they were singing, 'Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!"You and I have been held captive to sin, but Christ has purchased our pardon and set us at liberty.

When a person has this life-changing experience, he will want to sing, "Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!"

#.

*The Redemptive Results*

*/the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us.

In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, /*/(////7b–9a////)/

1.        Redemption involves every conceivable good thing, “/every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ////”/ (v. 3).

2.       But here Paul focuses on two especially important aspects.

One is negative, the *forgiveness of our trespasses*, and the other is *positive, wisdom and insight*.

3.        */Forgiveness/*.

The primary result of redemption for the believer is *forgiveness*, one of the central salvation truths of both the Old and New Testaments.

a.

It is also the dearest truth to those who have experienced its blessing.

b.

At the Last Supper, Jesus explained to the disciples that the cup He then shared with them was His “blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (Matt.

26:28).

c.   Redemption brings *forgiveness*.

4.       Behaviorists and those from some other schools of psychology maintain that we cannot be blamed for our sin, that it is the fault of our genes, our environment, our parents, or something else external.

a.

But a person’s sin is his own fault, and the guilt for it is his own.

The honest person who has any understanding of his own heart knows that.

b.

The gospel does not teach, as some falsely maintain, that men have no sin or guilt, but rather that Christ will take away both the sin and the guilt of those who trust Him.

c.

As Paul told the Jews in Pisidian Antioch, /“////Through Him [Christ] forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things////”/ (Acts 13:38–39).

5.        Israel’s greatest holy day was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

a.   On that day the high priest selected two unblemished sacrificial goats.

b.

One goat was killed, and his blood was sprinkled on the altar as a sacrifice.

c.

The high priest placed his hands on the head of the other goat, symbolically laying the sins of the people on the animal.

d.

The goat was then taken out deep into the wilderness, so far that it could never find its way back.

e.

In symbol the sins of the people went with the goat, never to return to them again (Lev.

16:7–10).

6.

But that enactment, beautiful and meaningful as it was, did not actually remove the people’s sins, as they well knew.

a.

It was but a picture of what only God Himself in Christ could do.

b.

As previously mentioned , /aphiēmi/ (from which *forgiveness* comes) basically means to send away.

c.   Used as a legal term it meant to repay or cancel a debt or to grant a pardon.

d.

Through the shedding of His own blood, Jesus Christ actually took the sins of the world upon His own head, as it were, and carried them an infinite distance away from where they could never return.

e.

That is the extent of *the forgiveness of our trespasses*.

7.        It is tragic that many Christians are depressed about their shortcomings and wrongdoing.

a.

They think and act as if God still holds their sins against them—forgetting that, because God has taken their sins upon Himself, they are separated from those sins /“////as far as the east is from the west////”/ (Ps.

103:12).

b.

They forget God’s promise through Isaiah that one day He would wipe out the transgressions of believers /“////like a thick cloud////”/ and their “/sins like a heavy mist.

Return to Me,////”/ He said, /“////for I have redeemed you////”/ (Isa.

44:22).

c.

Even before the Messiah came and paid the price for redemption, God spoke of it as already having taken place.

d.  Depressed Christians forget that God looked down the corridors of time even before He fashioned the earth and placed the sins of His elect on the head of His Son, who took them an eternal distance away.

He dismissed our sins before we were born, and they can never return.

8.       Hundreds of years before Calvary, Micah proclaimed, “/Who is a God like Thee, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession?

He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love.

He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot.

Yes, Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea////”/ (Mic.

7:18–19).

a.

To ancient Israel the distance from east to west and “the depths of the sea” represented infinity.

God’s *forgiveness* is infinite; it takes away *our trespasses* to the farthest reaches of eternal infinity.

b.

In Shakespeare’s /King Richard III/ (5.3.194) the king laments, /My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain./

c.

That is not true of Christians.

When Jesus comes into our lives as Savior and Lord, He says to us what He said to the woman caught in the act of adultery, /“////Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more////”/ (John 8:11).

d.  “/There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death////” /(Rom.

8:1–2).

9.       *Forgiveness* in Jesus Christ is undeserved, but it is free and it is complete.

a.

Those who have Him have freedom from sin, now and throughout eternity.

b.

In Christ our sins—past, present, and future/—“////are forgiven … for His name’s sake////”/ (1 John 2:12; cf. Eph.

4:32; Col.

2:13).

c.

They were forgiven countless ages before we committed them and will remain forgiven forever.

d.

Because we continue to sin, we need the continued forgiveness of cleansing; but we do not need the continued forgiveness of redemption.

Jesus told Peter, “/He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean////”/ (John 13:10).

e.

Even though we continue to sin, Jesus “/is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness///” (1 John 1:9).

f.

He forgives all our sins in the sweeping grace of salvation.

g.

That does not mean we will no longer sin, nor that when we do our sins have no harmful effect.

They have a profound effect on our growth, joy, peace, usefulness, and ability to have intimate and rich communion with the Father.

h.

Thus the believer is called on to ask for forgiveness daily so that he may enjoy not just the general forgiveness of redemption, but the specific forgiveness of daily cleansing, which brings fellowship and usefulness to their maximum.

i.

That is the issue in our Lord’s teaching on prayer recorded in Matthew 6:12, 14–15.

10.

There are no second class Christians, no deprived citizens of God’s kingdom or children in His family.