The Benefits of Salvation

That's you, Ryker. Amen. Alright. The benefits of salvation. Last week, we looked at the obligations.

Are there responsibilities that come with our relationship with Christ? Yes, there are. He God is our father and we are his children. Does that not entail some responsibilities on our part? I think it does.

He is our king. We are his subjects, his servants. He is our our Lord. Salvation is free to us. Freely offered but it was not free to Christ, was it?

It came at a great cost to him. And while salvation is by grace through faith and not of works, lest any man should boast, the next verse in Ephesians two says, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto what? Good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So we learned last week that we do have Christians. Many responsibilities, actually.

Sadly, responsibilities that we too often take for granted. Responsibilities that are important. To be salt and light in the world, to take the good news of the gospel to others that they might know Christ, to be holy as as he is holy, to spend time with our father who wants to spend time with us in his word and in prayer. We do have responsibilities And I pray that we would not shirk them or excuse our complacency in keeping them. But this morning, I wanna look at the benefits, the benefits of salvation.

And we're gonna look at these benefits, particularly this morning in the light of Ephesians chapter one. So in just a moment, we are going to read from Ephesians chapter one beginning in verse three. So if you want to find that, Ephesians one, we'll be reading in a few moments from verse three. But I want to put a couple verses up here on the screen before we get to Ephesians. One one is Psalm one zero three two.

It says, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his what? His benefits. Yeah. That's a bible word. Yes.

All the benefits that come with having God as our father and Jesus as our Lord. They are many. They are vast. They are wonderful. They are inexpressible.

They are astonishingly great what God's grace has bestowed upon us, his children. We're going look just a few of those today. Second Peter one three, up here on the screen says, according, as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. According as his divine power hath given unto us, what? All things that pertain unto life and God.

All that you need, you have in Christ wonderful benefits of the grace of God that have been poured out upon His children and which sadly we too take for granted and fail to often show the gratitude and to understand the security that we have in Jesus Christ our Lord, to all that he has done for us. Ephesians chapter one verse three. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with, there's that word all again, all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation 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 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 wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him.

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ, whom ye also trusted after that she heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also after that she believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory. Amen. Let's pray.

Dear God, thank you for your word today. And Lord, we could spend weeks and weeks just in these verses. I pray, Lord, that as we may not have time to spend all of those weeks in the pulpit and in the service today that we would take some days and hours of our personal devotion to get to know our salvation better and better every day. In knowing the grace of God that has been bestowed upon us and all the wonderful blessings that come with it, that we might be better children having received it and understood it that we might live to the praise of the one who has done so much for us. Lord, thank you today and thank you for the opportunity to share your word in this place, to praise your name.

May you be honored and exalted in all we say and do. In Jesus name we do pray. Amen. The verses we just read, the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all of His benefits and according as His divine power hath given us to all all things which pertain unto life and godliness. Parallel verse three of Ephesians chapter one where it says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who had blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

How blessed indeed we are, far beyond we could possibly understand. And yet, sadly, often we look at others around us with envy. And it's they who should be envious of us, not us of them. What we have in Christ Jesus Nothing in this world compares to. The salvation that we enjoy is amazing.

That's why we call it amazing grace because the grace of God that has brought it to us is indeed amazing. God has blessed us in ways that no one else can with divine endowments, spiritual blessings bestowed by his grace, meaning that they are unearned. The word grace used 12 times by Paul in this short letter to the church at Ephesus. We know Ephesians two eight, for by grace are you saved through faith, but that word pops on again and again and again and again throughout the letter that Paul wrote. To drive home to the Ephesians the amazing grace of God and the wonderful benefits, the blessings that we enjoy, spiritual blessings, blessings that money cannot buy, blessings that surgery cannot provide.

We live in a world that's got consumed with plastic surgery today. It's it's a it's crazy. They're missing out on the greater blessings, the blessings that only come from God. Paul will continue in this passage to list those blessings or benefits which are ours in Christ as a matter of his grace and his choosing and not our works. Not that anyone can boast, save in the death of Christ my Lord.

Because what I have, I have not earned. I didn't choose where to be born, when to be born. I didn't choose my genes. And despite my rebellion, God still sent his son to die on a cross and and rise again so that I could be redeemed as we will talk about and saved. And it is amazing.

It is the grace of God. He mentions here in verse four, the first of several, a few that we're going to look at today. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. This wasn't some haphazard thing that God just threw together. God had this plan ready before the foundation of the world that He would send His Son and those who would put their faith in Him would reap all of the benefits of the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus.

God planned this before the foundation of the world. He even knew before Adam and Eve sinned that they would do that, that they would choose that choice. And he already had a plan to defeat the enemy Satan and to purchase back that which was stolen from him. He goes on to say, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Now in first Peter, we read, Be ye holy for I am holy.

We are told and encouraged to be blameless. It is a requirement for those seeking leadership in the church that they be blameless before the public. But the fact is none of us are truly sinless or blameless, are we? None of us are perfectly holy in our daily living. One day we will be, but not as long as these feet are walking on this earth in this body.

One day I'll get a new body and it'll be incorruptible and there will be no sin. But for now, I still struggle some as the rest of you do. Praise the Lord for the forgiveness and the patience and the mercy of God and the faithfulness of God. For even when we are not faithful, He remains faithful to us. This verse isn't specifically talking about our daily living.

It's talking about our standing before God in heaven. When we received Christ Jesus as our Lord and the salvation that He gives, we are declared holy and blameless before the throne of God in heaven. By the advocacy of Jesus Christ, who by His righteous sacrifice imputes unto us His righteousness. Remember Jesus said in Matthew five to his disciples, unless your righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees, the scribes of the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, we may not understand exactly what that meant, but they did.

The Pharisees and the scribes spent all of their time, all of their free time, all of their extra time studying the Bible. They knew it backwards and forwards. In public at least, they endeavored it to keep it and to follow it to an incredible degree. And yet Jesus said to his disciples, your righteousness must exceed theirs. I'm sure his disciples thought, well, how was that possible?

I'm a fisherman. Several of them were fishermen. I'm a tax collector. That was Matthew, Levi. Their piety and and alms and giving and they they were never going to exceed the scribes and the Pharisees.

At least so they thought in their mind. But see, the problem was not their activities. The problem was where? In their their heart. And the fact is that we are all born sinners at at heart.

The Bible says our righteousness is as what? Filthy rags. We need not our righteousness, we need whose righteousness? We need the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We must need to be clothed in his righteousness.

We need his righteousness accounted to us, imputed to us. It is only the righteousness of Christ that satisfies the holiness of the father in heaven. We will never hit the mark. It says in Romans three twenty three, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That word sin is It means to miss the mark.

We all miss the mark. Some further than others, but the fact is we miss the mark. But Jesus did not miss the mark. He did not fall short of the glory of God. He was in all points tempted as we yet without what?

Yet without sin. And then he took our place. The Bible says in second Corinthians five twenty one, for he hath made him, that is Jesus, to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That through faith in Jesus Christ who died on that cross for us, that his righteousness might be imputed to us, exchanged, if you might. Our sin for his what?

Righteousness. Our guilt for his guiltlessness, his innocence on the cross of Calvary as pictured in the offering, the sin offering brought in the Old Testament before the priest who handed the lamb to the priest and then the man who brought it, the repentant one, put their hands on the lamb symbolizing an exchange, their sin to the lamb who was then slain and punished in their place and the innocence of the lamb to them. That is what Christ did for us. In the Old Testament and in the New, it is repeated. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for what?

For righteousness. Not his righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ who would one day die on the cross for Abraham's sins and for yours and mine. Jesus Christ who resides today at the right hand of the father making intercession for those who come to him by faith, our advocate. First John two one and two, my little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. What benefit is there in Christ? In Christ, we are righteous. In Christ, we are declared holy and guiltless before God in heaven, blameless, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. What benefit is there?

Our savior is sitting at the right hand of the father today. And when we fail, he stand he is there to defend us against the accusations of the enemy and to point to the cross and say, I already took care of that. I already took care of that. So in Christ, we have been sanctified. That's connected to the word holy.

To be sanctified is to be made holy. It means to be set apart. And in Christ, we have been set apart from the world and from sin so much so that one day we will be free from it altogether. Cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. First Corinthians six nine through 11 says this, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

What follows is a list of terrible sins. And then in verse 11, it says this, And such were some of you, but you are washed, but ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. You are sanctified. You have been washed to those sins. They've been wiped off the roles of heaven, the record of heaven, and we have been set apart in Jesus Christ unto eternal life, justified in him.

In Christ, we are justified. Justified means declared guiltless and righteous despite our guilt. Yes. We are guilty, but Christ has taken that away on his cross. And we are now declared guiltless before God in heaven, Jesus having paid the penalty for us.

We have been pardoned. We have been pardoned. When someone is pardoned, it doesn't mean that they never committed a crime. It means that that crime is remitted. It is it is that penalty is taken away.

God can't just arbitrarily take our penalty away. So Jesus took that penalty for us on the cross. And because he paid the penalty that was mine to pay, I have been pardoned in Christ Jesus. Romans chapter three, if you want to turn over there, had too many verses to put up here on the screen. In Romans three verse 19, I just want to read briefly.

Romans three nineteen on the issue of justification. The Jews thought that they could justify themselves by following the law, But they only condemned themselves because they didn't follow the law. No matter how hard they tried, their actions eventually exposed what was wrong inside their heart. So the law only served to condemn them. By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

So how can we be justified? Through faith in Christ, Paul writes. Verse 19, Romans three. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith unto them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God.

To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Only one way to be justified by the before the father and that is through the son Jesus Christ, through faith in his sacrifice and his offer. And if you have received that, what a benefit you enjoy. Set apart in Christ Jesus. Declare guiltless before the throne of God in heaven by our advocate that sits there every day in our behalf.

Isn't that great? I heard I heard one amen. I'll take another. Amen. Amen.

We have been declared holy and blameless only by the grace of God. But also, we've been adopted adopted. Ephesians one verse five. 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 hath made us accepted in the beloved. You have been adopted into a new family, a new position, and a new inheritance in Christ.

If you look down in verse 11, it says, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Before we knew Christ, before we trusted in the Lord Jesus, before we were saved, we were outcasts of his kingdom and of his family. But he sent his son and he opened his arms wide and he invited us to be adopted back into the family of God. You are born again into God's family. A new life you have, serving a new Lord and enjoying a new father in heaven.

You are a child of who? You are a child of who? You're a child of God. Did you earn it? Do you deserve it?

No. But nonetheless, it is yours if you know Christ as savior. In Christ, you have been adopted into the family of God by his own good pleasure. He wanted you. He chose you.

He adopted you. He died for you, and you are now part of his family. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons or the children of God even to them that believe on his name. If you have believed on the name of Jesus Christ, you are now by God's power and authority, a child of the king. What a privilege.

I'm not a child of the president. I'm glad of that. I am very glad that I am a child of the one, a child of the king. The king of kings and the Lord of lords. By God's grace, by his good pleasure.

So we have a new father in heaven and new brothers and sisters in Christ. Romans eight fifteen through 17 says this, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father. The spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together. Glorified together with who?

Glorified together with Christ. As Christ is glorified, as he receives his inheritance, guess who is going to receive their inheritance? Every child of God. As such, we have an inheritance to claim as joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Christ's inheritance is whose?

It's now yours. You were adopted into God's family and his inheritance is now your inheritance. His kingdom is now what? Your kingdom. His place in heaven is now your place in heaven.

We are seated with Christ in the heavenlies and my place is being held by Jesus Christ who is already there. One day, he's going to come and he's going to take me to my inheritance because I was adopted. Can you imagine a girl or a boy living in an orphanage, having little to nothing and someone comes and adopts them and takes them into their home, accepts them as part of their family, and then what is theirs is also what is the parents is also the child's. That is us. We were the orphans.

We were taken in by God's grace. He chose us in Christ And we have an inheritance. We have a new life, eternal life. We have been born into it by his spirit. A gift from God through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord, who has given us a new life in him.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have what? Everlasting life. That that doesn't just mean life that goes on forever. That means life that is shared with Jesus Christ, the divine, is now in part mine. Eternal life, a new life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And if you're saved, you have eternal life. You have a place waiting for you in heaven. Continuing on with verse seven. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

One of my favorite words in scripture is redemption. I love the doctrine of redemption. Redemption is the act whereby we have been bought back from sin and Satan, which held us captive to a debt we could not pay. A sin debt which only the righteous one could pay for us. Way back there in the Garden Of Eden, Satan came into the garden and he tempted Eve and she ate and he gave it to Adam and he ate and they became what?

Sinners. For as by one man sin entered the world and death by sin, so death hath passed upon all men for that all have what? For that all have sinned. In Adam, all die. In Christ shall all be made alive.

But in the Garden Of Eden, Satan came in and he robbed God of his precious treasure. God could have just said, okay, I'm done with it. God could have started over, but God had a different plan. Rather than letting Satan have the win, rather than losing us to eternal death? He sent his son to pay the price to buy us back.

You see, Satan doesn't have to follow the rules. At least he doesn't think so. One day he will regret that. But God does have to play by the rules because they're his rules and he's holy and sin must be punished. The only way to redeem us, to buy us back, to pay the price, to pay our sin debt in full was the death of his son.

So Christ paid our debt on the cross by the sacrifice of himself so that he could pay our ransom, free us from the tyranny of sin and Satan. Your sin debt has been paid and thus forgiven in Christ so that it can no longer be held over your head in light of eternal judgment. Oftentimes when we think of forgiveness, we say, well, somebody wronged me and I say what? I forgive you. But what does that mean?

The word forgive is actually most often used in regards to a debt. You owe somebody a debt and you can't pay the debt. And the debt is what? Forgiven. And if the debt be forgiven, that means that debt can no longer be held over your head because it is what?

It is forgiven. And in Christ Jesus, God has forgiven our sin debt. It cannot be, will not be held over our head any longer because it was held over his head on the cross. And he paid my debt that I couldn't pay. I wasn't righteous.

I had nothing wherewith to pay. No merit have I, whereby his grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary's lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.

I have been redeemed. Redeemed how I love to proclaim it. Redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Redeemed by his infinite mercy, his child and forever. I am.

Why? Because he bought me back. I now belong to him. First Corinthians six twenty reminds us of this. It says, for ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

We now belong to him. Titus two thirteen and fourteen links some very wonderful things to that. Looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our savior Jesus Christ who gave himself that he might what? Redeem us, buy us back from Satan and sin and the lake of fire. To redeem us from all iniquity, all of our failings, all of our sins, and all of our rebellious ways to redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, precious, unique people, zealous of good works.

Titus starts out looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of great God and our savior Jesus Christ. You belong to God. One day, God's gonna come and what? He's gonna take that which belongs to him. He's gonna take you to where?

He's gonna take you to heaven, to that inheritance that's awaiting you because you are now a child of who? A child of the king. You who have been justified in the name of Jesus Christ. You whose sin debt has been what? Forgiven.

You whose record has been wiped clean. You upon whose record is written pardoned, forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. These are just a few of the blessings and benefits of being a child of God. We're not finished yet. We've got another big one to hit next Sunday morning, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Let's not forget that benefit and many more. But I have a question as I conclude today. Have you yet to receive your gift? Have you received your gift? The gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, the gift of salvation, the gift of redemption, the gift of justification, the gift of the grace of God, the gift of adoption into the family of God, an inheritance that is awaiting you?

Have you yet to receive your gift? Well, I'm here to tell you today, it is being offered to you. This very day, have you received it by faith? Have you received him? If you have, then we've just hit the tip of the iceberg this morning of all that is yours, the benefits of salvation.

If not, today it can all be yours if you will accept him as savior and Lord. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you Lord for Jesus Christ, our savior, for the grace of God that is brought to us. Benefits beyond imagination. Redemption, justification, forgiveness, sanctification, forgiveness, mercy, and inheritance that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us.

Lord, we thank you for that inheritance that awaits us. We thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ, our savior. And we pray, Lord, if there be one here today who is yet to receive the Lord Jesus, that today would be their day of salvation, that they would come as we sing this of invitation today, that they would, by faith, would say in their heart, I have decided to follow Jesus and to receive him and his offer. In Jesus' name, do pray. Amen.

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