Well, we are in a short series, and I really don't know how long it's gonna go. But it seems like the more I continue to study it, it gets a little longer. But there are actually 17 answers to the question, what is the gift? I gave you 2 last week, salvation and redemption, and just wanna mention again on salvation where it all begins. We're talking about deliverance, and I mentioned 3 Greek words last week that talk about this.

One is soteria, which is the word for salvation or deliverance, and it refers to being delivered from the power and the effects of sin. And then there's the second word, sozo, which also refers to salvation, but it also deals with both physical and physical healing, physical and spiritual healing. And we find that in Romans 109. And then the third word is soter, which means savior, and we know the lord Jesus Christ is our savior. He's the one who came to deliver us from our sin.

And then I asked a question. I said, what did Jesus save us from? Well, he saved us from sin, from separation, from Satan, from self. And not only that, he gives us himself, which is amazing. Says in Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. He lives in us. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father but through him. And we also looked at redemption.

In fact, I wanna have you to turn to Ephesians 17 this morning because that's where we're going to pick up as we talk about the 3rd answer to what is the gift. And keep in mind, as I answer these these question and I give you these 17 responses, they are, yes, can be looked at as benefits, but this is really how the scripture looks at salvation. It refers to it as itself, salvation or deliverance. It refers to it as redemption. We have been bought from the marketplace.

We've been bought by Jesus Christ. And the third one, which is the one we're gonna start with this morning, is the forgiveness of sin. Now I had you to look at Ephesians 1 7 because he mentions redemption, but he also mentions the forgiveness of our trespasses. It says, in him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us. It's because of his grace that we have forgiveness.

It's because of his love that we have forgiveness. Right? He is the author of salvation. He is the answer to the problem that we looked at last week in Genesis chapter 3. He is the answer to the problem that we looked at last week in Genesis chapter 3.

The very moment that Adam and Eve sinned, God had already provided a savior. In fact, Peter talks about Jesus going to the cross, least in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. The actual carrying out of it, of course, was a specific time in history when he came. And about age of 33, he went to the cross, and he literally bore in his body our sins. And even Hebrews talks about God had prepared a body for him.

And so as you read the New Testament, that's exactly what you see. But the forgiveness of sin, I mean, just take a moment and think about that. Meditate on that for a second. That is one of the greatest joys that we have because what is it that has separated us from God? It is our sin.

Right? But to have forgiveness, brother then. He was a friend, but he started coming back around after disappearing for a little while. And when he came back around, he started talking about Jesus to us. And that was something he had never done.

In fact, we all partied together, and that's what we did. And, in fact, I'll just I don't even know if I've ever told you this part of the story. He was in sin when he came by that day. How do I know that? Well, when he walked in the door, up under his arm was a 12 pack of beer.

And I don't know if he was kind of being defeated because he had been sharing Christ, you know, with some of his friends, and nobody's listening. I know that feeling. And, I don't know if he was thinking, well, if I can't win, maybe I'll join him. I don't know if he ever drank anything like that night because I know the moment he sat down, he went right into the gospel. We had already been drinking.

And I remember a buddy of mine walking back in the bedroom and coming out a few minutes later and giving me the impression that he had prayed and asked Christ into his life. And he came out and he said, Steve, I'm I'm quitting the band. And, you know, I had a band then. And we were playing nightclubs and all that kind of stuff. And I was very skeptical of his response because he had quit the band a couple of times, and I let him go a couple of times.

So but, you know, a little statement my mom said years ago to my neighbor, time will tell. And that is so true. Time does tell, doesn't it? Whether you continue. Jesus said, if you continue my word, then you are truly my disciples indeed.

So continuing is part of it. Well, his question that he asked me. He said, Steve, have you been forgiven of all your sin? That's really a profound question. You think about it.

And then, of course, he preached Christ to me and everybody else that was in the room. And then he came around personally to my house and did the same thing, and he came right before band practice. We had a little studio behind my parents' house. It's still there. It's about to fall down.

But, it's still there. And he came around, and we'd already started partying before he got there. And because that's what we did. You know? You have to understand something about this.

I got drunk or high every day. Every day, that's what I live for. And if I didn't have it, I found a way to get it. But that was what I did. And the gospel is so powerful to break through all of that.

I know it couple times in my life that I wanted to give up all of that. I wanted to get off of it. It seemed like when I would lay a little lightly on one, I'd go heavy on something else. You have to understand, I wasn't smoking just pot. I was doing cocaine, LSD.

I was doing all kinds of stuff. I did everything but shoot at my arm. I was afraid of that. Like needles anyway, still don't. But but he asked that question and he kept coming around, and I remember he started talking to me.

And I went over there and poured my beer out and, you know, party pooper kinda thing. But he kept sharing, and he kept coming around. See, don't give up on people. Just because they don't respond the first time, maybe it's gonna be the second, 3rd, 4th, or 5th time when god opens their heart. And I was back over where it all began.

It was a place I ended up living at for a little while, and he came back around again. And I ended up walking in the back room like my friend had done, and I prayed And I just asked the Lord, would you forgive me of my sin? I put my trust in in Jesus, and Jesus alone for my salvation. Listen, I didn't see any fireworks after that, but I'll tell you what. One thing I did recognize that happened at that moment, my desires immediately changed.

Immediately, it was the most amazing thing. And I felt like a whole new environment had just opened up, and it did. Now I could respond because God had opened my eyes. He opened my heart just like Lydia when Paul went down there in Philippi, and they went down to the river, and they ladies were gathered there at the river. And it says in the text that Paul, as he preached, God opened up I I just to see the look on their face.

Because the look on their face was, we'll see. And I understand. I mean, I wasn't the worst of all of us of kids. My my older brother had already put my mom and dad through a lot. But, I just did mine secretly.

I did run away from home one time. That was because my dad had bombed the party I had and embarrassed me in front of everybody and told me I was gonna have to move back in. And I walked back into what was my bedroom. I went in the door, locked it. I opened the window and went right right out of it right then, and I took off.

That night, I was supposed to go to the fair, and I wanted to go to the fair. Ain't this crazy? I can remember some of this stuff. But I ended up because I was drunk. I slept it off in a camper at somebody's house, and I didn't go to the fair.

If we did, I don't somebody's house, and I didn't go to the fair. If we did, I don't remember. But like I said, you know, when the Lord did the work of regeneration in my heart, I no longer had a desire for all that stuff anymore, and I now had the power to say no to desire for all that stuff anymore. And I now had the power to say no to it, and not to give back into it. And like I said, it's been 41 years, and I praise him for that.

And so when I hear the words forgiveness, that's what I think. Because that's was my life. That was where I was at when I was confronted with the gospel those several times, and I'm thankful that he did, and god used him to do that because, you know, I didn't look like this. My hair was down here and out here because I, you know, my hair weighed. I had earring hanging out my ear and, you know, just had a I just looked like a mess, to be honest with you.

I was clean-cut mess, but I looked like a mess. And I just didn't think that really anybody cared to approach me on a subject like that. Now, listen, my I looked bad. My bark wasn't anything like I looked. You know, I would listen to anybody share with me.

I might have had a filthy mouth, which I did, which came from my filthy heart. But I did have enough respect to listen to you if you were talking to me, especially on this subject. The only church life that I remember was here back in the seventies. That was my church life coming here. And I remember even coming to Vacation Bible School and then leaving here and going home and going over to the neighbor's house and getting drunk right after leaving here.

I had no connection. I didn't understand where the connection was. But when God saved me, I knew the connection immediately. And I knew that what repentance was calling for. I knew that in order to come to Christ, I had to give up my life.

I had to give up my dreams, my desires. I had to give up all those sinful things that I was doing and I was living, and I had to be willing to lay it down. And I felt like that was a series of events that happened after that that demonstrated that the band broke up shortly after that. Actually, it broke up before that. That's right.

It broke up before that. And so things begin to kind of crumble around used to have the desire that I wanted to, you know, I wanted to be known pretty important people. I had met some pretty important people. I had met some people. I had met some people.

I had met to go. I had met some pretty important people. I'd already been experienced with doing some recording. We had recorded an album and things like that. And but God took even that desire away.

And even today, when I look over it, even if it became a Christian thing, because, you know, I look over it, even if it became a Christian thing, because, you know, they're Christian artists, and I have no desire for that. Because I don't I don't wanna be somebody like that anymore. You know what I mean? All I wanna do is be faithful to God's word, live it, be an example of it, and teach it. And doesn't matter how many people I get to teach it to.

Lord's in control of all that as well. John MacArthur said one time, if you take care of the depth of your ministry, God will take care of the breadth of it. That made a lot of sense. So the apostle Paul, writing to the Ephesians, tells the Ephesians out of all the spiritual blessings that are found right there in the first part of chapter 1. If you'll notice verse 3, he says, blessed be the god and father of our lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

And then he goes into what those heavenly blessings, those spiritual blessings are. Verse 4, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Verse 5, he predestined us to adoption as sons. Verse 7, we have redemption, trespasses. It's not just one thing he's bestowed on us.

He's lavished all of this on us. And the list just keeps going on. Verse 9, he's made known to us the mystery of his will. He's also he says in verse 11, we have an inheritance. He talks about in verse 13, we've been sealed with the Holy Spirit of God.

All of these are spiritual blessings that had been granted to every child of God. And even as you read through the book of Ephesians, you'll hear this phrase, in him. And what that means is that we are in Christ. When God looks at us, he sees Christ. And so to hear a phrase like this about being forgiven, having the forgiveness of our trespasses.

That's huge. Because that's what we all have longed for, is to be forgiven and to have a right relationship with the creator. Well, that's only gonna happen through Jesus. It's not gonna happen any other way. Listen to some of the other passages that talk about this.

Colossians 1 13, for he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Verse 14 connects with the last phrase there in verse 13. His beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We have this forgiveness and redemption in Jesus, and we've been transferred out of the domain of darkness in into the kingdom of his son, the kingdom of light. Then we have over in the book of Acts, Acts 3 19, we hear the apostles say this in verse 19, repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

You know what? We need to be re reminded of the fact that our sins have been wiped away so that we can rejoice in the salvation God's given to us and not wallow in our past sins, you know, know, or even our present sins. He's wiped them away. They've been wiped away. And times of refreshing have come.

Over in Romans 4 verse 7 and 8, it says, blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the lord will not take into account, I mean, that right there just shows you they're wiped away. He's not gonna hold you accountable for them. Your lawless deeds, my lawless deeds have been forgiven. In Hebrews 8 and verse 12, it says, for I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

This sounds like a good verse to memorize. Right? All of them are, by the way. But just when you're struggling in your sin and and you pull this verse up, I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. We're the ones that remember them.

Right? We can't get them out of our mind half the time. He says, I'll remember him no more. And flipping over to Hebrews 922, it says, and according to the law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is what? No forgiveness.

So again, it circles back around to Jesus and the sacrifice that he made on the cross. He truly delivered us from our sins. He's given us redemption. He's bought us. We are his.

We've been bought with a price, and we've been forgiven. Now I don't know if I really need to say all this, but I will. But the word forgiveness, it literally means to release. It's even applied to when you have a grudge against someone. Someone's offended you and you're holding that offense.

But, you know, the moment that you let that go and you forgive them, you're releasing them of that offense. And you're releasing them from having to do anything to win your favor again, you're letting it go. You're pardoning it. This conveys the idea of letting go, a obligation. You're letting it go.

You're dismissing it. You're canceling that debt. And in the context of God's forgiveness, the word is used to describe the cancellation of the guilt and the penalty through the redemptive work of Jesus. Again, because of what Jesus did, he cancels out the guilt. He cancels out the penalty.

Romans 8 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because it's been canceled out by Christ. This term also emphasizes the completeness of the forgiveness as the sin is metaphorically sent away or no longer held against the sinner. You remember Psalm 32?

You remember David? I think Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 go together, and David confessing his sin of adultery and murder and so forth, Bathsheba and her husband. And it says this, how blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. God doesn't impute our sin to us.

He takes it away. He wipes it away. He forgives it. He remembers it no more. And on top of that, what he imputes to us is righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus.

So this forgiveness then, this term forgiveness is a legal dismissal of sins penalty because of Christ's atoning sacrifice. And sin, viewed as a violation of God's law, is forgiven because Christ bore the punishment on our behalf. He stood in our place. He took in his own body what we were to get, what we deserve. And so, therefore, like I've said, even last week that if you never put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ, you die, you go to hell, you spend all eternity in hell.

There's no release or escape from there because you never did trust in the perfect atoning sacrifice of Christ, who would have wiped away your sins, who bore the penalty, who stood in your place for you. Instead, now you have to stand there and bear the punishment of your sin. This is a gift. This is a gift of grace. It's not earned by human effort, but it's granted through faith in the finished work of the lord Jesus Christ.

Says in Romans 323 and 24, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed. Praise the Lord. Right? Praise the Lord that every time we take over the Lord's supper, we hear the Lord Jesus himself and what he said in Matthew 26 28, for this is my blood of the covenant, which has been poured out for many for forgiveness of sin.

Or we even hear Christ words to his disciples. When he says, thus it is written, this is in Luke 2446, thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the 3rd day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. The only way you're gonna get repentant or rather get forgiveness is to repent. Same is true of all these things. And so, Acts 1338, let it be known to you, brethren, that through him, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

And through him, everyone who believes is freed from all things from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses. You know, you could stop right there, go home and just live off of those truths to know that this is what Jesus has done on your behalf. He has forgiven you of all your sin, all of it, past, present, and future. All of sin was future, by the way, because Jesus' death on the cross was in our past. We weren't even here when that happened.

Nor were were we here when Adam sinned. Right? But his sin would be passed on to every person coming from the loins of Adam, and that's everyone, and it would be passed on. So is a gift. Redemption is a gift.

The forgiveness of sin is a gift. Let me give you another gift, eternal life, eternal life. Let me have you to turn to John 3, and I wanna show you something that's really unique in John chapter 3. You wouldn't see any of this unless you had a way to see this by looking at the Greek text. And by the way, you don't have to know Greek to even do that.

There are so many helps that will help you by allowing to look up things in English, then it will give you the Greek. But let me just show you some things that are here that are pretty unique. We all know verse 16. For god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. And even Romans 623, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our lord.

But going back to John 3, I want you to see something. The word believe is used there in verse 16, it's used again in verse 18, 3 times. The 4 well, actually, it's used in verse 15 too. So you also have 5 uses of this word in verses 15 to 18. They all occur in the present tense.

You know what that means? Present tense is an ongoing action. Let me read it back to you the way it would read in ongoing action. Let me read it back to you the way it would read in Greek. Starting at verse 15, so that whoever continues to believe will in him have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever continues to believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For god did not send the son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who continues to believe judged already because he has not continued to believe in the name of the only begotten son of god. Continuing to believe, how many times you met somebody and they say, well, I believe, but then you look at their life and it doesn't somebody and they say, well, I believe, but then you look at their life and it doesn't match the profession. It shows that they have not continued to believe.

And what are we talking about believing anyway? What does that mean? Is that just knowing some facts and saying, you know, I believe these facts? Go to chapter 2 of John, and let me show you where that word occurs again, but it's translated a different term. It's verse 24, John 224.

But let me read verse 23. Now when he was in Jerusalem, that is Jesus, at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, observing his signs which he was doing. But Jesus on his part was not, what, entrusting himself or committing himself to them, for he knew all men. And because he did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man. And chapter 3 begins, now there was a man.

The word believe, pistis, the word is translated believe, but it's also translated in trust or commit. That really gives you an understanding there. They were believing, but what were they believing for? They were believing because of the signs. That's what they were attracting being attracted by, the signs that Jesus was doing.

And that was the only commitment they had to him, was the signs. Do some more signs for us. But he wasn't entrusting himself to them because he knew all men. He knew what their hearts were like. He knew that they really didn't believe in him.

They just believe because of the signs. They didn't believe because of who he was. But what's it say here? Going to verse 16, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. That's zoe, if I'm even saying that right.

Zoe refers to life, not just sure how to pronounce that. It is full of vowels and some diphthongs, so it's not helping me. But it refers to something eternal, something everlasting, something beyond the limits of time. And you put these two together, they signify life that is both everlasting, spiritually rich, rooted in fellowship with God. This eternal life is a gift.

See, see, when we're talking about the gift, it's it's all of these things. And, yeah, we can say it's a benefit because what's the benefit? We get eternal life, but it is describing the gift. That's a gift. And Jesus is the source of eternal life.

You can jot this down next to it, John 11:25. Jesus said to when he was speaking to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

And, of course, he's talking about the second death. We know that we're gonna die physically unless the rapture occurs and we're living when Jesus returns. We won't die. We'll be like Enoch that walked with God and the next minute he was not. Or Elijah, the chariots of fire.

But everybody else died. And if you're unsure of that, go to Genesis 5. There's the cemetery chapter. Everybody died. Jesus is that source, so you gotta come to Jesus to get this life.

And the Holy Spirit enables all believers to live the eternal life that God promises. It's not just future and long duration of life, but it's also a different quality salvation, that was a particular type or quality of life that I lived, saying you have your background in the type and quality of life you live. But when God saved you, you now have a totally different quality of life. Right? It's unlike you, you now have a totally different quality of life.

Right? It's unlike the previous. Nothing about it is the same. But we are now empowered to grow in holiness. We're empowered to experience God's presence.

Romans 8 10, if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. Our spirits have been made alive to him. I mean, prior to being made alive, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were spiritually dead, unable to respond to anything spiritual other than the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience. Satan could respond to that, your nature was in line with him.

But we experience eternal life now through the relationship that we have with god, and it's marked by his peace and joy. It's marked by a spiritual transformation. We have life abundant, life to the full, and this fullness of eternal life is or will be realized in the resurrection where believers will enjoy an unbroken fellowship with God in his kingdom. First John 2 25, this is the promise which he himself made to us, eternal life. So eternal life is the gracious gift of unending transformed life with God secured through faith in Jesus.

It begins now or it's begun when God regenerated us. And we experienced a restored relationship and it will culminate in a future resurrection where we will dwell with him forever. Makes you ready now, doesn't it? Makes you wanna go right now. So think about that.

What is the gift? Salvation, redemption, the forgiveness of sin, eternal life. Let me give you one more, peace with God. Boy, that's something that we didn't have prior to salvation. Right?

We were enemies. We were reading last night as a family in James chapter 4, and I kept asking them after we finished reading it, who is he talking to in James 4? Is he talking to believers or is he talking to unbelievers? And by a process of deduction and identifying certain terms, we could certainly say that he was talking to unbelievers because he called them enemies of God. Believers are not enemies of God.

You're no longer an enemy. You're now a friend. You're now a child. He doesn't call us that anymore. In fact, in the text, James tells his readers to submit to God and tells them to cleanse their hands, you sinners.

So he's talking about them needing that spiritual cleansing, which they hadn't had, whereas believers had already received that spiritual cleansing. Over in Romans 5 in verse 1, it says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have attained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exalt in hope of the glory of God. We have peace with God. This is a state of reconciliation. It's a state of harmony that we have with God, that god has with those he has saved.

And it's only, again, made possible the same is true of all of these answers, only made possible through faith in Jesus. This peace is not merely an absence of conflict, but it's a absence of conflict, but it's a deep spiritual guided grounded reality in our justified relationship with God. Now this peace means three things. 1, it it means reconciliation with God. We get that through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.

We're no longer under God's wrath. We're reconciled. We have moved from a state of hostility to a state of peace. It says in Romans 5:10, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. So the first component is reconciliation with God.

The second is freedom from guilt and condemnation. It it removes it. It removes the penalty. See, if you have peace, you don't have a penalty against you now. If if you have peace, you don't have the guilt anymore.

The peace assures that we are no longer condemned. And a third component is assurance of God's favor. When we have this peace with God, it means we live in that assurance of his love. We live in that assurance of his favor, which is, again, secured by Christ's work on the cross. It's not based upon any human effort, it's based upon God's grace.

Well, we have so much to be thankful for, don't we? So much to praise him for it. You know, all the problems that we have in this life and all the things we deal with with our own flesh, it pales in comparison to what Jesus has done for us and what he's granted to us, and see why we need to draw on this. Because, you know, we could get all caught up in our own sin, sinful flesh. We can get caught up in what's going on in the world, and we cannot have joy.

But if you go back and focus in on the fact that god has given you salvation in Christ, redemption in Christ, the forgiveness of sin in Christ, eternal life in Christ, peace with god because of Christ, you have an unending joy. Listen, that's what you should focus on, not your circumstances, but focus on those things. Focus on the gospel. Focus on salvation, and praise the lord for what he's done. We have a reconciled relationship with God that's been achieved by the act of justification by faith in Jesus as a foundational piece that assures us that we have this right standing with him, freeing us from fear and guilt and condemnation and opening the way to a life of hope and joy in his presence.

Praise the Lord. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord for that. I realized that not everyone who attends church or even everyone who watches a church service, even right now, are saved.

And so just as we always offer, as we close out the message, is an opportunity pray, you examine your own heart. And the same for those that are watching, you examine your heart. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for what you have given to us. We don't deserve any of this, none of it. What we deserve is death and hell and judgment and wrath.

We don't deserve favor. We don't deserve your love. We don't deserve your grace, your mercy. We don't deserve salvation or redemption or the forgiveness of sin. We don't deserve eternal life or peace with you but you have granted it in Jesus, and thank you so much for that.

And we just give you worship and praise because of it. We thank you for all these truths today we've looked at. We pray all this in your precious name. Amen.