James MacDonald - My God is For Me
Summary:
Using the analogy of abandoned grocery carts, the preacher vividly illustrates that God doesn’t just select believers but fully «checks out"—predestining, adopting, redeeming, and forgiving them completely through Christ’s blood, based on Ephesians 1. He contrasts the pre-salvation state of spiritual deadness and enmity with God to the glorious post-salvation reality as chosen children of God. The ultimate purpose is to showcase and praise God’s glorious grace, reminding believers of the full extent of forgiveness—as far as east from west, sunk in the deepest sea, and remembered no more.
The Grocery Cart Analogy
Have you ever had this experience? I’ve told you before that I’m not allowed to grocery shop. I haven’t been grocery shopping seriously probably in 25 years, but I have occasionally been allowed to stand in the store if I don’t touch anything. Any success that I have with my battle with weight control is due to the fact that my wife is constantly helping me. So, when I’ve been in the grocery store, have you seen this? I haven’t been there enough to have this sorted out. I’ve seen it at Target too.
Have you seen how people sometimes will fill a whole cart, and then I look at this and I’m like, how does this happen? Who would take the time to fill a whole cart and then leave it there? It’s not that fun to me. Have you done this? Have you gone to the store and thought, «This is everything I want; let’s go home»? This is not explainable to me, and this happens so often. How many people have actually seen that at the store? Have you seen a full cart? Like, where did she go, right?
So, I said all that as the picture that came to mind when I knew what I wanted to communicate to you, which was this: God didn’t just choose you; He checked out. He brought you home; He made you His own. He took you into a family. You are a card-carrying member of the family of God. He didn’t just choose you off the shelf and then leave you sitting there. He checked out! Someone lift up your voice and say, «He checked out!» He took me with Him. I got in the car; we went home. I’m in the family now.
Adoption into God’s Family
And that’s the idea here of adoption, again from God’s Word: He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. I’m thankful for my parents, but I confess sometimes to thinking that the feeling of adoption—some of you are adopted—must be special in its own way to feel like they really, really wanted a child and they chose me. There’s just something beautiful about that, and the Bible gives us that picture describing our salvation.
Now, not all people are God’s children; do you understand that? There are people here today who are not God’s children. John 1:12 says, «As many as received Jesus, to those He gave the authority to be called children of God.» Not everyone in the world is God’s child; that is a worthless sentiment. We’re born estranged from God, actually before faith in Christ, before conversion, before salvation.
If you’re still BC—before Christ—before conversion, we were living in an orphanage, members of the family of darkness. Our wicked, cruel foster parent was Satan himself, who was hell-bent on our misery. Our situation was hopeless.
Our Condition Before Christ
I don’t have to leave Ephesians to show you that. Just look at the beginning of chapter two. You always sit in the front row. I love that about you. «And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.» This is BC. Let this into your heart: you were dead. What resources are at the disposal of a dead person? What can we do to fix ourselves?
This is the Holy Spirit’s description of the condition: you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course, which means the pattern, of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—every day—among whom we all once lived. Don’t ever forget that we were all in that, the passion of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.
We were by nature children of wrath, not children of God. Everyone’s not a child of God. BC—before Christ—we were children of wrath, which means our future inheritance was the holy wrath of God for our sin. We were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
But God!
The next two words are pretty awesome; they should be circled in your Bible. Come on, give me the next two words! So let me just give this to you; keep that part ready. So, you were dead, you were lost, you were falling, you were headed for wrath. What changed? Say it! That’s all I’ve been threatening for over a decade—to preach a sermon on the greatest «buts» in the Bible, and that is one of them right there.
I know it’s funny, but it actually would be a pretty good series. Just think about Joseph with his brothers: «You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.» It’s everywhere in the Bible! I’m going to do it; I’m tired of threatening. That’s coming! I’m not even kidding. And I probably won’t call it that.
So here it is, loved ones: «But God, being rich in mercy”—say amen! Amen! —“why?» Because I was awesome? No, because of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. «By grace you’ve been saved.» Raised us up with Him, seated us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
«For by grace you’ve been saved through faith. It’s not of your own doing; it’s the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.»
Chosen and Adopted for His Glory
So, He has chosen you; He has adopted you. I’ve always loved 1 John 3:1—a personal treasure to me: «Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God.» And that word «predestined» means to mark out beforehand, to design. God not only adopted you; He chose how it would happen.
Did a friend tell you, did you watch a program, or hear a preacher, or read a book, or meet a stranger? Were you searching on your own? That searching was placed there by God Himself. Was your world collapsing? Was your heart breaking? Did you see how badly you needed a Savior? He came to you at your worst, and He gave you His best, and He adopted you. He declares you sons and daughters of the King forever.
And why did He do this? Look at verse six: «According to the purpose of His will.» You could write in the margin there—He’s not telling the big reason, but we do get a little glimpse at His reason. According to the purpose of His will: here it is, verse six, «To the praise of His glorious grace.» That’s why! To the praise of His glorious grace!
So, Christian, listen: the next time you’re sitting in church, and you’re like, «Here goes the preacher again, ” he’s going off on how it’s all about the grace, about how I don’t deserve it, didn’t earn it—why is he always pounding me about how there’s nothing in me? Here’s why. Because God doesn’t want us to ever forget that there’s nothing good down the „I’m awesome“ road. The only thing that was driving God in choosing and adopting was to the praise of His—not just His grace—to the praise of His glorious grace!
A Song for His Glorious Grace
Now I have a little prophecy to give in church this morning. I would like to predict that there will be a Vertical Church band song with the phrase „To the praise of His glorious grace“ in it. I’m just going to go out there and say that there isn’t one now, but I have some influence there, and I love to hear songs that allow us to sing things we haven’t said to God before.
Now I’m going to tell you: I’ve been to a lot of church services; I’ve never sung „To praise His glorious grace!“ God wants us to praise Him for His grace, and in the preaching of the grace by which we are saved, and in the singing of the grace by which we are saved, His purpose in choosing and adopting is being advanced. How many people want to sing a song about that? Come on, get behind me on this!
Alright, so I’m leading on this, and we’ve got so many gifted songwriters. Somebody came up to me last night; she wrote out two verses while I was preaching. I said, „I’ll take that!“ You’ll never hear from us again, but I’ll take that! No, I wrote her name down; I’m going to give it to Andy. Maybe you’ve got a verse for me. There’s going to be a song, and we’ll be singing it sometime in the future here. We’ll be doing what Ephesians 1 is telling us to do.
Redemption Through His Blood
We’re in times of refreshing right now, and today we’re going back. Last week we talked about a big God and getting God big again from Isaiah 40. Now we’re refreshing our souls by going back to some substantive doctrinal underpinnings of our faith. Now some people say, „Well, I don’t want to hear a lot of doctrinal preaching.“ Well, look, if the preacher you’re listening to is making doctrine boring, get a new preacher! This is fantastic stuff, am I right?
These are things that, when we’re having a bad day, get us outside of the moment and say, „Well, that’s not awesome at all, but God is for me, and it’s not going to end like this, and I’m chosen, and I’m adopted, and this is really great too.“ He has chosen me! He has adopted me! He has forgiven me! The choosing and adopting could have never happened if the immediate part of that wasn’t—look at verse seven: „In Him, we have redemption.“ That’s a big word right there. That’s another big gospel word! Do you have it? Do you know what redemption is?
The original term was the idea of paying a ransom in order to release from bondage or slavery. So now, hear it again for the first time: you owed a debt you couldn’t pay. You were in prison, door locked, eternal sentence, key thrown! What would you do? „I’m in this cell, this filthy, putrid cell, door locked, never see anyone, can’t get out.“ No, look at it—no lawyer, no court date, no phone call—you have nothing! Nothing is what you have!
And He redeemed you! He paid the price of your release! The penalty, the punishment for your crimes before a holy God were placed upon Christ. In paying the penalty for your sin, you were redeemed. Final word on the cross in the Greek: „tetelestai, ” one word! „Tetelestai, ” it’s an accounting word; it’s what would be written across a bill of sale when the final payment was made. It literally means „paid in full.“
When Jesus hung His head on the cross in regard to your sin and mine, He said, „Paid in full, ” and He died. That’s the gospel! And not just your past sin, but the thing you did this week or this month that you’re ashamed of, and the ways you’ll still fail yet in the future. While the cross broke forever the penalty of sin, we battle daily the power of sin, and someday the sky is going to burst open, and Christ is going to return and free us forever from the presence of sin.
But today, just remember God is for you! God is so for you! In Christ: chosen, adopted, redeemed! See it there: „In Him, we have redemption.“ Next phrase is important. „Through His”—next word—“blood.“
The Meaning of Blood and Forgiveness
Now I want to be really clear about this, English class for a moment. „Blood“ is a metonym; it’s a metonym. What it means is it is a literal thing standing for another thing. Some Christians are so worked up about the blood, the blood, the blood, the blood, that they still have Jesus on a cross. One famous evangelical says that the blood of Jesus Christ is still in heaven; it’s saved there—it’s as fresh as it ever was. What nonsense!
The hymn, „There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, ” and sinners plunged beneath the flood lose all their guilty stains—true, 100% true, but poetic. If you want to be technical, it is the death of Christ. He couldn’t just be up there and bleed; I know He couldn’t have been hung. The Bible says, „Without the shedding of blood, there is no payment for sin.“ That is the thing that pleased God—was the blood that represented the suffering that led to the death.
But just always think, when you see the blood, just think: death—the death of Christ as evidenced by His blood. And I wouldn’t retreat from the blood. I don’t sit, as some pastors do in church, when we’re singing „Nothing But the Blood“; I don’t think, „Oh, you know, we shouldn’t say that.“ We should say it; it’s in the Bible everywhere. But just understand that it’s a metonym for His death.
I could give many scriptures for this: „The wages of sin is death.“ See, He had to die. But the gift of God is eternal life—a death for a life. And I love 1 Peter 3:18 that says, „Christ also suffered once for us, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.“ And all of that to get to „the forgiveness of our trespasses.“ The forgiveness of our trespasses.
The Extent of Forgiveness
So, talk to me for a moment about the extent of forgiveness. If I fell over here and they carried me out, who could jump up and take the messenger’s place and talk about the extent of forgiveness? Every devoted follower of Jesus should have at the tip of their tongue two or three verses on „How forgiven are we talking here?“ Do you have some? Do you have some? What do you got? What do you got? You got something? And I got to have the reference too! Don’t just be spouting scriptures to me; I got to know where the verse lives! Alright? And don’t just get me like to the right neighborhood; I got to be at the street, at the house! Because I don’t just want to hear you saying stuff; I want you to show me there on your phone. I’m growing; I want you to show me in the Bible where the verse lives!
So, I don’t say this very often, but I want you to do this. I want you to kind of find one of those blank white pages in your Bible, front or back. Don’t put this in your notes because I want you to have this to share with somebody else. I want you to write this little heading: „The extent of forgiveness.“ „The extent of forgiveness.“ And I’m going to give you three scripture references, and you’re going to use them! You’re going to be talking to someone who’s like, „Well, God could never forgive me for that, ” and you’ll be like, „Well, hang on for a second here. Let me just help you with that.“
So, here they are: so many could be given, but these are classics. Psalm 103:12: „He has removed our sin as far”—think of it—as far as the east is from the west. I just traveled around the world, and the east is a long way from the west—a long, long way. And God has put our sin as far away from us as it can possibly go. Again, these are pictures, right? As far as the east is from the west—Psalm 103:12, the extent of forgiveness.
Here’s another one: Micah 7:18 and especially 19: „He has placed your sins in the depth of the deepest sea.“ So let’s do ocean—deepest ocean, deepest, deepest—those little capsules can’t even get their place. No one has been there; that’s where your sin is—“the extent of forgiveness.»
Now, some people like, «Well, you know, God could still go there and get it.» He’s trying to say how far it is from you, not how far it is from Him! God can’t forget! «Well, God forgets our sins.» No, He doesn’t! He does something way better than forgetting them. He doesn’t forget your sins! Can God forget everything? Show me how much can God forget? God can’t forget anything! «So, well, He forgot my sins.» No, He didn’t forget your sins; He did something way better than that. The Bible says that He remembers them no more.