Glenn Parker is a former NFL offensive lineman who had his best years playing for the Buffalo Bills in those years early in mid-90s. And Parker one time was asked by a sports writer, he was asked as to why NFL linemen are generally cheerful. And here is his reply. There are not a lot of well-paying jobs out there for 300-pounders. We found one, and we're happy about it. Our sermon series is called Living in the Presence of God, and it's been motivated by the question that's at the top of your sermon outline. The question is, why aren't Christians enjoying themselves to a greater degree? Why aren't we enjoying ourselves in what the Bible describes as the greatest possible relationship? being in the presence of God. So far, what we've discovered, we've seen that the main obstacle has been an improper introduction into this new relationship the believer has with God the Father through Jesus Christ. It's not that we haven't gotten in, we have. We've trusted Christ, but knowing what to do and knowing how to do this relationship, it's kind of like, oh, let me ask you this. I just thought of this one. Any of you ever gone on a blind date? Any of you dated? Okay, just checking. Yeah, you know that blind date, you're not sure what you're gonna get. Sometimes it's the same way we come in, what are we getting with this Jesus? What are we getting with this God? See the image the Bible presents is that of a child being adopted into a new family. Now this new family runs on a whole different set of values. We're excited about being in this new family, but we realize we still have the habits of our old family. We're still habituated to the ways we used to do things. It's clinging to us. And our challenge is to embrace all that's involved in being part of this new family. This means we have to be involved in the same atmosphere that's already been established. There's been an atmosphere established between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We're invited into that. Now, according to the New Testament, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are involved in our acceptance into this new family. And this acceptance, I wrote this out for you in your outline, the acceptance, that circle of love that exists between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit becomes the acceptance that is shared with us through believing the gospel. through believing that Jesus Christ has died and done about our sin, taken care of our sin on the cross, and we are no longer separated from God the Father. Each member of the Trinity is involved in this acceptance, giving confidence, and we become transformed people when we boldly enter into it. Now, sometimes people think, they hear the word boldly in the church, and they sometimes think of the idea of being impudent. But really what I'm saying here is we confidently enter into it. This is where I'm supposed to be. Our task is to join and participate in this relationship. And as we defined our relationship to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, we begin to understand the relationship of the persons of the Trinity, and we begin to understand our relationship to God. Now the central figure within the Trinity to whom we have to respond to is Jesus Christ. Why? Because it's through Him, through Christ, that we enter into the family of God. So our question this morning is, what do you and I need to know to embrace, to enter into about this coming into this new family. What truths will enable us to enjoy, even to a greater degree, our new family? Let me give you some here, okay? The first one is simply this. Redemption, entering into this family, is a family affair. Now think of the word redemption for a minute. Whenever I think of that word, here's the picture that comes to my mind. Go ahead and flip the slide. Some of you have no idea what that is. Google blue chip stamps or green stamps. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You would do some service. You go get gas and they give you blue chip stamps. And you take them and you paste them into your book. And when you got enough books, you took them to a redemption center. And there you were able to get something in exchange for these book of stamps. like your first guitar for 17 and a half blue chip stamp books, anyway. But the problem is that some people look at the death of Jesus kind of in the same manner. It's just a legal transaction. Well, we give God this and God gives us this and okay, we're done and we go on. But in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, redemption is personal and familial. It's personal and familial. Why did I say that? In the Hebrew scriptures, all through the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament, family members were obligated. It was their duty to rescue a family member who was in trouble, who had become impoverished, who had become enslaved. Look in your outlines at Leviticus 25, 47. God through Moses says, now, if the means of a stranger or of a sojourner, a non-Jew, would you become sufficient? Let me stop right there. Remember what's happening during this time. Moses is on the exodus. Israel is on the exodus. They're gonna come into a land and they're gonna literally be on the lowest economic rung of the ladder. They don't come in as these wonderful conquerors and all these rich people. They're going to come in on the low end. And so what has happened is they were among a people who already had their herds, already had their flocks, and sometimes things just didn't go well. It goes on to say, and a countryman of yours, a Jew, becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself to a stranger who is sojourning with you or to the descendants of a stranger's family. In other words, slavery in the Old Testament was not so much ethnic as it was economic. If I couldn't maintain, if I couldn't provide for my family, I would literally, I would indenture myself to somebody. Or I might have to pay off debts with that. And verse 48 says, then he shall have redemption right after he's been sold. Look what comes next. One of his brothers may redeem him, or his uncle, or his uncle's son may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem him himself. If he makes enough cash, he can do it. A person could only be redeemed by the closest family member. If he went broke, the family member paid the bills, delivered him from poverty. If he became enslaved, the closest family member brought them out of slavery. Not because of the debt, but because of love. He was family that he did this. And this whole system of family relationship, acting to rescue a relative, is called redemption. It's known as the kinsman-redeemer model of redemption. And it's used throughout the Old Testament by God to explain our salvation, to explain our redemption. I want you to imagine for a moment, imagine for a moment that you've been out of work for a long, long time. Your credit cards are charged up to the limit. You've taken out loans and they are coming due. And although you've been just hired at a new job, sadly, it's at the same pay rate that you've had before. And there's no realistic way that you can even pay off your debts. You can barely keep food on the table. I want you to think for a minute. How does that make you feel about yourself and your future? How do you feel about yourself? How do you feel about your future? Now, imagine that you have an uncle. This uncle really, really likes you. And to add on top of it, he happens to be a multimillionaire. Let's just make it personal. Let's call this uncle Bob Turner. And Bob comes out of the blue, pays off all your debts, and puts an additional $100,000 into your saving account. How has your perspective of yourself changed? How has your perspective of your future changed? See the idea there? Money or debt is not the motive for redemption. The motive for redemption in the Old Testament is love. In the heart of it all is family. And because we're family members, and because God loves and delights in us, he rescues us, he's willing to satisfy his sense of justice concerning our sins. Redemption, salvation, is a family affair. Now, here's a second idea is this, salvation is a person and not a system. Now, why do I say that? Look in your outlines or your Bible at 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. 1 Corinthians 1, 30. Paul, in the opening of this letter, says, but by his, God the Father's doing, you are in Christ Jesus. Jesus, who becomes to us, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Now, there are two major theological systems for understanding salvation. One is called Calvinism. It's named after that great reformer, John Calvin. The other system, theological system for understanding salvation is called Arminianism, named after Jacobus Arminius. And these two systems describe the extent to which God or human choice initiated salvation. They're just kind of our way of trying to understand what God has done. And along with some other issues, these systems state how the payment of Christ's death is applied and how it benefits Christians and those who are not yet Christians. Let me see if I can make this kind of a simple explanation here. Imagine that you have a continuum between these two systems. The two systems are at the opposite ends, okay? The more you see God as the originator, the author, the instigator of salvation, the more you move toward the Calvinism side the end of the spectrum. God's sovereignty, his choice is emphasized, and human choice, not human responsibility, human choice is less involved in the process. And if you move the other way, toward the Arminian side of the spectrum, the aspect of human choice or human decision to accept Christ increases. And the idea of God's sovereign choice or election decreases. Now, quite frankly, good Christians are along that spectrum all the way. And when somebody like me mentions this in church, there is something in the back of your head that always says, well, Pastor Pat, where do you land? And for a small fee, I will tell you. I tend not to describe myself and my understanding of the Bible with labels, because a lot of times they cause a lot more heat and smoke than really light. But as to the spectrum on the screen, I firmly land way on the far side of Calvinism, but with two important qualifications. First, I believe Calvinism rightly describes the condition of humanity before salvation. We've looked at some of the passages in this series, haven't we? Romans chapter three says what? No one is righteous. No, not one. No one's in a right standing before God. In addition, no one even seeks after God by themselves. There's no desire in and by themselves to go after God. In Romans five, Paul goes further and says, you know what? We were enemies. He uses a very strong word. He says, we were haters of God. It was God who made us spiritually alive through Christ. It was God the Father who chose and made us alive spiritually so we could respond to his generous offer made through the work of Jesus Christ. If you grew up in church, you heard this word, and you probably didn't understand it. It's the word quicken, okay? Now you probably thought it had to do with Nestle Quick or something like that. But it's an old English word that means to make alive. And the old divines used to say that as God who came and made us alive as was read this morning, we were spiritually dead. We couldn't respond. There was nothing to us to respond to. But here's the first qualification. I sincerely believe this, but on a human experiential level, it might not look like that at first glance. Okay? Rather than God choosing us, it looks like, please notice the finger quote, it looks like we choose Jesus. Now, why do I say that? Listen to some of our language. We talk about accepting Jesus into our life, right? Okay? By the way, can you find that word in the Bible? No. But we do have the word receive, right? John 1, 12. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on his name. And frankly, we have a sense that, yeah, there is choosing. One scholar, I really love what he says. He said, basically, when we look at the gates of heaven, from our standpoint, we see over the top of the gates of heaven, whosoever will may come. Scripture talks about that. But this same writer said, when we go in and turn around, we look at the backside of the gate, and it says, chosen from the beginning, from the foundations of the earth. You see, many people like to stay there with the idea that, well, I choose God. Now, why do they like to stay there? Well, simply because it gives you a feeling of power, doesn't it? We like choices, don't we? Right? That's why you watch Netflix. I know who you are. Right? We like, okay, you older people, back in the day, how many channels did you have? Yeah, three. In my household, it was once on the top, twice on the side to get channel four. Now we have all sorts of, we love choices. We like to determine our own destiny. But as you study more of what God has to say about this process, we find that we initiated nothing at all. It was God at work inside of us. And as we grow in this understanding of God's sovereign choice of us, our hearts and minds explode with thanksgiving. and gratitude. Why? It's like you and I were on a rocky promontory and this tsunami's coming. We're being washed out to sea by our sins and God grabs hold of us because we weren't gonna be saved either if he didn't do something. It's God who initiates, who sovereignly chooses us, who applies salvation to us. Now, yeah, it looks like we made a choice, but as we begin to explore more and more, we find out, oh, It's God who started this whole process in me. But there's a second more important qualification that I really want you to get this morning. It's this. Notice that Paul says it is a person who has made for us wisdom, righteousness, the process of sanctification, and family redemption. It's a person. We are delivered, we're kept safe by a person, not a system. God is saying that He is our closest relative. He's the only one who has the legitimate right to go and rescue us. God the Father saved us, not based on a principle or a transaction or a theological system, but based upon a person who is centrally located between us and Him. Who is between us and Him? Look in your Bibles, it's 1 Timothy 2.1, or there in your outline. Paul writes to Timothy and says, first of all then, I urge that in treaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men. For kings and all those who are in authority that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. I was talking to somebody before the service and we were kind of joking the fact that as the political winds have changed over our lifetimes, we've had to pray for different presidents, right? Presidents we really enjoyed and presidents we thought, why is this guy in office? And then we turn to this passage and Paul says, we need to pray for everybody. Who is he talking about? Nero. It was talking about probably one of the worst emperors in Roman history. But verse three, he goes on and says, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior. So Paul urges us to pray for everybody. But notice in verse three and four, Paul gives us the reason we should pray by describing God's desire. for every person. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved, everyone to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And then verses five through seven describes Jesus as the one who accomplishes this. He is the go-between. Verse five, he says, for there's one God and one mediator also between God and man. the man Christ Jesus, this one who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. Now, why does Paul emphasize the man? Because he's emphasizing the humanity of Jesus. Why is this necessary? Because mediators in this culture, mediators had to understand both parties. The word mediator actually means to lay hands upon. In other words, I would lay hands on this person, I would lay hands on this person, identify with both. I know both of what you're about, and I'm gonna mediate, I'm gonna help reconcile you. And Jesus, who himself is very God, lays hands on us because he understands our plight, he understands our humanity. So the great issue between God and man, as we noted last week, is no longer our sins, it's a person. Jesus Christ. You see, God asks, what are you going to do with my son? Why? Because he's taken care of my sin. Get that again. What are you going to do with my son? See, in Christianity, Western Christianity, we're sin managers. We're all worried about this sin and that sin. And the Bible tells us God has taken care of that. Quit hanging on to that stuff. What are you going to do with Jesus? He's asking. That's the point of God's plan of salvation. Jesus Christ has already paid the family ransom for our sins. And since he's taken care of our sin, our guilt and shame, the issue is how do we respond to him? Salvation is not through a system, it's through a person. And why do I say that? Now get this, because this is important. It's because you and I can fall in love with a person. We can't fall in love with a system. You and I can fall in love with a person. Systems do not make you feel worthwhile, but people do. Systems don't promise to come back and rescue you. Persons do. A person promises, says, I'm gonna come back, and you know what? I'm gonna get you safely home to heaven. I guarantee it. A system can't save you what Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28. Remember what he said there? Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. You're burdened by all the religious stuff put upon you, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me, be discipled by me, for I am gentle. The word means I can connect with you emotionally, and I'm humble in heart. You'll find rest for your souls. Acceptance is caught up in a person, and this person was given a great responsibility. Jesus is given a responsibility to deliver us from our past failures and sins to protect us in the present and to get us home in the future. And that goes to our next point is that salvation deals with all of our sins. As we look at this Trinity, this environment we're invited into, it takes care of all of our sins. We have two lines of Old Testament truth coming together to emphasize how personal this salvation that the New Testament talks about. We just discovered one line of truth, it's called the kinsman-redeemer concept, that emphasizes deliberance, comes through our closest relative. There's a second line of truth that, this line of truth underscores the reality that redemption is based upon faithfulness and the character of a person, and that's called the concept of the high priest. Remember in the Old Testament, the high priest was the one who was to represent God to the people and represent the people to God. And Jesus is called our high priest. Well, the question is, well, what does the high priest do for us? What does he do for us? Well, first of all, this high priest, Jesus, deals with our past sins. If you look at Romans chapter three, verse 23, you start with that one. It says, for every one of us have sinned and we're continually falling short of the glory of God. But we are continually being justified, declared righteous by God as a gift by His grace through this redemption, which is in Christ Jesus. Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation, a sacrifice that satisfies, a propitiation in His blood through faith. And this was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed. Well, what is Paul saying here? You and I are free from every trace of guilt over past wrongs because of what Jesus has done. He has taken care of it. And he's the only one who could accomplish this. And when the darkness of the past tries to haunt you through terrible reminders of other people, how about the accusations of the evil one? Man, you haven't measured up. Our own guilty thoughts and memories, we can literally smile and say, you know, God doesn't remember that anymore. I may have guilt feelings, but I have no guilt before God because Jesus has delivered me. If I have guilt feelings, that just tells me I need to go talk to the Father. Why? Jesus is taking care of that. He's dealt with my past sins. Also, this high priest deals with our present sins. John, in 1 John 2, 1, writing about this, says, my little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if we do, the idea is, oh, you're going to, if anyone commits sins, we are, literally, we continually have an advocate, a helper, in the personal presence of the Father. That little word with literally means in his presence. Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And he himself is the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins. And look at the next phrase, not for our sins alone, but also for those of the whole world. See, the biblical picture here assumes that you and I separate ourselves from God by our sin every day. We sin every day, right? Nod your head at me. If you're sitting next to a person who's not nodding their head, move. Okay? We do, we sin, we sin in word, we sin in thought, we sin in deed, we don't live up with, oh rats, I should have done this and I did this. But because according to 1 John 1, 9, Jesus is faithful and just, because he's consistent and righteous, because he always does it and it's the right thing to do. 1 John 1, 9 says we're protected every day by him. Our assurance, our insurance is a person and not a system. See, God knows that we are spiritually ignorant individuals who are continually getting ourselves lost and going astray, right? The husbands are going, I'm not saying anything. Yeah, we get lost, don't we? Both physically and spiritually, we get lost. That's why we're compared to sheep in scripture. And by the way, It's a positive comparison. We're compared to sheep getting lost, going astray. I love this line. I wish it was my line. Leif Anderson said it. He said, it's the nature of sheep to get lost, but it's the nature of shepherds to go and rescue them. See, if you don't continually realize that you get lost and go astray, you cannot qualify for being protected by a shepherd. Why? You're too smart. Oh, I'm not lost. I'm not lost. I have my Maserati. I have my condo up in the Sierras. I have this. I have that. Yeah, I'm not lost. Well, you're too smart then to have a shepherd. But Jesus is our shepherd, and he's looking for those people who are willing to admit that they're in need, that there's a great leveler at the end of life that's called death, and that we are perhaps not prepared for it. And this comes to the next thing that the high priest does. The high priest delivers, deals with our future deliverance. In Hebrews 7.25, the writer writes, therefore Jesus is able to save them to the end. The old King James said, save them to the uttermost. Those who draw near to God through him, since he, Jesus, always lives to make intercession for them. The word end or forever is not really relating to time, it's relating to a process, the process of being saved. He's saying that Jesus completely saves those who come to him. He just doesn't do it halfway. He completely does it. So if you and I run up to Jesus and say, I trust you. I don't know everything I need to know, but I trust you. Jesus turns to you and says, great, now I'm your high priest. I've been the sacrifice for sins for all of mankind, but now I am your high priest. Why? Because you've come, you laid your hand on the sacrifice and identified with it. And I become your high priest. See, some of the sacrifices in the Old Testament were for all the nation of Israel. They were made to satisfy God. But the protection, the purification, were for those who came to the priest and placed their hands on the head of the animal sacrifice. And by doing so, they were saying, I identify with this sacrifice. This sacrifice is for my sin, and I identify with it. This sacrifice is for me, no one else. And so Jesus Christ himself stands between God and man. He is the sacrifice, he said, for all of mankind. but he's the high priest only for those who come forward and identify with the sacrifice. When I come forward and say, yeah, that's, this sheep, this goat died because of me. Jesus, he's dying for my sins. At that point, those who come are declared in a right relationship with God by faith in the person of Jesus Christ. See, when you and I go to sleep tonight, we're protected by a person. We're not protected by a legal clause, a theological system. We're protected by a person who loves us and who agreed with God the Father that we are worth his suffering. Jesus is the one who delivers us from the past, who sustains us in the present, who completes the process in the future. And if anyone says, well, who's your relative? You have the legitimate right to say, you know, Jesus Christ is my closest relative. Let me ask you this, as we start to wrap up. What do you think God is feeling about this whole process of redemption? What do you think Jesus, or what do you think God the Father is feeling about this whole process of salvation? Can I submit this idea to you? I believe that Jesus' work of salvation brings pleasure to God. Now, why did I say that? Look at Ephesians chapter one, verse five. Paul writes, in love, the Father predestined us. Okay, some of you just flipped out right here. Predestination, yeah, what a wonderful word. It just confuses us. Let me give you the definition, ready? You can help me out on this. What does pre mean? Excellent, good job. It means before, what's a destination? It's a place where you're going. What's predestination? Knowing where you're going beforehand. What does that verse say? God says that he knows where you're going beforehand. He knows what is he predestined us to become, adopted as sons, as adult children, through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will. Now I'm a little bit disappointed in the ESV version of this because it says in the ESV he predestined us for adoption of sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will. But the word there is the word eudokia. It literally means good thoughts. It means pleasure. God is enjoying what he's doing. The father's delighted with his noble son and what the son is doing, bringing more sons and daughters into the family. And the emotions of God are explained by that word. In fact, it's the same word that's used in Matthew 12, 18 to describe the father's view of the son. Remember it? This is my beloved son in whom I am. Well, please, that translation is kind of a takeover from the old King James. The word means delighted. He enjoys it. The work of the cross brought great pleasure to God the Father. He decided sovereignly to enjoy the nobility of what his son did. He chose to look past the pain of his son through what it would benefit us. Love always does that, it looks past the pain. Classic Calvinism says the purpose of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's what it looks like from our perspective. But if you ask God what he gets out of the work of salvation, the biblical answer is he gets delight and enjoyment. Look a little bit further down that same passage to Ephesians 1.9. In all wisdom and insight, God the Father made known to us the mystery of his will according to his, good pleasure again. There's that same word which he purposed in Jesus Christ. At the center of everything, at the center of our whole salvation, is a God who enjoys what he's doing. He's very much enjoying having his son protect those who have trusted in him. And he's delighted with the process of a son bringing, adopting daughters and son into his family. One of those things that I get to do as a pastor is I get to go to conferences. And it seems like every year there's more and more and more conferences. Now there are some conferences in some really neat places. Hawaii, the Caribbean. The conferences I go to are usually in Lodi. I just know the wrong people, I guess. But I was in one conference that pastors go to, and I was in a breakout session, we had a facilitator, and about eight to 10 pastors, we're all in a small group, and he asked this question, ready? The question is, when you get to heaven, what do you want God the Father to say to you? Now remember, we're all pastors, okay? What do you think every one of those guys said? Yes, but before we could say that, the facilitator said, and by the way, you cannot use well done, good and faithful servant. Most of the group was just stunned. They're sitting there kind of going, oh man, I don't have a category for that. But for once in my life, I had a ready answer based upon how much God enjoys me. I said, I believe that when God the Father sees me, He'll say something like this. Patrick, I'm so glad you're here. I've been waiting for you. I've been waiting to enjoy your presence. Come on in. This week, would you commit yourself to reflecting on the salvation that Jesus Christ has brought you? That he's brought it to you because of a person, not just because you're a number caught in some system. and that God the Father is absolutely positively delighted to have you in His family. Heavenly Father, this is hard for us to kind of grasp sometimes because a lot of our families don't do very well. We bounce around a lot. Our families have tried in the best way we can to be like you and we've fallen far short. But for some of us, there have been those good families, those good times, those things that we can remember where we enjoyed things. And to realize that your enjoyment is even greater. You delight in us. You are tickled pink that we are gathered here, worshiping you with one another, celebrating what your son has done, which your Holy Spirit applied to our hearts. Father, help us to get that into our systems, into our hearts and minds, because you gave us a Redeemer. His name is Jesus.