WEBVTT 00:00:01.020 --> 00:00:04.940 for singing of the redemption that we have been 00:00:04.940 --> 00:00:08.939 given by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible that 00:00:08.939 --> 00:00:10.500 you have brought with you this morning, would 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:14.960 you lift your Bible up? This Bible that you hold 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:18.079 in your hands today is a marvelous, marvelous 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:20.199 book. It was written in a different time and 00:00:20.199 --> 00:00:25.640 culture. And yet it is the timeless and cross 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:33.439 -cultural revelation of God. Our task as students 00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:37.960 of the Bible is to interpret it in light of its 00:00:37.960 --> 00:00:42.960 geography, its history, its cultures, its languages, 00:00:43.619 --> 00:00:47.039 so that we can understand what the meaning was 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:53.119 in the original context. I saw an example recently 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:56.399 of the importance of this. In fact, it was in 00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:59.119 the St. Paul newspaper a few weeks ago, months 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:01.380 ago now, when the legislature was in session. 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:05.700 There was a gentleman from Roseville, as a matter 00:01:05.700 --> 00:01:08.180 of fact, who was very concerned about a bill 00:01:08.180 --> 00:01:12.400 that was before the legislature dealing with 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:17.400 the rights of replacement workers during a strike. 00:01:17.900 --> 00:01:21.670 Do you remember that bill? It got some notoriety 00:01:21.670 --> 00:01:23.730 in the newspaper, but this particular individual 00:01:23.730 --> 00:01:26.329 was quite concerned about it, and so he printed 00:01:26.329 --> 00:01:29.530 the whole bill and underlined throughout the 00:01:29.530 --> 00:01:31.670 bill those parts of it that he was concerned 00:01:31.670 --> 00:01:36.650 about. And then at the very end, in bold letters, 00:01:37.069 --> 00:01:40.090 the advertisement in the newspaper said, this 00:01:40.090 --> 00:01:44.250 is what the Bible says. And so then he quoted 00:01:44.250 --> 00:01:46.909 three verses from the Bible. One from Colossians 00:01:46.909 --> 00:01:51.450 4. about Master's gift to your servants, that 00:01:51.450 --> 00:01:54.750 which is just and equal. And then he quoted a 00:01:54.750 --> 00:01:59.290 verse from 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. In Timothy 00:01:59.290 --> 00:02:03.829 it says this, not given to wine, no striker. 00:02:06.409 --> 00:02:09.770 Not greedy of filthy lucre, and so on. And he 00:02:09.770 --> 00:02:12.789 underlined, no striker, and did the same thing 00:02:12.789 --> 00:02:16.590 with the verse in Titus chapter 1, no striker. 00:02:18.669 --> 00:02:21.150 Well, now someone who read that advertisement 00:02:21.150 --> 00:02:23.129 might think the Bible had a lot to say about 00:02:23.129 --> 00:02:26.610 collective bargaining and that employees are 00:02:26.610 --> 00:02:29.969 never to strike. As a matter of fact, the first 00:02:29.969 --> 00:02:33.949 century culture knew very little about collective 00:02:33.949 --> 00:02:39.909 bargaining and about unions. And the word striker, 00:02:40.110 --> 00:02:43.689 while it was very good for the English of King 00:02:43.689 --> 00:02:45.889 James Day, doesn't mean a whole lot today at 00:02:45.889 --> 00:02:49.500 least. in translating that particular word from 00:02:49.500 --> 00:02:52.379 the Greek New Testament, it means someone who's 00:02:52.379 --> 00:02:55.960 not pugnacious, not someone who's prone to be 00:02:55.960 --> 00:02:59.319 a fighter, as it lists here the qualifications 00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:02.659 of an elder. We have to be careful interpreting 00:03:02.659 --> 00:03:06.439 the Bible, that we do so in light of its culture 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:10.800 and its languages. The Bible describes God's 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:15.819 salvation in terms that are familiar to first 00:03:15.819 --> 00:03:21.180 century Jews and Romans. So when you and I come 00:03:21.180 --> 00:03:25.280 to a term that describes salvation, we need to 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:28.000 be sure we understand what it meant to those 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:33.800 people. Such is the term redemption. When we 00:03:33.800 --> 00:03:36.219 think of redemption these days, we think of green 00:03:36.219 --> 00:03:40.979 stamps or some sort of thing. But redemption 00:03:40.979 --> 00:03:43.979 in those days had an entirely different meaning. 00:03:44.630 --> 00:03:48.370 One of God's good gifts to us is the gift of 00:03:48.370 --> 00:03:51.509 redemption. And if you and I will understand 00:03:51.509 --> 00:03:55.849 what it means, it will change the way that we 00:03:55.849 --> 00:04:01.409 look at our lives. The meaning of redemption 00:04:01.409 --> 00:04:06.090 is built upon the common practice of slavery 00:04:06.090 --> 00:04:11.000 in the ancient world. Well, someone says, what 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.340 has slavery got to do with me? Well, you stick 00:04:13.340 --> 00:04:16.939 with me and I think you may find out. We'll soon 00:04:16.939 --> 00:04:22.540 see. We need some background on slavery as it 00:04:22.540 --> 00:04:25.379 was practiced in the ancient world to help set 00:04:25.379 --> 00:04:30.500 our minds in the direction of redemption. Slavery 00:04:30.500 --> 00:04:35.139 was practiced by people as far back as the time 00:04:35.139 --> 00:04:38.660 of Abraham, as far as the Bible records for us. 00:04:39.779 --> 00:04:44.220 Abraham had a slave. His name is recorded for 00:04:44.220 --> 00:04:50.060 us. In fact, in Genesis, the name Eliezer. Hagar 00:04:50.060 --> 00:04:56.600 was a slave to Abram's wife, Sarah. They had 00:04:56.600 --> 00:04:59.680 slaves in those days. However, we need to keep 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:03.040 in mind that slaves in that particular period 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:08.379 were more like members of the family than like 00:05:08.379 --> 00:05:11.699 the image of the slave that you and I often think 00:05:11.699 --> 00:05:17.699 of. We also observe slavery in the more traditional 00:05:17.699 --> 00:05:21.459 sense as we think of it, in the bondage of the 00:05:21.459 --> 00:05:25.939 people of Israel and Egypt. They were in a cruel 00:05:25.939 --> 00:05:29.339 slavery and were required to perform the tasks 00:05:29.339 --> 00:05:32.319 of the Egyptians and there was no compassion 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:36.740 for them. When the Israelites were delivered 00:05:36.740 --> 00:05:39.259 and established their nation, they were forbidden 00:05:39.259 --> 00:05:42.079 by God's law to make slaves of their own brethren. 00:05:43.899 --> 00:05:47.240 But a Jewish person could sell his labor to make 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:52.879 restitution for what he had done or to pay back 00:05:52.879 --> 00:05:57.699 a debt that he owed. But one who did sell his 00:05:57.699 --> 00:06:02.180 labor had to be released from that bondage. on 00:06:02.180 --> 00:06:05.079 the year of Jubilee, which was every 50 years 00:06:05.079 --> 00:06:09.639 in their calendar, or every seven years during 00:06:09.639 --> 00:06:13.740 the Sabbath year. And so it was not a perpetual 00:06:13.740 --> 00:06:18.639 bondage. The Israelites also had foreign slaves 00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:21.279 from other people, from the Canaanites, for example, 00:06:21.819 --> 00:06:25.220 from whom they took the land. It was a practice 00:06:25.220 --> 00:06:27.699 that began in the day of Joshua and continued 00:06:27.699 --> 00:06:30.980 on. But these people too, though they were foreign, 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:34.939 gentile slaves, were protected by the laws of 00:06:34.939 --> 00:06:39.500 Israel and were generally well treated. In the 00:06:39.500 --> 00:06:43.699 New Testament day, the Romans had many slaves. 00:06:44.620 --> 00:06:46.600 In fact, some people believe that there were 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:50.759 more slaves in the city of Rome by far than there 00:06:50.759 --> 00:06:56.139 were free people. Most of the slaves in the Roman 00:06:56.139 --> 00:07:00.699 period were fairly well treated and in some respects 00:07:00.699 --> 00:07:03.899 were even better off in their living conditions 00:07:03.899 --> 00:07:09.360 than free men. But you can see that slavery was 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:13.319 a part of the whole world mindset in those days. 00:07:14.180 --> 00:07:17.779 Redemption had to do with that practice of slavery. 00:07:19.180 --> 00:07:23.339 Redemption was the act on the part of a suitable 00:07:23.339 --> 00:07:32.620 and willing person to purchase a slave and to 00:07:32.620 --> 00:07:38.339 release that slave from his bondage. It involved 00:07:38.339 --> 00:07:42.939 paying the price necessary to procure freedom 00:07:42.939 --> 00:07:48.509 for the slave. That was redemption. Now the concept 00:07:48.509 --> 00:07:51.610 of spiritual redemption is based upon these ideas. 00:07:52.949 --> 00:07:56.850 The heart of the issue is not the relative freedom 00:07:56.850 --> 00:08:00.050 or the manner of treatment that the slave had. 00:08:01.930 --> 00:08:05.769 The heart of the issue is ownership. You see, 00:08:05.889 --> 00:08:09.230 a slave, whether well treated or cruelly treated, 00:08:10.829 --> 00:08:15.750 did not belong to himself. He belonged to his 00:08:15.750 --> 00:08:19.660 master. And because of that, he had absolutely 00:08:19.660 --> 00:08:24.620 no rights. He may be well treated and extended 00:08:24.620 --> 00:08:28.439 kindnesses by his master, or may be cruelly treated. 00:08:29.720 --> 00:08:31.959 But whichever, the important thing is the issue 00:08:31.959 --> 00:08:35.399 of ownership. He did not belong to himself. It 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:38.159 is very hard for you and me to understand what 00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:43.340 that would be like. This is totally foreign to 00:08:43.340 --> 00:08:46.059 anything that we're familiar with today. not 00:08:46.059 --> 00:08:52.379 to belong to ourselves. The Bible says that you 00:08:52.379 --> 00:08:58.740 and I spiritually are slaves by our birth into 00:08:58.740 --> 00:09:02.820 the race of Adam. Open your Bible please to Romans 00:09:02.820 --> 00:09:07.779 chapter 6. The Apostle is here writing to people 00:09:07.779 --> 00:09:09.940 who have already been liberated but he points 00:09:09.940 --> 00:09:13.120 back to their former slavery. in the way that 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:19.259 he talks. Look in Romans chapter 6 and verse 00:09:19.259 --> 00:09:23.899 6. He says, Knowing this, that our old self was 00:09:23.899 --> 00:09:26.620 crucified with him, that our body of sin might 00:09:26.620 --> 00:09:31.340 be done away with, that we should no longer be 00:09:31.340 --> 00:09:38.340 slaves to sin. Look at verse 17. But thanks be 00:09:38.340 --> 00:09:45.299 to God that though you were slaves of sin. Verse 00:09:45.299 --> 00:09:48.980 19. In the middle of the verse he says, for just 00:09:48.980 --> 00:09:54.440 as you presented your members as slaves to impurity 00:09:54.440 --> 00:09:59.679 and to lawlessness. Then again in verse 20, for 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:04.919 when you were slaves of sin. So make no mistake 00:10:04.919 --> 00:10:10.720 about it, spiritually speaking, No person belongs 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:16.460 to himself. We may enjoy political freedom. We 00:10:16.460 --> 00:10:19.320 may point to a declaration of independence and 00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:23.279 to a constitution, to a bill of rights. And we 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:27.899 say we are a free people. And that may be true 00:10:27.899 --> 00:10:33.000 politically, but it is not true spiritually. 00:10:34.519 --> 00:10:38.659 For we, by our birth into the race of Adam, are 00:10:38.659 --> 00:10:43.720 slaves of sin. And we do not belong to ourselves, 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:52.700 we belong to sin. Sin is a cruel taskmaster. 00:10:54.779 --> 00:10:58.899 Sin enforces obedience upon the corrupted will 00:10:58.899 --> 00:11:03.860 of the human race. And it results in impurity 00:11:03.860 --> 00:11:14.740 in the life and lawlessness. slaves of sin. Peter 00:11:14.740 --> 00:11:18.279 says in 2 Peter 2 .19 that the slavery is to 00:11:18.279 --> 00:11:23.019 corruption. It is not a slavery that leads to 00:11:23.019 --> 00:11:25.740 something better, a higher standard. It is a 00:11:25.740 --> 00:11:28.820 slavery that leads downward, away from God, and 00:11:28.820 --> 00:11:34.740 to corruption. And Paul says at the end of this 00:11:34.740 --> 00:11:38.700 very chapter in Romans chapter 6, that it leads 00:11:38.700 --> 00:11:46.240 to eternal death. The wages of sin, this slave 00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:52.700 taskmaster, the wages that we are paid is death, 00:11:53.559 --> 00:12:01.500 separation from God for all of eternity. Now 00:12:01.500 --> 00:12:07.559 in the New Testament, redemption is the purchase 00:12:07.559 --> 00:12:14.480 price for slaves resulting in their release from 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:20.019 their former ownership into a new relationship. 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:27.720 Dr. R .D. Knudsen writing in Encyclopedia of 00:12:27.720 --> 00:12:30.080 the Bible says the heart of the biblical message 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:33.940 of redemption is the deliverance of the people 00:12:33.940 --> 00:12:39.360 of God from the bondage of sin by the perfect, 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:44.620 substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ and 00:12:44.620 --> 00:12:48.080 their consequent restoration to God and His heavenly 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:51.720 kingdom. A Redeemer is one who possesses the 00:12:51.720 --> 00:12:55.519 right or who exercises the right of redemption. 00:12:56.539 --> 00:13:00.179 The Bible presents Christ as the Redeemer of 00:13:00.179 --> 00:13:05.779 God's elect. The purchase price for our Deliverance 00:13:05.779 --> 00:13:10.840 from slavery to sin was the death of Jesus Christ. 00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:16.460 The offering of Himself as a bloody sacrifice 00:13:16.460 --> 00:13:22.860 to purchase us out of the slave relationship 00:13:22.860 --> 00:13:28.159 to sin. To purchase us out of that, that we might 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:34.870 be again related to God. The emphasis upon this 00:13:34.870 --> 00:13:38.889 purchase price in redemption, which Peter says 00:13:38.889 --> 00:13:42.230 is like the blood of a lamb pointing back to 00:13:42.230 --> 00:13:49.590 the Passover lamb of God. The purchase price, 00:13:50.110 --> 00:13:52.889 the emphasis of that is not upon to whom the 00:13:52.889 --> 00:13:56.350 price was paid. That has been an argument in 00:13:56.350 --> 00:14:01.070 theology for centuries. And some say that the 00:14:01.070 --> 00:14:05.129 price was paid to the devil. That was a teaching 00:14:05.129 --> 00:14:08.029 in the early church which was refuted. It is 00:14:08.029 --> 00:14:10.149 still a teaching today among the Seventh Day 00:14:10.149 --> 00:14:16.470 Adventists. The emphasis of the Bible though 00:14:16.470 --> 00:14:20.570 is not upon to whom the price was paid, but upon 00:14:20.570 --> 00:14:28.419 the sufficiency of the price itself. The price 00:14:28.419 --> 00:14:32.879 that was paid for us is entirely sufficient to 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:36.639 release us from all obligation to our former 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:42.100 owner and to give us a complete relationship 00:14:42.100 --> 00:14:49.240 to our new master, God Himself. Now, the difficulty 00:14:49.240 --> 00:14:52.360 that you and I have in this whole matter of redemption 00:14:52.360 --> 00:14:57.139 is not in intellectually grasping it. Most of 00:14:57.139 --> 00:15:00.200 us understand that redemption is being purchased 00:15:00.200 --> 00:15:06.440 and then released. The difficulty that we have 00:15:06.440 --> 00:15:10.539 is in emotionally feeling it because we have 00:15:10.539 --> 00:15:13.159 such a hard time identifying with the idea that 00:15:13.159 --> 00:15:17.620 we don't own ourselves. And if we don't feel 00:15:17.620 --> 00:15:24.179 it, if it doesn't touch our emotions, that we 00:15:24.179 --> 00:15:27.200 have been released from slavery by the price 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:31.159 of Christ's blood and related to God as our new 00:15:31.159 --> 00:15:35.240 master. If we do not feel that, it will not move 00:15:35.240 --> 00:15:43.500 our wills to live differently. The difficulty 00:15:43.500 --> 00:15:45.940 we have is not in understanding what redemption 00:15:45.940 --> 00:15:48.919 means, it is in feeling in our souls that we 00:15:48.919 --> 00:15:56.409 have been redeemed. Part of that is because we 00:15:56.409 --> 00:16:02.649 not only fail to realize the magnificence of 00:16:02.649 --> 00:16:09.250 the redemption, but we also fail to fully grasp 00:16:09.250 --> 00:16:14.370 the desperate hopelessness of our position before 00:16:14.370 --> 00:16:19.529 we were redeemed. Such is the case of a woman 00:16:19.529 --> 00:16:23.919 that Henry Morehouse told about. Henry Morehouse 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:28.139 was a British evangelist who died in 1880 at 00:16:28.139 --> 00:16:32.419 just 40 years of age. The first half of his life 00:16:32.419 --> 00:16:35.919 was spent in wickedness and sin, but becoming 00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:38.879 a Christian at age 21, he determined by God's 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:41.919 grace that he would serve God with all of his 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:45.220 heart. He became a preacher. He was well known 00:16:45.220 --> 00:16:48.399 for passing out tracts on the streets, for being 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:52.309 a street preacher and an evangelist. a great 00:16:52.309 --> 00:16:56.549 personal witness. Henry Morehouse told the story 00:16:56.549 --> 00:17:02.490 of a woman who came to him and said, I can't 00:17:02.490 --> 00:17:05.529 see how a person who has broken just one of the 00:17:05.529 --> 00:17:08.690 commandments can be as bad as another who has 00:17:08.690 --> 00:17:14.349 broken five or even all of them. You see, she 00:17:14.349 --> 00:17:17.509 had a hard time understanding the desperate condition 00:17:17.509 --> 00:17:20.430 that she was in. She felt herself to be a fairly 00:17:20.430 --> 00:17:24.109 righteous individual. Broken maybe one or two 00:17:24.109 --> 00:17:27.549 commandments. But that surely isn't as bad as 00:17:27.549 --> 00:17:32.710 breaking five or all of them. Morehouse says, 00:17:32.869 --> 00:17:35.730 I advised her that God had actually given only 00:17:35.730 --> 00:17:38.769 one law, which consists of ten different parts. 00:17:39.549 --> 00:17:42.650 Look at this watch of mine. If you counted all 00:17:42.650 --> 00:17:45.890 its cogs, you would find many. If you ruined 00:17:45.890 --> 00:17:48.750 only one, you might leave the other parts in 00:17:48.750 --> 00:17:51.849 perfect condition, and yet this would be a broken 00:17:51.849 --> 00:17:57.009 watch and no longer run." He says the woman still 00:17:57.009 --> 00:17:59.650 couldn't see the point, so I said, suppose you 00:17:59.650 --> 00:18:03.250 were hanging over a precipice, suspended by a 00:18:03.250 --> 00:18:06.910 chain with ten links. If a man took a hammer 00:18:06.910 --> 00:18:10.730 and smashed every link, where would you go? Well, 00:18:10.829 --> 00:18:13.190 to the bottom of the canyon of course, she said. 00:18:14.730 --> 00:18:18.009 Well, if he severed only one link, what would 00:18:18.009 --> 00:18:21.630 happen? Why, that would be just as bad. I would 00:18:21.630 --> 00:18:26.390 still fall and be killed. And he says, suddenly 00:18:26.390 --> 00:18:30.029 she grasped the truth that whosoever shall keep 00:18:30.029 --> 00:18:32.569 the whole law and yet offend in one point, he 00:18:32.569 --> 00:18:39.390 is guilty of all. Do we understand the hopelessness 00:18:39.390 --> 00:18:46.160 of our situation before Christ redeemed us? Do 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:50.140 we understand the desperate situation, the eternal 00:18:50.140 --> 00:18:54.279 hell that was surely ours when we were slaves 00:18:54.279 --> 00:19:02.480 to sin? Let me build a picture this way for you. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:06.319 Let's suppose that you were fired from your job 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:09.440 without cause. You say, well, that does sound 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:14.089 familiar. Well, for some people it does. But 00:19:14.089 --> 00:19:16.470 let's suppose that beyond that you couldn't secure 00:19:16.470 --> 00:19:23.150 another job. And because of that you fell behind 00:19:23.150 --> 00:19:26.589 in your house payments and you faced immediate 00:19:26.589 --> 00:19:33.490 foreclosure. To complicate things, you had borrowed 00:19:33.490 --> 00:19:39.589 on your credit cards up to the maximum. And you 00:19:39.589 --> 00:19:43.250 were receiving daily telephone calls from collection 00:19:43.250 --> 00:19:47.490 agencies demanding payment for the utilities, 00:19:49.269 --> 00:19:51.670 the credit cards, and all of the other loans 00:19:51.670 --> 00:19:54.829 that you'd accumulated. You had no job, and you 00:19:54.829 --> 00:19:58.569 could not find one. And to top it off, you had 00:19:58.569 --> 00:20:05.049 educational loans, some of you know about. And 00:20:05.049 --> 00:20:10.670 then the final straw, somebody sues you. because 00:20:10.670 --> 00:20:12.670 of maybe falling in the driveway or something 00:20:12.670 --> 00:20:20.309 like that and they win the judgment and there 00:20:20.309 --> 00:20:23.910 is a judgment of five million dollars put on 00:20:23.910 --> 00:20:30.289 your head five million bucks that you have to 00:20:30.289 --> 00:20:33.089 come up with because your insurance doesn't cover 00:20:33.089 --> 00:20:40.180 that sort of thing that's hard to Put yourself 00:20:40.180 --> 00:20:43.599 in that situation to try to imagine it, but just 00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:47.380 do it for a second Just think of the load think 00:20:47.380 --> 00:20:51.980 of the position that you would be in You would 00:20:51.980 --> 00:20:55.900 feel like never getting a job again You would 00:20:55.900 --> 00:20:58.180 probably desire to go on welfare in Hennepin 00:20:58.180 --> 00:21:01.920 County You would want to do something where you 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:04.500 wouldn't have to pay off all of those debts There's 00:21:04.500 --> 00:21:06.859 no way that you can pay off five million dollars 00:21:06.859 --> 00:21:12.259 in a lifetime if you had your job back What are 00:21:12.259 --> 00:21:19.480 you going to do? And then and then let's just 00:21:19.480 --> 00:21:25.859 suppose That someone that you had never met before 00:21:25.859 --> 00:21:32.250 Came to you one day And that person handed you 00:21:32.250 --> 00:21:39.049 a check for five million dollars so that you 00:21:39.049 --> 00:21:43.349 could pay the judgment against you. And then 00:21:43.349 --> 00:21:46.170 that person said, give me all of the bills for 00:21:46.170 --> 00:21:48.509 the credit cards and the utilities and all of 00:21:48.509 --> 00:21:53.009 those things. And hand me the mortgage book for 00:21:53.009 --> 00:21:55.589 your house with all of those payments in there 00:21:55.589 --> 00:22:03.980 still. And I'm going to pay all of them. And 00:22:03.980 --> 00:22:07.880 by the way, I'm offering you a job in my company 00:22:07.880 --> 00:22:14.960 starting tomorrow. And beyond that, beyond that, 00:22:16.019 --> 00:22:18.160 I'm going to give you the privilege of writing 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:21.220 all of your future checks on my personal account. 00:22:24.920 --> 00:22:29.680 And there's no limit to what you can write. It's 00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:34.839 just all yours. That'd be pretty neat, wouldn't 00:22:34.839 --> 00:22:38.039 it? Now, if the first was hard to imagine, the 00:22:38.039 --> 00:22:44.039 second's even harder, right? But that's something. 00:22:44.140 --> 00:22:48.440 I mean, that is just the poorest picture of what 00:22:48.440 --> 00:22:54.740 Jesus did for us. We do not feel our redemption. 00:22:55.950 --> 00:23:01.950 Because we don't understand what slavery is. 00:23:05.589 --> 00:23:10.369 Oh, if today your heart can begin to feel that 00:23:10.369 --> 00:23:17.650 you are no longer owned by sin, then this message 00:23:17.650 --> 00:23:23.140 today will have accomplished something. I don't 00:23:23.140 --> 00:23:26.039 expect you to learn afresh what redemption is 00:23:26.039 --> 00:23:29.460 all about. You probably already know that. But 00:23:29.460 --> 00:23:32.079 oh, if you can begin to feel it in your soul 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:37.720 what God's done for you. If you can begin to 00:23:37.720 --> 00:23:42.660 grasp emotionally that you have been purchased 00:23:42.660 --> 00:23:47.720 with a price of the blood of Christ so that you 00:23:47.720 --> 00:23:54.019 could be freed from sin's mastery. and then released 00:23:54.019 --> 00:23:59.579 from that old slave relationship. And now you've 00:23:59.579 --> 00:24:03.619 been rightly related to God in a brand new relationship 00:24:03.619 --> 00:24:08.019 that gives you everything that you need in this 00:24:08.019 --> 00:24:12.400 world and for eternity. If you can just begin 00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:16.380 to feel that, God's done a work in your heart. 00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:22.029 Because it is when we feel that. That we will 00:24:22.029 --> 00:24:25.009 begin to make the kinds of decisions in light 00:24:25.009 --> 00:24:27.970 of it that will make a difference in our lives 00:24:27.970 --> 00:24:31.130 Because you see the way that we live our lives 00:24:31.130 --> 00:24:37.710 in our culture is that we have our rights I'm 00:24:37.710 --> 00:24:46.809 my own man I Can do what I want to do We believe 00:24:46.809 --> 00:24:52.369 that we own ourselves We've already seen that 00:24:52.369 --> 00:24:58.990 in fact for the unsaved sin is the honor And 00:24:58.990 --> 00:25:02.930 we who are saved feel fail to realize that we 00:25:02.930 --> 00:25:10.109 have a new master who now owns us That master 00:25:10.109 --> 00:25:16.750 is Jesus Christ The implications of redemption 00:25:16.750 --> 00:25:19.109 are many I just want to focus on one this morning 00:25:19.109 --> 00:25:24.000 and It's this, because we are a redeemed people, 00:25:25.059 --> 00:25:30.359 we do not belong to ourselves, but to God who 00:25:30.359 --> 00:25:35.460 purchased us. Open your Bible again to 1 Corinthians 00:25:35.460 --> 00:25:44.640 chapter 6. Paul is here dealing with the unfortunate 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:49.500 and sinful practice of immorality. religious 00:25:49.500 --> 00:25:53.160 ritual immorality, which was a part of the worship 00:25:53.160 --> 00:25:59.440 of the pagan people in Corinth. And some of the 00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:03.220 Christians kind of hung on to these old patterns. 00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:07.519 And so he says to them in 1 Corinthians 6 and 00:26:07.519 --> 00:26:13.599 verse 18, flee immorality. Every other sin that 00:26:13.599 --> 00:26:17.980 a man commits, is against the body, but the immoral 00:26:17.980 --> 00:26:24.240 man sins against his own body. Or do you not 00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:27.279 know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit 00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:30.940 who is in you, whom you have from God and that 00:26:30.940 --> 00:26:35.859 you are not your own? For you have been bought 00:26:35.859 --> 00:26:43.200 with a price. You are not your own. You have 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:49.660 been bought with a price. Leon Morris, writing 00:26:49.660 --> 00:26:52.460 in his book, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, 00:26:53.079 --> 00:26:56.720 says, The redeemed are paradoxically slaves, 00:26:57.460 --> 00:27:00.339 the slaves of God, for they were bought with 00:27:00.339 --> 00:27:06.119 a price. Believers are not brought by Christ 00:27:06.119 --> 00:27:10.910 into a liberty of selfish ease. Rather, since 00:27:10.910 --> 00:27:13.910 they have been bought by God at terrible cost, 00:27:14.710 --> 00:27:20.650 they have become God's slaves to do His will." 00:27:20.650 --> 00:27:23.390 Is that the way that you look at the Christian 00:27:23.390 --> 00:27:30.289 life? It is that we have become God's slaves 00:27:30.289 --> 00:27:34.910 to do His will. Service for Him is not just a 00:27:34.910 --> 00:27:39.349 duty, but it is a delight. a delight, but it 00:27:39.349 --> 00:27:43.609 is a duty. It is an obligation on our part because 00:27:43.609 --> 00:27:49.650 He owns us. His ownership means that He owns 00:27:49.650 --> 00:27:55.210 all the rights to our lives. Ah, somebody says, 00:27:55.789 --> 00:28:01.470 I have a right to choose my own friends. I have 00:28:01.470 --> 00:28:05.819 a right to earn money and to spend it. I have 00:28:05.819 --> 00:28:11.160 a right to control what belongs to me. I have 00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:14.519 the right to expect fairness in the way that 00:28:14.519 --> 00:28:18.940 I'm treated. I have a right to my own opinion, 00:28:19.180 --> 00:28:23.140 says someone else. I have a right to choose what 00:28:23.140 --> 00:28:27.779 I want to do and where I want to go. I have a 00:28:27.779 --> 00:28:30.640 right to be healthy and happy and prosperous 00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:42.220 and to achieve the American dream. In fact, none 00:28:42.220 --> 00:28:51.259 of those are rights that we have. For a slave 00:28:51.259 --> 00:28:55.900 does not have any rights of his own. You say, 00:28:56.019 --> 00:29:00.160 wait a minute, I can choose my own friends. No. 00:29:01.859 --> 00:29:04.140 Only as they are friends who please the Lord. 00:29:07.009 --> 00:29:08.869 Up as somebody says I have the right to earn 00:29:08.869 --> 00:29:14.710 money and to spend it Only as the Lord allows 00:29:14.710 --> 00:29:19.430 you in freedom of conscience to spend it But 00:29:19.430 --> 00:29:23.390 I have a right to control what belongs to me 00:29:23.390 --> 00:29:29.650 Only if you see yourself as a steward and Understand 00:29:29.650 --> 00:29:31.990 that God has given you all of those things in 00:29:31.990 --> 00:29:37.240 your hands, but I have a right to Expect fairness 00:29:37.240 --> 00:29:41.079 in the way that I'm treated by other people. 00:29:43.500 --> 00:29:47.400 Did your master have that right and exercise 00:29:47.400 --> 00:29:52.319 it? Was he treated fairly by other people? Or 00:29:52.319 --> 00:29:59.279 did he learn to suffer unjustly? But I have the 00:29:59.279 --> 00:30:04.029 right to my own opinions. only as those opinions 00:30:04.029 --> 00:30:08.450 are molded by the Spirit of God who dwells your 00:30:08.450 --> 00:30:12.569 body. But I have a right to choose what I want 00:30:12.569 --> 00:30:18.809 to do and where I want to go if it's the Lord's 00:30:18.809 --> 00:30:24.529 will. But I have a right to the American dream 00:30:24.529 --> 00:30:30.599 if God chooses to give that to you. You also 00:30:30.599 --> 00:30:33.180 have the right to be poor and to never see the 00:30:33.180 --> 00:30:41.920 dream. You know a lot of the frustrations, the 00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:50.839 conflicts, the tensions, the worry that you and 00:30:50.839 --> 00:30:54.720 I have in our lives is created because we hang 00:30:54.720 --> 00:31:01.190 on to the rights that we think we have. And we 00:31:01.190 --> 00:31:03.230 argue with others about them and we argue with 00:31:03.230 --> 00:31:06.789 God about them. And we say, yes, but I have my 00:31:06.789 --> 00:31:11.210 rights. The fact is that we are not our own and 00:31:11.210 --> 00:31:17.950 we have been purchased with a price. He purchased 00:31:17.950 --> 00:31:23.869 all of our rights. And the greatest position 00:31:23.869 --> 00:31:26.029 that you and I can come to in life, the happiest 00:31:26.029 --> 00:31:29.650 way that you and I can live is to open our hands 00:31:30.440 --> 00:31:35.259 And to say, Lord, I don't cling any longer to 00:31:35.259 --> 00:31:40.779 what isn't mine anyway. And I give you the rights. 00:31:42.019 --> 00:31:45.980 And I yield to you for whatever you choose to 00:31:45.980 --> 00:31:50.880 bring to me. For I am your servant. And I am 00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:56.059 not my own. For I've been bought with a price. 00:31:59.849 --> 00:32:02.990 The ramifications of redemption go far beyond 00:32:02.990 --> 00:32:11.589 this. But if I am not my own, but Christ's, it 00:32:11.589 --> 00:32:15.930 means that I must be responsible about the way 00:32:15.930 --> 00:32:19.950 that I treat my body. That's Paul's meaning here 00:32:19.950 --> 00:32:24.589 in 1 Corinthians 6. I must be responsible about 00:32:24.589 --> 00:32:27.630 my attitude concerning material possessions. 00:32:28.240 --> 00:32:32.460 I must be responsible about the decisions about 00:32:32.460 --> 00:32:38.519 my future because I'm not my own. If I'm not 00:32:38.519 --> 00:32:42.900 my own but Christ's, then I should know that 00:32:42.900 --> 00:32:45.240 I will one day give an account to Him who is 00:32:45.240 --> 00:32:51.319 my master. If I am not my own but Christ's, it 00:32:51.319 --> 00:32:55.660 means that I can learn to live free from fear 00:32:55.660 --> 00:32:59.579 and anxiety. because he will always take good 00:32:59.579 --> 00:33:07.799 care of his property. I met an interesting man 00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:13.019 this last week. I would judge, though I didn't 00:33:13.019 --> 00:33:16.099 ask him, that he would be a man in his mid -60s. 00:33:18.059 --> 00:33:21.940 He told me that when he had been a driver of 00:33:21.940 --> 00:33:26.660 an 18 -wheeler for 30 years, He was forced into 00:33:26.660 --> 00:33:33.420 retirement at 55 years of age. He'd been a Christian 00:33:33.420 --> 00:33:40.980 all of his life. Forced into retirement, he accepted 00:33:40.980 --> 00:33:44.099 that as God's will. He said, Lord, if you will 00:33:44.099 --> 00:33:49.380 let me live, I am going to serve you with the 00:33:49.380 --> 00:33:54.710 rest of my life in some way. And so to get prepared 00:33:54.710 --> 00:33:58.390 to do that, in his case, he decided to go to 00:33:58.390 --> 00:34:03.230 seminary. And he did for two or three years, 00:34:03.289 --> 00:34:07.529 went to seminary. And for the last number of 00:34:07.529 --> 00:34:12.250 years now, he has been a volunteer chaplain in 00:34:12.250 --> 00:34:14.710 one of the largest hospitals in Los Angeles. 00:34:17.010 --> 00:34:19.389 And several days out of the week, he goes down 00:34:19.389 --> 00:34:22.449 to the hospital as a volunteer He's not paid 00:34:22.449 --> 00:34:25.550 to do this. And he just goes visiting people 00:34:25.550 --> 00:34:29.329 who are in need in the hospital. And he said, 00:34:29.349 --> 00:34:32.329 you know, I've had the opportunity to lead many 00:34:32.329 --> 00:34:35.210 people to Christ. And he said, I want you to 00:34:35.210 --> 00:34:38.070 know that today there are two people in glory 00:34:38.070 --> 00:34:43.309 who were AIDS patients in that hospital. And 00:34:43.309 --> 00:34:46.989 it was my privilege to lead them to faith in 00:34:46.989 --> 00:34:53.579 Jesus. Now there's a man who has learned what 00:34:53.579 --> 00:35:00.380 it is to say, Lord, here are my rights. And at 00:35:00.380 --> 00:35:03.760 55, though my job is taken away from me, you 00:35:03.760 --> 00:35:06.300 direct me. I'm your slave. I'm not my own. You 00:35:06.300 --> 00:35:10.199 bought me. Direct my life. Lord, use me as you 00:35:10.199 --> 00:35:16.320 will. That man is so filled with joy and excitement 00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:20.199 and enthusiasm about living. I'd delight to be 00:35:20.199 --> 00:35:26.860 around. That's how I want to grow old. I hope 00:35:26.860 --> 00:35:30.800 that's how you want to grow old as well. Recognizing 00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:34.519 that we are a redeemed people and we're not our 00:35:34.519 --> 00:35:43.539 own. Let's pray. Sing with me again the chorus 00:35:43.539 --> 00:35:53.289 that we sang earlier. Jesus, name above all names, 00:35:54.190 --> 00:36:08.530 Beautiful Savior, Glorious Lord Emmanuel, God 00:36:08.530 --> 00:36:23.590 is with us. Blessed Redeemer, Living One. Blessed 00:36:23.590 --> 00:36:33.750 Redeemer, we have a hard time, Lord, feeling 00:36:33.750 --> 00:36:38.130 that we are redeemed, because we don't understand 00:36:38.130 --> 00:36:43.610 the first century context of that word. But oh, 00:36:43.750 --> 00:36:49.969 may our hearts warm to it, begin to probe within 00:36:49.969 --> 00:36:55.989 us and cause us to feel afresh that we are not 00:36:55.989 --> 00:37:01.630 our own, that we've been purchased, and move 00:37:01.630 --> 00:37:07.090 our wills so that we will let go of what isn't 00:37:07.090 --> 00:37:12.500 really ours anyway. so that we will yield our 00:37:12.500 --> 00:37:18.900 rights to you and learn to live at peace and 00:37:18.900 --> 00:37:23.179 in joy, knowing that you will take good care 00:37:23.179 --> 00:37:28.420 of what's yours. Release us from the anxiety 00:37:28.420 --> 00:37:33.119 and the frustration, the conflicts and the stress 00:37:33.119 --> 00:37:36.860 that come because of our worrying about rights. 00:37:39.179 --> 00:37:45.559 and teach us to live in the freedom of your servants. 00:37:47.860 --> 00:37:53.460 In Jesus' name, Amen. God bless you.