Redeemed
10/16/2012
Take your Bible if you would… and turn to Galatians chapter 3…
And when you get there I want us to start in verse 26… and we will move on into chapter 4… as I see this as a continued thought…
Galatians 3:26–4:7 (NIV84)
26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 1 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. 4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons….
6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
….How often in our lives… do we spend time looking back…
How often do we spend time wishing we could change the past… undo the done… right the wrong… repair the un-repairable…
How often do we look at what we have done… where we have gone… and who we have been… only to feel unlovable… beaten… and oh so unworthy…
… you know… I hear that word a lot…
When I am talking to people about their past mistakes… I hear the word unworthy…
Then even when I am talking to them about the Life God has for them… I still hear them use that word… that word unworthy…
… I heard Ravi Zacharias say a few weeks ago… that as Christians… we tend to think that Jesus came to make Bad people Good…
….Don’t we feel that way?
Don’t we feel like God sent His one and only Son… Christ Jesus… To make US good?...
I mean… scripture teaches us that Jesus came to take away the sins of the WORLD…
1 John 3:4-5 says… 1 John 3:4–5 (NIV84)
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
… but do we understand what that means…
I mean… How did Jesus do this… how does he take away our sins…
And does that actually make us Good?
….. NO my friends… that does NOT make us good.
When the Bible teaches us that Jesus takes away our sins… and takes away the sins of the world…
What is being said is that Jesus takes them off of us and places them upon Himself…
I am sinful… and the only way that I can have a relationship with God… the only way I can enter heaven… is to be righteous…
…But can I be righteous?
No… I am a sinner…
So what can I do?
I MUST be righteous but I can NOT be righteous…
Then we read 2 Corinthians 5:21
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV84)
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
…. Am I righteous?
No… but I have become God’s righteousness by being covered with the righteousness of Christ..
You see… Jesus traded with us…
He had no sin… and only righteousness…
And we have no righteousness… only sin…
So Jesus…. who is sinless… transferred our sin to Himself… and transferred His righteousness to us…
Am I good?...
no… but Christ who Lives within me is…
Look at 1 Peter 1:18 and 19…
1 Peter 1:18–19 (NIV84)
18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
The first passage we read this morning… when we moved into Galatians chapter 4…
Verses 4 and 5 said…
4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons….
Then first Peter 1:18 and 19 tells us that we were REDEEMED… not with perishable things such as silver or gold… but with the most precious commodity in the universe… the blood of Christ Jesus…
……
…… I can’t really explain to you… how this makes me feel when I think about it…
And… even this week as I studied for this message… it just washed over me again and again and again….
I ….am….. redeemed…
That has always been special to me… I have always since becoming a Christian realized I am redeemed… I know what scripture says…
But as I studied the word this week… again… it became even MORE special to me…
I don’t want to bore anyone or bog you down in word studies if that kind of thing does not help you to understand the Love God has for us…
But as I study how the word redeemed is used in scripture… it really touches my heart…
And I just want to mention these briefly…
In the Hebrew… or the original language of the Old Testament… there are 3 different words that are translated as redeemed…
One word was a legal term that specified that a Price HAD to be paid… no way around it…
….Another word was used as in the case of someone losing their property… a Family Member could pay the debt to buy that property… a family member could REDEEM the property…
The same word could be used in the case of someone being sold into slavery because of a debt they could not pay… again… a family member could pay their debt… and they could be freed or redeemed…
The third word… meant that a payment could be made to COVER… to protect… or to REDEEM a life that should be forfeited…
You see my friends… when Jesus Redeemed Me…. He did all three
Our focal passage of scripture says that Christ Jesus Redeemed us so that we might receive the full rights of Sons and become heirs of God…
Scripture says that we are Joint Heirs with Christ…
So… I am part of the Family of God…
And Jesus… a family member… came and paid my debt… to remove me from the slavery I was in… slavery to sin… because my Debt LEGALLY had to be paid…
And He did this… even though my life SHOULD be forfeited…
But as God looks at me… instead of seeing a life that should be forfeited.. He sees my life that is COVERED with the righteousness of Christ…
I am redeemed…
….Now… in the Greek… or in the original language of the New Testament… only one word is used as a noun… and one is used as a Verb…
The noun that is used is Ransom…
But the Verb… the action word…
Means to Loose… to set free…
The same word is used in different situations…
To free from prison… to set free from slavery… to remove the chains…
….Do you get the picture?...
… I think most of us live our lives… with the idea that yes Jesus paid the debt to offer us salvation…
But everything else in life is just a struggle…
No my friends…
I am redeemed….
Redeemed from my past…. From the past that we so often try to overcome… the past that we so often look back to… the past that we let bring us down… the past we so often try to repair… but it can’t be done…
Listen friends… if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior… QUIT FOCCUSING ON THE PAST….
You are redeemed….
… I understand…
I have told you before how it was for me…
when I became a Christian and surrendered to preach… I had some people come up to me and say…
“ I remember how it was when we were in school together… and you have CHANGED”
And others came up to me and said… “I remember how it was when we were in school together…. I am not about to listen to what you have to say”
… but you see…. They missed the important part… the part about me being redeemed…
2 Corinthians 5:17 says…
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV84)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
I am redeemed… I am NOT WHO I WAS…
I know… I know what it is like to have someone judge me by who I WAS… instead of who I am…
And I may never be able to please them…
some will never see me any different than I was 30 years ago… they will look at that old nature…
….Some people in your life my friends will always remember the time you did….
Fill in the blank yourself…
They remember who you were… instead of seeing who you are today…
You may get that a lot from people who are not in your life on a day to day basis…
And you may never be able to change that…
But guess what…
You don’t have to… because you are redeemed…
..Remember the story of the woman that anointed the feet of Jesus while she wept…
Turn over to Luke chapter 7… and verse 36…
Luke 7:36–48 (NIV84)
36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said……
41 “Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. …..44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” 48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
..you may have some people in your life that look at you like this Pharisee… this religious leader.. looked upon this woman… only seeing her past… only seeing who she had been and what she had done…
But Jesus saw her as she IS…
My friends… if Jesus is Lord of your life… you are redeemed… you have been released from that prison that you were once in…
I am redeemed…Redeemed from the past…
………………
But also…. Redeemed for the present…
We do still struggle in life… don’t we….
Even the great apostle Paul said in Romans 7:19…
Romans 7:19 (NIV84)
19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
We still struggle… we still do the wrong we don’t want to do at times and we still fail to do the good that we want to do at times…
we still miss the mark… we still fall short of the Glory Of God…
In other words… we still do sin…
Satan still comes at us with his many lies about our life… He still wants to point to our past mistakes and tell us we are a failure…
Or he wants to compare our present lives to someone else who seems to be more faithful than we are…
or he wants to tell us that we are UNWORTHY…
The devil is real good at taking our past sin and saying… “hey… you already blew it… you cant be of any use to the Lord now… you might as well not even try…”
Satan would have us continue in sin…
but remember… we are redeemed for the present…
we are loosed… the chains have been removed… satan has no power and no hold over us… don’t give in to the lies he tells…
Because we are redeemed…
…………………….
And last… we are redeemed for the future…
I have a home in heaven… not because of anything I have done… not because of who I was or who I am today… not because of I’m good or even just a little better than someone else…
I have a home in heaven… because I have been COVERED by the blood of Jesus Christ…
My Legal debt has been paid… and this life that deserves death… will live forever more…
I AM REDEEMED…
Conclusion…… I actually did not finish telling you what Ravi Zacharias said…
Ravi Zacharias said that we tend to think that Jesus came to make Bad people good…
but that’s wrong thinking….
What Jesus actually came to do…
Was to make Dead people LIVE…
Are you living today?
If you see what Christ has done for you…. You should be overwhelmed today…
Scripture tells us that He came to give us an abundant joy filled life…
…He has redeemed us… loosed us… removed the chains of sin and freed us from the prison of Hell…
So often… we struggle… we mourn the past… we bog down in the present… we fear the future… and we expend all of our strength and energy to fight this battle….
When God just wants us to understand… that the Victory has already been won…
We are redeemed…
Ill….I read an article this week that was reported in The Los Angeles Times in November of 1986… it was about a Gem-Stone Broker… who went to the Tucson Arizona Gem and Mineral Show…
He bypassed the rows and rows of polished stones that the more professional brokers were selling… and he went to the amateur section, and started digging around in the plates and bowls and shoe boxes full of stones…
Then he noticed a blue-violet stone the size and shape of a potato.
He looked it over… then, as calmly as possible… asked the vendor… if he would take 15 dollars for the stone…
The seller… realizing the rock wasn’t as pretty as others in the bin… lowered the price to $10.
That stone was later certified as a 1,905-carat natural star sapphire… about 800 carats larger than the largest stone of its kind ever previously seen….
It was appraised at $2.28 million.
… You see… It took a lover of stones to recognize its worth.
And my friends…. it took the Lover of souls to recognize the true value of you….
And ordinary-looking people like us.
Thank God we’ve been redeemed by the blood of Jesus!
……………………….
A few years ago… I was talking with a couple of older pastors…
and I remember them saying… that things in our Churches are just not like they used to be…
They said there was a time when they could walk the isle during the invitation… and they could compel people to come forward…
But that those days are gone…
Now… I kind of understand where they were coming from… because I can clearly see the Lord working at times… and people absolutely refusing to respond…
So I do understand…
…but at the same time….I never want to compel you to do anything…
If you are not compelled to respond to the Lord… I sure don’t want you to respond to me…
But if you recognize this morning… maybe for the first time… what it truly means to be redeemed… then maybe you want to respond to HIM this morning…
Or if you are here…. And you realize you have NOT been redeemed… you can come…. And you can find out what redemption is all about…..
