Redeemed Part 2 – The Redeemed Of The Lord

Redeemed Part 2 – The Redeemed Of The Lord fpr Sunday May 17th 2020

Pastor Barry Kerner

We’ve been looking at what redemption means for the believer. Last week we discussed the perks of becoming a Christian.

 

Psalm 103:2 reminds us to, “ Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:”

 

Psalm 103 goes on to list the many benefits that are available to members of God’s Family:

• He forgives our iniquities (vs 3)
• He heals our diseases (vs 3)
• He redeems our lives from destruction (vs 4)
• He crowns us with loving kindness and tender mercies (vs 4)
• He satisfies our mouth with good things (vs 5)
• He renews our youth (vs 5)
• He executes righteousness and judgment for the oppressed (vs 6)
• He makes known His ways (vs 7)
• He is merciful, gracious, and slow to anger (vs 8)
• He is forgiving and forgetting of our sins (vs 9, 12)

 

All of these benefits are available to you as well. The only price is that you need lay down your life here on earth by putting to death sin like Jesus did, and living only according to God’s will. God has the ability to give you  everything you could possibly want or need, according to His perfect will.

 

When the prize is this great, the cost on our part to become a member of the Kingdom of Heaven seems like nothing at all. The only reason that we have this opportunity to die to ourselves and to live for God is because Jesus Christ gave His life for us and died to redeem us. It is only through the shedding of the blood of Christ that we are able to find redemption.

 

Do you know what it means to be redeemed? Because, if you fully understand what Calvary means in the life of a Believer, then you will be proud and excited to sing, “I AM REDEEMED by the blood of the Lamb!”

 

 

When I was growing up we would often find glass soda bottles along the sides of the road. This was long before aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Printed around the neck of the bottles were the words, “REDEEM FOR 2 CENTS.” We would rush them down to Ted’s Variety Store where the owner, Ted, would give us two cents for every bottle we had. We would then spend our money to buy penny candy from the bins along the counter. Simply put, redemption means “to buy back.” At his variety store, the owner, TED, would “Redeem” the bottles and buy them back from us by giving us two cents for each one.

 

The Bible is the ultimate story of true redemption. Man sinned and chose to break relationship with God and go his own way, but God so loved man He chose to offer reconciliation. The only thing stopping the reunion was the debt incurred by man’s sin and its effect upon the entire creation. That debt owed on account of sin is death! Romans 6:23 tells us, “For the wages (debt owed) of sin is death.” Romans 6:23 goes on to say, “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That gift was Jesus buying back our relationship with God. The price Jesus paid was His death in exchange for our own. We are bought by the Blood of Jesus!

 

In the Bible, the person paying someone else’s debt is called a “redeemer.” The redeemer is, in fact, “buying back” something that had been taken or lost from its rightful place. In some cases, he was redeeming the debtor from an offended party. The Book of Ruth contains a perfect example of redemption. It is a love story of Ruth and Boaz. Boaz was willing to buy back the property of Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi, in order to marry Ruth and have a son to continue the family bloodline.

 

Ephesians 1:7 gives us a good idea of what redemption is, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”

 

Our redemption must come from the shed blood of Jesus Christ or there is no possibility of the forgiveness of sins. The price to redeem ourselves is beyond our reach but not so with God; it comes from the riches of His grace which are infinite. It is in Him (Jesus) that we have redemption and it is through His blood by which redemption is achieved.

 

Psalm 107:2, encourages us to, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy…”

 

When Jesus went to Calvary’s Cross, He willingly traded His flawless life for yours. Your life was riddled with guilt and shame, and yet the stench and filth of your sins was instantly traded for a robe of purest white. You gained the opportunity to have your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life by accepting Christ as your Savior and thus earning eternal redemption.

 

Psalm 111:9 lets us know that God initiated the redemptive process when it says, “He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.”

 

The psalmist reveals that redemption is not a human idea but is sent from God to His people. He sent the Word into the world; We know from John 1 that Christ had to come in the flesh to live a perfect life because we couldn’t. Jesus’ perfect holiness in a human body made Him the perfect sacrifice to satisfy the wrath of God that was on sinners and the payment required which was death.

 

Luke 21:28 tells us to remember that“Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

 

Christians see things differently from the rest of the world.  We are completely backwards to the way the world wants to do things.  Many of the things that Jesus teach just seem off – love your enemy, do good to those that persecute you.  These all just seem the complete opposite of the way the world expects things to go.  And we get another one of those backwards things from Christ.  When the world is ending and crashing down, Christians are to, “straighten up and raise your heads.”

 

Just think about that for a moment.  As the tragedies come, as wreck and ruin are unleashed, as everything in your life seems to fall apart, that is when you lift up your head. Why? Your redemption is coming. Christ Jesus is coming. While the world sees terror and destruction, you are in Christ, you see redemption, and so you just see a reminder that Christ Jesus your Lord is coming for you.

 

In Romans 3:23-25, Paul writes, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance He had passed over former sins.

 

This is part of the so-called “Roman Road” to salvation found in Romans 3:10-12. The Book of Romans shows the sinner that they can never be good enough to make it into the kingdom because not even one of us is good and every single one of us falls infinitely short of God’s glory. Jesus said, “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18b) and that includes you and me. Thankfully, God has passed over our sins due to our applying the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts and lintel’s of our hearts.

Colossians 1:13-14 makes clear that, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

 

God makes deliveries. He delivers us out of the kingdom of darkness and then transports us into “the kingdom of His beloved Son” and this is done only by redemption that came through Jesus Christ. This brings the forgiveness of our sins. It took the death of the Son of God to deliver us from the dark domain but the expense of that transference is beyond our reach. It had to be paid by God Himself.

 

Romans 8:23 tells us, “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

 

The older I get, the more I look forward to the redemption of my physical body. Mine is much like the creation; it groans and moans. My body needs deliverance because it is deteriorating as I write this. The statistics on death are impressive. One out of every one people will die. This physical life is a one-way street…it can only go one direction and that is toward death but Job wrote, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;” (Job 19:25-26).

 

First Corinthians 1:29-31 reminds us again that redemption is not of our doing but rests solely upon the life and death of Jesus Christ. Paul told the Corinthians, “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

 

The context of these verses is that “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are” (1st Cor 1:27-28). That means we can’t boast in ourselves but only in our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 9:12 tells us “He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”

 

Genesis 3:21 records the first death in the Bible, when God made clothes for Adam and Eve out of animal skin. It was a graphic demonstration of the nature of their sin. Because they sinned, they now had to be clothed, or covered. That covering was only accomplished by the shedding of blood, a metaphor for their spiritual death and a foreshadowing of things to come.

 

It’s not about a plan of salvation but the Man of Salvation. And, that Man of Salvation is Jesus Christ who had to shed His blood for us to be eternally redeemed as it was “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2nd Corinthians 5:21). This shows that the blood of animal sacrifices could only cover sins but Jesus’ death removes sins; it is what redemption is all about.

 

As sinners, we should have been condemned to die. But Jesus, the precious Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, died in our place. It is the redemption of an nonredeemable people by an unbelievable merciful God that grants us eternal life. We were bought with a price; by the precious and infinitely costly blood of the Lamb of God. 

 

Psalm 72:14 says, “He will redeem their life from oppression and violence; and precious shall be their blood in His sight.”

 

Revelation 1:18 tells us,  He redeemed us from all unrighteousness and set us free from death, hell and the grave.

Psalm 91:10 lets us know, that He set us free from sickness and death.

Matthew 6:26-34, that He set us free from the pain of the past and the fear of tomorrow.

And, John 8:36, that whom the son sets free is free indeed.

 

That’s why Paul’s conclusion was “you were bought (redeemed) with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1st Corinthians 6:20).

 

In Isaiah 44:22 God tells us, “I have swept away your sins like a cloud. I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free.”

Ephesians 1:7, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

 

Luke 1:68, “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people…”

 

Praise God for what He has done! Psalm 90:2 reminds us that His goodness is from everlasting to everlasting

 

Because of this, Isaiah 63:16 should be ever on our lips and we should be proclaiming,  “…You, O Lord, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.”

 

Who then is redeemed? YOU are redeemed if you decide to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior! The Blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, has the power to redeem all of us, regardless of our past, regardless of our faults. As John 10:10 says, “He came that we ALL might have life, and have it more abundantly.”

 

And, what does it mean to be redeemed?

 

 You have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” John 3:16-17).

 

 You are forgiven. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

 

 You are righteous! “For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).

 

 You have been adopted into God’s family. “In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:5).

 

 You are at peace with God. “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20)

God, through the Holy Spirit, lives in you. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

 

When we are redeemed by faith, we are changed. Whether we “feel” it or not, we are forever secure in knowing that we are a child of God who no longer has to bear the weight of fear and guilt again. God has given us, through the power of the Holy Spirit to live life to the full by knowing that He will never condemn us both in this life and in the one to come. We are changed in that we are no longer identified with our past but now with the living God. Sin and death no longer can hold us captive.

 

I’ll close with this thought and prayer…

 

In Job 19:23-27, Job said, “Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever! I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”

 

Let us pray,

Father God, by His death and resurrection Christ has conquered the grave and redeemed us from the curse of sin which is death. With the Apostle Paul we can declare, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I pray that our lives speak more than words could ever say. That our lives like the permanence of words chiseled into stone stand as a testimony and a witness to the world that our Redeemer, Jesus Christ,  lives! And like Job we know that though we may die, we will like Christ be resurrected at His coming. And like Job, our hearts within us yearn for that time when we too at that time we will stand and with our own eyes gaze upon the beauty and majesty of our Lord and Savior, our Deliverer and our Redeemer King, Jesus Christ. Continue to strengthen and comfort us through your Word. Let us feel your loving hand upon us and let our hearts be filled with the presence of your Holy Spirit.

 

We ask this in the precious name of your Son and our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

Next Week – Living The Redeemed Life