Glory in Our Redemption

[0:00] If you are new here and you're visiting, welcome. My name is BK. I have the pleasure of serving as one of the pastors here.

[0:11] And if you're just joining us, we're actually in a study of Ephesians. So please take out your Bibles. We're going to be spending time in Ephesians 1 once again. And we're going to be deep diving into the text of verses 7 to 10 today.

[0:31] Now, I don't know if you guys are a fan of stories. I know a lot of people like to read novels. They like those kind of stories. A lot of people like to watch movies.

[0:41] I tend to lean towards the movies because I'm a little bit lazy, I suppose. But we like stories. As a culture, we like to hear stories. We like to be engaged in stories.

[0:53] And I don't know if you know this, but there's essentially, for every single story, there's actually a script that every story follows. It is pretty much everywhere in society of this certain script that they use.

[1:10] And today I want to just explore what some of these stories have. And essentially it comes down to five parts. If you Google this, you'll find this out.

[1:21] But the first part of any story is called the context or the exposition. It is here where the author tends to introduce the characters and the main issue that the characters are going to have to deal with throughout the story.

[1:36] The second part is called the rising action or conflict part. This is a section that reveals their issue and the challenges of life and that they just can't seem to get over.

[1:48] The third part is called the climax. This is a point where a decision is made, an action takes place, where there is no going back. And obviously the last two parts are called the closure and the resolution.

[2:02] And how the characters live out their lives based on the climactic point, that action, that decision that was made. I don't know if you realize this, but our Bibles kind of follow that same structure of a story.

[2:21] Which when you think about it, it's quite amazing. Because the Bible is a book that was written over 1600 years by over 40 men in different languages, different cultures in different countries.

[2:33] Part one, the exposition is Genesis. First three chapters, it introduces us to God. It sets the stage in the beginning creation. Adam and Eve, which represents man and woman.

[2:47] And the problem of Satan who interjects himself into our society and sin. The second part of this story is the entire rest of the Old Testament. How man and woman are trying to return to the harmony that they once experienced in God, but cannot do it.

[3:05] There's just failure after failure after failure. And then, as you all know, there's a climactic part. It's the cross.

[3:17] It's salvation. The thing is, the Bible is no novel. The Bible is speaking into real life.

[3:29] It's speaking about real people. Actual people, actual issues. And we soon find out that we are one of those actors on this stage of life.

[3:42] And this life continues to go around us, whether we choose to admit it or not. I can tell you for the longest time, I didn't see this in Scripture.

[3:52] I really saw the Bible as a bunch of different stories about some good people, about some not so good people. And a story about Jesus Christ.

[4:03] And how he came to this world to offer us salvation. That was it. But I then heard a very compelling testimony that changed my view of the Bible.

[4:18] The testimony was a young woman who was actually a science prodigy from a third world country. She was in the United States. She was studying at a very high-end institution in astrophysics.

[4:31] And I remember just simply asking her, how did you come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ? She said, I grew up in a world where there was no Bible. I did not know anything of Christianity. There was more superstition that guided our family religiously.

[4:47] And then someone challenged me to read the Bible. So she said, over the Christmas break, she took out a Bible that someone had given to her. And she just read it. She just sat there that whole Christmas break reading. And she made this comment.

[5:00] She says, when I got to the Gospels, I was so ready. I couldn't take reading the Old Testament anymore. I couldn't take it.

[5:11] There had to be some resolution for these people. And then she found out it came in the person of Jesus Christ. She had never known about Jesus.

[5:22] She didn't know what he did except that he was some moral teacher. But she just witnessed and testified to the fact that she goes, I was so ready for this Gospel because she realized this Old Testament wasn't just a story of Israel, but it was her story as well.

[5:41] This is a woman who tried self-improvement and continued to try to be the person that she could be. But she could not find a solution to the sin within her, the solution outside of her.

[5:54] However, she found herself often very depressed in her relationships, her health, and in her studies until she met this person of Jesus Christ.

[6:07] And she said, everything came into place. Everything made sense in my discipline of science, my relationships with my parents, and my friends. Everything, she made sense to me. Take a look at your Bibles.

[6:20] Verse 9, I want to call your attention to. Because what we're going to be talking about here is Jesus Christ, and we're going to get into this in a little bit. But verse 9 talks about making known to us the mystery of his will.

[6:36] There was this mystery to the life that this woman did not comprehend. And now that she knew who Jesus was, it was no longer a mystery. The mystery that was revealed to her, which is now revealed to us, is an unfolding of God's plan.

[6:58] It's not just for us. It's for the entire world. It's not just for our salvation, but something that God has been planning all along to make right in this world.

[7:11] And she said, I found in Jesus Christ more wisdom than I ever got from my professors, that I could ever find in my university through the pages of God's word. See, what this woman found is what every Old Testament saint was waiting for.

[7:29] What every Old Testament saint was praying for. What every Old Testament saint trusted in God for. is that God would come and make things right again.

[7:46] That there had to be a plan in place to fix this mess that we have gotten ourselves into. How do we go back to that time where Adam and Eve walked in the cool of the day in the garden in perfect harmony with God?

[8:06] A time of no shame. A time of no jealousy, no pain, no sickness. The world didn't shake and cause destruction.

[8:20] There was no typhoons, no hurricanes, no floods, no fires, no sin. When will it all be made right again?

[8:34] This is what the Apostle Paul is rejoicing here in Ephesians chapter 1. He's rejoicing that the one who is to make all things right has arrived.

[8:48] Amen? That's what he's excited about. That's what he's engaged about. If you don't know, Ephesians 1 is like a song, a hymn of praise for all that God has done.

[8:59] The one who has arrived is the one who will fix what was broken. The one who will bring peace where there is war. The one who will save when there's need of salvation. The one who will defeat the enemy, who will stop the groans of this world.

[9:12] The one who will bring perfect wisdom, bring perfect knowledge, bring perfect understanding. The one to bring strength to the weak, endurance to the weary.

[9:25] The one to qualify his people to share in his inheritance. The one to deliver us from the domain of darkness. The one to transfer us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.

[9:39] And ultimately to bring us those elected in Jesus before time began where we were adopted, known, and loved children to the King. My friends, this is the entire point of the gospel.

[9:55] It is the pinnacle of everything that has ever existed. It's the climax to all of history and all of future. Once this point is understood, everything after makes sense.

[10:12] 2,000 years ago, in a cross outside the city of Jerusalem, this is where the mystery of God was revealed. To both Jew and to Gentile.

[10:24] For everything in heaven and on earth is now understood. My friends, this is why we worship. It's not just for our salvation.

[10:36] But it's that God is going to make everything right once again. Let me read our passage for today. But before I do, let me pray.

[10:49] Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you. For all that you've done. You didn't just come to redeem our lives.

[11:01] But you came to redeem all that is in the heavens and the earth. Father, I pray that we would truly give us understanding to the mystery that was found in you. The mystery that the saints prayed for, waited for, and longed for.

[11:18] Because they knew they needed a redeemer. Someone to save them from themselves. Someone to make sense of this disorder and chaos.

[11:31] So Lord, as we come here, give us ears to hear. Give my mouth clarity. And hearts that are truly moved by the good news of Jesus Christ. In your name we pray.

[11:43] Amen. Let's take a look at verse 7. It reads, Today I want us to look at four or actually five facts of redemption that are revealed to us in this passage.

[12:28] So that you would not only come to a greater understanding of the work that comes through the second person of the Trinity. But this understanding will lead you to a deeper worship and be able to rejoice as the Apostle Paul does, as he does in this letter of Ephesians.

[12:44] What I want to teach you today is I want you to see the glory and that you may worship him in all that you do with the truths that we learn here today.

[12:56] The first truth that I want us to understand is obviously answering the question. What is redemption? What is redemption? To understand redemption, we need to understand the current circumstances that existed in Ephesus at the time.

[13:13] Ephesus, Roman city, third largest city in all of Rome. Scholars estimate that there's two to three hundred, maybe half a million people live there. And at the time they were part of the whole Roman Empire of which over six million slaves existed.

[13:30] And we talked about slavery a couple of weeks ago. But it was a society that you could become a slave by many different ways. You could be captured through war.

[13:41] You could have a debt you could not pay. Or you could be born into slavery. Your parents weren't able to free you. So you were part of this culture.

[13:53] But Paul's using a very specific word here which we use for translated for redemption. The term here carries with it the idea of releasing from captivity.

[14:04] So Paul's talking about redemption to be released from captivity. And if you were a Jew or a Roman during that time and you heard this, you would know exactly what this means.

[14:17] They would have been part of a culture where there would be slave markets. Regular slave markets. People coming in all the time. Buying and selling of people. And people would often save to go buy one of their family members or those that they loved out of slavery.

[14:35] They would put their money together, buy it, and then they would get a certificate which granted that person freedom. No longer a slave. No longer enslaved to anyone.

[14:46] No one could take them. They were free. Now citizens. Or at least respected individuals in that society. So what we see here is that Paul is using this word to release from captivity.

[15:06] Our reality is that every person since the fall of Adam and Eve is born into slavery. We're born into slavery, to sin. We are under total bondage to a nature, as one writer puts it, to a nature that is corrupt, evil, and separated from the Creator.

[15:28] There is no such thing as a person who is spiritually free. Nobody. Nobody. Jesus tells us in John 8, 34, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

[15:48] Paul reminds us in Romans 3, 10 to 12, none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God.

[16:00] All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Did you see the exception in there? You didn't.

[16:10] There is none, right? Everyone. In fact, the Bible teaches that all of creation is slave to this sin. Romans 8, 21, that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

[16:31] My friends, sin is our captor. Sin is our slave owner. And it demands a ransom for our freedom.

[16:45] This is once where we found ourselves. Biblical redemption refers to the act of God by which he himself paid a ransom price of our sin to free us.

[16:58] Galatians 1, 3, 4 says, The Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.

[17:12] Colossians 1, 13, 14 reads, He, being God, Jesus, 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.

[17:30] I don't know if many of you are fans of C.S. Lewis. And, you know, he's got his trilogy, or it's actually more than a trilogy, the book series, The Lion, Witch of a Wardrobe, which is a part of the Chronicles of Narnia.

[17:44] C.S. Lewis actually has an unbiblical view of hell in that. I don't know if you understand that. But what C.S. Lewis held was called ransom theology. And what it means is that he believed that God had to pay this price to Satan to set us free.

[18:00] That's actually not what the Bible teaches. We're actually saved slaves to sin. And because we are slaves to sin, we are deserving of destruction.

[18:14] Destruction that he would be the one to pour out because of his holiness and our sinfulness. But what he did is he's the one who ransoms his Son for us.

[18:29] 1 Peter 1.18 carries this idea perfectly. He says, Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like the lamb without blemish or spot.

[18:50] That is redemption. That is the understanding of redemption. The second fact that we understand about redemption is there's only one person who can redeem us, and it's Jesus Christ.

[19:05] Amen? Jesus Christ who lived a perfect life. He became a perfect sacrifice for us. He was without sin. He was fully man, fully God. Verse 6 tells us, It is Jesus Christ the beloved.

[19:20] Only Jesus has the inherent right to all the goodness of God because we are identified with him by faith that goodness is now also our goodness.

[19:31] What that means is, by taking our place on the cross, his righteousness becomes our righteousness, and that's how God views us.

[19:45] Why did God do it this way? He simply tells us later on to the praise of his glorious grace, which he blessed us in our belief.

[19:57] As we learned last week, this wasn't some emergency plan that God cooked up because Adam and Eve went astray from the plan. We've actually learned that this was planned out before the creation of the world, that God in counsel with the Trinity met to decide how things would go down.

[20:17] There needed to be a perfect lamb, a perfect sacrifice. Someone who was not blemished. Someone who fulfilled the law perfectly. Someone who was without sin.

[20:29] And someone who was willing to do so. Jesus actually walked on this earth for 30 years so he knew he can identify with us. And through that time, walked perfectly in the law so he could say he fulfilled the law.

[20:50] So the Redeemer can only be Jesus. There is no other person who could satisfy all of God's conditions. Fact three, the elect are the redeemed.

[21:03] The elect are the redeemed. Jesus came to redeem the elect, those chosen by God to which we are referred to as saints. What's interesting about all that is there's nothing that we did to deserve this.

[21:18] We didn't qualify by our family, our education, our brains, or anything, or any action. Scripture simply says he did it out of his own love and pleasure.

[21:32] The reality is we will get into chapter 2 of Ephesians and we will really see how undeserving we really are to be called children of God. The Bible tells us that we are slaves to sin, that we live according to the lusts of our flesh, and by nature we are children of wrath.

[21:53] But yet, he redeems us. He redeems those who need redeeming. And the fourth fact that we need to understand, the cost of redemption is the blood of Jesus Christ.

[22:15] The cost for the release of us was the blood of the Redeemer. Blood needed to be shed. We were headed to death. We deserved death, but Christ gave his perfect life for ours.

[22:29] Just what we were singing today. All our sin for all his grace. What a glorious exchange.

[22:42] It's a great deal, isn't it? All our sin for all his grace. That was the trade. In the Old Testament, sacrifices were of symbolic nature.

[22:57] I don't know if you've studied, but Leviticus talks about where they'd bring these goats in, and they would take these goats, and the one goat they would kill and offer on the sacrifice, but there'd be a second goat, and they would lean in on this goat, and then they would take it to the farthest part of the wilderness to release it as a symbolism of where God was taking their sin.

[23:24] Even then, they had an understanding of a picture that there would come a perfect lamb who would take away the sins of the world more than the symbolism what they came with or what they experienced.

[23:39] Matthew 26, 28 says, For this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 9, 12 that he, Jesus, entered once for all into the holy places, not by the means of blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

[24:09] Romans 3, 24 says, And we 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 receive by faith.

[24:28] This is important to understand and I need you guys to get this. Blood needed to be shed. Why is this important? Because there's a lot of people today are teaching that blood did not need to be shed.

[24:45] We see Christian seminaries are capitulating to denial what's called the atonement. This is the teaching. It's the doctrine of the atonement. The teaching of the blood of Christ had to be shed for our salvation.

[24:59] And they start with this fact that, well, any God who would sacrifice his own son must be a cruel God. Cosmic child punishment or cosmic child abuse, they call it.

[25:12] The sad reality is that they're judging God. They're just judging God, right? Us, imperfect, sinful people believe that we can stand in judgment of what God does.

[25:30] It doesn't work that way. Sadly, many people are so blind to their own situation they don't understand this. And it always comes out.

[25:42] They downplay sin. That's the first thing. Well, sin's not so bad. You didn't really mean it. So they start to reclassifying sins. What happens when we start to reclassify sins and call things not sin that God has called sin, just think of the arrogance of that.

[25:58] But what happens is we're downplaying God's holiness. That I'm not so bad. I can stand in God's presence. No one had to shed blood for me to come before God because I'm really not that bad of a guy, right?

[26:14] You know, I do a lot of really nice things. I, you know, I say hi to my neighbors. I don't kick the dog and I love my kids, right? Isn't that enough? You know, people who start to teach this, one, they downplay sin.

[26:27] Two, they downplay the holiness of God. And what happens is when you downplay the holiness of God, you know what you forget about? God's grace. You forget about God's grace.

[26:40] And what happens, you have a God of our own design that really isn't worth much worship. My friends, we need to stand that the Bible clearly teaches that the cost of our redemption was through the blood of Jesus Christ.

[26:59] And the fifth fact I want us to understand on this subject of redemption is what we receive. The term forgiveness that we read here means to send away, to send away, to legally, it means to cancel a debt or grant a pardon.

[27:18] Jesus takes our sin away on the cross. Amen? The blood frees us from sin's guilt, from guilt's sin's condemnation, its bondage, its power, its penalty.

[27:32] Take a look at verse 7. And I really need you to understand this next point. It says, in Him we have redemption through His blood.

[27:48] Notice that we have. That is present tense. That is something we have right now at that moment where you have become a Christian.

[28:02] It is our present experience. It's based on a work that happened 2,000 years ago, but its reality is today. It's like last week we talked about what it is to be adopted into the family of God.

[28:15] That is a present reality. Upon that moment where you become a child of Christ, you were adopted into His family with all the blessings and honor that is deserved of that position.

[28:30] A price has been paid, you have been purchased, and you have been redeemed. What that means is the forgiveness of our trespasses.

[28:47] Your sins are no longer remembered. Your sins are no longer accounted against you. And I need us to really understand this because if you are in Jesus Christ, there is no need to be depressed about your shortcomings and wrongdoings.

[29:06] God actually tells us that He will not hold them against us. Isaiah 44, 22 will tell us, I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist.

[29:20] Return to me for I have redeemed you. A beautiful picture is found in Micah 6, Old Testament prophet.

[29:31] He said, Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in steadfast love.

[29:46] He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. you will cast all our sins in the depths of the sea.

[29:58] Do you understand how important it was when I taught a couple weeks ago of how important it is to see ourselves as saints as opposed to sinners? That's the reality.

[30:10] If you are one in Jesus Christ, united in Him, you are an adopted child. You are a saint. Your position is not one of a sinner.

[30:21] Romans 8 1 2 tells us, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

[30:38] You see, when we ask God to forgive us like we read in the Lord's prayer, what we're not asking for is the sin to redeem us, we're actually asking God to clean us. Right?

[30:50] It's like any time, that's why we read when Jesus at the time of the Passover they would go in and they would wash their feet. You're walking around in sandals, in a culture, a lot of dirt and dust, really you need a head to toe shower, right?

[31:05] But what they do is they just clean off your feet because they already know the rest of you is fine. And that's the kind of prayer when it talks about in the Lord's prayer, forgive us our trespasses.

[31:18] God's not talking about our sins for redemption, he's talking about the sins that affect our relationship with him and others.

[31:30] Now I need you to understand something, what I'm saying very clearly. I'm not saying that we are free to sin, that's not what the Bible teaches.

[31:41] As believers in Christ, we do sin. And when we don't seek forgiveness before the Lord and others, it does something. There's consequences. It stunts our growth.

[31:54] It stunts our joy. It stunts our peace. It actually dulls our effectiveness and it affects our relationship with the Father. It's like when we did something wrong in the home and we knew our mom or dad were upset with us.

[32:10] You knew it, right? They didn't quit loving us, but we knew how we were acting was affecting that relationship with them. And all it took was to say, mom, dad, I'm sorry I did this.

[32:25] And you would take your kids right back into your arms once again. That's what he's talking about. The reality is as believers, we want maximum fellowship and maximum usefulness.

[32:39] God always accepts us as his children because we are his children if you have faith in Jesus Christ. And the reality is if God accepts us as children and we do not accept ourselves as children of God, guess what we're doing?

[33:02] We're calling God a liar. We're calling God a liar. sinner. The reality is we need to see ourselves as saints and not sinners as we discussed a few weeks ago.

[33:16] Why? Because that is what God declares us to be. I'm going to tell you, if you spend more time dwelling on your sin and seeing yourself as a sinner, that's not seen as a sign of humility.

[33:32] It's actually seen as a sign of arrogance. Because why? you're not agreeing with God. If God calls you a saint, that is what you are.

[33:44] If you are a child, you are a child of God. And the fact of the matter is, if we matter to God, we ought to matter to ourselves.

[33:56] Amen? So there's two aspects to the work of Christ on the cross. The first is our salvation. But number two is the mystery which I spoke to in the beginning.

[34:11] It's actually the second aspect is we now have understanding in ultimate things. Because of the truth of Jesus Christ, we've been brought into a relationship with him.

[34:22] We have knowledge. We have knowledge of life and death. We have knowledge of time and eternity, heaven and hell, righteousness and sin.

[34:34] And because we have this knowledge, this should direct our purpose. We know this is where the world is going, right? The Bible tells us that God's going to be a victor, but the whole world is going to reject him.

[34:50] That Jesus is not just about saving us, but he's all about making everything right in creation again.

[35:01] Amen? Amen? The reality is, and you guys know what I'm talking about. I don't know if many of you know before, I spent eight years in the government, high levels of government working with ministers and ambassadors and foreign dignitaries, and I'm going to tell you, they're not stupid people.

[35:23] It's very humbling to be around that amount of intelligence that I'd see. I would meet guys that knew 17, 30, 40 languages, just people in this whole ambassador part of life.

[35:36] They're just, you don't try to be smarter than them because you'll fail every time. But what was interesting is when you got on a subject of religion or the hereafter, they sounded like kindergarten students.

[35:51] Their opinions made no sense at all, no logical reason to it. And I always found it odd that you just can't see how ridiculous the statements that you're making.

[36:05] And we have this wisdom and insight, not because of any great, glorious intelligence that we have, but God gave it to us.

[36:15] Amen? He gave us the understanding that we are a sinner far from Him, that we needed to be rescued. My friends, there is a Redeemer, and it's God's one only Son.

[36:35] And if you do not know Him, but if it's peace, you seek with God, it's the only place you can go for this peace. John 14, 6 tells us simply, I, Jesus, am the way, the truth, and the life.

[36:51] no one comes to the Father except through me. Paul tells us in Romans, if we confess in our mouths and believe in Jesus Christ, He will save us.

[37:06] He will redeem us. If you need a Redeemer, come to Jesus in faith in Christ.

[37:18] If you don't think you need a redeeming, please hear my cry. You do need a Redeemer. Please pray with me.

[37:32] Dear Lord, Heavenly Father,