September 29, 2011

"And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Hebrews 9:10-14

The value of anything is a function of its demand and its availability.

Also, value is determined by the price someone is willing to pay.

This is why redemption is such a highly prized commodity. Everyone would love a second chance in life but those are hard to come by. In fact, it was impossible to have a second chance until Jesus purchased it through the shedding of His blood upon the cross of calvary. On that cross He bought back in blood what Adam had lost by his sinful rebellion against God.

Adam sold us out when he disobeyed God in Eden. God had created him especially to tend the garden and produce food to meet the needs of his family. When he allowed himself to be decieved by Satan he surrendered the power and authority given him by God. Jesus, born sinless and living without sin, He became the sacrifice tfor our sins to settle the debt for those sins.

Being redeemed means you have been bought back out of slavery and into God's glorious freedom. Through the shed blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, God paid the price to ransom you from slavery to sin and death and hell. As the song declares, "He paid a debt He didn't owe to release you from a debt you couldn't pay".

When God redeemed you from slavery He didn't take you as a slave but He adopted you as a child! As a child of God you are a joint-heir of all the riches and all the authority that belonged to Jesus. So, redemption means you were set free - you were bought back from abject poverty and absolute slavery into glorious freedom as God's child! You have gone from having nothing to having everything!

"Redemption" is a term of endearment! Now you understand why?!

September 28, 2011

"Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 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, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect."  I Peter 1:17-19

There is an old story about a man by the name of John Griffith, who lived in Oklahoma in 1929. He had lost all he had in the stock market crash. He moved to Mississippi where he took a job as bridge operator for a railroad trestle. In 1937 he was involved in a horrible accident. One day his 8 year-old son, Greg, spent the day with his Dad at work. The boy poked around the office and asked dozens of questions - just like little boys do. The bridge was over a river and whenever a ship came John had to open the bridge to allow the ships to pass. The day the boy was there with his father a ship was coming so John opened up the draw bridge. After a moment or two he realized his son wasn’t in the office and as he looked around, to his horror, John saw his son climbing around on the gears of the draw bridge. He hurried outside to rescue his son but just then he heard a fast approaching passenger train, the Memphis Express, filled with 400 people. He yelled to his son, but the noise of the now clearing ship and the oncoming train made it impossible for the boy to hear him. All of a sudden John Griffith realized his horrible dilemma. If he took the time to rescue his son the train would crash killing all aboard, but if he closed the bridge, the boy we be crushed in the gears. John would sacrifice his son. He made the horrible decision, pulled the lever and closed the bridge. It is said, as the train went by John could see the faces of the passengers, some reading, some even waving, all of them oblivious to the sacrifice that had just been made for them.

Can you imagine being in that awful moment of having to decide between your son and a group of strangers?

I cannot.

God can. God did.

John Griffith sacrificed his son to rescue the lives on that train. God offered His Son to redeem every life on earth.

The term "redeem" is extremely significant. To be redeemed means to be "bought back". It denotes the payment of a ransom in order to release a captive. The original language paints the image of a slave who has been bought out of slavery and into freedom.

When God endured the horror of watching His only Son brutalized on a Roman cross He was paying the price to "redeem" you and me. We had been sold out by Adam's sin and held captive in the kingdom of darkness but Jesus, the Second Adam, offered His life's blood to pay our ransom! Jesus' shed blood was the price to buy us out of slavery!

John Griffith's son was crushed to save a few but God's Son was crushed to redeem all who will believe in Him.

You have been redeemed by the shed blood of Jesus on the cross of Calvary! You were bought out of the slavery of sin and into the glorious freedom of life - eternal life - through the Savior, Jesus Christ.

Through redemption you have:

Deliverance from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13; 4:46)

Total and complete forgiveness of sins (Isaiah 44:22; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:15)

Justification before God. (Romans 3:24)

Sanctification is possible through God's Spirit. (Ephesians 5:25-27

Basis for an eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15)

Basis for strategic victory in the spiritual realm. (Colossians 2:14-15; Hebrews 2:14-15)

Basis for adoption as His children. (Ephesians 1:5)

Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!

Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;

Redeemed through His infinite mercy,

His child and forever I am.

Refrain:

Redeemed, redeemed,

Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;

Redeemed, redeemed,

His child and forever I am!

Redeemed, and so happy in Jesus,

No language my rapture can tell;
I know that the light of His presence

With me doth continually dwell.

Refrain

Redeemed, redeemed,

Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;

Redeemed, redeemed,

His child and forever I am!

September 27, 2011

”Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” Ephesians 1:1-10

It was almost 1:00 in the morning when the phone rang. Dr. Leo Winters, the highly acclaimed Chicago surgeon, was abruptly awakened. There had been an accident and his skill hands were needed for immediate surgery. The quickest route happened to be through a rather tough area, but with time being a critical factor, it was worth the risk. At one of the stoplights his door was yanked open by a man with a gray hat and a dirty flannel shirt. “I got to have your car!” the man screamed, pulling him from his seat. Winters tried to explain the gravity of the situation but the man would not listen. When the doctor was finally able to get a taxi to the hospital over an hour had elapsed and it was to late as the patient had passed away 30 minutes earlier. The nurse told him that the father of the victim had gone to the chapel wondering why the doctor never came. Dr. Winters walked hurriedly to get to the chapel and when he entered he saw the father… he was wearing a gray hat and dirty flannel shirt. Tragically, he had pushed from his life the one who could save his son.

Similarly, scores of people push from their lives the very One who can save them from the penalty and the power of their sin. Countless numbers turn away from the One who can save them from their emptiness, confusion, hopelessness, and enslavement to sinful ways. They are to busy for the One who can deliver them from a meaningless life. They can’t seem to find time for the One who can redeem their lives. It is so sad, so tragic because things could be different for so many if they could only find time for the Lord Jesus Christ who came to earth to save us. Christ is the Savior we all desperately need.

Christ Jesus came in to the world to save sinners. In announcing His birth, the angel of the Lord declared to Joseph that “MARY WILL GIVE BIRTH TO A SON, AND YOU ARE TO GIVE HIM THE NAME JESUS, BECAUSE HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS.” (Matthew 1:21) Luke 19:11 says that Christ came “TO SEEK AND TO SAVE THAT WHICH WAS LOST.”

Our text uses another word for saved: redeemed. In verse 7 Paul declares that we have been redeemed through the blood of Christ. He begins his letter to the Ephesians rejoicing in the blessing of redemption. The word redemption is a commercial term borrowed from the marketplace where human beings were offered for sale to the highest bidder. Condemned to a miserable existence these slaves were powerless to escape. Their only hope was redemption, an uncommon process whereby they were purchased in order to be set free. Scripture uses the tragedy of slavery to illustrate our human predicament. Without God’s intervention, we are all hopelessly enslaved to self and sin. We are forced to live in bondage to sin and Satan. Enslaved by sin and guilt, we are unable to liberate ourselves. Jesus said, ‘…. EVERYONE WHO SINS IS A SLAVE TO SIN….” (John 8:34) Sin traps us and holds us, rendering us powerless to escape its clutches. Consequently, try as hard as we might, we are unable to overcome our sin. It might be lust, uncontrollable anger, drugs, pornography, envy, covetousness, lying, materialism, destructive behavior, harmful attitudes, or whatever. In our natural, unsaved state we are at the mercy of sin; powerless against it. In spite of the fact that sin ruins relationships, wrecks lives and brings untold pain, misery and regret we can’t seem to overcome it. Our only hope is Christ who can redeem us, setting us free from sin’s penalty and its power in our daily lives. Describing what God has done for us, Paul says in verse 7, “…IN CHRIST WE HAVE REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS BLOOD.”

The Greek word translated redemption is a commercial term. To redeem something is to deliver it on payment of a ransom. Christ offers to set us free from bondage to sin through the ransom price of his blood.

Redemption is an amazing undeserved life-saving eternity preparing gift of God through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross! It is available to all who will repent of sin and prove it by making restitution wherever necessary.

Jesus paid it all,

All to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow.

September 26, 2011

"Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 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, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect."  I Peter 1:17-19 

A story told by Paul Lee Tan illustrates the meaning of redemption. He said that when A.J. Gordon was pastor of a church in Boston, he met a young boy in front of the sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired, "Son, where did you get those birds?" The boy replied, "I trapped them out in the field." "What are you going to do with them?" "I’m going to play with them, and then I guess 'll just feed them to an old cat we have at home." When Gordon offered to buy them, the lad exclaimed, "Mister, you don't want them, they're just little old wild birds and can't sing very well." Gordon replied, "I'll give you $2 for the cage and the birds." "Okay, it's a deal, but you're making a bad bargain."

The exchange was made and the boy went away whistling, happy with his shiny coins. Gordon walked around to the back of the church property, opened the door of the small wire coop, and let the struggling creatures soar into the blue.

The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ's coming to seek and to save the lost paying for them with His own precious blood. "That boy told me the birds were not songsters," said Gordon, "but when I released em and they winged their way heavenward, it seemed to me they were singing, Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!"

You and I have been held captive to sin, but Christ has purchased our pardon and set us at liberty. When a person has this life-changing experience, he will want to sing, "Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!"

Sin is the rusty cage and you are the bird. You are trapped in the cage and under the control of one who plans to torment you, use you and then do away with you. Such is the lot of every person born on this planet - born a prisoner to sin, condemned in life and doomed for eternity.

Is there no escape? Is there not hope? Is there any chance that anyone might purchase you and set you free?

Jesus did! He redeemed you! The price was His life's blood, but He paid it on the cross to purchase your salvation - your freedom - your pardon from guilt - so you can be set free! Through His painful death on the cross He paid a price for a debt He didn't and one you could not pay.

That is what redemption means! When you repent of your sins and when you prove that repentance by making restitution, you enter into relationship with Jesus through faith. The gift of salvation brings the blessing of redemption!

Do you know the joy of redemption? Would you like to? The price has been paid!

September 25, 2011

"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord," Acts 3:19

I came across this story today and thought it might illustrate the spiritual concept of repentance that I have been talking about.

Probably the greatest barrier of all to repentance is our pride. The story is told of a little boy who went with his sister, Mary, to visit his grandparents at their farm. The grandmother had a pet duck of which she was extremely fond. One day Johnny was playing with his slingshot. He aimed it at the duck and hit it right on the head. The bird toppled over, kicked a few times, and died. Johnny was frightened to death. He looked about and saw no one, so he took the duck and ran into the woods, dug a hole and buried it.

He and Mary always divided the chores, and that evening it was her turn to do the supper dishes. But instead, Mary turned to him after supper and said, "Johnny, you do the dishes tonight." "You're crazy," he said. "This is your night; I am going out to play." Mary said, "Come here. I saw you kill that duck this afternoon. If you don't do exactly what I tell you to do, I am going to tell Grandma what you did. You know what that means. It was her prize duck." "All right," said Johnny, "I will do the dishes."

Next time it was Mary's turn the same thing happened, and this went on for two weeks. Johnny was going around with his tongue hanging out. Every time he would bring up the matter she would always say, "Johnny, remember the duck!" At last he couldn't stand it any longer. Mary had gone to town, and his grandmother was sewing. Johnny went in and stood around and twisted his ear and bit his nails, and finally he said, "Grandma, there is something I just have to say." "What is it, son?" she asked. He said, "It is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, Grandma. About two weeks ago I was playing with my slingshot and I shot at your duck and I killed it."

The grandmother wiped a tear from her cheek, and she reached out and said, "Come here, son." She put her arms about him. "I was sitting upstairs by an open window, and I saw you kill that duck." And then she added, "I wondered how long you were going to take this bondage to Mary. I have watched her give you orders for two weeks, and I wondered how long it would be before you came to me."

Our heavenly Father has seen everything that you and I have done. He himself has taken the consequences of those things by giving his Son to die for us. He is waiting for you to come and confess it, to acknowledge it and say, "Lord, here I am. I want a fresh start. I want a new day in my life. I want a new beginning. I want a new birth. I want to be yours from this moment. I repent. I am coming home."

This will only be the beginning, but the beginning of a wonderful new relationship. Once we have repented, we will still need to confess our daily failures, but now we are heading in a new direction. We are on God's side. We are assured of his unending love, assistance and companionship. And it is a relationship that will last forever. Death itself was defeated in Jesus' resurrection so even that cannot rob us of our Father's love. The greatest things are yet to come.

Humble yourself. God knows your secret sins. Repent and run into His waiting arms!

September 24, 2011

“John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?  Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."  Luke 3:7-9

Wow! Vipers?

How would you feel if someone called you a snake?

 

John the Baptist was pretty rough on these guys. Why did He do that? It doesn't sound much like something like a preacher would say - but he did!

What had John so riled up? Why the attitude? Did he get some bad locusts for breakfast?

If you understand what is going on in these few verses you will understand why He responded so harshly to them.

 

The short, answer is they were phonies and they wanted John to sanction their phoniness. There was nothing phony about JTB (John the Baptist).

 

What they wanted is something we are all too familiar with, they wanted the perks of faith without paying the price. They wanted to be thought of as spiritual without having to make any changes on the inside. Like many Christians today they wanted something to happen TO that but weren't willing to allow much to happen IN them.

 

As you would imagine, John would have none of that! He told them that what you are on the inside will be exposed by how you act on the outside. Like you won't see peaches on an apple tree, you won't see the fruits of repentance on one who hasn't repented. They needed to repent before they could be bapized. They needed to humble themselves and enter into a personal relationship with God rather than trust in their religious ceremonies.

 

How about you? What are you trusting? Are you doing religious and depending on religious symbols and ceremonies rather than repenting to God and allowing Him to fundamentally transform your heart and mind.

 

Just getting baptized will leave you a wet hypocrite if you have not truly repented. If you have truly repented than it should be showing in your attitudes and your actions.

 

What are those fruits you should be looking for? Read the rest of the verses. I will deall with it more tomorrow.

 

Why be a snake when you can be a saint?

 

 

 

 

 

September 23, 2011

J. Edwin Orr, a professor of Church history has described the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the Welsh Revivals of the nineteenth century. As people sought to be filled with the Spirit, they did all they could to confess their wrong-doing and to make restitution. But it unexpectedly created serious problems for the shipyards along the coast of Wales. Over the years workers had stolen all kinds of things, from wheelbarrows to hammers. However, as people sought to be right with God they started to return what they had taken, with the result that soon the shipyards of Wales were overwhelmed with returned property. There were such huge piles of returned tools that several of the yards put up signs that read, "If you have been led by God To return what you have stolen, Please know that the management Forgives you and wishes you to keep what you have taken."

What this story illustrates is called "restitution". Restitution is a spiritual principle that means you makes things right that you have done wrong because you have now been made right.

So, the question becomes, “How do I know when someone has repented?” John the Baptist (or John the Wesleyan as I prefer to call him) gives some great insights on that very question! There would be some great value in hearing what he has to say. Turn in your Bibles to Luke 3:7-14

“John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.  John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”  Tax collectors also came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”  “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”   Luke 3:7-14

TRUE REPENTANCE IS PROVEN BY TRUE REFORM! THAT IS CALLED “RESTITUTION” AND IT IS THE POWERFUL AND CREDIBLE PROOF THAT CHANGE HAS HAPPENED.

One powerful picture of what restitution looks like in found in the story of Jesus' encounter with a tax-collector named Zacchaeus. Here's the story:

"Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”  Luke 19:1-10

In the Roman Empire a tax collector was usually chosen from among the people in that local area and he was given authority to assess and collect taxes from his our countrymen. The Romans gave him an amount that they wanted to receive from each citizen and he could charge however much above that amount as he felt he could get away with. Because of this, these tax collectors were despised by their fellow citizens.

After years of collecting taxes from his countrymen, the tax collector learned how much he could get away with charging. So he literally had a license to steal!

Zacchaeus had a strong desire to meet Jesus and spend some time learning about Him and from Him. Little did he know how much Jesus desired to be with him! After they met and he listened to Jesus teach he repented and evidenced an amazing conversion. So changed was he that he made a commitment to Jesus to give one-half of all He had to the poor and pay back 400% of any money he had stolen. This was a significant financial hit for Zach, but he was willing to do it because he wasnted Jesus so bad!

RESTITUTION IS THE HOPE ASSOCIATED WITH CHANGE! RESTITUTION IS THE PROOF OF REPENTANCE!

RESTITUTION IS MAKING THINGS RIGHT BECAUSE YOU’VE BEEN MADE RIGHT!

Let me ask you, "Have you truly repented of your sins?" "Have you experienced a deep fundamental spiritual transformation? Are you giving evidence by a changed life? Are you making things right that you did wrong prior to your supernatural transformation?