Ephesians 1:7

In Him We have Redemption

Intro. What would you do if I were to tell you that you just

inherited 10 billion dollars . Party !

A) Pay off your debts / buy a new home / Car / Take a vacation /

help out some people in need!

B) Safe to say that your life would be radically changed .

1) Once you got over how much you would lose in taxes - Your

life would take on a new perspective

C) Now the bible indicates to us that we have been blessed

spiritually in a radical way

1) But too many believers don't realize it & surely don't live like it!

You have heard the saying I can't be out of money there are

still checks in my check book!

A) Often times the problem is that people fail to keep a record of how much they have in their bank account.

1) They don't know what their balance is !

B) The same can be true spiritually . We need to know what our

spiritual balance is . What is in the account.

1) You will be surprised to Know that there is more there

than you could ever dream!

C) The book of Eph. is about knowing what is in our spiritual bank account .

Too often we are asking God for things that we already have!

D) Peace Jesus said in Jn. 14:27 MY peace given.....you!

1) We pray for Joy & Happiness JN.15:11 He says

"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."

A couple of weeks ago here on Sunday morning we began looking at the blessings that are ours from God – IN CHRIST{ Focus In Christ statements

A) v.3 How God has {Present tense} Blessed us w/ Every Spiritual blessing in the Heavenlies { Blessed beyond Belief – All available in Christ

B) Last time we looked at the Blessing of Election – How we have been Chosen By God -

C) Today pick up in v. 7 Consider the Blessing of REDEMPTION

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

The word redemption tells us something about our former state :

A)We were imprisoned – for the word redemption speaks of delivering someone from a bound or imprisoned state

B) During N.T. times in Roman Empire there were 60 million slaves living in empire buying and selling of slaves was a common practice

C.) If a person wanted to free a loved one or friend he would have to purchase him - and grant him freedom with written certificate

1) Certificate was proof of His Redemption – Liberated

D) Now the bible says We were enslaved - to sin, it's power: fear of death - power of Satan – the god of world

1.) man's freedom was forfeited in the garden when Adam sinned

E) Jesus came to buy us Back : Buy us out of our Slavery and Jesus came to delivery us { To set us free } from the slavery of sin !!!

1) The Freedom we enjoy is 3 fold

1^st We are set free from the Penalty of Sin

A) The bible declared that the soul that sinned would surely die / the wages of sin was death. = eternal separation from God !

B) But in Jn. 3:17 tells us that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world thru Him might be saved !

C) Jesus didn't come to condemn / to pt a finger / or to judge came to save! Make a way for man to have fellowship w/ God !

Matt 20:28

the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

D) Jesus came for 1 Reason to give His life as a Ransom to redeem man

1) Took away the penalty of our sin by taking the Penalty of our sin upon himself !!!!!

Notice the Price of our Redemption: Thru his Blood

1 Peter 1:18-19 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

A) The price for our redemption was nothing less than the blood of Christ. That makes the human soul is the most costly thing in the universe.

B) It can’t be bought with money. Jesus asked a question: “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

1) You can’t give anything materially. Gold / Silver & Diamonds :

There’s nothing that has enough value to purchase a soul.

C) Only the blood of Christ could buy back the souls of men, and bring us back into a relationship with God!!

1) And that’s what Jesus came to do primarily. He came to shed His blood so we could be redeemed!!!

D) So thru the work of Redemption & the Shedding of Christ Blood – we have been set free from the PENALTY OF SIN !!!

#2 Set free from the presence of sin! { Forgiveness

A) In Luke 7 Jesus was at the home of Simon the Pharisee - sat down to eat when a woman / who was a prostitute / (sinner) came in!

B) Took an alabaster flask of fragrant oil / wash feet w/ tears / dry w/ hair - anoint feet w/ oil!

1) Now Simon was upset that Jesus allowed this woman to touch him "if real prophet he would know She knew she was a sinner

C) But Jesus did know that this woman was a sinner / But he also realized that she knew what she was that’s why she was here !

1) Real Question was How did Simon Know who she was ( another time )

D) But this woman knew that she was a sinner she knew the presence of sin had permeated her life - she was rotting { PLAGUED BY GUILT

E) Jesus looked at her declared your sins are forgiven - it meant taken away removed! Forgiven & forgotten

Forgiveness - equals - to send away or carry away

A.) Yon Kippur - Day of Atonement – Priest take 2 goats - one slain - blood shed for sins of people / The Other goat was sent away!

B) That goat called the scapegoat would be led out into the wilderness – far away

C) Several priests would leave with the goat, and at each mountain peak a priest would wait.

1) One Priest would lead the goat out in the wilderness by himself he’d untie it, turn it loose, chase it off,

Now when it went over the hill, he would turn and wave to the priest on the hill behind him. It’s gone.

A) He would in turn, wave to the priest on the next hill, who would wave to the priest on the next hill, ….. so on until word came to H.P. who standing at the door of the Tab

B) He then would go out and announce to the people, “You’re sins are gone!” They’re gone! And the people naturally would rejoice.

1)“Our sins are gone! The goat is disappeared and the sins are gone!”

Great cause for celebration.

The two goats picture beautifully the work of redemption in Christ

A)One was killed = The work done / wages of sin is death – w/out the shedding of blood there is no remission

B) The One led out = Result / Sins are forgiven & forgotten

1) Is. 43:25 I will remember your sins no more

C) Your sins have been sent away - east to west

1.) Forgiven and forgotten = free from guilt

Spurgeon O believe me, guilt upon the conscience is worse than the body on the rack. Even the flames of the stake may be cheerfully endured, but the burnings of a conscience tormented by God are beyond all measure unendurable.

C) So people go around living w/ broken hearts in their lives because they are guilty / conscience condemns them { Can’t sleep / function properly

D) Seen grown men who have suddenly come clean on hidden sin { weep like Babies – sob uncontrollably – Weight of their Guilt

1) experience Great Peace – Guilt is lifted

Good news: No matter how many, nor how deeply-seated our offenses may be, the blood cries,

“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

A) It is the song of heaven, — “We have washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

B) Cleanses our Conscience - Guilt -

Charles Finney was preaching in a great revival in Detroit. After the service one night a man said "I want you to come home w/ me, ……. Don't go - but he went.

When they got to the man's house,/ the man locked the door, and pulled a revolver from his pocket. He said - "Don't be afraid, Mr. Finney. I am not going to shoot you. I heard you preach tonight about the Lord Jesus Christ. This revolver has killed four men. Is there any hope for a man like that?"

Mr. Finney replied, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin"

The man answered - "You don't understand, Mr. Finney. Down below this apartment where you are sitting there is a saloon. I have helped send men down the road to hell; I have helped men to rob their own children of food and milk. Is there any hope for a man who would run a saloon?"

Finney replied, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin

The man continued, I have been a gambler all my life. I have spent my life taking money from people illegally. I there any hope for a man like that?"Mr. Finney said, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin

The man persisted. "Across the street there is a wife I have abused, a little girl who is disfigured. One night I came home from gambling and drinking in a drunken stupor. The child ran to put her arms around me and I pushed her away from me. She hit the heater and is terribly disfigured. Is there any hope for a man like that?

Mr. Finney said, "The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin"

Soon thereafter Mr. Finney left. The next morning the man stumbled across the street. He had not slept; he had prayed all night. When he got into the house he stumbled up to his room.

In a little while his wife said to the little girl - "Tell your daddy it's time for breakfast"

She went upstairs and said, "Mama says it's time for breakfast"

The man said, "Maggie darling, I don't want any breakfast this morning.

She ran back downstairs and said, "Mama, Daddy said he did not want any breakfast this morning and he called me darling."

The mother said, You made a mistake; you heard him wrong. Go back up there and tell him it's time for breakfast.

In a moment the man came down, took his wife in his arms and his little girl on his knee. "O wife, he wept, I have sinned against you like few men have ever sinned against anyone, but last night I heard the preacher preach. I heard about Jesus and about the blood of Jesus.

The blood of Jesus has cleansed me from all my sin. You have a new husband. Daughter, you have a new daddy."

That is what Christ accomplished in our Redemption: Set free from the Presence of sin – Sins forgiven & forgotten – GUILT REMOVED !!!

Forgiven by the Lord / So We can Forgive ourselves & Forgive others

# 3 Set Free from the Power of Sin Sin puts people in Bondage

A)I have been to visit people in prison & it is a sad sight - see someone behind bars in a 4x8 cell - or in chains

B)But there is a bondage that is worse than that of stone walls steal bars & iron chains / that is the bondage of sin ! / Sin leads to bondage

“Sin is at first a transgression - but it grows to a tyranny”

C)Ask the drug addict in jail - that when he smoked his first joint did he ever think - become an addict

1) Ask the guys who is steeped in pornography thru the internet - the first time he ever logged on to one of those sights - wouldn’t be able to stop

D) Ask the woman who is an alcoholic if she ever thought her first beer - would take her to this point

1) No one ever does but the truth of the matter is this that - sin leads to bondage

E) Satan’s goal is to get you hooked - in chains - stuck !

Ask Samson: Think he meant to end up Blind / Bound / grinding at the mill - Laughing stock of the Philistines – NO WAY !!!

A)That was Satan’s goal – When putting Woman & compromise before him

B) You see, sin is powerful. It is more powerful than the human will.

It is more powerful than man’s determination not to succumb to it.

1) Sin is a tyrant. It wants to rule over a person’s life.

C) But yet when I’m saved, what I experience is liberation from that dominion.

1) I experience deliverance from bondage to the power of sin in my life. Sin no longer has that kind of control over my life.

Before I was saved, sin controlled my life. The things that I wanted to, I didn’t do.

A) Paul spoke of the struggle w/ sin in this way: The things that I didn’t want to do, I did. What I wanted to do I didn’t do !!

B) And I’m sure that many of you know by experience what he was talking about - That is that power of sin in our life.

1) We see the standard. We know that we ought to conduct ourselves a certain way. And so we put forth an effort.

C) We say, “Alright, I’m no longer going to be doing this. Instead I’m going to do this, because I know this is the right thing to do.”

1) And so we set out to do it. And we find that before too long we failed miserably. The good that I would, I do not.

Other times, we look at our lives, and we say, “That’s miserable. That’s disgusting. That habit is horrible. I’m going to quit that.

A) I’m never going to do that again. I swear I’m never going to do it again.”

B) You take pledges. You make commitments. You set off on my course to never do it again. But it doesn’t take long before you are doing it again.

C) YOU can’t believe it. But you see, that’s sin. That’s the power of sin operating in our lives.

1) But when we come to Christ, and when we’re saved, we are saved from the power of sin.

D) We are no longer under that kind of bondage. There is Victory !!

1) We are no longer doing the things that we don’t want to do.

E) We are no longer incapable of doing the things that we should be doing. 1) Now we are able to do it by the grace of God, by the power of God working in our life.

F) So that power that sin held over me is broken the moment I’m saved.

Redemption means: Set free from Sins Penalty / Set free from sins Presence / Set free from sins Power !!!!

Egypt at PASSOVER DEATH ANGEL – COVERED BY THE BLOOD

A)The Blood was the Distinguishing mark & still is

1) Not going to Church / not keeping the golden rule / not being religious

B) The thing that matters most to God is this: IS YOUR LIFE COVERED BY THE BLOOD !!!!!!

C) All of Humanity is on one of two sides of the Blood

COVERED OR CONDEMNED