In Him: Redemption

Well, let's go to the Word, to the text, and we'll go to the Lord in prayer. Ephesians chapter 1, we'll start in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he has set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him, who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of his glory.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, which is to the praise of his glory. Let us pray together. Oh, God in heaven, what a marvelous truth that we have, that we have been so blessed in the beloved, in Jesus Christ.

Lord, for those who have placed their faith in Jesus, we can lay claim to these promises that all spiritual blessings are ours in Jesus for his glory, for his good purpose. God in heaven, may we not, as your people, be hard of hearing now. May our hearts not be hard to not receive this message, this word, this truth with all joy and blessing your name.

It is far too easy for us to come to church with hearts that are so hardened, Lord, and we need the Spirit to soften it once more. We know that he's done the work in total and justification and made us right with you. But Lord, we need the Spirit to make us see these truths and it be beautiful in our eyes once more. To continue the work of worship to you as we continuously need the work of the Spirit.

And so we ask for him now. Lord, again, those who have never received the Spirit, those who have not placed their faith in Jesus, may you even call them and bring them to repentance now by your great work of effectual calling. It may be because your word is declared faithfully here, and for that, Lord, I desperately need your help. So please be with the word.

Let your spirit, Father, apply it to our hearts for the end that we would be holy and that you would be glorified. Thank you for being so good to us. In Jesus' name, amen. well we have started this study in Ephesians in which we began with verse 3 being kind of the launching point of chapter 1 in which Paul calls us to bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ or if you remember worship the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ because of what he has done in blessing us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and so we saw that this is kind of like the launching point of really the whole book and our whole lives that we are called to respond of the blessings found in Christ with our own blessing him or worshiping him all in light of what he has done or the blessings Jesus has given us and so really he lays it out verses 3 to this rest of the section in 14 to 14 in one large sentence one just mammoth section laying out and these are all the spiritual blessings we have in Jesus that needs to be the bedrock of your worshiping the father in him and he goes through them and we see the proper blessings we've already gone over thus far these last several weeks and that is we have been chosen or predestined for adoption we have been chosen or predestined for adoption and we saw that that is an adoption that is away from the family of Satan and to the family of God.

And we see that the motivation for God to do this is because in love for us, because it was according to his pleasurable will that he has done this. And notice the contrast of adoption there. Satan does not love his children. He did not love you while you were in that state. And if you do not have your faith in Jesus and you are still following Satan, I can tell you he is not doing these things for your good, but for your evil.

We see that we have been adopted or chosen for this adoption and it's motivated for the first time because the father has love for his children as opposed to our former father who did not have that love for his children. And it was according to his good and pleasurable will whereas satan not in love for us and it was a evil or terrible will for his children so again we see that the proper blessing that we have is we've been chosen for adoption motivated by a loving father according to his good pleasurable will for the end or the end what what will will come about is the uh immediate future is our holiness and the end being the immediate versus the I forgetting the word the far end would be for his glory So again we are chosen for adoption because he loves us and is according to his pleasurable will for the end that we would be holy and he would be glorified And this is what has been said thus far, verses 1 through 6. But we come now to a very, very important addition to these proper blessings that he's given to us.

Now the motivation of love and his pleasurable will for his glory, for our holiness, that's going to remain the same. Now he's going to add certain proper blessings. So we were chosen or predestined to be adopted, and now there's going to be an added blessing that we're going to spend the whole time on today, and that is being redeemed or redemption as an added blessing.

And it's important that we talk about redemption. Because without redemption, there's no adoption. Without being redeemed, we are not welcome to the family of God. We, again, think of adoption, and it's typically a very difficult process. If you've ever heard of the process or known someone who's gone through the process, which most of us know a few. And it's typically a very difficult process financially.

In some cases, it's a heavy burden placed on the parents financially to pay for the process. And a lot of times the process is difficult as the state makes sure that the parents are fit to be parents, to take this child that they want to adopt. And we see that in the adoption that is spiritual, though, the spiritual blessing we have, the parents aren't the problem.

It's not a question of whether or not the parents are fit. It's a question of whether the children, us, if we're fit to be adopted to God's family. And the fact of the matter is, is in our natural state, we are not fit to be a child of God. We are not born children of God. We're born children of wrath, deserving his anger because of our sin. We are not fit to be his child.

And that's why there needs to be something that comes with adoption that makes it legal. and just like adoption in the realm of you know our society that process is can be a difficult one to make it legal uh to make it a legal adoption so spiritually there is a process to make it legal too and that process is called redemption we need redemption redemption for adoption to be legal. And so we can see as we will pan this out here in these verses and as we go to other verses, we'll see that we are chosen for adoption through redemption. If you have no redemption, you have no adoption being brought into the loving family of our God.

You are not welcome to his table as a child if you are not redeemed by Jesus. So what is redemption? If someone were to ask you, what does it mean to be redeemed? What is redemption? Could you give them a quick one sentence or a paragraph response? And if you can't, as a Christian, you need to get your minds on this, what this means.

And of course, you need to be able to do it in a way that's filled with worship to your God. And if you don't understand it, you're not going to be able to then use this to bless our God. We need to know this important doctrine of redemption. We need to talk about it often and we need to celebrate God in light of it. So what is redemption? To understand it, we must understand the situation that leads up to the need of it.

That makes sense. To understand redemption, we must understand the situation that caused the need for redemption. There was a, once a man named Miserable who lived in the town of hard service. He was a most depressed and wretched person, as was all that belonged to his race and from his town. He walked with shackles on his ankles and he worked with chains around his wrists.

His work was a most terrible burden as he had a harsh taskmaster who was the prince of the place who people called Prince Power Air. Each day miserable would work under the hot sun with little to drink or eat. His chains were tight and his body ached as he spent all day digging a large grave that he heard rumors was marked for him. Each night as he was trying to get some sleep, a market opened up right outside his window.

The sovereign of the market was the same sovereign of the country whose name was Theos, who even Prince Power Air reluctantly served. At this market there was an exchange in which Miserable could try and be bought from the service of Prince Power Air. One night in tears, Miserable asked Theos, the sovereign of the place, what price he must pay to be freed from Prince Power Air's service.

With a stern face, Theos replied with giving him a piece of paper and said with a voice so frightening, do this and you shall live. The next day, Miserable was excited to try and do the things on the list given by Theos. But the items on the list he found impossible to do. What stopped him were his chains about his body and the work demanded of him by Prince Power Air.

Every night he would ask if his feeble attempts for the day were enough, and each night Theos would hear his case. But Prince Power Air would be quick to remind Theos why miserable deserved to remain in his own care. Thus Theos would always firmly declare no, and so he would go to bed and tears with Prince Power Air still as his master. Unable to do the work himself, Miserable decided to employ the help of others.

Each night, a different advocate would come to try and rescue him. One was named Popery. The other's name was Muhammad. The final one was Liberal, but all three failed terribly, which in the end didn't really surprise Miserable, as they wore the same chains this miserable did and looked just as wretched as him Later miserable found out that they were all under the service of Prince Power Air as well So there is the state of Miserable in a slave condition and as his taskmaster is Satan And Miserable is every one of us in our natural state.

We are all miserable in our natural state. In our natural state, we all have the prince of the power of the air. We all have Satan as our taskmaster, as our slave, as our taskmaster, as one who leads us in our task that we are to do. And that task we are to do is not good for us. What its purpose is, is to lead us to our death. So in our natural state, we are in a most miserable state, being enslaved to Satan.

And the task he has for us is our death, is your death. Now that death that we're talking about is a death away from God. The whole purpose of Satan is to drive you away from God. And the way he does it is sin. Your sins are your shackles. And it keeps you from doing the things you ought to do.

Your sin is the shackle that causes you to lead to death. And what shackles you to it, what causes you to not be able to break free, is you have a will that is broken. You are enslaved to sin because you desire the sin and you can't get away from it because it's your passion to do it. We are in the most miserable state in our natural state, shackled to sin with our slave driver being Satan.

And he holds us in bondage because we desire to do those sins. just in case if you answer to me like the jews did to jesus we are well in our language americans and have never been enslaved to anyone john 8 33 only they say sons of abraham we are americans we've never been enslaved to anyone of course beloved spiritually we're talking about spiritual blessings that come from christ because we are spiritually enslaved to satan to do his will with a will that is in line with being in his family, a desire that shackles us to do sin. And if you simply say, well, I'll just stop doing those sins because your will is so depraved and so broken, you will find yourself needing to do it to get by. We are enslaved.

This is our state. In the garden, Adam and Eve were free. They were free before sin. with the most pleasurable work to serve God in the garden. It was the most pleasurable work, a freeing work. They were the most pleasurable work to serve God in the garden, but when they sinned, their work became hard. You ever read that, right?

Adam, the curse, by pain and sweat, he had to work the ground. Beloved, that is a physical truth of a spiritual reality, that our work now that we're in sin is hard service to Satan. It is not a pleasurable work because we no longer work for our God, but instead we work for our taskmaster, that is, Satan. It is a miserable work for miserable people, which is why we are the most miserable people without Christ.

Now, it can be surprising, but you've got to understand that that position that we are in outside of Jesus, that all people are born into is a judgment that God has placed upon his people. Again, it's not as if God was like, we'll see what happens when they sin. But when people decided that I will, when we decided that we will sin instead of serving the Lord, we'll serve Satan and sin, he placed a judgment, a wrath on us.

This is a curse given by God. He gave us up to this sin that we chose at the beginning to be our very bondage. Remember Romans 1, 24, 26, 28. God gave them up to their sin. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. And since they did not fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind.

We see that God gives up people to their sin as a curse placed upon them. That word to give up is paradidomi. And it means literally to surrender someone to another authority. And so what God did, when we chose sin in the garden, he said, okay, I will give you up to that as Satan, as your authority, as your taskmaster. Now the sin that you chose will be your very chains and bondage.

I'll give you up to Satan. Now, why would God allow such a miserable thing? Couldn't he have made the punishment for sin, the curse for sin, just a little bit lighter, just relax a little bit. No, because God hates sin and his wrath comes down to its fullest. So it is the most miserable condition when his wrath comes down upon the things that he hates that he cannot be with.

And we see that even in doing that, there is a purpose that we've already discussed already that I'm going to hit again because Paul hits it again. Look at chapter 1, verse 7. In him we have redemption. We already laid out the need for it, but we're still going to explain what it is of itself proper. And we see it's through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.

But I want you to look at it. It's according to the riches of his grace. So why would he allow the situation to be as bad as it is? Because it's according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight. What that means is that what God has determined to be is not willy-nilly, we'll just see how this goes. but it's according to perfect wisdom and insight that he would get the most glory for what happens.

God knows exactly how to receive the greatest glory for what happens in creation. He wastes not And so according to his perfect wisdom and insight he ordained all to come past including the cursed state that we find ourselves in because it will give him the glory in the end to the utmost degree. Say it another way, as bad as it is, when Jesus comes and heals it, he becomes all the more beautiful.

Why does God give us up to sin? Because he hates sin, he must place wrath upon it, and he has ordained it to be this way, He allowed this to happen so that he would receive the greatest glory in his rich grace that he lavishes on undeserving people. It's not like God is rich in grace and he's like, okay, I'll give you some of this wealth. But he ordained all of it to be a display of the riches of his grace.

This is what our God has done. God predestined this miserable state in order for his glorious rich grace would be revealed. Rich grace lavished on his chosen which enabled adoption is seen in redemption. A, and this is what it is proper, a buying us out of the slavery to sin and Satan so that we can be fit to be his children. To be free. is what redemption means.

To be purchased so we can be free from our enslavement is what redemption is. To be purchased. To be free, we needed to be purchased. Who needed to be paid? See where I'm getting at? If it's about being purchased in order to not be enslaved anymore, who needed to be paid for our freedom?

I know the natural inclination is to say Satan. But no, Satan is an employee of his employer, God. I know, I know, it's hard for our mind to fathom it all, but Satan doesn't need to be purchased for our freedom. God needs to be purchased for our freedom away from our enslavement from Satan. We see that we need to be purchased. Who needs to be paid?

God. And what was the payment? Was it our works? Was it false religion? Was it humanistic liberalism? No.

The payment is the perfect payment in which chapter 7, Paul says, in him we have redemption that is through his blood. The blood of Jesus, the Father determined to be the perfect payment to get us out of our slavement to sin. He is the one who decides what is valuable and what isn't. Not us. where we say my works can get me out he says no it cannot it's only by the blood of christ i it's it's amazing this to see people think well i think forgiveness of sins and i think redemption needs to be according to what we deem to be valuable what that never makes sense in any reality i remember uh i'm going to talk about the party store again the the corner store it was in my neighborhood that we would always walk to growing up in michigan it was just a convenience store or whatever.

And I remember we knew them very well. And I had eight siblings and second youngest. So I got picked on a lot and all that fun stuff. And I remember one of the things that they did, my older brothers, is we rode our bikes to the store and I had like, I don't know, I can't remember now, maybe a dollar. And I was trying to figure out what to do with the dollar.

And they told me, you know, you could probably buy the whole store with that dollar. And so they're like, you should go up and ask, I forget who was working behind the cashier at that time, but go and ask for the whole store. And so me being young and dumb, you know, I was like 16. I was younger than that. I can't remember what age I was, but I went up and I said, I'd like to buy the whole store because I'm thinking there's a lot of candy in here.

And of course the cashier just laughed at me because it was up to me, that dollar would be the most valuable for me to buy the store. But of course it's up to the person who you're giving the money to, whether or not he's going to give up the goods or give you what is desired. And so we see that the father is the one who needs to be paid. And he's the one who decides what's valuable and what's not.

And there is nothing in this world that is valuable that can secure our freedom from sin and bondage to Satan than the blood of his son. This is offensive to the world. It's not valuable to them. They scoff at it. But to the father, it is a most precious thing to him. Look at what is said in 1 Peter 1.

Look at 1 Peter 1. The Apostle Peter writes, go to verse 17, If you call on him as father, if you call on God as father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourself with fear throughout your time of exile. Knowing that you were ransomed. Ransomed, it's the language of redemption. You were paid, you were purchased, right? That ransom price was paid to get you out of slavery.

You were ransomed from the futile ways of sin that you were enslaved to because your wills were broken, inherited from your fathers. Not with perishable things where you ransom, because that's not valuable to God, such as silver or gold. God doesn't need those things. He doesn't want those things. But rather, what was valuable to our Father? with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

God hates sin. And when he sees his son, he says, there is what my soul and my spirit delights in. Because he was without blemish, without sin, he delighted in his son. very preciousness of this perfect son being sacrificed, his blood shed for us that we are purchased out. He says in verse 20, he was, that is Jesus, his son, was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in these last times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.

So we see that the precious blood of Jesus is that ransom price, is the only thing that was acceptable to our father. And it was what needed to be shed and what needs to be applied to us for us to be called or brought out of enslavement to Satan, brought out of that family of Satan and adopted into the family of God. If you notice, if you realize it's an interesting thing to consider, how much blood sacrifice is a dominant theme, not only in the Old Testament, but in world religions.

Have you ever noticed that? Blood sacrifices are dominant. It's a dominant theme that you'll see throughout history. And we see it's a dominant theme in the Old Testament. Now, of course, the skeptics, the liberals, they'll say it's because the Israelites got it from the pagan nations, but that's not the case. Rather, what we need to see is that God instituted the need for blood at the very beginning in which all people went forth from this understanding and is permeated throughout history.

Look at Genesis 3.21. Genesis 3.21, right out of the gate, after our parents fell, after we fell in Adam. Genesis 3.21, what happened as they were leaving the garden? And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments. And what was the garments of? Leaves?

No, that wasn't a good enough covering because that's what Adam did. Instead, God provided a better covering that he needed and that was garments of skins and clothed them. And so in order for it to be a garment of skins, a sacrifice or a killing of the animal had to be a shedding of the blood had to happen. had to happen. And so there, it's like God is saying that you're not going to clothe yourself, you need the clothing that I will provide by sacrifice, by a blood sacrifice.

And it's very fascinating. In chapter four, verse four, we see it again, in which Abel brought of the firstborn of his flock and of the fat portions, and the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. I'm one of those people to think that he had regard for a blood sacrifice. I think that's what made Abel Abel sacrificed better than his brothers because his brothers was one of the fruit of the land.

Abel's was one of a blood sacrifice. God is placing on the minds of his people, and he probably taught Adam that there needs to be blood in order to cover your sins. Because he was placing in the psyche of humanity that you need a blood sacrifice, preparing them for the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. and again I think this is why this is in the psyche of all the pagan nations many of them I should say throughout history but in our sin what we do is we pervert the blood sacrifice and we say we need to give a sacrifice of blood offering to God because he needs to consume it and eat it and grow from it and be able to survive but no that's never what that was about is about the fact that it was acknowledgement that we need you to provide a blood sacrifice to cover our iniquities, to bring us out of this bondage of sin that we're in.

We need the blood of Jesus, for it is the only payment an angry God will accept and set us free from the bondage of sin he's placed us in as a curse. Look at Romans 3. Look at Romans 3. same language here the apostle Paul Romans 3 verse 23 For all have sinned and we all fallen short of the glory of God but yet we're justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

So we see in order to be justified before God, in order to be declared righteous, we need to receive it as a gift that is a redemption, that is a redemption that's in Christ. The purchase, the blood payment. And notice it says in verse 25, whom God put forward, that is his son as a redemption, price paid as a ransom, was put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

So to be a propitiation means that there is an angry God that needs to be satisfied. There is a God who is angry, and to propitiate him means that you satisfy him. You, again, pay the debt that's owed that makes him angry with you. And the only way that happens is by the blood that he has offered in his son, Jesus Christ. Redemption enables us to be right with God.

It purchases us. The blood purchases us from enslavement to Satan. This is what we need. And this is our most terrible position. The need is for redemption to be purchased out by God. And this is exactly where Miserable in our story found himself.

He had a need to pay Theos, God, in the market to set himself free. And his works, false religion, humanistic nonsense didn't work. So he needed something Theos found valuable instead. So one night, Miserable had decided to give up trying, and he especially stopped asking for help, because all it seemed to do was make Theos angrier, which made Prince Power Air more zealous to make his work harder.

At the market that night before Theos, Miserable declared he had nothing to say nor do, for he was simply at the mercy of Theos in his most miserable state. It was at that statement, though, a most handsome man showed up to the market. Theos looked upon the man with great delight which surprised Miserol since he had only seen Theos have a face of scorn Miserol then heard whispers around him that this was Theos' son the first thing Miserol noticed was how this man lacked any chains or shackles he walked as if he was free and as he passed by Miserol there were mercy and love in his eyes and he even made eye contact with Miserol There was a sudden hope within Miserable's breast that perhaps this man could do something about his most terrible estate.

When the man approached Theos, he spoke a dialect that Miserable did not yet understand. He believed someone called it grace. But the man pointed to Miserable, then Theos nodded his head, and then nodded his head at Prince Power Air. And what happened next horrified Miserable, and it was most unexpected. Prince Power Air drew a sword that was created from the biggest factory in town hard service, and he struck a mortal blow to the beautiful man.

Miserable let out a cry, and Theos turned away. Though Miserable had sworn he saw a tear in his eye. Miserable turned away to go back to his bed, more dejected than ever. But just as Miserable reached his door, he heard a command from Theos on his throne, Go forth! Miserable turned around and saw a dove named Penuma. The dove came to the man's dead body and flapped his wings in a most surprisingly powerful manner, given the peaceful stature of the bird.

But the power of his wings was manifested in how the dead man came back to life and found his seat by Theos himself. And with the command of the now risen son, that man miserable is now mine, the pile of blood went forth from the blast of the dove wings too miserable and even crawled up his entire body The robe of blood miserable now wore gave him the confidence to once again ask Theos for his freedom from the service of Prince Power Air. When Theos asked by what payment, Prince Power Air began his accusations like before but was this time harshly interrupted by the son himself who yelled silence and with an anger in his eyes that was only matched by the love he had in his eyes for miserable when he first entered the market.

The son was so terrifying with the look of anger in his eyes and power in his breath that all Prince Power Air could do is fall down and only whimper his accusations from that moment on. It is understood by all that even those whimpers will one day be silent at the time Theos determined. The son then looked to Theos and said, the man miserable who will now be called Mercyfield is wearing a robe dipped in my blood.

He wears the payment I provided in my death and resurrection. Theos then looked at Mercyfield, no longer with scorn, but he rather looked at him with delight. It was the same look he gave his son as he entered into the market. Theos then with joy said, your sin was of a cost you could never pay, but my son's blood is very precious to me, So valuable is it to me that I declare to you to be free from Prince Power Air's service.

Go, mercy-filled, you are now free to go. And beloved, those who Jesus has procured that redemption, we are told by God, you are now free. You may go freely. And where do we go? Where is it that we go? With the payment being made, no longer enslaved to Satan, no longer shackled in sins, where do we go?

Are we libertarians and we say, I'll just go in my freedom? No, that's what led us to be shackled in sin to begin with. Where do we go? Well, the story wouldn't end there, would it? The story would end with Jesus coming down, with the Son coming down and saying, and you're coming to be with me. You're coming to be with my family.

You're coming to share with my family. At the table, the feast is here for you. We don't just go freely into our sin or freely in our own way, but the door has been opened for us to serve our God once more. In other words, we are enabled to be adopted into the family of our God. This is what redemption does for you. It doesn't enable freedom to sin, but instead it brings you into a relationship with the Father in which he is your God, he is your Father.

Jesus is your elder brother, and he brings you into conformity to his image. This is what Jesus has done on the cross. This is why we sing of the blood so much and we'll do it in eternity. This is purchased my freedom away from a bondage to sin. There are people before me who is still in bondage to sin. You are still in deception thinking that this is good for me, this is my life, when it is you burying your own grave?

Do you know that there is a redemption laid up for you that Jesus has already accomplished? Wouldn't you turn away from the sins that you are so convinced is your life and go to this Jesus? Wouldn't you then see that this opens up a whole door of adoption into his family that you are then enabled to live for him? This is the freedom of the Christian. that when we're faced with the sins that once shackled us, we say, I'm no longer part of that family.

I'm not going to let this identify me anymore. But instead, I've been given the power of Christ to overcome this sin. This is the great blessing, the spiritual blessing that we have received in Jesus, that we have been called from eternity past to be adopted through redemption of his blood. This is our life now. And so to finish this as application look at 1 Corinthians and meditate on this later on 1 Corinthians chapter 6 Now the context is sexual immorality. and Paul is calling on them to turn away from it.

But the application is numerous. The reason why sexual immorality is so prevalent is because it really works on our wayward desires. That sexual pleasure really works on the deviant desires of our flesh that shackles us. And so it's not just, although the context is sexual immorality, but it's anything that is a passion that is not faithful or not submissive to God.

And what does Paul say? Chapter 6, verse 17. He says, But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Flee from sin. Flee from disobedience to your God that you once were enslaved to.

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexual immoral person sins against his own body. And here's the main point here in verse 19. 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. Rather, you were bought with a price.

So therefore, glorify God in your body. So that's what needs to be dominant in your mind, O Christians. When you are confronted with the leftovers of sin, you would remind yourself, I am not my own. I've been ransomed by Jesus Christ. I am his now. and because of that reality, I am to glorify God with my body. That needs to be what holds you.

Because if it's just moralism, if it's just do better so I can make God happier, it will get you nowhere. It might get you a little bit cleaned up, but you'll just get messier in some other way. The point is that this is a bedrock doctrine, that since I've been bought with a price, I'm not my own. Instead, I am the Lord's. And so I shall serve him with all of my body, with all of my passions, with all my desires.

It is submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ now. Blessed be his name for this great redemption he's given to his people. Let us pray. Father in heaven, who are we that you would be so kind to us to consider our miserable state Lord, we're enslaved to sin, to Satan. We did this of our own desire. Lord we convince ourselves if I just sin in this way it would be better for me but in your kindness Lord you have preordained a plan to send your son send your son to be the ransom price needed to bring us out of that state Lord how can we as your people hear this and not be excited to bless the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing that is in Christ Jesus in the heavenly places Lord, awaken our souls to worship you in light of that.

And the way that manifests itself is for the near end that we would be holy, that we would reject the passions of the flesh by the work of Jesus so that the glorious grace of Christ would be extolled to its fullest and completest in all wisdom and understanding. Lord, let this be our purpose in life. Let this be what we wake up wanting to do. and let this be how we show ourselves throughout the day that I am the Lord's now and I shall glorify him with my body.

God in heaven, help us, for we are even being justified. We're in desperate need of the spirit each day of our lives. So let us look to him for help, for he loves his people. Praise be to your name for this great blessing. May he be glorified. In Jesus' name, amen.