In Him: Redemption Part 1

Please stand for the reading of God's word Today's reading is

Exodus 3 verse 7 to 10 Then the Lord said

I have surely seen the affliction of my people Who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters.

I Know their sufferance and I have come down to deliver them out of hand of The Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land to a good and broad land a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the

Canaanites the Hittites the Amorites the Perizzites the Hivites and the

Jebusites and now behold The cry of the people of Israel has come to me and I have also seen the oppression with which the

Egyptians oppressed them Come I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people the children of Israel out of Egypt New Testament reading this morning is in Colossians chapter 1

Reading by verses 9 through 14 and So from that day we heard we have not ceased to pray for you

Asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding

So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing in him bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience patience with joy

Giving thanks to the Father who is qualified you to share in the inheritance of the

Saints in light He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved

Son in whom we have Redemption the forgiveness of sins you may be seated Good morning over to your

Bible. So Ephesians chapter 1, please Ephesians chapter 1 Let's go to our to the word to the text

We'll go to the Lord in prayer Ephesians chapter 1 we'll start in verse 3

Blessed be God and Father the God 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 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 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 spear 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

May it 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 and blessing us in Christ with every spiritual blessing and the heavenly places

And so we saw that this is kind of like the launching point of really the whole book in our whole lives

That we are called to respond of the blessings found in Christ with our own blessing him or Worshipping 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 a 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 come about is the immediate future is our holiness and the end being the immediate versus the

Forgetting the word the far -reaching 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 as 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 cannot 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 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 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 or not 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 And just like adoption in the realm of you know

Our society that process is can be a difficult one to make it legal

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 a depth redemption for adoption to be legal and So we can see as we will pan this out here in these in these verses 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 gonna 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 Heir 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 Heir reluctantly served At this market there was an exchange in which miserable could try and be bought from the service of Prince Power Heir One night in tears miserable asked

Theos the sovereign of the place What price he must pay to be freed from Prince Power Heir 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 Heir 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 Heir 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 in tears with Prince Power Heir 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 Potpourri the other 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 as miserable did and looked just as wretched as him

Later miserable found out that they were all under the service of Prince Power Heir as well

So there's the state of miserable in this in a in a slave condition

And is this taskmaster of 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 a

The prince of the power of the air we all have Satan as our task master as our slave

Oh as our task master is one who who leads us in our tasks that we are to do and That task we are to do is not good for us and it what its purpose is is to lead us to our death so in our natural state we were 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 a slave 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 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 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 they were

They had the most play I want to be care They were most pleasurable work to serve God in the garden, but when they sin their work became hard Ever read that right?

Adam the cursed 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 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 will 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 the dishonorable passions And since they did not see 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 to someone to another authority

And so what God did when we chose sin in the garden and 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? I mean couldn't he have made the 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 it 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 gonna hit again because Paul hits it again. Look at chapter 1 verse 7 in him

We have redemption. We already laid out with the need for it But we're still gonna 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 is that what

God has determined to be is not willy -nilly Just 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? Why is it 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 Jesus 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 It's about being purchased in order to not be enslaved anymore who needed to be paid for our freedom

I know that 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 at 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 a humanistic liberalism? No, the payment is a 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

Well that never makes sense in any reality. I remember I'm gonna 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 and it was just a convenience store or whatever and I remember we knew them very well and I had

Eight siblings and second youngest 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 the ask

I Forget who's working it behind the cashier that 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 cuz 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 it said in 1st Peter chapter 1 Look at 1st

Peter chapter 1 the

Apostle Peter writes go to verse 17 If you call on him as father

If you call on 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 ransom

Ransom, it's it's it's the language of redemption You were paid your purchase right that ransom price was paid to get you out of slavery

You were ransom from the futile ways or the futile the useless ways of sin that you were enslaved to Because your wills were broken inherited from your father's 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 spots

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

And so it is the 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 you 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 me to 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 it's a 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

Let me look at Genesis 321 Genesis 321 right out of the gate after our parents fell after we fell in Adam Genesis 321 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

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 be 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 a sacrifice by a blood sacrifice

It's very fascinating in chapter 4 verse 4 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 sacrifice better than his 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 Then 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 and 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've 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 it notice it says in verse 25 whom

God put forward that is his son as a Redemption price pay 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 is offered in his son

Jesus Christ Redemption enables us to be right with God it purchased us it purchased the blood purchases us from enslavement to Satan This is what we need 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

It's 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 miserable since he had only seen

Theos have a face of scorn Miserable then heard whispers around him that this was

Theos's son The first thing miserable noticed was how this man lacked any chains or shackles

He walked as if he was free and as he passed by miserable There were mercy and love in his eyes and he even made eye contact with miserable

There was a sudden hope within miserable's breasts 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 Pneuma Known to the man came to them

The dove came to the man's dead body and flapped his wings in a most surprisingly powerful manner

Given the peaceful given the peaceful stature of the bird But the power of his wings was manifested and how the dead man came back to life and found his seat by Theos himself

And with a command of the now risen Sun that man miserable is now mine

The pile of blood went forth from the blast of the doves wings to miserable and even crawled up his entire body the robe of blood

Miserable now war gave him the confidence to once again ask Theos for his freedom from the service of Prince power air

With Theos asked by what payment Prince power air began his accusations like before But was this time harshly interrupted by the

Sun 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 Sun was so terrifying with the look of anger in his eyes and power in his breath

The 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 Sun then looked to Theos and said the man

Miserable who will now be called mercy filled is wearing a robe dipped in my blood He wears the payment

I provided in my death and resurrection They asked then looked at mercy filled no longer was scorned, but he rather looked at him with delight

It was the same look he gave his son as he entered into the market They asked 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 to me that I declare to you to be free from Prince power air service

Go mercy filled you are now free to go 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

Sun 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 we have been 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 bearing 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 well,

I'm no longer part of that family I'm not gonna let this I debt. I'm not gonna 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 so to finish this as Application look at 1st

Corinthians and meditate on this later on 1st 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 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 That's what needs to be dominant in your mind Oh Christians when you are confronted with the 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 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 is that this is a bedrock doctrine that since I've been bought with the 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 of my desires

It is submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ now blessed be his name for this great redemption

He's 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 where we were enslaved to sin to Satan We did this of our own desire

Lord we convinced ourselves if I just sin in this way, it would be better for me But in your kindness

Lord You have pre -ordained 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