That I May Bring You In (01/05/2003)

The Goal of Redemption in Exodus 6:6-8

Well, this morning we're going to conclude our study on redemption. We've been talking about the great acts of God, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, his present work on our behalves and on the behalf of his Father and our Father.

And it brought us to the study of redemption, and we've learned that redemption is an all-encompassing aspect of the study of salvation. So many of the different attributes or doctrines that we study within that great doctrine of salvation happen because of redemption and could not happen without this act of redemption taking place.

So that's where we've been. If you would turn with me to Exodus chapter 6 and verse 6, which has been an outline of our study, and this will start reading with Exodus 6, 6, and it will take us down through and sort of give us a review and bring us to the final point of the study this morning.

So read along with me, if you would, Exodus chapter 6, verse 6. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rid you out of their bondage.

I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments, or you could say great justice. And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God. And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and I will give it to you for an inheritance.

I am the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we ask that this time you would teach us your word, you would speak to our hearts the meanings behind the words and the phrases, the sentences, and the whole context of this passage.

That you would teach us what you want us to know of it today, and if there be any new things you want us to see that we have not seen before, that you would reveal those to us from the scriptures by your Holy Spirit.

We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. If you notice the little outline in chapter 6, starting with verse 6, you see it starts with the I am. It starts with Jehovah, God, and this really is his redemption name because it is the first time God revealed himself as a God who wants to reveal himself to us and have a personal relationship with us.

The Jehovah name stresses the personal revelation and relationship part of God. Secondly, he says he wants to bring us out. He will bring us out, and as part of bringing us out, we saw several points.

First of all, it meant he would rid us of the bondage, and he does this for himself, from the enemy, and forever. And then we saw that he says, I will redeem you in this little passage, and he does it with three aspects.

First of all, in power, secondly, in justice or judgment, and you find that at the end of verse 6, and thirdly, in verse 7, let's look at this, and here's where we'll pick up today some new material. This aspect of redemption which deals with power, justice, and the third thing is it deals with a marriage, and we started our study in the book of Ruth, if you remember picturing this beautiful marriage, and the idea of the kinsman redeemer, and you see that in verse 7.

I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God, and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. So we have this aspect of marriage or the kinsman redeemer pictured here as well.

Now this brings us to the third point, and the final point of redemption as outlined in this little passage. First point was I am, my name is Jehovah, it has to begin there, it begins with God. The second point was I will bring you out, and now today we see this beautiful conclusion, that I may bring you in, that I may bring you in.

You see he says in verse 8, I've done all of this, and I will bring you in unto the land. Now that land pictures the promised land. It's speaking of the promised land. The promised land pictures for us spiritually victorious Christian living.

It pictures for us spiritually the spirit filled walk, the moment by moment throughout the day coming back in our hearts to the Lord and saying I want to be filled with your spirit. Now I don't want to walk in the flesh, I want to be filled with your spirit.

That's what this picture is, and if you notice the whole thing of bringing us out, ridding us of the bondage from Satan, the slavery from the world system and from sin, all of those things, and the destruction of the enemy as well, the redemption, the bringing us out of there in power and in justice, it was right for him to do it because Jesus Christ paid the price, and the marriage relationship that pictures this redemption, all of that was to lead us to verse 8, and the goal is that he will bring us in.

A lot of Christians I believe, especially in fundamentalist circles, focus so much on the bringing out, in other words to be separate, in other words to be consecrated, to be different, to dress differently, to speak differently, to not go to the same places the world goes to, and there is some merit in those things as the Lord leads of course, but that is not the end of all this.

That's a part of it, but the end of it is mentioned in verse 8, and I may bring you in. In other words, God redeemed us so that we might be in continual fellowship with him right now. Now there are other aspects of redemption taught in the Bible, and we'll see a couple of them this morning, one of which is the ultimate redemption of the body, but he does not want us to wait until that moment.

We should enjoy this redemption marriage relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ right now, moment by moment in this life. And so that gives us the outline, and with regard to this final point that I might bring you in, I want us to discuss the different aspects that the Bible teaches about salvation with regard specifically to redemption.

Now this will go more as a Bible study this morning perhaps, but it will give you the complete scriptures of the word of God on this topic, you will have them all as of the end of this morning, and counting everything we've already studied up until this time.

Jesus Christ as Our Redemption

The first point this morning is found in 1 Corinthians, and you will have to travel to some other passages, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 30, and that is that Jesus is our redemption. He is not only our redeemer, he is not only the one who paid the price, but he is our redemption, and we see it in 1 Corinthians 1 .30, but of him are ye in Christ, who by God, or of God, is made unto us several things, wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, but look what the last one is, and redemption.

So Jesus Christ is made unto us redemption, he is the person, Jesus Christ is our redemption. That's the first great point under these scriptures we're going to look at this morning, about redemption and how it relates to salvation as a whole.

Redemption for the Glory of God's Grace

Secondly, this morning, turn to Ephesians chapter 1, verses 6 through 8, and you're going to see that that little passage in itself lists, it could be a sermon in itself, lists many points about redemption, but the first thing that I see that it lists, and we've already mentioned this in a previous sermon, is that redemption is for God first, and we receive the benefit of it, but it's primarily for God, and we'll see this very clearly.

Let's start with Ephesians chapter 1, verse 6, to the praise of the glory of his grace. Do you see, that's for God. It's to the praise of the glory of his grace. Now this, read that carefully, because that's not adding glory to God, God has the glory.

We're not going to add glory to God, he has the glory, but we're going to praise his glory. We are going to be to the praise of his glory, and specifically, there's a specific aspect of God, a specific attribute of God, that is going to be praised here, that's part of his glory, and that is his grace.

Grace, the simplest definition we've come up with is the unmerited favor of God, but that doesn't do justice to the word, because you would have to write a book about it to do justice to it, there have been many books written about the grace of God, but it is that aspect of God, his ability to have and be agape, his ability to love his own because of himself, not because of what they are doing, that's God's love.

And the only way that humans can have that, for example in a marriage, is if they are born again, and they then have the love of God in their hearts, they can then love each other. I've tried to teach my children that love can be a confusing word, if a young, one of your teenagers says, well was I in love dad, or is this love?

You can't just answer that yes, because English only has one word for the word love, but in the Greek we know there are three levels, or you could say three types of love, but actually three levels of love, and you have the fleshly kind of love, you then have what's called phileal love, which means the friendship kind of love, and then you have agape love, which is the top of the list, and that's godly love.

In a relationship for our young people as they perhaps meet the one they might be going to marry, that love can begin as a physical attraction, but it must be more than that if it's going to last a lifetime.

It then moves into the friendship type love as they spend time together and get to know one another. And young people, if it doesn't develop to that part where you can be a friend with your spouse, I don't know that you would want to make a lifetime commitment to a person that you can't be a friend with, so you need that type of love to grow from the relationship.

But the highest form of love that must eventually be there and can only be there if both of you are born again, and that is agape love, and that's coming to the place in your life where you love the person because of god in you, despite what they might do or say to you ever.

So you're not loving them because they're treating you good, you're not loving them because they do good things for you, you're not loving them because they're always right, they're always perfect, they're always beautiful, you're loving them because of you, and the only way it can be because of you is because god has placed his love in you, so it's really because of him.

Now when a relationship gets to that point, then I think young people could be at a point where they might strongly consider marriage a lifetime commitment if their love is to that point with this person, because once it gets to that point, it never ceases.

Agape never ceases, so it will be a lasting relationship. Sad thing is the world doesn't know anything about that kind of love, do they? They pretty well hang around the fleshly attraction type of love and think that's love.

Sometimes they move into the friendship part as long as they're friendly towards one another. But that's why so many marriages don't make it. But we see that god is the reason there is such a thing as agape love, and it is his agape love that brings forth the concept of grace, because grace doesn't have anything to do with us.

He does not show forth his grace upon us because of us, because of any good works. Of course, that's why in Sunday school this morning it was so important that we realize that the bible does not teach you get saved by repenting and being baptized or doing any other good thing for god, because salvation cannot come from us, it must come from him.

It's the grace of god, it is unmerited favor, undeserved favor. We don't get it because we repented and pleased god. We don't get it because we got baptized and pleased god. We don't get it because we went to church and pleased god, or we gave tithes, or we treated one another well to please god.

That's not how we get salvation, it's by the grace of god. And it is god's ability to have this, it is his grace that apparently he wants to show forth to the universe and to all the created beings, the angels and all of them, more than any other attribute.

And that's why Ephesians chapter 1 verse 6 begins with, to the praise of the glory of his grace. Now, I read along here, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. So if it is true that the first concept is that Jesus is our redemption, the second concept is that redemption is first and primarily for god himself, the third concept is redemption makes us fit.

You notice this in verse 6, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Now there's another beautiful, beautiful verse that has that in it. Look at Colossians chapter 1 verse 2 for a moment. Colossians chapter 1 verse 2, I'm sorry verse 12, speaks of this being made accepted in the beloved and it actually uses the word to be made fit or to be made meet.

And it gives us two aspects of that. Look at it. Colossians 1 verse 12, giving thanks unto the father which hath made us meet or fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. So that we see god made us fit.

He, two little sub points under this, number one, he delivered us from the power of darkness. This is a part of making us fit to be in his family. And secondly, he translated us into the kingdom of his dear son.

He delivered us from the darkness. That's certainly a part of redemption, isn't it? To be set free from the bondage of Egypt. And then he translated us into the kingdom of his son. Think about that word translated for a moment.

Normally, how do we use the word? Don't we use it with languages usually? And you think of translating something from perhaps Chinese to English. Well that's the only way I'm going to understand it right now today until I learn more Chinese, or I should say some Chinese.

Okay, so the translation of the language is what makes it where I can be a part of this relationship and understand it. Do you realize that the translation of us, we have been translated into God's kingdom.

It's as if we were a pagan, awful, guttural language. And God translated us into his own language. So that we can have a relationship and communicate and so forth. And it's a beautiful word to use. I'm fascinated that they used the old English, used the word translated us.

Changed us into being of the nature of God so that we can have that relationship. So we see that there's two aspects of being made fit. One is to be delivered from the darkness we were in, and the other is to be translated or changed into God's language or God's way.

Our God's family translated into the kingdom of his dear son to be made like Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 14, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. So we see that all of this has to do with redemption, this being made fit.

This being forgiven, being delivered, being translated, many aspects spoken of there. Now I want you to go back though and look at the Ephesians passage. Ephesians chapter 1 again, verse 6. We're gleaning some points about redemption out of these verses.

Have to pay a little more attention when you're skipping around to other verses than you do when it's all in one passage. But several of them are in this Ephesians 1 passage. So redemption is Jesus himself.

Secondly, it's for God. We see that at the very first of Ephesians 1, 6, to the praise of the glory of his grace. And then the third aspect is redemption is what God uses to make us fit to be with God or to cause us to be, as it says in this passage, accepted in the beloved.

So we're made fit. Now the fourth aspect we see of redemption that's found right here is that it is in his or through his blood. Look at verse 7, Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood.

So blood is the price. Jesus' blood was the price of redemption. It is the price that God the Father paid to purchase us away from Satan, away from Egypt, which pictures the world system, the way everybody else does everything, the philosophy, the mindset of this world as it's put out there by the advertisers of the world, as it's put out there by the TV executives, the movie executives, the sports executives, those who run our seminaries, I hate to say, and those who run many of the Christian schools in this country, not this one.

But many Christian schools are run after the pattern of the public school. Those who run the public schools, the colleges, the universities, the medical schools, the law schools, all of it follows under the system of the world and we've been redeemed and bought away from that by Jesus' blood, which was God's blood and that's the price that God gave to buy us and purchase us out of the slave market of sin and to purchase us to himself, which is this kinsman redeemer picture.

He's not only the one who saved us and delivered us and translated us, now he's the husband and we are the bride. So we have a marriage relationship in our redemption and because of that, it's the very blood of Jesus that was the price paid to make all this happen.

We see that right there in verse 7. The second thing we see in verse 7, which comes down to the fifth point here of the fact that it's Jesus, that it's for God the Father, that it makes us fit and that the price that was paid was his blood.

The fifth thing is that it brings forgiveness. You see that where it says, in whom we have redemption through his blood and the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Now I want you to notice this.

This fits in very well with what we studied in Sunday school this morning. Look at this little last aspect of the little group of points found in Ephesians 1. All of this redemption is according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.

That's one of the little phrases you can so easily read over and just continue on as you read through Ephesians and not think about it very much. But when you think of it in the light of our study on redemption that we've been going through, and this little passage alone from Ephesians 1 .6 through verse 8 speaks of the fact that it glorifies God's grace.

It's what makes us fit, that the price is the blood. It's what brings us forgiveness. Look what it says to us here. According to the riches of his grace. So our redemption is according to the riches of God's grace.

And it is in this grace, this grace aspect of God that's being glorified by us. As God saves us in this world and the world sees our witness and testimony and the angelic beings see our testimony and our life, it brings praise to the glory of God's grace.

Because only by grace could he have saved such a wretched group as we were. I didn't quite like the line in the hymn we sang this morning. I've never liked it where it says that we're worms. It should say we were worms.

We were worms before we were saved. We were lower than a worm. That is very doctrinal and true. We were as lost as lost could be. We hated God in our hearts and minds. We hated the things of God. We wouldn't have any part of it.

We hated the word of God. We wouldn't have any part of it. We were like worms. But when we were redeemed, we were bought out of that and translated and we weren't translated back into worms. We're translated into the children of God.

Hallelujah. We're not worms anymore. That's like saying we're saved sinners. I hate that line in that song. We're worms, whatever it says. I'm but a worm. It should say I was a worm. I'm a saved child of the king now and we will rule and reign with him because of our relationship with Jesus Christ now.

And that's the beautiful aspect of this, but notice that this whole redemption, which is because of the riches of his grace, abounds toward us. Now, look at these two words, in all wisdom and prudence, do you realize that no one, no worm could be saved and changed into a child of God on his own?

That's why redemption and all of salvation is of God. What God does at the moment of your salvation is he abounds toward you in that second of earth time, in that instant of earth time when you look up and you say, Lord, what would you have me to do?

You just got saved. You may not even know it yet, but that was your salvation moment. The only way that could happen is that by his grace, he abounded toward you the wisdom to understand the plan of salvation and to see Jesus Christ and what he has done for you and the prudence, which means it's wise.

You for the first time have understanding that the only wise route for me to take in life is in Christ. The only way for me is in Christ. The only path for me is the narrow path, not the wide path that leads to destruction that I've been on all my life.

I have the prudence for the first time to see I should turn from that wide path and turn toward the narrow and that is repentance. The turning is repentance. It's the changing of the mind that the wide, broad path of fleshliness and worldliness and all that the world offers is not the prudent way to go.

God gives you that prudence by his grace. He gives you the wisdom and the prudence for the first moment in your life to see Jesus and that he is the way and that he is your way and that he is the only way.

Way and truth and life and the only way to the father. God gives you that wisdom and prudence. It is abounded toward you in that moment of time by his grace and at that moment the redemptive price that was paid at Calvary 2 ,000 years ago approximately from our time meets you in time and it becomes yours at that moment from your vantage point.

It's really always been yours, you just didn't know it yet but now you know it. Now you're what we call saved. So we see many of the aspects of redemption taught in this little Ephesians passage right here that Jesus is our redemption, that redemption is for God first to the praise and the glory of grace, that it makes us fit to be in his family, it makes us accepted in other words, fourthly that the price that bought it for us was the blood of Jesus, fifthly it brings forgiveness and sixthly it's by his grace that we can even see it and see it for ourselves to the point that we receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.

Propitiation and Reconciliation Through Redemption

Now I find another interesting passage with regard to how redemption relates to all the different teachings of salvation in Colossians chapter 1 verse 14, turn there if you would, and in this passage you're going to see that there are a couple of other aspects of salvation that happen because of redemption and you may have never studied salvation, that's why I'm not sure I ever have until this study this year in my life.

I've always studied the different aspects of salvation sort of one at a time, like okay we have justification, let's figure out what that means, we have reconciliation, let's figure out what that means, we have propitiation, let's figure out what that means, we have different ones, redemption, let's figure out what that means.

I'm coming to understand that many of these fall within redemption and only can happen because of redemption. So look at Colossians 1 and verse 14 as it relates to the idea of propitiation and then the idea of reconciliation.

Now let's, before we go into it though, let's remind ourselves what propitiation means because that's a big word. Propitiation means God was satisfied that the price had been paid for our salvation. Propitiation is something that happens to God, not to us.

It is something that when Jesus died on the cross, this happened to God, not to us. It's called propitiation and it means as God looked down, he became satisfied with the death of Jesus Christ as the payment for our sins.

That's propitiation. Now notice how it is linked to redemption in this passage. Colossians 1 verse 14, in whom we have redemption by his blood, there it shows the price again. Even the forgiveness of sins, there it links forgiveness to redemption.

And it says who is the image of the invisible God. Now it goes and describes the Redeemer himself, Jesus Christ. He's the firstborn of every creature for by him were all things created. Jesus is the creator that are in heaven, that are in the earth, visible, invisible, etc.

And verse 7, he is before all things and by him all things consist. He is still holding everything together and he is the head of the church. All of this relates to this passage that began by speaking of redemption through his blood.

Verse 19, it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. He is all of the fullness of the Godhead bodily or in a human body. That's who Jesus was. Verse 20, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, that is propitiation.

Now the word is not used there but that is the principle. That's what propitiation is. Propitiation brought peace because God was propitiated. God was satisfied that our sins have been paid for by the purchase price which is the blood of Jesus.

In other words, we have been redeemed, therefore we have peace with God. So we see that the very aspect of propitiation of God and the peace that we now have with him could only have happened because of redemption.

The redemptive act is what brought it to pass. And having made peace through the blood of his cross. Now we see the second concept in the next phrase, by him to reconcile. You see, reconciliation could not have happened if it weren't for redemption.

So redemption makes all of these other aspects of salvation that we study individually possible. Reconciliation, that means we are brought back into a right relationship with God. A relationship that had been wrong.

A relationship where we had been the enemies of God. And it is the redemptive act of Jesus Christ giving his blood, giving his life to pay the price to purchase us out of the slave market of sin, Satan, and the world system.

And to bring us into the promised land over this relationship with God. That bringing in is the reconciliation. We are brought into a right relationship. We are reconciled to God. We see that reconciliation then is an aspect or a part of or a thing that's caused by redemption.

By him to reconcile all things unto himself. By him, I say, whether they be things in earth, things in heaven, it deals with more than us. Don't you see? It is for us, but it's not just for us. It was for the whole cosmos.

It brought all of God's order back the way it is. Back out of the chaos that Satan attempted to bring. The death of Jesus, the blood of Jesus Christ, not only brought redemption to us, but it brought reconciliation of God's entire order.

Brought it back into the right state with God. So this goes on and on, what this redemptive act of Jesus Christ on the cross has done for God, for us, and for the whole creation. By him to reconcile all things unto himself.

Everything in the universe. By him, I say, whether they be things in the earth or things in heaven, everything in the universe. And you that were once upon a time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.

That's the benefit we receive from this. In the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy. This is the fit part. He's made you fit to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.

So you see some of these passages are kind of parallel in that they review things that the other passages talk. So now we see that propitiation and reconciliation are both a part of the redemptive act.

Eternal Redemption Through the Blood of Christ

Another point about redemption is that it is in fact eternal. That's why we can't lose our salvation. Look at Hebrews chapter 9 verse 12. You could also turn to 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18. Hebrews 9 12 says, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

What kind of redemption is this? Eternal. Well, let me ask you this. How long does eternal last? By definition, someone take a chance. So let me give someone else a chance now to answer a question. If it's eternal, when could it stop and still be eternal?

Never. It can't. So how could you lose your salvation? If Jesus purchased with his blood eternal redemption, let's read it again, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

Having already obtained. This happened 2 ,000 years ago in our time. After he was crucified and when his body was put in that grave, he was presenting his blood in the heavenlies. He presented this blood one time and it purchased, which is what redemption is, it purchased eternal redemption for us.

Us? Who is us? Everybody that he bled for. Every single human that will ever be born or ever has been born in human history, that he bled for. Every single one that he bled for, that blood then is eternal in its value and its purpose and it cannot be thwarted.

Therefore, for you to lose your salvation would be to say that Jesus' death and his blood were not sufficient to save you and that therefore something else must save you, which would be your own works, which means you're going to hell with everybody else that believes that.

Doesn't matter if you're Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, or Church of Christ. Now, I'm not saying they're all lost. Not all Church of Christ are lost because they don't all believe that. Hopefully, they don't all understand their doctrines because if they understand them and believe them, they can't be saved.

You cannot be saved by Jesus' blood plus. You stop there. I mean, you can add anything in there you want. Repentance, baptism, whatever their five points. You know, believe, repent, be baptized, come to our church and give tithes or whatever their points are.

It's not Jesus' blood plus, it's Jesus' blood. And that Jesus' blood purchased, obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Your redemption is eternal. It can't stop. It's everlasting. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18 says the same thing. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, your redemption didn't come by works you can do that can die away the next day.

It didn't come from commitment that you made that could be changed the next day. It didn't come from something you offered God that you could take back the next day. Your redemption didn't come from anything corruptible.

Which means it didn't come from you because you're corruptible. It did not come from within our own selves. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain lifestyle received by the tradition of your fathers.

You can't be saved by religious tradition like the Roman Catholics believe. Says it right there. But by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot who verily was foreordained.

Here's the eternal part. Look at this. Foreordained before the foundation of the world. What was manifest in these last times for somebody. For you. Now if he was foreordained before the foundation of the world and he was crucified before the foundation of the world in God's mind and he bought your redemption before the foundation of the world in God's mind and it was for you before the foundation of the world.

You were there in God's mind. Not saying you were floating around waiting for a body like the Mormons believe. But you were there in God's mind with your name and your heart, mind and soul and everything about you.

You were in his mind as his child and your redemption was already bought before anything was made. It's eternal. Going back that way and going out that way. That's the definition, isn't it? Of eternal.

Oh, I wish y 'all could preach. It's awful fun. When you get into material like that. Man. Can you grasp the size of this redemption? Jesus is our redemption. It's for the Father to bring praise to the glory of his grace.