Redeemed By The Lord

Please turn your Bible to Isaiah 43. It's been a while since we've been in Isaiah.

By the way, that can be found on page 603 of the Pew Bible. It's been a while since we've been in Isaiah, but we are in the second half of the book, which begins in chapter 40 and speaks of the salvation that God will bring the people as he carries them out of Babylon.

But of course, ultimately is foreshadowing the coming of the gospel itself.

Isaiah 43, please stand when you have that. I'll read verses one through seven.

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you.

For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom,

Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes and honored and I love you,

I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not for I am with you.

I will bring your offspring from the East and from the West, I will gather you. I will say to the

North, give up and to the South, do not withhold. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth.

Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made, amen.

Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask that your words would be words of life to us, that they would grant us a clear view of your truth, that they would grant us a clear peace that passes all understanding.

We pray that you would comfort your people today. In Jesus' name, amen. This passage speaks of the redemption that God has planned for his people, despite the fact that they have not listened to him previously, despite the fact that he has disciplined them and tried to correct them and they have not listened.

He has a plan to save them. And this is true, as I mentioned moments ago, not just of the people as they go into Babylon and will be brought out of it, but it is more true, it is more importantly true of people individually as they are saved by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

They dwell in their sin for some time like the man that we just read about in 1 Corinthians 5, who was to be handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.

People experience what it is like to serve themselves and to be afflicted by the enemy, weighed down by the guilt that is heaped on by the accuser, the accuser having his power only through one who has not turned to the

Lord Jesus and so been forgiven. And they experience that and are so weighed down, but then

God, through his loving kindness, redeems people for himself. And it is through that redemption that we have a great confidence of the work that he is doing for our sake, so that we may not be fearful, but courageous, joyful.

It's important to recognize what's going on in context here. Just looking at the previous verse, it says, so he poured on them the heat of his anger and the might of battle.

It set him on fire all around, but he did not understand. It burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.

This whole previous passage has talked about God's hand in discipline against the people.

They have not been corrected. They are supposed to hear, but they have not heard.

Started that previous passage in verse 18 with hear you deaf and look you blind. Who is blind but my servant or as deaf as my messenger whom

I send? Talks about God trying to get his messenger to wake up, to see, to hear, and nothing is happening, though he pours on his fury, his anger on them, they do not wake up, they do not hear, but he will act out of love, redeem them, open their eyes so that they will respond to the truth, so that they will know what is good, so that they will do what is good, so that they will have the peace of God, so that they will be preserved and have prosperity.

These words are all written. Many years before Babylon comes and takes the people away into captivity, yet they prophetically tell of this, and they prophetically tell that not only will the people go away into captivity and to Babylon, but they will be restored from it.

There are several things that this passage gives us to give us confidence about God's work.

It speaks of him, first of all, as creator. It says, but now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, God created this people,

Israel, Jacob being another name for the people, given that they were formed out of the man

Jacob, he created them. He created them by preserving them as they went into Egypt, and then bringing them out greater in number, bringing them into the promised land, giving them prosperity through it, preserving them through the judges, as we just read, and then giving them a king to reign over them.

He has created that people. It is that hand of creation by which we know that he has the power to save.

If you remember in Isaiah 42, repeatedly the notion of creation and saving power went hand in hand.

It said in verse five of chapter 42, thus says God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it.

I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. So how does he introduce himself there to know that he has the power to save the people as he takes them by the hand?

He's the one who put breath in them. He is their creator. He's the one who stretched out the heavens, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it.

He has created all things. That is the foundation of our confidence in him. He has created

Jacob. He has created you. He's capable of saving your soul. It says, he who formed you, oh

Israel, fear not for I have redeemed you.

So not only his creation, but also his redemption, his redemption in part being indicated by this change in name.

Now, a lot of time this parallelism is reinforcing something in different ways, but here I believe there is an intentional transition from Jacob to Israel.

There's a particular point where God named the man Jacob, Israel, in his story.

As he had wrestled with the angel, the angel being the son of God, pre -incarnate, as he wrestled with him and he has named this as one who had wrestled with God, God has given him a name.

And then it even says that he calls him by that name later. I have called you by the name, by name, you are mine.

So God has redeemed his people. He will bring them out of Babylon. The word redeem means something similar to the way that you might be used to using it to talk about a coupon or a gift card or something.

You redeem that, you are purchasing something. When a people is redeemed out of slavery, out of bondage, they are being purchased out of bondage.

And that's what the word indicates. It indicates a purchasing. Typically, like in a situation like this, out of bondage, the people will be in bondage in Babylon.

They'll be purchased as a slave out of Babylon. They'll be purchased to no longer serve

Babylon, but rather to serve the Lord. They will be his. It says, you are mine. That is a statement of ownership.

It's not just a statement of fond relations, although it includes that in this case with the

Lord, but it is a statement about service. God is a good master. There is not an option of serving no one.

You either serve God or you serve money. That is, you serve your own pleasures. You serve your own felt needs at any given point in time.

Man cannot have two masters. He also cannot have zero masters.

So God redeems man out, calls him by name. So not only does he purchase him out as a slave, but he does so in a gentle way.

Now, you see in Babylon, as the people go off, those who are in high positions are given new names.

Daniel is called Belteshazzar. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are various Babylonian names of Hebrew men that are given other names in the book of Daniel, that have other given names in the book of Daniel.

But it, speaking of, I have called you by name, indicates not only God's ownership, but also his particular care for the people as we see as we continue reading through here.

And it says in verse seven, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom

I formed and made. His calling by name is not just,

I am placing a name on you as an owner of you, but in a special way because you are for my glory.

This is something that's true of the people Israel as they're brought out of the land, that he cares for that people in that way, as they're redeemed from Babylon.

But it is likewise something that is true of God's people, of all God's people, those who are believers in Jesus Christ.

It describes this in Revelation chapter two, verse 17.

Now this is, these are figurative images, many of them that you get in Revelation.

I believe this one should be taken more literally, at least some parts of this more literally.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna.

I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

Have you ever wondered what you will be called in the eternal state? Would you just keep your own name or would you be given a new name by the

Lord who has redeemed you? I believe this passage is saying that you wouldn't just get whatever name your parents happened to have given you, but you would receive a new one special from him.

And on what account? In Revelation 19, 11, it says, then I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse.

The one sitting on it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems.

And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he is called is the word of God.

So he's called one name, the word of God. This is of course, Jesus Christ. But he has a name that no one knows.

The status that we have is one that we have in Jesus Christ. The reason why we are able to be called sons of God is because we have been found in, if we trust in him, we are found in the only begotten son of God.

The reason why we get to inherit all of creation, it's not because we deserve any of that as sons, but because he is the son who inherits all of creation.

And us and him get to share in that status. Why is it that we get special names?

Why is it that he calls us by name? Because he is called him by name. These benefits of redemption are only had in the one who gives redemption.

They are all had in Jesus Christ. All of this points to the need for a perfect savior. How would the wrath that is described in the previous passage be taken away?

God, in correcting the people over and over and over, none of these things bring them to him ultimately apart from some special act of love in them to transform them.

Now God uses difficult things to turn people to himself, but those difficult things are not enough to change the heart of a man.

They could be beaten down and beaten down and beaten down and none of those would turn people to God apart from the special love of God on them that would renew them.

And that is all found in Jesus Christ. He is the one, he is the servant of the

Lord. Isaiah 42, verse one. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights.

I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street.

Bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law.

How is it that we can be servants of the Lord through the one that the previous chapter speaks of, the ultimate servant of the

Lord, Jesus Christ? The benefits of redemption that we will see here are not things that anyone has apart from him.

If you do not know him, turn to him. Trust in him. He offers forgiveness, he offers it freely.

You must believe that he has accomplished what he has claimed, what he claims to, in his word, have accomplished, which he has accomplished.

And that is the defeating of death, the conquering of the power of the enemy. The enemy still exists.

He won't be tormented until that final day, but his power has been taken from him and that he can no longer accuse those who are in Christ Jesus because there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The things that we see in this previous passage, these people afflicted who are blind and deaf, these things no longer are the case for those who have trusted in Jesus Christ.

Turn to him. Walking through these, walking through these, we can have the freedom from sin that is described here.

When it says, hear you deaf and look you blind that you may see. Who is blind but my servant or deaf as my messenger whom

I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one or blind as a servant of the Lord? He sees many things but does not observe them.

His ears are open, but he does not hear. This is the natural state. The natural person does not understand the things of God because they are foreign to him.

They are spiritual. He cannot discern them because he doesn't have the spirit of God. That's what 1 Corinthians 2 explains. This is the natural state.

The reason why people do not believe in Jesus Christ is not because there has been, not been enough evidence given to them.

There's been plenty of evidence. There has been ample evidence. Ever since they were born, they see the power of God in all creation.

But when they hear the saving gospel of Christ, how much is needed to be sufficient? Those who reject them, it is out of their, it is out of that natural, having been born in a sinful state that they reject

Jesus Christ. But what God has done in loving people through him is to grant them eyes to see.

You yourselves can have eyes to see. Maybe you are thinking to yourselves, I already have eyes to see because I already have the spirit of God.

Know that, and I'm certain that you have observed this in others, that not every Christian has the same kind of clarity when they hear

God speak. Why do you think that is? It is not because the work of God is insufficient, but there is a, there is a reliance on the spirit that is conducive to greater understanding.

Even as we've seen in 1 Corinthians, as we've been reading through it, those

Corinthians who do not have a full understanding of the word of God, because even though they have been saved by the spirit, even though they have the mind of Christ, they are not relying on the mind of Christ as they ought.

And so they are not understanding the truth as they ought. But as Paul teaches them, he is only teaching them as children who are fleshly and cannot understand the things of the spirit.

He's not saying that they don't have the spirit at all. He's not claiming that they are not

Christians. What he is acknowledging is that there is a reality to the fact that even when someone believes and has their eyes open, there is still a residual blindness that comes from the corruption that has not been perfectly dealt with.

But you may see and understand it as you trust in the spirit of God. What does that mean?

It means coming to the Bible prayerfully, humbly, knowing that it is a spiritual endeavor to receive

God's truth. When you sit under the preaching of the word, it is not just by your own natural strengths that you will receive the things that are preached.

The reason why we pray before the messages, et cetera, that God would open our eyes, et cetera, is because it's necessary.

He needs to open our eyes in order for us to receive these things. Consider conversations that you've seen between believers about spiritual things where one has disagreed with the other.

How many of those have been because at least one side, if not both sides, is fixated on earthly things?

And by fixated on earthly things, let me bring that down to earth for you, having emotional reactions to truths that threaten certain things that they value, certain idols that they have.

They might even seem like good things, some comforts that they have. Maybe they are like we've been reading about in 1

Corinthians. Maybe there are things located in teachers that this would mean that a teacher that they appreciate is wrong.

And that's what's emotionally keeping them from receiving something. Maybe it means some kind of implication for their daily comforts as they go about their life that that would mean that they couldn't enjoy that comfort because it was actually sinful or maybe it's not sinful but it's distracting them from the things of God.

And so that's at war with them receiving the truth. So all kinds of things that keep people, even those who have the mind of Christ, from not living as though they have the mind of Christ.

Christ has died and been risen to redeem a people.

You are commanded to enjoy the benefits of that redemption. One of the benefits is having open eyes, having open eyes.

Have that spirit of self -control, have that fruit of the spirit of self -control that you can receive the things of God without warring against them, your own corrupt nature, that residual indwelling corruption that must be mortified, that must be killed daily every day as you go to the word of God in prayer, as you continue following after him.

Resist that corruption that would draw you away from receiving God's truth humbly.

Likewise, being free from this condition that is described here is not only from the blindness that is described here, but also the inaction that is described here.

People who have been redeemed by God, redeemed by Christ, are free not only to know the truth, but to walk in the truth.

It continues on in verse four. Behold, you are, excuse me.

It continues on in verse 21. The Lord was pleased for his righteousness' sake to magnify his law and make it glorious.

Now, that's a difficult passage, but when we went through this, I explained that this is speaking of God's desire to have a people for himself that would obey his law, that shows that the law is good so that he can render blessings on the people as they are walking in his ways and demonstrate that his law is good because his law comes from his own nature, and so it is showing that he himself is good.

But this is a people plundered and looted, et cetera. They have not walked in his ways, and so he is not able to demonstrate in them the goodness of his law because they aren't walking in it.

You are free to bear the fruit of the Spirit to walk in the ways of God. So few people get excited about that freedom.

They're like someone who is set free from prison who's been told that they earned their freedom and yet says, you know,

I've come to really enjoy the lunches here. I think I might just stick around for a bit. That is a foolish way to live the

Christian life. Living freely is not remaining in the prison. It's enjoying the rest of the world that God has given.

You are to walk in the ways that he has given you. Do not continue in sin, but bear the fruit of the

Spirit. Fruit of the Spirit is love. Love one another.

When you have anger in your heart towards brothers and sisters, do not see that as something that is justified.

See that as something that needs to be mortified. See that as something that represents fear.

What does he say here? He says, fear not for I have redeemed you. All these things that I'm going to address today are essentially outflowings of fear.

Okay, when you resist the truth and do not receive it properly, why is that?

It's fear for something else, as I just explained, right? Fear that it will threaten some comfort you have or some security that you have.

Why is it that you wouldn't walk in God's ways? Because you have some fear that his ways are not the best ways and your ways are better.

Why is it that people are anxious about things? It's because they do not trust the hand of the

Lord in their life. They do not trust what he is doing, either in giving them a particular command to follow or in the circumstances that he has placed them into.

Fruit of the Spirit is also joy. A lot of people see their depression, their sadness, their general gloominess as a justified thing because of the circumstances that they're in.

But why does that gloominess exist? It exists when it is not appropriate.

There are some things that ought to be mourned, but that gloominess exists because there is a pessimism. What is pessimism?

Pessimism is fear. Where does that fear come from? Not enjoying the benefits of redemption, understanding that God is for you if he has redeemed you through Jesus Christ.

If he has given us his son, how much more will he give us all things? If he is for us, who can be against us?

Fruit of the Spirit is peace. We are to be at peace with God. We're not to be anxious. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control, all these things.

I could walk through all of them. Self -control might be a particularly good one to walk through because it's something that a lot of people lack.

It relates to what I was speaking of earlier with people who are not able to receive the truth.

What's going on? Well, it's a lack of self -control. They need to rein in their emotions so that they can receive the truth.

Self -control affects all kinds of things. Why is it that obesity is such an epidemic?

Now, I'm not saying there's nothing to the arguments about the kind of food that we eat. Maybe there's a lot to that.

But is it not the case that people lack the fruit of the

Spirit, that they lack self -control? Is it not the case that when people decide to dwell in their depressed state, refusing to get out of bed and excuse all kinds of isolating, anti -social behavior, and think that that's justified, is that not just a lack of self -control?

They tell themselves that they can't do otherwise? They're telling themselves they can't control themself.

They can't do otherwise. I can't control myself. God has given us

His Spirit. He has given us the benefits of redemption. It is your responsibility to enjoy the benefits of redemption.

They can be had through abiding in Him, through going to His Word, through prayer, stirring up that Spirit within you to experience these things.

We can be free from sin to know the truth, to follow in God's ways, to walk in the truth.

We can also be free to have peace, to have peace, to have God's providence, to have prosperity.

We can be free to have peace before God. How many people are anxious and angry and guilty?

What are all these things? They are things that represent lacking peace with God. People are anxious because they feel at odds with God.

They do not think that He is for them. They think that He is against them. They do not realize, if they are

Christian, they do not realize that they've been called by name. And if they are not a Christian, it's because they haven't been called by name and they actually are against Him.

These things can all be resolved by turning to Jesus Christ and trusting in Him, being anxious for nothing, because tomorrow will take care of itself.

God is taking care of you now. He cares for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, up high, down low.

He cares for all of that. Why would He not also care for you? He has given His own Son for you.

Of course He cares for you. There is,

God's providence also works for us. We read in this passage here. This is a people plundered and looted.

They are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons. They have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say restore.

Who among all of you will give ear to this, will attend and listen for the time to come? Who gave up Jacob to the looter and Israel to the plunders?

Was it not the Lord against whom we have sinned and whose ways they would not walk and whose law they would not obey?

You see this, the people because of their sin have been given over to plunders.

They've been given over to Babylon or to other nations as well, but primarily Babylon. And why is that the case?

It is because God is against them. They do not realize or some of them may that God has handed them over.

This is not just because He's not doing anything. He is the very one who's handing them over. Many people, this is how they live their life with God's hand against them in their providence.

They are building up their barns only to have that barn taken away from them. You fool, this very night, your soul will be taken from you.

And many who are believers live as though God's hand of providence is against them.

They're always watching out, kind of on guard. They think that if things are going good in their life, and I know

I used to feel this way often too, if things were going good in my life, I felt like, boy, something's coming around.

God's gonna bring something to humble me or something. I'm not used to long seasons of prosperity.

You don't have to live like God's hand is against you. You don't have to read good things as things that God would necessarily take away in anger.

You can have gratitude for them so that you're not grasping onto them. And if you have gratitude for them, then they can be taken away and it's not a big deal because you enjoyed them while you had them and you're able to enjoy the fact that you had had them.

But then it is also the case that if you experience difficulties, you can know that it is for good as well.

A passage that I neglected to go over this morning in 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians 1, verses 5 through 12.

I'd like to cover this because it's relevant here. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering.

Okay, so the Thessalonians, out of all the churches we see in the New Testament, the Thessalonians really seem to be under the most persecution since indeed

God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the

Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the

Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed.

To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and we may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power so that the name of our

Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our God and the

Lord Jesus Christ. So why is it that they are experiencing suffering? Why is it that they're experiencing persecution?

Should they think that God is against them in this? Should they think that God is absent? What should they think?

This is actually God being for them. It is so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering.

The Bible says that you must suffer with Christ in order that you may also be glorified with him. It's important that you be able to be identified with your savior since indeed

God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you. Well, also, this builds up a case against those who are not suffering for the sake of Christ or those who are persecuting

Jesus' people. God would have it to be that on that final day when you are exalted, that you are exalted high above the unbeliever in part by the means of persecution, that you be vindicated mightily.

That does not happen apart from experiencing real suffering in this life. How highly do we praise martyrs?

And when I say martyr, I mean that just generically for any kind of cause. Martyrs are praised the most.

God would have everyone in us here be a martyr in a small sense, suffering the sufferings that he would have us walk through through this life in order that on that final day, that well -done good and faithful servant means something, that it actually is a reality that Christ has worked in us in a significant way such that our boast in the

Lord is not just a statement about what God has done for others, but a statement of what he has even done in us, that that might be an excellent day and that your exaltation with Christ would be a great one.

He did not grasp onto the excellencies that he had, but instead emptied himself, becoming like a servant all the way to death.

Why? For that reason, God has highly exalted him and given him the name above every name. We are supposed to have this mind.

That is commanding in Philippians 2, if you know the passage, that is not commanding just that you be humble, but that you be humble with an understanding of the end of humility.

Jesus didn't just say, you must be least in the kingdom. He said, those who would be greatest must be least.

Hebrews 11, six doesn't just say, without faith is impossible to please God. For those who please him must come to him.

It also ends with, and believe that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. That's an important part of true faith.

An important part of true faith is understanding the trajectory of the whole parabola. Okay, that you not think it ends there at that minimum point, but that it continues up.

That suffering is for your good. That suffering was for Christ's good. That's why he was able to endure the shame with joy, because the joy set before him.

So we likewise are able to be joyful warriors. You have a spiritual battle in front of you.

How many people when they're in the thick of the battle are lacking joy because it seems like God's hand is against them.

It seems like that is failure. The thick of the battle, so long as you are being faithful is not failure.

It is God's purpose for you. The thick of the battle, there's all the more reason to be joyful because God has counted you worthy of such things.

Now, the Bible especially speaks of that when someone is persecuting you directly for the sake of Christ's name, but that is also the case when you are suffering just resisting the temptation that comes your way in order to honor

Christ. 1 Corinthians 5, the passage we just looked at, what's at stake? Christ's name. Whenever we would follow after sin, whenever we would not uphold

Christ's name and walking in the truth. And so even in those ways, when you walk in the truth, when you suffer for the sake of Christ, just by resisting the temptation that exists in your life, you are suffering for his sake and you'll be greatly rewarded in every measure.

Now, not only God's providence is for you, but even the ultimate prosperity that will come. It says in verse 25, so he poured on him, this is the previous chapter.

So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle. It set him on fire all around, but he did not understand it.

It burned him up, but he did not take it to heart. Now this describes people of Israel as they are carried off into other nations.

And for the believer and the trajectory of the believer, it describes the experience of suffering that he would have before his redemption.

So we see here in verse one. But what it also points to is the state of the natural man, should he not turn to God, is a eternity suffering the wrath of God.

Hell is described as flames of fire. We do not know everything that it entails, but it will be a place of misery.

That is the natural state of man, apart from the gift that God has given in redemption.

But what man has otherwise is a great prosperity of eternity with Jesus Christ, with each other, enjoying him and all the benefits that we have in him, inheriting all creation with him, enjoying his company, his presence, and every last good thing, and not enjoying them in a way that most people do, where it's divorced from him and they do not understand its source, and so they do not fully appreciate it.

And by appreciate it, I don't just mean give gratitude. I also mean that they aren't experiencing the joy to the extent which they would otherwise, knowing its relation to Christ, but you will experience all those things in Jesus Christ, having the fullness of joy that should come from them, seeing

Christ your Savior, being transformed to be like him, to appreciate the goodness of God to the degree that you should.

All these things are the benefits of redemption. He has given his people, not the war that you see in the previous passage, but peace.

1 John 4, 18 says that perfect love casts out fear. Fear has to do with punishment.

But if these things are not for punishment, then they are for our good so that we do not have to be anxious.

We do not have to be angry at the Lord or guilty. None of those things, we can be at peace.

Learn to identify fear in all its forms, in all its forms. People who are captured by the fear of death sin against the

Lord in their anxiety, in their anger against him and against each other, in their lack of self -control, all these things.

What are they? It's because people do not trust in the Lord. They trust their own sense of judgment,

Adam ate of the tree, the fruit of the knowledge and good and evil. What is good and evil? It is the autonomy of judgment.

That's why you see kings. No good and evil in the Bible is because they are good judges. Man wants to make his own judgments, trust in his self.

And this is why sin tends in that direction. That's why fear tends in that direction of sin.

It always ends in sin. But he has redeemed a people for himself.

He has called people by name. Fear not, for if you have trusted in the Lord, he has redeemed you.

Fear not, he calls you by name. And on that final day, you will receive that name that no one else knows that he has called you.

Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask that you would give us great joy in the redemption that we have in Jesus Christ, that we would not turn our eyes to earthly things, that we would not trust in our own judgment, that we would not be full of fear, but that we would be full of courage and joy knowing what

Jesus has done. For any here today who have not trusted in him, I ask that they would.

And for those of us who already have, we ask that you would help us to trust in you more in order that we might appreciate the benefits of redemption even more than we have.