Why don't you grab your Bibles this morning
and turn, if you would, to 2nd, or
excuse me, chapter 2 of the book of
Colossians.
Colossians chapter 2, as you very well know,
that that is the theme verse of our
series.
And this morning we are in the 8th
part of a series entitled, The Life and
Times of Jesus Christ.
And so this morning we come to a
very exciting, as I think they all have
been, I don't know about you, but are
you enjoying this series?
You know, it's so unlike us.
We've never done this before.
And so it's exciting.
And just the topics, I think, are just
absolutely gripping to our hearts and to our
minds as Christians.
But this morning we're looking at Christ and
His redemption.
And again, we remind you of Colossians chapter
2, verse 9, the theme verse that we've
selected for this entire 16-week series, where
the scripture there says, For in Christ all
the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily
form.
So we look to Christ and His redemption.
Now it's possible this morning that you are
a totally committed Christian.
It's possible this morning that you think you're
a Christian.
And it's certainly possible this morning that you're
not a Christian at all.
Or maybe you're doubting that relationship with God
in a great way.
Well, we have a lot of things to
cover this morning, and it's my heart's desire
that we're faithful to them all.
I want to bring this topic of redemption
to you in a way that might be
palatable for even, say, an atheist this morning.
The Christian, when we hear the word redemption,
it's so exciting to hear, yes, redemption.
I know what that means.
As a believer, I know the definition of
the word.
And it's a word for some of us
that's been maybe in our vocabulary or in
our understanding for a long time.
Some of you in here are old enough
to remember, like I do, growing up in
San Diego and then in Orange County, I
used to get so excited when it was
time for my mom to go to the
grocery store and spend as much money as
possible.
Because when we would go, she would either
get blue chip stamps or the green, what's
the, it's the green, green stamps, green stamps.
Why?
Both of those stamps were empowered by having
built within them the ability to redeem something
from those associated stores.
You couldn't go down to a blue chip
store and say, well, here's 50 bucks, I'd
like to buy that.
You had to have the stamps, the redemption
stamps.
And it's exciting.
It was great.
I remember being a little kid and I
got one of my most favorite Tonka trucks.
Do they even make Tonka's anymore?
Are they big like they used to be
and are they made out of, wait, okay,
are they made out of metal?
No, see, it's just, what are we raising
our kids on anyway?
This is terrible.
We used to get metal Tonka trucks.
And I remember the best one I ever
got was from the blue chip redemption store
in Huntington Beach.
It was so awesome.
I remember going down there that day.
And then also I remember getting my first
football from that redemption store.
How is that possible?
Because somebody paid a certain sum of money
that purchased so many stamps or sheets of
stamps.
I would go home with my little sponge,
get it wet, rub on the back and
put it into the page of the book.
And as you went through the various pages
and added up the pages, you earned certain
or you, I guess, were allotted, I should
say, not earned certain redemptive toys that were
there or things that were there, items.
Somebody had to pay the price and I
got to go free and go get those
goods and be blessed by it.
Well, the word redemption in the Bible sense
certainly means that in a wonderful way, to
be redeemed.
It means that someone pays a price and
someone goes free.
And the one that goes free is the
one that does not have the power or
the ability of him or herself to set
herself free or to obtain that blessing.
You can't do it.
The whole word redemption has that built into
it.
Someone pays the price.
Now, is there anybody in here that could
raise their hand with me and say, someone
has sinned against you.
They hurt you.
They lied about you.
They ripped you off.
Raise your hand.
Okay.
The rest of you are lying or you're
still sleeping.
All of us have been ripped off in
some way, shape or form, haven't we?
I mean, it's true.
Come on.
Some of us, it's sad.
You can say, well, you know, I've been
ripped off mostly by professing Christians.
You know, so have I.
Me too.
The world has done me okay in that
respect.
People who call themselves Christians have gotten the
best of me.
Well, does that mean I throw Jesus away?
Does that mean I throw the concept of
the church away?
No.
Jesus is holy and righteous.
The church is good.
It's like a friend of mine said, who's
a pastor.
He's been a pastor for years.
He says, I love ministry.
It's people that drive me nuts.
Isn't that true?
Oh, I just love the church.
Some people come to church and they maybe
have baggage because it's painful baggage.
They were hurt and they were damaged.
And so they come to a new church
and their whole concept and thought and idea
is I'm not going to get to know
anybody.
They're almost like the three monkeys.
You know, I'm going to hear no evil.
I mean, hear no evil.
It's early and I've only had two cups
of coffee.
See no evil.
I'm not going to speak in evil and
I don't want any evils.
By the way, if I could have a
fourth monkey in there, I don't want any
evil spoken to me.
And of course none of us do.
But for those of you who are visiting
and someone's drug you here, drug you either
by dragging you or drug you to get
here.
You're thinking, you know what?
Yeah, that's exactly what I feel about the
church.
In fact, the church is full of a
bunch of hypocrites.
We all have to agree.
Amen.
We have to agree because whatever the law
states or what the standard is, the criteria
is established and whatever deviates from the law,
whoever deviates from 55 miles an hour literally
qualifies to be labeled for life honestly as
a lawbreaker.
Did you know that?
Once you break the speed limit of 55,
you don't back up and undo it.
It's done.
Now that's true in our material natural universe
that you and I live in.
It's even more true in the universe of
God.
When someone sins, we have sinned and you
may go to a Tony Robbins course or
you may log on to somebody who might
counsel you or talk to Dr. Laura and
somehow feel better because you've gone to this
course and somehow you've paid your penance.
But listen, are you ready?
Don't leave the building just yet.
But you're still in that sin.
But I call Dr. Laura.
I don't care.
But I've called Pastor Jack.
I don't care.
The Bible doesn't qualify that.
I've gone to my priest or I've gone
to my cardinal or I've gone to the
Pope.
Did you know the Bible says it doesn't
count?
Hebrews chapters 9, Hebrews chapters 10 says that
you can't go to the Pope.
You can't go to Pastor Jack.
You can't go to the priest and have
your sin be forgiven you.
This is what the Bible says.
And all of a sudden that comes against
our, listen, our concept and our logic of
religion.
Don't tell me this, Jack.
I want to be able to go to
somebody and they help me.
But listen to me.
You can go to a doctor and be
terminally ill and that doctor can say to
you, you know what?
You're okay.
You're all right.
Isn't that what you want to hear?
Come on.
Let's be honest.
That's exactly what you want to hear.
That's exactly what I want to hear.
I want an authority.
I want somebody who's in the know to
tell me I'm okay.
But what is the truth?
The truth is, and we have a hard
time as humans, and I'm speaking for myself.
Don't you dare think for a moment that
I'm speaking to you.
I'm speaking to myself.
Every one of us as humans, we have
a hard time dealing with the concept of
redemption.
The only way that we will embrace it
is if we ourselves are the redeemer.
Let me explain.
Not too long ago, someone came up to
me who has a shallow, at best, grip
on Christianity.
I know her feelings were true.
I know that her heart was extremely sincere.
But she wanted her friend so saved that
in her prayer, which was not unlike the
prayer of Moses or unlike the prayer of
Paul, she said, God, take my salvation from
me and give it to her.
Now, that's a very noble, loving thing to
pray, but people, listen, is it theologically accurate?
Will God do that?
The answer to that is absolutely no.
And I told her, no.
No, you can't do that.
Why?
Because now you would have to say to
Jesus, scoot over.
There's two of us up here now, because
I have become the redeemer now of my
friend.
You see this.
Christ alone redeems.
We would love to play the role of
the redeemer.
The Mormon church, for example, if they don't
evangelize you into their cult, what they will
do is get your name in subsequent generations
or in time to come to pass from
now and be baptized for you becoming the
savior of your soul.
See, you can die and go to this
waiting place because they don't believe in what
Jesus said about hell, and you can be
baptized, they say, and save that person.
You can bring them out of that place
and present them into a state of salvation.
That means now, according to Mormonism, there are
thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands of deliverers,
of messiahs, of saviors, of what?
Redeemers.
Did you get me?
Did you hear this?
This is Mormon doctrine.
It's false, though we love our Mormon friends.
We love them dearly, and I have a
lot of them.
It's false doctrine.
It is humbling for the human to say,
I am coming to Jesus Christ, not Calvary
Chapel, not the Baptist church, not the Catholic
church, not the Methodist church.
None of those entities died for your sins.
Jesus alone died for our sins.
And we come to him and we say,
Lord Jesus, receive me as your child that
has been wayward, and I come to you
and I receive you, Lord, as my savior.
And I'm asking you to write my name
in your book of life.
When you come to Christ, you are saved
on the grounds or on the basis of
a certain item that a lot of people
wear around their neck.
You know what I'm talking about?
The cross.
On the basis of the cross, we experience
redemption.
We experience salvation.
Now, man may go about this world trying
to generate or to accomplish some form of
redemption for his own soul.
It will not work.
It doesn't work that way.
So in our note-taking this morning, as
we look to this study, Christ and redemption,
I'm going to ask you to consider a
few things.
And the first thing is that man has
a need for redemption.
Every man.
Boy, get a load of this.
If any of you study psychology or sociology,
or for that matter, if any of you
have traveled to some great extent, did you
know there is not one culture in the
world that you can go to that is
exempt from man's attempt to redeem himself?
Did you know that?
Even in the high and holy days of
socialism in the Soviet Union, there was a
form of redemption.
Well, what do you mean?
We didn't believe in God.
Well, there was still a form of redemption,
and that form of redemption is to either
impress...
Now, I'm really excited about this message, and
you have to bear with me for a
moment.
I may get very Pentecostal today.
But the object of your devotion, and every
human has an object or objects of their
devotion, they will bow to that object.
If it's socialism and atheism, they will bow
to that system to either worship and impress,
and somehow, listen, earn the favor of a
Mao Zedong, or earn the favor of a
Stalin or a Lenin.
That's both of them together at the same
time.
A Stenin.
You will worship.
We have found sociologists and missionaries, and explorers,
and people who have found in the deepest,
darkest regions of man's existence today, in the
jungles, in South America, or in the remote
regions of Africa, where people have not been
reached.
When they are reached, there are gods that
are worshipped in those cultures.
In some cultures.
In fact, Japan, it is believed by most
of the world today that Japan worships materialism.
Gee, we can't relate to that, can we?
In any way, shape, or form.
But that's what Japan's being labeled.
People will bow to a god.
People will do anything and everything to make
atonement.
One of man's greatest problems is his inability
to look at himself honestly and to say,
you know what?
I need to be redeemed.
I need atonement.
Paul talks about this word, a very huge
word.
It's the word propitiation.
That someone would come and pay the price
for me.
Now, it's possible that you're sitting here this
morning, and you're saying, I don't need anybody
to pay the price for me.
I'm a self-made man.
I do my own thing.
I've come from nowhere, and I've made it
to the top.
Well, that's great.
And we're very happy for you, honestly.
But the fact of the matter is, all
along the way, there has been, visible or
invisible to you, there has been stapled onto
your existence all kinds of riffraff and debris
and garbage that you've picked up along the
way.
And it's a fact.
Oh, I don't believe you.
Well, you will know this to be true
as we go through this study this morning.
But I want you to write out the
study, because I hope it comes to a
wonderful conclusion for you.
This act of redemption, this need for redemption,
and the power of redemption.
So what we see is that there is
this very, very important internal thing.
Now, I want to show you something here.
Man became, according to Scripture, a fallen creature.
Man became a fallen creature.
And I want you to underline, as you
take your notes, that he became one.
Why?
Because the Bible says that man was not
always a fallen creature.
The Bible says that God created man in
his own image.
Though he was a created being, meaning less
than God, he was not fallen.
The Bible says that we enjoyed this fellowship
with God.
Somewhere, they understand, in the area of the
cradle of the civilization of man's birth, somewhere
around the areas of today where the Euphrates
and Tigris Rivers are, somewhere around the region
of Israel, Iran, Iraq, was this area of
Eden.
And wonderfully, I don't want to get off
on that.
We did that a couple weeks ago.
But wonderfully, there's a lot of scientific evidence
pointing to how that is true.
How not only was that area the beginning
place of humankind, but we know this mathematically
and engineering and linguistically and many other ways.
But in this place where man was established,
where man began, the Bible talks about a
perfect place, a utopia governed by God.
And man, in his disobedience, rebelled against God.
And he fell.
The Bible says, the Scripture says, God told
them, the day that you eat of this
fruit, you will surely die.
Now, you know that they ate of that
fruit.
We don't know what fruit it is.
Was it an apple?
The way my computer's been acting lately, I'm
certain it was an apple.
We don't know what kind of fruit it
was.
We just know that God said, don't eat
this fruit.
Now, you know what?
God puts within us and has engineered with
every one of us this able to decide,
this volition.
We have this power God's given us.
If you like it or not, you got
it.
And the Bible says that Adam, that Eve,
they sinned against God.
Well, built in internally to every human being
is this passion for eternity.
We want to live longer.
We've talked about this.
We want to, even as a young child
and as we grow older and even older,
you interview old people, you talk to maybe
grandpa or grandma, and there's this internal thing
about them that they want to dwell on
the past, why there was this youth.
And even in their heart, did you know
that for grandma and grandpa today, did you
know that in their thinking, they think much
younger than what they feel?
Did you know that?
Some of you in here are like 22,
25, and you're going, no, man, I don't
have a clue of what you're talking about.
You will later.
I promise you I'm 41 and I feel
21 and I'm trying to do things that
I did when I was 21 and I'm
tearing my body apart, trying to do it.
God created man.
It's a fact.
And let me be so bold to say
it's a scientific fact.
You can look at the evidence.
It's everywhere.
God created us.
But the thing is, man became a fallen
creature.
Man is fallen.
There's no doubt about it.
Everything there is within us to desire the
forever, to desire a good life, to listen,
fight against, ward off, listen, ignore death.
We don't want to talk about that.
When I do a funeral, I always announce
in the funeral how tragic this interruption has
been that's brought us together.
Isn't it funny how that is so true
that death is a bizarre and strange interruption
to life?
When you go to a funeral, doesn't it
seem dislocated and strange?
It is strange.
Death was not to happen to us originally.
But the Bible says because of sin, death
entered the world.
By the way, in Romans 2, God says
that the moralist needs redemption.
Can you jot that down?
The moralist.
Do you know anybody who's good?
How about this?
This is the funniest part.
Do you know anybody who thinks they're good?
That to me cracks me up.
Because they think they're good.
I'm good.
Aren't you a little arrogant about that?
No, I'm just being honest with myself.
Well, now you're prideful.
No, I'm rightly evaluating my situation.
It's just unbelievable.
By the way, don't ever underestimate man's ability
to justify himself.
And it all starts out with little kids.
Did you punch your sister?
Nope.
Why is she crying?
I don't know.
Why is your nose all red?
Beats me.
Where does this come from?
From the fallen nature.
It's fallen within us.
We have to tell children or instruct children
to tell the truth.
They naturally lie.
They naturally steal.
Now honey, I want you to go in
that store and I want you to steal
some candy from that.
No, you don't tell them that.
You have to say, now don't steal anything.
We didn't pay for that.
Put that away.
Isn't that funny?
It's so strange.
But that's us.
And for us to say that's not us
is to be deceived.
God knows that we have a great need
to be redeemed.
Guess what?
You and I know it too.
We just won't face up to it.
We need to be redeemed.
Man's way of trying to redeem himself.
In Romans chapter 2 regarding the moralist, he
says, therefore, you are inexcusable for whoever you
are who judge others.
See, the moralist always judges other people.
For in whatever you judge another person, have
you condemned yourself?
The answer to that is yes.
For you judge, for you who judge practice
the same things, but we know that the
judgment of God is according to truth.
And do you think this, oh man, you
who judge those practicing such things that you
go and do the same, that you will
escape the judgment of God?
Paul says, no way, you moralist.
You think you're so good, but yet you
turn and say, well, look at that guy.
Look at that neighbor of mine, the slimy
bum.
And yet God says, excuse me, but without
my son's blood covering you in the act
of redemption, you're a slimy bum.
And you need me.
I love you with all of my life.
And I've loved you with all of my
son on the cross, but you're a slimy
bum.
And I want you in heaven with me.
And this is how slimy bums get there.
It's through my son.
Now some of us say, you know what?
I can live with that because I know
me now after coming to Jesus and I
am a slimy bum.
I can't do anything without the power of
the Holy Spirit in my life.
I can't do anything if I don't take
the Bible and attempt to embed it into
my arts.
You want to know why?
If I don't do that, I want the
bigger slice of the pie.
I want the best view.
I want the most money.
But when Jesus begins to govern and rule,
it begins to change my mind.
But the moralist looks at people and begins
to judge them.
The other thing that we can realize is
that there's the moralist certainly and it's throughout
society.
There's the person who is the religionist.
The religionist is a person, according to Romans
chapter 2 verse 223, it says there that
you who make your boast in the law,
that you're obedient to God and you follow
the law.
He says, do you dishonor God through breaking
the law?
Well, that's a sarcasm in Greek.
Paul's being sarcastic.
He's saying, of course you do.
You say, well, I don't know if I
agree with that, Jack, because I've been really,
really a good law keeper.
You may think in your own judgment and
I may think in my own judgment that
I've been a good law keeper, but guess
what?
We're not perfect.
To all of mankind, the Bible says in
Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God.
We need to be redeemed, people.
And we know it down deep inside, if
we'll just be honest.
In Galatians 2, 16, it says by the
works of the law shall no flesh be
justified in the sight of God.
So if we look at this, man's need
for redemption, yes, but also consider this.
There is a moment by moment pilgrimage to
the place that, for example, the Jews hold
most holy at this time.
It's known as the Western Wall.
And here you see an Orthodox rabbi to
the right and an Israeli military soldier to
the left.
What brings these two people from seemingly diametrically
opposed philosophical or even civil duties or activities
or beliefs, what brings them to that wall?
Do you know what brings them to that
wall?
Their desire to be redeemed.
They're seeking redemption.
They're asking God to forgive them of their
sins.
And you see the cracks in those great
stones from the second temple period?
Jesus, by the way, you see those stones?
Jesus saw those stones.
He touched those stones.
Many of you have touched them and been
there.
They write down their prayer and they stuff
it in the crack.
They're trying to get it through the crack
of those stones to the closest possible point
where the Ark of the Covenant once stood
on the Temple Mount that God might hear
their prayer.
Why?
To make atonement for their sin.
And that is religion.
It's unacceptable to God, religion is.
It's the relationship that's all important.
The theater of redemption automatically assumes two things.
Jot them down.
In the area or theater of redemption, it
automatically assumes two things.
Number one, that there's a benefactor, the one
who gives.
In our understanding, it would be the one
who's wealthy.
He's the benefactor.
He's the one that's going to orchestrate.
What do you hold in your hand?
In Colossians 2.9, it is a book
that is part of the what?
Anyone?
New Testament.
The word testament implies someone, are you ready?
Someone lived and died and empowered the testament.
It's called the New Testament.
It means somebody lived, created it, empowered it
by death, and hallelujah, rose again from the
dead to ensure its performance.
Jesus Christ, the New Testament.
There is the benefactor, the one who gives,
that's Christ, and the beneficiary, that's us, the
one who receives.
The one who receives.
Two very important things.
You cannot have redemption unless you have a
redeemer and someone who's to be redeemed.
Now listen, those of you who could in
your own heart at the very least admit
that you're a sinner, I'll admit it right
now, I'm huge.
I would link arms with Paul, the apostle,
and say with Paul, I am the chief
of sinners.
It doesn't hurt my feelings, but Jack, doesn't
it damage your self-esteem?
No, not at all.
You know, I don't know why.
To be redeemed, you must first qualify.
How do you qualify?
Be a sinner.
And here's the cool thing.
I've been accused of being very excited about
the things of God.
It's true.
I'm guilty.
You want to know why?
I have been forgiven a huge amount of
sin.
I don't know about you, but I was
the chief.
My point is that I'm trying to make,
that you're getting, is that if you look
at Christ and what he's done to redeem
us, then you too can say, no, no,
no, no, Jack, I disagree with both you
and Paul.
I'm the chief of sinners.
And that's a Christian.
I see my depravity, but I rejoice in
the work of God because he set me
free through the work of redemption.
He knew I needed to be redeemed.
You see, you can run around this globe
or this city all you want and try
to buy things and put labels and tags
and band-aids on whatever you think is
important in life to make you meaningful, and
it won't work.
It won't work.
Now if you're redeemed, you might happen to
have some blessings.
That's pretty cool because you can constantly daily
say, God, thank you for this house.
You know what I'm saying?
God, thank you for my job.
Lord, thank you for this food or thank
you for this, you name it.
A couple of weeks ago, a family, I
don't know them personally, but it was such
a sweet invitation.
They called and they said, you know what?
We know that you're a water ski freak
and we'd like to take you water skiing.
Well, you know what?
They must, gee, to do that, they must
have a boat.
That's kind of cool that they would be
so kind enough to share that blessing like
that.
I couldn't go because I goofed up my
foot surfing, trying to do things that's in
my heart, but my body won't do.
God blesses, but the thing is with what
God has blessed you with, is it dedicated
to him?
You see, if you've been redeemed, you don't
say, well, I guess I've got to give
God 10%.
Excuse me?
Nowhere is 10% mentioned in the New
Testament.
It's kind of mentioned in the Old Testament.
Technically, it's 23 and a third percent.
Well, I've done my 10%.
Well, you're still a loser because God says
to do 23 and a third percent according
to the Old Testament.
You know what it is for the New
Testament?
About a hundred percent.
Well, Lord, you can have my wife's car,
but this one's mine.
You can have my wife's income, but mine's
mine.
What's mine is mine and what's hers is
yours.
It doesn't work that way.
See, the moment you realize, man, I've been
forgiven so much.
Lord, whatever you want to do, it's yours.
Now, some of you are thinking, you know,
you're an idiot for saying such things.
I don't believe you.
You know what?
You ought to taste and see just how
good the Lord is in regards to what
I'm talking about.
Some of you might say, well, concerning, I
can't even believe you brought up tithing.
Well, don't worry.
You won't hear it again for a while.
But the thing is this.
I can't afford to give God anything in
my life.
I'm just stretched.
You know why you're stretched?
Because you haven't given God anything to Him.
Give your life to Him and you won't
be so stretched.
I don't understand it.
Don't ask me to explain it.
Are you pooped out in your Christianity?
Then stop trying, will you?
Let the Holy Spirit do it.
Are you saying, I've got to be a
good boy, I've got to be a good
boy, I've got to be good, I've got
to be good, I've got to be good?
You'll never be good enough.
Let the Holy Spirit do it.
Get up in the morning and say, Lord,
I'm a wretch.
Holy Spirit, will you help me, please?
He says, I love to help people just
like you.
And we're all just like one another.
And I guess that affects your attitude.
Very important.
Let's look at this second area.
Man's need for redemption.
Man became a fallen creature.
But listen, God is a loving Creator.
It's true.
He's a loving Creator.
God is a loving Creator.
We don't need to dwell on this much
because we know that it's true.
God loves His creation.
Well, then why is it so messed up?
It's so messed up because we have rejected
God.
Mankind's rejected Him, but He loves us.
What do you think this incredible book has
been written and told and is telling still
the story of redemption?
You know, the first few pages of your
Bible, the first few pages is dedicated to
creation.
Did you know that?
There you go.
Can you see that?
Look at this.
This is dedicated to creation.
See this?
This is dedicated to redemption.
What does that tell you?
That we need to be redeemed.
That we're a fallen creature, but not rejected.
We're a fallen creature that God has established
a path of acceptance.
From this end to this end, He's saying,
it's my son.
He's eternal.
I'm going to send him to you.
You'll identify him.
He'll be born in Bethlehem.
He's going to be your Redeemer.
And some people get upset about that.
The other night we were in the mall
and we were late.
I mean, we actually were going to go
see a movie and the silly thing sold
out.
And so we're all sitting around and it
was fun because we're at the Mills Mall
and just four of us were sitting there
and then somebody comes by from the church.
Hi.
Oh, hi.
Hey.
And sit down.
And then more people.
We had about eight or nine people by
then and about 20 minutes.
It was so fun.
And people who, I don't know if they
were Christians or not that were gathered around
us, but we were talking and we were
laughing and we were saying, praise the Lord.
Oh, that's awesome.
Oh, man.
And we're just totally cracking up because Tom
Muster, if you know Tom Muster, he was
there.
So how can you be serious?
So Tom, we're having a great time.
And for a moment, I looked around and
there were people that were walking by and
they're actually looking at us like we were
on drugs.
And it was amazing to me.
But you know what we were doing?
And I have to believe, according to Malachi
3, 16, I think, that the Lord looked
down from heaven and he heard that he
was being spoken of one to another.
And he wrote in his book of remembrance
those things that were told of him.
He's going, listen to that.
We were loving on Jesus.
He loves to be in the conversation.
Why?
He loves us.
Yeah, we're falling, but he loves us.
That's why he sent Christ.
Christ and his redemption.
First of all, we must recognize that man
has a need of redemption.
Can you this morning recognize that need and
say that you have a need to be
redeemed?
Very quickly, both had become separated.
God and man is separated by sin.
God's holy.
He can't allow it in his presence.
Thus Christ comes.
The next thing that we see this morning,
the act of redemption.
The act of redemption.
In Romans chapter 3, verse 23, we've read
it earlier.
All have sinned to come ashore to the
glory of God.
Yes, that's true, but verse 24 says, but
now being justified freely.
Did you guys hear what I said about
the word freely?
Freely, free, freely, freely by his grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God sent forth as a propitiation, that is
a payment by his blood through faith to
demonstrate his righteousness.
It had to be initiated by God.
Hey, just lighten up everyone.
You're not going to save yourself.
You can't save yourself.
Salvation has been initiated by God.
You can't save yourself.
It's like those poor, pitiful, stupid people who
when the Titanic is sinking, the, I think
they're called stewards or porters, whatever they're called.
They work on the, they serve on the,
on the cruise ship.
They start going around and pilfering the rich
people's cabins, putting jewelry, gold, money in their
pockets, and then jumping off the ship, going
straight to the bottom faster than anybody because
they were weighted down with possessions.
Oh, I'm going to save myself.
They load up money to spend thinking that
they were going to survive.
No, God initiates our redemption.
He's got to initiate it and it had
to be acceptable to God.
Acceptable to God.
No man, no man could die for us.
No man could die for us.
Go ahead and pick the greatest woman or
man that you've ever known in your life.
In fact, maybe in your observation and what
a wonderful person they must be truly.
They're all, they're, they're all but sinless in
your life.
They're, they're amazing witness.
They're fantastic.
Did you know they couldn't die for you?
Did you know the Bible teaches that not
even a good man can die for you?
It had to be God.
It had to be God that died for
us.
It had to be the Lord.
The third thing is, is that it had
to be completed by God.
My friend, this is an awesome thing.
Can you admit this morning and many of
us, maybe all of us have already admitted
this to the Lord.
Lord be my redeemer.
Lord save me.
Well, Lord, he initiates that.
Nobody can come to Jesus Christ without asking
to say, Lord, you know, I want you.
You know how that happens.
God calls you.
It's got to be acceptable to God.
That means Jesus paid the price completely.
Remember, do you remember back in Genesis chapter
22 when Abraham was about ready to sacrifice
Isaac and Abraham prophetically makes the utterance?
He says, my son, God will provide himself
the lamb.
That lamb is Jesus Christ.
It was acceptable to him and it was
completed by God.
It was completed by him.
Did you know that God is not up
in heaven ringing his hands right now saying,
oh man, what, what else can we do
to get them here?
It's been done.
So rest, will you?
Those of you who have said Jesus be
the Lord and savior of my life.
You have been redeemed by the blood of
the lamb initiated by God, acceptable to God,
completed by God.
And thirdly, the power in redemption is this.
It must free us from our past.
Have any of us sinned?
Yeah.
Have any of us had a rotten past?
What about a good past?
What about a past anyway?
The Bible says in second Corinthians chapter five,
beginning at verse 17, that we're new creations
in Christ.
I promise what first I say that as
a communication type of ploy, but what can
I promise you?
But nothing I can say to you, God
promises you that he'll free you from your
past.
You see this temple.
This is a model of the temple in
Jerusalem.
I'm standing, so to speak, if we were
in real time and real center, I'm standing
on the Mount of Olives.
I'm before or in front of you and
that temple is the Kidron Valley.
On the Mount of Olives where I stand,
the sun rises to my back.
It goes through the Eastern gate.
You see that golden gate that's there right
now?
You can see if I had time, I
would have shown you another photograph of the
golden gate that you see in Jerusalem today.
When that gate's opened, eyewitnesses have recorded, for
example, Josephus being one of them, Origen being
another, and Eusebius the other.
You can look through those golden doors, through
the archway, through the temple.
When the doors were open, you could see
the veil of the temple.
There was a process of approach that you
had to go to to get into that
place.
Listen, concerning our salvation, the power of it,
is it powerful because you are a good
boy and a good girl?
Now those of you who are not Christians,
you're not getting anything what I'm saying here.
You're thinking that I'm slamming being a good
boy or a good girl, but those of
you who are Christians, you know exactly what
I'm talking about.
Those walls, those steps, those 15 rungs upward
to the platform, people would come to that
place, but behind that veil, a priest would
go once a year, only once, on one
day, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, where
God in His Shekinah glory dwelt, and he
couldn't go in there without blood.
If that high priest, though he was ordained
by God, went into that temple without blood
of an innocent animal that was outspot, without
blemish, perfect, you know what would happen to
that high priest?
In fact, they tied a rope around his
foot in case he screwed up.
He would become like bacon, and they would
pull him out smoldering if that priest had
sin in his life entering the presence of
God.
Did you know, and this is the temple
that stood during the time of Jesus Christ.
This is what he saw.
In 70 A.D., General Titus tore it
down.
Listen to this.
Did you know that Jesus, and I don't
have my pointer with me, but I could
point to areas where Jesus walked around.
It's certainly inside the gates, right up to
the porches.
Do you see that area in the center
that looks like it's kind of gray, looks
like a baseball field?
That's where Jesus stood, by the way, and
took a pitcher of water and poured it
out on the steps, and He says, I
am the living water.
Did Jesus ever go behind those doors into
the Holy of Holies?
Come on, everyone.
This is important to your basic Christianity.
You want to know how powerful His redemption
is in your life?
Jesus never went behind those doors, never.
High priests did on earth, but why didn't
Jesus?
Hey, wait a minute.
If Jesus didn't go behind those doors, then
maybe we're not saved at all.
Maybe the whole redemption thing is a joke.
No, He wouldn't go behind those doors.
Guess what?
He wouldn't go behind those doors if somebody
opened it up and invited Him in.
Did you know that?
Because the book of Hebrews chapter 9, chapters
10 tells us that all of this was
a model of what's in heaven.
That Jesus, with His own blood, entered into
the temple, into the Holy of Holies in
heaven, not made with human hands.
Isn't that exciting?
Why?
Because He satisfied and appeased God's demand for
righteousness and holiness.
That's how you and I are redeemed.
In addition, this redemption must convince us of
our future.
For the Christian, we are convinced.
But what about you who are not a
Christian this morning?
Are you certain that you've been redeemed?
Are you confident of the fact?
Do you know that for sure?
That's an amazing, awesome reality.
God did it completely.
He convinced us.
I want to give you this verse and
we'll be all done.
You can close your Bible and rest.
In Hosea chapter 13, verse 14, the Scripture
says there, I will ransom you, and I
will ransom them from the power of the
grave, and I will redeem them from death.
Listen what the prophet says, God speaking.
Oh death, I will be your plague, and
you, grave, I will be your destruction.
Pity will be hidden from my eyes.
That's what God says about the grave and
death.
Death, I'm going to be your plague.
Grave, I'm going to be your destruction.
Hey death, yo grave, I'm going to kick
you in the casket.
And on the day that Jesus Christ rose
again from the dead, as there is an
empty tomb in Jerusalem this morning, your redemption
is secure.
You're going to heaven.
Because I'll be good enough?
Never.
I'll try hard no way.
Because you said, you know what?
Lord Jesus, save me.
Amen?
Father, we thank you for the truth and
the reality of your word.
We ask you Lord in Jesus name, that
Lord you might save a soul this morning
that is wayward from you.
While we're praying my friend, I ask you,
if you want to give your life to
Jesus Christ, not to Calvary Chapel or any
person, place or thing, but Christ alone.
If you want to save God, I want
you to come into my heart and save
me from my sins and write my name
in your book of life and change my
life.
I don't care how young you are this
morning.
I don't care how old you are.
I don't care how poor you are or
how wealthy you are.
You need Jesus.
You are lost.
And your money and your poverty and your
position and your place of nothingness has no
sway with God whatsoever.
He has pity and mercy and grace and
forgiveness upon one only.
And that is the one person who comes
and says, Jesus, be the savior of my
life and come into my life and make
me whole.
If that's your prayer this morning, you pray
that where you're at in your heart or
you say, yes, Lord, that's what I want
in my life.
And you dedicate yourself to him now.
All the broken, cracked pots and plates and
people that we are, he takes.
And he'll begin today to make a brand
new person in you until the day he
comes again.
In Jesus' name, amen.