Now, I'm not in lecture mode, just so you know. I'm not interested in pontificating. I'm not trying to be eloquent. I'm certainly not that. You know that. But I do think there is some validity in going through things a little bit deeper maybe than normal, kind of at the submarine level instead of the F-18 level. And that's what I want to try to do this morning. I was standing there. as we were singing, and I loved to hear the singing. It was fantastic, by the way. And I was listening and I was praying and asking God to give me the ability to communicate what I've studied. And it's very, very difficult, but I'll do the best I can. So if I fumble or mishap or anything like that, or if it's hard to follow, be patient with me and I'd appreciate that. But there's a lot to cover. There's so much to cover and I want to honor the Lord by what we do go through together in the word of God. So turn to 1 Corinthians 7, let's just dig in. go back from our passage that we were in in 1 Corinthians 7. We've been here for a few weeks now, but there's a verse there that really struck me as I was preparing for this week's message, which was going to be the following few verses after verse 24. And I just thought, I don't understand this passage as well as I want. And it's in verse 23, 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 23 in your Bibles. And I'm just gonna read, it's one verse, and it's a little front heavy, and so my message will be a little front heavy. So you'll see that as we go through, and this will make sense. But let me just read it, and then I'll explain some things after this. You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of men. Paul just inserts that. It's the second time he's inserted at least the front part of that verse. Back in chapter 6, verse 20, he said the same thing, but not the second half of the verse. He said, you're bought with a price. And as I read that, I was preparing my thinking for verses 24 and following, which was the next passage to preach. I was going through verse 23, and the car came to a halt, and I got out and started walking around a little bit and looking at things. And I realize I don't think we understand what is being said here. And there's a lot right now going on in the world in reference to what's called Christology. Christology is the study of the person and nature of Christ that is in error. And it's my responsibility to do everything I can to make sure that at least we as a body can think right thoughts about God and understand him properly as he's revealed in scripture. So my desire is to bring this particular verse even though we're gonna put it in reverse and back up a little bit, to bring this particular verse out very clearly and develop it the way Paul was thinking when he wrote it. And that's my goal, I'll do the best I can. I'll just do the best I can, that's all I can say. But I think it's a fitting memorial, this verse is, to the season we're in and thinking about the Lord's, His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection. And I certainly felt that it was very fitting in light of that to go through this passage of this particular verse one more time and develop it and understand it. Ultimately, every sermon should lead you to worship. It should develop worship inside of our souls. If it does not, it has not accomplished its goal. And that might be my fault. It might be yours, wherever it might be. We want to make sure that in the spirit of the Lord, we are fitted for worship. Now, There are a number of key thoughts and key words, and I'll develop these as we go, but let me just give you the context very quickly as we begin here. If you've been with us, you know that Paul has been developing this chapter in relation to some questions that the people had in Corinth. And I won't take much time with this, but it's good for us. In verse 1 of chapter 7, he says, now, I got that letter from Chloe's people, and they had some questions. So let me address those questions. In verse 1, now, concerning about things in which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. That, of course, is not talking about sexual immorality, because he's talking about that in the next verse. This particular verse, in verse 1, is talking about marriage. And you say, you mean Paul was against marriage? No, he loved marriage. It's just not for everyone. And what he's talking about here is specifically in relation to the fact that the world that we're in right now was created by God for the design of one man, one woman, for life, unbroken, and till death do you part. However, Matthew 19, Jesus said, and Paul reiterates, not everybody has that ability. Not everybody really wants to get married. Not everybody wants to do that for the sake of the kingdom of God, for devotion to God and service to Him. And so that's okay. In fact, Paul's view is that's preferable, which is an amazing thought in our world. And I went through all that considerably, and I won't belabor that point. But Paul's context here is in verse 6 of chapter 7. There is beyond the command of to marry to avoid immorality. And if you don't have self-control, you must marry and develop your friendship with your wife and all those very wonderful things. But he says, there's a concession here that I want to emphasize. And that is, if you don't have to marry, don't. And there are some who have been married by divorce. They're no longer married, or maybe they're widowed or widower. Just various situations, we've talked about all that. And he says, I've got some instructions for you. The Lord has some instructions. I have some instructions. And he's going through all of this in a wonderful way. We've been developing this as best as we can. The Lord has, verse 17, the Lord has assigned each person in their assignment in life, that's your historical life that you're living right this second, physically in the body, seated in the chairs you're in, that's you right now, you have an assignment from God. The other part of that verse, as God has called, that is relation to the moment you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a salvation moment, what's called the effectual calling of God when he allows you to believe in him and love him and repent and believe in him and follow him and so forth. And then in that moment you were saved, whatever year or timeframe it was, that place you were in in life is called your assignment from Christ in verse 17. And so his encouragement to the church here is to remain in that calling unless excuse me, unless, verse 21, if you can, if you were a slave and you were called, you saved while you were a slave, and then you could use your freedom, you can buy your freedom, you can marry off, whatever, we talked about that. And if you can use that for the kingdom, then by all purposes, please use it. And that's what he's saying there. If you can do that, verse 21, if you can become free, do that. And so there's an axiom there, there's a teaching there that says if you're called as just a regular warehouse worker somewhere in New Jersey, and you were saved in that, stay in that job, You were called as an assignment there. However, if for the kingdom of God, you can get out of that, you can move on and develop other positions or whatever you want to call it for the sake of the kingdom of God, then use that. That's fine. But generally speaking, the Lord called you at a particular point and saved you at a particular point and gave you that calling and that point in life for the place of your evangelism and ministry. It's really a fantastic truth. Now, You know that Paul has been talking to slaves. Paul has been talking to slaves. We've been developing this and you know this, we've seen that, especially in verse 21, he says, were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it. Verse 22, he who was called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's free man. Likewise, he who is called while free is Christ's slave. So the very local context, the near context here is that he's talking about slavery. And slavery is very simple. You're bought by somebody to perform their will, not your own. You have no property rights. You have no marital rights, although in some cases you did, but generally speaking, you had no hope for plans for a future, developing a business, any of those kinds of things. You were bought in a market where they sold slaves. and you were taken home and put to work until you die. That's what a slave was. Paul here says, you know, if you were saved by God, remember the word called. If you were called by God, if you were saved while you're someone's slave, don't try to get out of it unless you can get out of it for the sake of moving on to ministry or some spiritual purpose. In that frame of mind, Paul writes verse 23. Let me read it again. You were bought with a price. do not become slaves of men." Now, if I were to give you a pop quiz, I would ask right now, was Paul already speaking to slaves? The answer is, yes, I just said that. At the end of the verse, he says, do not become slaves of men, as if they were going to or had the potential to become slaves but he has already addressed the fact that they are slaves. What that means to us is that he's addressing something other than human slavery. By the way, there are many passages, just as a very quick side note, if you need to know, there are a number of passages in the Old Testament and New Testament that forbid human trafficking. Did you know that? 1 Timothy, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, a number of passages that refuse, or actually it's a death penalty, for any Israelite that was to kidnap a person and sell them somewhere else, which happens disgustingly, more than we should tolerate. But the death penalty was for that. 1 Timothy, Paul talks about that, kidnappers of men. And that's what the Old Testament law of Israel had, and that's what the New Testament church should not tolerate. Would be interesting to see if there's a study to see how much the church is involved in that. But here, going back to our verse, verse 23, Paul says, you've been bought, do not become slaves of men to men who are already slaves of men. So there's something more going on than just a slave market here. And that's what really shook me. I shared this last night with my family before we were eating dinner, and my 10-year-old said, oh, but they were already slaves. I said, yes, you got it. Abram said that. They were already slaves. So now, how does Paul mean then, do not become slaves of men, you were bought with a price. Who bought them? Whose slaves are they now? How do you become a slave of a man? We're already slaves. So all this thinking would be happening in the minds of the Corinthians. They have to figure this out. And the fact that Paul has said this twice now, must be a very significant thing, must be a very, very significant thing, which it is. Demonstrate that to you this morning. There are three points to this I want to make for you. So if you want to jot these down and we'll cover probably two of them today and then the last one next Lord's Day. The first one refers to, it's just a statement, a slave to the world. Now, admittedly, the first part is kind of dark, kind of sad. So you have to be patient. But I think if we take a sober look at our lives before we came to Christ, this would make sense. A slave to the world. What does that look like? What's it about? Where's it from? Those kinds of things. We'll cover that this morning. And then a slave to the Lord. A slave to the Lord. Following the Lord Jesus Christ actually is a type of slavery. And you'll see the distinctions and the differences wonderfully, I believe, anyway. So don't let that scare you. There obviously are very wonderful differences. And then the last one is just two words, a son. I mean, it's terrible alliteration. If I were to take a preaching class, I would have just failed. Who makes a sermon based on a slave to the world, a slave to the Lord, a son? It doesn't even rhyme. So anyway, but it works and gets the point across. So I know you'll forgive me. So I want to take a look, first of all, at a slave to the world. What's this all about? A slave to the world. The slave market was very simple. If you were to go back, and don't do it right now, I'll wait until I'm done, but if you were to go back to the book of Hosea, you would see a slave market. In that particular case, a female slave market. On that block, there'd be a podium kind of like this, and there'd be a number of people in the back. And typically they were completely unclothed and they were standing there completely humiliated with chains on their arms and their feet. And they would be purchased by people who need someone to work in their home. And they would see them and they would see their muscle tone and their demeanor and whatever else. And they would say, you know, I want that one. And they pay a price and buy that one, take the chains and walk them home. That was a kidnapping aspect of slavery. That's very bad. It's always bad. God never condones it. And on the other hand, Men have been doing that for centuries, for millennia. The earliest known ancient Near Eastern records have records of slavery, and it's usually the same race of people enslaving the very same families of the race of the people. So in other words, you had not just, like in our case, you might have the white people enslaving the black people. Do you know that the people in Africa, The Africans enslaved themselves more than anybody else. Do you understand that? So don't buy into that racket. All that to say the Assyrians would enslave Assyrians as well as other nations. The Babylonians would enslave other Babylonians. Egyptians enslaved Egyptians. So it's not like this is something new at all. And most of the people were enslaved by their own nation. But that's how it happened. You had a block like this and somebody would buy you and now you live and die at that person's whim. And that's the negative side. That's the ugly part of it. But that is the slave market. You market people. You sell, buy and sell people. It was commonplace in Corinth. It was commonplace in Rome, especially. They had over three million slaves in Rome alone. And it was, if you took out all the slaves out of these nations, these countries, you would not have a business sector. The slaves did all the work. Paul uses that commonality to refer back to Jesus Christ, as you'll see, in a profound and immense way. The likeness, and I'm not sure how all this worked out in God's plan, but the likeness of being bought and paid and brought home to what Jesus does for his elect is Amazing. It is rich. It is valuable. So let's talk about that. Remember the first point I want to make this morning is a slave to the world. Paul is talking to men who are slaves of men in a normal market sense. They are people in the church, and the churches were largely made up of slaves, by the way. Read the book of Philemon, you'll see some of that. Colossians and Ephesians address masters and slave relationships. 1 Timothy 6 addresses master-slave relationships. It was a part of the church. The church was largely built on the backs of slaves as far as population is concerned. Not a lot of noble people, not a lot of rich people. But that type of slavery is really not the way I wanna go about it this morning. What I wanna go about this morning is a spiritual slavery, a slavery to something greater than the earthly realm. And I don't wanna sound too esoteric, but that's just the language of the New Testament and the Old as well. So I just wanna start off by taking us to John 8, verses 31 to 36. John 8, verses 31 to 36. Jesus speaks about this slavery here. And this is the way that Paul is using it, I believe, and develops it, since Jesus, of course, hasn't died yet in John 8, but in Paul's time he has. In John 8, 31 to 36, Jesus lays down the reality that we are all slaves. We are all slaves. Not slaves of a man or of a master, or we were not on the block and got purchased by a wealthy homeowner. There's something more huge, more large, more pervasive than than that going on in our slavery. In verse 31, Jesus says, so Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciples. And you will know the truth, the truth will make you free. They answered him, we are Abraham's seed and have never yet been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? And Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits a sin is the slave of sin. In verse 35, the slave does not remain in the house forever, the son does remain forever. So if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed. Now that last word indeed means we're not talking about earthly slavery here. You might be emancipated as a human slave called manumission. You might be manumitted and maybe married into another family. Maybe you've been purchased by someone else. Maybe in some way you earned your freedom by paying a sum to the master and then you can pay your way through your own freedom. That type of freedom still creates a reality that you still die. So you're still bound by another power, another will. Jesus says, if the Son makes you free, you're not gonna have a temporary lifetime freedom, you're gonna have an eternal freedom. And that's the distinction that Jesus is making here. Let's go through this very carefully and build a foundation. Notice verse 31, he says, if you abide in my word, then you're truly my disciples. But wait a minute. The first part of the verse says, these Jews believed in Jesus. These Jews believed in Jesus, but Jesus apparently didn't believe in them too much. Because he says, if you abide, he said, that's the test. If you abide in my word, if you live out my word, if you build your life around my word, then I'll know, Jesus says, that you are truly my disciples. I might add the word rightly understood, not just any old word from Jesus, not just one little verse, but the entire thing. And when that's the case, you'll know the truth. And when that's the case, you'll be set free. This is somewhat progressive, but it starts at a point in time. The more you know your Bible, the more free you become. Free from what? That's exactly what the Jews asked. What are you talking about freedom? We were never free from anyone. Where Abraham's seed, what they're saying is, since Abraham, we've never been a slave to anyone. Of course, that's a problem, because they spent 430 years in Egypt. Then they went back to Egypt in Jeremiah's time, and then they were slaves in Babylon, and tried to be a slave in Assyria, and they've been slaves all over the place. These guys were delusionary. Jesus, maybe he chuckled, I don't know, kind of doubted, but maybe he did. He said, well, if you commit a sin, you're a slave to sin. And I say a sin here because it's singular. You commit a sin, not sin, you just go along, go along, go along, and finally, oh, okay, God says, I've had enough. Okay, now you're a slave. No, one sin, you're a slave. It's like a drug, I guess, by analogy, by metaphor. One experience with that, you're hooked. So what Jesus is saying here is everyone who commits a sin, that person is evidencing slavery to that sin. and I came to make you free from sin. Now that is not slave language in reference to standing on a block with your hands cuffed and being purchased by a homeowner. That is the son not only declaring you free from a sin, the sin, the penalty of sin, but that is the son making you also a son or daughter. That's freedom. Because a slave can be bought and sold, the son owns the home, therefore he remains forever in that inheritance. You see the distinction? See the difference? This is fantastic. I hope you're seeing what I'm trying to communicate. In my mind, this is earth-shattering. This is true freedom. It's like Jesus saying, what can man do to me? It's like David running from all the people he ran from, his own son, and Saul, and others, and in the Psalms they say, but God, you're in the heavens, what can man do to me? Jesus echoing what David said. Beloved, there's further a different reality, an increasing reality, like I said, it's a submarine level. The reality of lives of people outside of Jesus Christ is that they are slaves of sin. That is the reality. They package it differently. Some sins are legal, some are illegal. Some are private, some are public. Some are acceptable, and some are even virtuous. But God still judges on the basis of His own righteousness, and everything else is sin. If I were to ask you another question, is there any sin in heaven? You would say, shudder the thought. That's terrible. How could you even say those words? I know, but is there? No. So where is sin localized? Where is it? The real pious person say, oh, it's in me. Oh, I hate my sin. Yes, it is in you. We all know that, but it's in the world. That's where sin is. 1 John 5, 19 says the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. Therefore, the slaves of sin are slaves of the world and slaves of the evil one." That's slavery. That is slavery. Can you imagine doing the will of one who wants nothing but your destruction and being willing to go along with it? You say, that's insane. I know, read Romans 1. It's exactly what Romans 1 is all about. It is insane. It's crazy. I don't understand how anybody is outside of Christ at this point. I personally don't understand why you can talk to people about the gospel of Jesus Christ and talk about these things and they don't just say, how do I become a Christian? God be merciful to me. How do they continue to reject knowing that the sin they're participating in, and their conscience knows this, is destroying them? How is it? That's the insanity of slavery. They actually like it. They really do. May I remind you that Jesus is speaking to the religious elite. These are religious people. And He calls them slaves of sin. In all their learning about Yahweh, they never really were reconciled to Him. Sin enslaved them, Jesus tells them that, and they never repented. Instead, they killed Him. Now, what is the discussion here? What is going on here? It is this that Jesus says very unequivocally, beloved, that as you and I, before Christ, I emphasize that, and I remember what I was like, I'm very familiar with that. Every sin I committed, willingly, unwillingly, was an absolute act of my will to obey my master, sin. That was how I lived. However, the world needs to hear this. When it says go out and make disciples, this is where it begins. I told you this was a little bit heavy, kind of dark, but it really needs to start here. What does this look like? Look at it this way. Only the person is following Jesus Christ is free from sin. It doesn't mean you don't sin. That's a different discussion. It means that you're free from it. Its power is dead to you. It's almost like I tell people, I just want to say, you've got permission from the Lord not to commit that sin. It's okay. You don't have to do it now. I've actually said that to people, counseling situations. You don't have to watch pornography. You don't have to lie. You don't have to steal. It's done. You don't have to. Sometimes that's all that people need to hear. But remember what Jesus said in John 8.31. He says, only the person abiding in my word shows that they are truly free. But once a day, Christian is not truly free. A person who nods to God but doesn't actually follow Christ is not truly free. A man is truly free when he follows the Lord Jesus Christ as defined by commitment to the word of God, which I believe is evidence of love for God. Those who love Jesus Christ, those who love his word, not perfect, not complete, not holy, but forgiven and restored to the God who created them is a true disciple and is no longer a slave to sin. We are going somewhere with this, just bear with me. Let's look at it further in a more graphic description. Look at Romans 6. Romans 6, verses 15 to 16. The explanation here from Paul is really fantastic. Romans 6, verses 15 to 16. Verse 15, Paul wrote to the Romans, he says, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be. Do you not know that when you go on presenting yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? That's generally true, even as a believer. If I submit myself to some level of disobedience, some level of sin, it will grab hold of me and it will snatch me under, and it will continue to make me a slave, even as a believer. Of course, the Lord at that point will chime in, as it were, and discipline me and spank me and all those kinds of things. The question that Paul asks at verse 15 is this, shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be. Don't let that thought into your mind. Are you crazy? Not at all. Why would you do that? Well, because the law has penalties and the law has jurisprudence, as it were, over me to harm me if I sin. But if you take the law out of the way, which happens in Christ, then I'm free to sin, right? He said, no, you're still a slave. You still have opportunities to become a slave. either of sin or of righteousness, either of sin or of righteousness. Those outside of Christ willingly make themselves slaves of sin. And Paul says, leading to death, leading to death. I love that. on the positive side that when we, in that verse 16, when we present ourselves, have the picture in your mind of being offered on an altar and being offered personally or whatever you want, Lord, that's exactly what a slave says, presenting yourselves to God for all his righteousness, all his word, then when that happens, you become a slave of righteousness, Can you imagine being a slave of righteousness? What a wonderful thing. Ephesians 2 says it graphically, verses 1 to 3, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which, transgressions and sins, you formally walked according to the course of this world, according to the rule, according to the ruler, of the power of the air, the spirit, that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature the children of wrath, even as the rest were." Some people who believe in elections say, oh, I'm extra special because I'm elect. Well, this verse says that you were by nature children of a child of wrath, just as the non-elect were. You're nothing special at all in yourself. When you and I were without, when we were without Christ in the world, we pursued the course. Think of it as a pulse of the world. We pursued that. We operated by that. Some of us remember that very vividly. The lust drove us to the behaviors of the world, of everything conceivable and inconceivable. Our flesh, our mind, they were completely dead to God. Verse one says, we were only alive to sin. We were only alive to disobedience. We were only alive to our lusts. And we willingly presented ourselves to whatever idol suited us, or no idol at all, just anything that I could satisfy my impulses with. We conducted ourselves, Paul says, willingly, faithfully, dutifully to our master sin. In fact, and this is what I tell people, there are people who feel like they are totally free. They're not encumbered. I'm not gonna finish that. They're not encumbered by the church. They're not encumbered by standards, by rules, and by laws. We're totally free. And what I tell those people is, no, you're free falling. And you're gonna land. And it's not gonna be pretty. You're not free. Only Jesus Christ makes you free. No matter how you feel, that's the reality. So at the soul level, we were at the whim of our flesh. There's more. We're going to be turning a corner very slowly here, so be patient. Could you turn to Hebrews 2 with me? Hebrews 2, verses 14 to 15. The sermon title, by the way, I have one, is You Were Bought for Freedom. If you think about that title a little bit, you were bought for freedom. That's what Paul is after here. Hebrews 2, verses 14 to 15. It says, therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, so that through death he might render powerless I love that. Render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free, see our word there? He might free those who, through fear of death, were subject to slavery all their lives. The part you want to highlight there for what I want to accomplish at this point is, notice that the power of death was in the devil. He is the one that deceived Eve. He is the one that Adam obeyed and disobeyed God. The devil is the one who has controlled the nations by his threat of death. Everybody's afraid to die. The fear of death, verse 15 says, because you know death means accountability, and death means you can no longer party. The fear of death causes people to be subject to their master Satan their whole life long. Imagine being free from that slavery. Imagine being free from the power of death wielded by the one, the devil. Imagine. This is called redemption. This is called redemption. And instead of calling Satan your father, who controls you, Romans 8.15 says this, When you believe in Christ, you have not received a spirit of slavery, leading again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. We have a different in Christ in redemption. We have a different spirit. We have a different motive. We have a different will. We cry out to the Father and not to the world any longer. I need to say that this is not perfectly how we live, but this is the direction of how we live. We are slaves, yes. of Christ. We are not slaves of this world. We are not slaves of Satan. We are not slaves of alcohol, or pornography, or lying, or embezzlement, or money. We are not slaves of our own impulses. We are dead to those in Christ. We are, beloved, enslaved to a new master, capital M. And that master is good. He's so good, he not only sets you free, but he gives you his inheritance. That's good. So Paul is addressing all of this before we even get to our verse. All of this is the background, the foundation, the footer, in the foundation of all that Paul is talking about in this incredible section of the letter. And beloved, I have to say, if the gospel that we're preaching does not include this very dark news, it's no gospel at all. It is not the gospel. There's no prosperity here. There's no health and wealth here. There's no fix-it motive here. We have to die in order to live. That's what it's all about. And those of us who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and we understand this freedom, it's not offensive, it's quite welcome. Let me ask another question as we're moving on to our next point here. How do we get there? How do we get to what I was just describing? How do we get to the point of being free to be a slave to the Lord? Well, I've got some time left, so let me get to the second point here. A slave to the Lord. How do we get to that point? And that's what Paul wants to emphasize in that passage. There are really two words I wanna emphasize in addition to what we're gonna develop here, and that's the word redemption and the word liberation. The word redemption and the word liberation. These are the two words we need to focus on if we're gonna really understand what Paul means when he says you were bought with a price. First word is redemption. The word redemption means to buy. That's all it means. The Greek word means to buy, and the word usually meaning, rather, the word usually translated redemption means to buy out from some place, to buy out from some place. You might go to the hardware store and you might buy a two by four, and so you buy out from that store a two by four and take it home. That's all that word means. It's as simple as that. No spiritual overtones or anything. It's just you buy out something. You purchase something, you own it, now you have the right to take it out of the store and take it home and do with it what you want. That's what Paul means when he says that you've been bought. But the difference between this and a two by four, terrible analogy, but the difference is this. The one who bought you is far more worthy than you purchasing a two by four. The one who bought you is worthy. That means that he has the greatest value. And he has the greatest value is the key to understanding 1 Corinthians 7.23. You've been bought with a price by one of greatest value. Now you say, well, that sounds different. You would think that the thing being bought had the great value. No, it doesn't. We were dead in our trespasses. It's kind of without value. The one who bought you has the greatest value. You say, what do I, I don't understand. Well, I don't either, but I'll tell you what I think I know is this. And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Revelation chapter five, verse nine. Did you hear that? Worthy are you because you were slain. That's it. That's contrary. Something that is slain being worthy? That doesn't make sense. That's exactly right. This is the contradictory nature of all that God is doing. It works against our nature. It's counterintuitive. And that's right. You were set free to be a slave. That's a paradox. Yes. so that all the glory and power might be of the one who's worthy of it, and that is God. If I could boast of my salvation, I would. I'm that wrong. It says here, Revelation 5.9, worthy are you because you were slain and purchased for God. People, tribe, tongues, and nations. One writer said this about the idea of buying out from a market. Quote, we should not make of this word a kind of a myth. Just semantics. A word concerning a process of some transcendent reality which only subsequently has significance for us. It speaks of an action of God towards us in history of salvation, in actual physical history. For me, it was 1992, June, Bozeman, Montana. Paul has it in common with myths that he evidently speaks of divine fellowship, but he does not speak of the transcendent God of religious fantasy. He speaks of our God. That is, of the God who acts toward us, end quote. In reality, not in fancy, not in make-believe, and not in just literature, but in reality. Beloved, it is the suffering and execution of Jesus Christ during His Passion Week, which we begin today to think about, that the father was involving himself in actual history to redeem his children, to redeem us from the slave market of sin. That dark, black, terrible stuff we went through just a few minutes ago to understand, we have, if you know Jesus Christ, we have been purposed by God to be redeemed, bought out from there, no longer to return to it. That's what is inherent in this word. You don't go back to the market. There's no returning the two by four to the store. God takes you and uses you and He is your owner. Once this act The shedding of the blood of Christ was done. The resurrection proved that the father had accepted the payment. And then as a result of that blood, released those who were subject all their lives to Satan, sin, and the wrath of God. This is redemption. This is redemption, beloved. Redemption means to be bought out from where you were. The resurrection proves that God is very willing to accept the payment on your behalf. So that brings me up to another thought. Then, what was the payment? Was it just God's sovereign goodwill to say, good enough, I just decide to save you? No. No, it's not. You know the answer to this, but let me develop it for you. The Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead to display to the world that He is indeed the Son of God, Romans 1 says. His resurrection from the dead means that He died. Pretty simple. But His death was not worthless. His death was of value. Another key word for us this morning is the word value. It is this idea, this truth, this fact, that your forgiveness of sins is only as valid as the value of the blood of Christ. That's what Paul's saying. Paul said later in 1 Corinthians 15, 17, if Christ has not been raised, which means the death he died was not accepted by the Father and he's still dead, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless and you're still in your sins. It's that serious. If Christ is still dead, you can have all the faith in the world, you're still gonna go to lake of fire. You still have eternal condemnation and damnation ahead of you. Your goodwill does not save you. The idea here is the fact is he's not dead. He was raised from the dead. Therefore, his blood had value. That's the idea of the term redemption. Redemption means that what paid your price had the value quality of it to do such. My wife, true to form, she walked into the store the other day, and she's very funny actually, sometimes a little too funny, but she walked into the store the other day and she was going to buy some groceries, so she handed a Monopoly money, $100 bill, to the cashier. And the cashier was doing her thing and going by and then grabbed it and noticed that the bill just felt different. It wasn't a hundred dollar bill. It was something different. So she looked at it. It was a Monopoly money, little play thing type thing. And they made a big joke, and it was funny, and it was kind of funny, I guess. But it was appropriate for the time, just say that. But that's exactly what religion likes to do. They want to throw in the monopoly money, and Satan wants to put in counterfeit money, and Satan wants to do all these things, and man has all these ideas, and say, God, isn't this good enough? Is this good enough? None of it has value. None of it is the pearl of great price. None of it is that treasure hidden in the soil. None of it is good enough because only the blood of Jesus Christ, the way that God has ordained, will take care of the necessity of your sins being atoned for. Psalm 18.3 says, I will call upon Yahweh who is worthy to be praised. There's a lot of depth and Hebrews would call some heaviness in the word worthy. Heaviness, kabod is the Hebrew term and it means something heavy. Heavy is the word. Great is Yahweh and greatly to be praised, Psalm 48 says. Great is Yahweh and greatly to be praised. In the city of our God, His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king. Psalm 86, verse 10 says, You are great, for you are great and do wondrous deeds, you alone. are God, which means you have the only value God has. No one is close to you. Psalm 145, Great is Yahweh, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. Look at Romans 11. Let me show you. Romans 11 verses 33 to 36. You know, if you had 10,000 of something, it's not real valuable, right? You can go buy another one. If you have 10 of something, it becomes even more valuable and it costs more money to buy it. But what if you only have one of something in the whole of existence? It has immeasurable value. That's the picture of what Paul is developing for us, what scripture develops for us, Romans chapter 11 verses 33 to 36. It is this, after Paul goes through chapters nine and 10 at the end of chapter 11, and all that God's doing in salvation, the restoration of Israel, and all those things, he says this, oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways, for who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who became his counselor? Or who has first given to him that it might be repaid to him? for from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen." That means God alone. As Isaiah says, He is God. There is only one. He has immense value. Infinite, singular, great value. Priceless. For all eternity. God has existed before Genesis 1-1, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And that relationship in that, I don't know how else to say it, but in that God, singular, has been love. And the Father developed a will that is a purpose in creating everything. In turn to the Son and ask of me, he says, Psalm 2, you know this, for those of you who've been here, Ask of me and I'll give you the nations and the earth as your inheritance, your possession. Otherwise, you know what? If there was no value in what's going on in life, then Ecclesiastes is right. There's a whole lot of vanity. You're just gonna be laid to dust and big deal. Then let's, you know what? Let's just go out the door there and go in the mountains or go do something. Let's waste our time here. No, thank you. If in fact, these things are of no value. But he is wrong. There is immense value because what God has done in Jesus Christ will fulfill his valuable, perfect, priceless, eternal purpose. His own glory and the demonstration of his own power is on display by the death and burial and resurrection of his son so that he might gain for himself you and me. An illustration would be Israel. Bear with me, I'm gonna finish up here. The illustration I have for you is Israel. You don't have to turn there, you can write it down, but in Ezekiel 36, Ezekiel 36 is a really interesting passage because he goes there. If you were to go there, you'd read, Ezekiel goes to this part of this prophecy, and Ezekiel's an amazing prophecy. He goes to this part of this prophecy and he starts going through all of the failures of Israel, one after another, after another, after another. for chapters and chapters and chapters, and he sees all the perversion, all the idolatry and everything. And he comes to verse 20, Ezekiel 36, 20, he says this, they came to the nations to which they came, and the context there is they came to sin with the nations. And when they did that, they profaned my holy name. They profaned my holy name because it was said of them, these are the people of Yahweh, yet they have come out of his land. Verse 21, but I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they went. I had concern for my holy name. In Ezekiel 36.22, he says that he's essentially going to save them, but he says, it's not for your sake, Israel. It's not for your sake. He says in verse 23, I will prove my holiness, my great name, which has been profaned among the nations. I will prove my value. I will prove my heaviness. I will prove my worth in my name, declares the Lord Yahweh. Ultimately, in the summary of this, Verse 32, I'm not doing this for your sake, O Israel. I'm not restoring you for Israel's sake. I'm restoring you for my worth, my value, my pricelessness, my great glory, and my praise. Do you see this? Is it getting across? I'm doing the best I can here. Beloved, like Israel, You have been redeemed by the valuable God, the infinite God, the God of great worth, God of infinite value and power and glory and greatness, but you have not been redeemed for your sake. I wouldn't have it any other way personally, because I was dead in my sins and the Bible would say in one passage, you're worthless. but for his own name's sake, he saved me." Just like he will do with Israel. So let's wrap up some thoughts with 1 Corinthians 7.23. I haven't even gotten back to it till now, obviously, but the principle there, and again, in 1 Corinthians 6.20 is this, you were bought, purchased, with a great price, with an immense price. What was that price? What is it that is going to take your sin and your deadness to God and your dead soul and your conduct and behavior and wipe it clean? Paul will go on to tell us as well as Peter, It is the very death of the God who calls you. It is the very death of the Son of God. Beloved, if we had any other dependence for us in hopes of being reconciled to the true creator, we would fail. And later, at the end of verse 23, we would become slaves of men. hoping for the next idolatry, hoping for the next sentiment, hoping for the next ability to conduct ourselves. And going through all of this without any value to support our salvation is fruitless. And so what Paul is saying here, and the same thing he said in 620, is you need to rise completely above all that is happening in the world. and you need to walk in light of the value by which you were bought. You were purchased, you are a possession of, and Galatians 4.7 says, therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son. You're no longer a slave, but a son. And beloved, if you are a son, obviously a daughter of God, then you are also an heir through God. An heir of what? The kingdom which is coming. That kingdom, beloved, has far more value than the one that we live in here and now. Far more. No comparison because that one never ends and God is free to roam among his people and likewise forever. Pretty easy trade for in my point of view, I would much rather be bought out of the sins that never really did anything for me anyway. And placed into the, even if I was to become a door handler, as David said in the Psalms, in the palace of my God, I'd be glad to do that. I'd be a slave. I would just carry his shoes, just so I could be near him and at his right hand of joy forevermore, if possible, but he doesn't do that. He makes me a son. I'm not worthy to be a son. I'm not worthy at all. And the second I think that I am unjustified to be a son is the second that I need to cry out to God for mercy. Well, this is just the beginning of this section. Next week I want to look at the sacrifice and the value of the blood and what that all means. I encourage you to come back and listen more on this so that we can really worship God in the way that we should. Those of you who are visiting, if you would be our guest and stay for our way of fellowship meal this afternoon. So hopefully you can stay, but let's close in prayer. Father, your word is very clear. We were bought. This was not just a goodwill gesture on your part. This was not just something that you, in the kindness of your own heart, decided to save some people. This is not you looking down the corridor of time and seeing who was going to believe, and then you would choose them first so that you can have a relationship with them. Father, this is you conducting yourself with the awe and the power that you are rightly due, and only you have, to order all things according to your purpose, everything from creation and even the fall, to the worst calamities of all time, to the future that is developing in front of us, in front of our very eyes, Father, all of it is for your glory and your kingdom. And you have called us, like the prodigal son, we are unworthy to be called your son, but you have called us your son. I don't understand it. is beyond my understanding of love, that you would, motivated by love, do this in eternity past and carry it out in real time in real history. Father, may this passage from Paul serve as a way to get us thinking more deeply and carefully about what Christ did on the cross. I believe that Monday morning, a little over 2,000 years ago, the Lord rode into Jerusalem. and he was hailed by all the people. He was called the Messiah, the son of David. The Pharisees told Jesus to quiet his disciples down, and Jesus said, in anticipation of the freedom of the earth, the rocks would cry out. He comes to the temple, turns over the tables. He sees the false worship, the idolatry of money and power. A few days later, he is arrested, betrayed by a close friend. He is beaten, hated, abandoned by his disciples. And then he is hung on a cross as a common criminal, even a worse criminal, a despicable, treasonous criminal, a false messiah. Three days later, Lord, you were raised from the dead. Your soul was put back into your body. Your body was reconstituted, scars intact, but all pain and suffering gone. Body in full strength and full power, and yet immaterially able to appear and disappear through walls and rooms. And you were raised up 40 days later into the sky. All the disciples got to see you. Father, this is the truth. And one day the world will see him as he comes in the sky again for us, as we are snatched away and able to go to heaven and see our God. Father, bless this afternoon and this time and may these things penetrate deep in our hearts. For your pleasure and your glory in Jesus' name, amen. We're dismissed, thank you.