All right, let's open with a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank you for this time again to come before your word. We do thank you for this past week and the time to reflect on your graciousness and bounty for us. We ask that you would continue to work in our hearts through your word, that we'd be strengthened. And for those that are trusting in Christ and for those that don't know what that means, Lord, we pray that you would be known to them, that they would turn to you, turn to Christ for their salvation. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. We are in Ephesians chapter one, and last week we didn't read, but our verse this week is Verse seven, but we'll start at the beginning, just as a simple review. Paul, an apostle, is Ephesians one. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, who are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love. He predestined us to adoption as sons through Christ Jesus to Himself according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. And we'll stop there. All right, so last week we took an in-depth look at the word in, what that meant to be in Christ, to be hidden in Christ and the importance of that, where Moses was put by God in the cleft of the rock and hidden there. And that's just such a wonderful thing that we need to understand. We talked about the creation And if you look at the amazing things that he created and the more we know about astronomy and looking at the stars, he created things of just sheer power and just magnitude and size. And we know from Romans that we're to look at those things and there's some evidences of God that's part of his evidence of who he is and that he is above us and beyond us. And I thought of that in reference to Last week, we looked at, in reference to, here's this glorious creation that he made, and Moses is saying, Lord, I want to see your glory. And this is a glory of God, and in his glory, at max power, let's say, in God's glory, no human could, the universe couldn't stand, right, in his glory. And yet he chose to show himself to Moses in a powerful way, but doing it through an illustration of hiding him within the protection of the rock. And then that rock, we're told in scripture several places and several times, is Christ. So what a wonderful testimony to that. So we did that last week. in Him, we have redemption through His blood. Now, what we've studied so far in Ephesians has been, I'm summarizing, but the beginning is a, just glory and giving grace to the Lord in verses one through three. Verse four, we're told that he chose the elect. So it's talked about how he became elect, that he did this for us before the foundation of the world. He chose us, he predestined us, and that us is those who have trusted in Christ. And then the follow-on of that is we get, well, we'll hit some of these other things, but it's talking about the fruits of that. And what's interesting is now we get to verse seven and we start to find out how, right? How did all this take place? We're told that what took place, but how did it take place? So we might ask this question, by what means were all these blessings given to us? We might ask, how was this salvation accomplished? Or how was this grace bestowed? So we studied grace bestowed, which is unmerited favor bestowed to us. How was this adoption adopted into the family of God? How is this accomplished? That's in adoption in verse five. He predestined us to adoption as sons How can we be considered holy and blameless? That's another thing that we were told in the beginning of Ephesians, that we'll stand before Him holy and blameless, before God, despite the guilt of our sin. How is that possible? How were we rescued from eternal punishment? So I was thinking of ways that we might imagine in our own futile and corrupted human mind might accomplish this. Did he just sweep the offenses under the rug? Okay? So, one of the ways that maybe a grandmother ignores a grandchild's misbehavior is like, oh, don't let your mom see that. Okay, we're gonna keep that quiet. Let's not do that. Or we're just not gonna. Or we're just gonna change the rules, right? We're gonna make screaming and yelling not a bad thing. It's no longer against the rules to be screaming and yelling. That would be a bad household if we changed that rule, right? It'd be chaotic. So the question is, did God do that? Did He say, OK, a man's failing, so we've got to lower the standard? Because that's the way we think about it. As a matter of fact, we're kind of running into that in our culture, aren't we? Right? This is, our entire government structure is saying, how do we reduce the numbers of crimes? Well, we make things not crimes anymore. Or we change the rule for theft from $20, I don't know what the number is, but $20 to $5,000. And we remove a bunch of offenses, right? Well, the question might be, is that how God gives us these blessings and grace? Go to Psalm 119, 160. 119, 160. It says, the sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous ordinances is everlasting. So it establishes a permanence to God's rule, right? There is no carpet to sweep things under. The offense is the offense, okay? Or Matthew 5, 18. Where we find, for truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the law until all is accomplished. So again, no, the rules haven't changed, the law hasn't changed. So that can't be the explanation how he can give us all these blessings in Christ by changing the law because we didn't measure up. Another one that's part of human frailty, another game we play that I have to admit that I played with my young children from time to time, did he ignore the sin? Could he just ignore it? As a dad, I remember coming home, coming from the shop, worn out, tired, excited to just sit down for a minute, sit down, tired, beat up by life, right? And you just start getting a little bit of rest, and all of a sudden, you hear it. Some argument, some discord, some back talk to mom, some, some violation of rules of your household that you established and you think, I'm not even going to respond. That didn't even happen. That didn't happen. I'm going to keep reading my book, right? Ignore it, right? But that's out of our own selfishness. It's not helping the child. It's not helping our household. Yeah, it's work to do those things. We talked last week about things that God could not do. He cannot violate His righteousness. He can't violate His justice, His holiness. And so because of that, that's not an option, right? He ceases to be God. He ceases to have the character. It's really easy for me to fall down in my character. It's impossible for Him, okay? So that's not the answer. One of the ways I was thinking of proving this point from Scripture, this verse came to mind, which is Matthew 26, where Christ kind of is asking about both of those options and maybe more as he faces the cross. 26, 39. And he, Christ, went a little beyond them and fell on his face and prayed, saying, My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. Now, if you remember this context, it's right before he is arrested and goes to the cross, and he's burdened by, in his humanity, by this, what's before him. And what is he asking here? Is there any other way? Right? Is there any, if God, there's another way, let it be done. Right? Well, the two feeble ones that I thought of, right? Change the law, okay? Nobody's guilty. Ignore it, okay? None of those are options. And it's obvious because Christ went to the cross and went willingly. So that last statement of, Not yet, not as I will, but as you will, was the final rendition, right? It was God's will that this should go forward this way. So that leads us to, back to Ephesians, which is through redemption, through his blood. Now this word redemption is interesting. Of course, I speak from my own experience and assume that other people have had similar experience, but we hear these words a lot. If you grow up in the church, redemption is a word you hear a lot, and you might even hear it so many times that you don't really even kind of know what it means, but it's just a word that's a Christian word, right? But this is just straight from Webster's 1828 Dictionary. Redemption, noun, from Latin, redemptio, purchase, repurchase, these are six definitions. Repurchase of captured goods or prisoners, the act of procuring the deliverance of persons or things from the possession and power of captors by the payment of an equivalent, ransom, release as the redemption of prisoners taken in war or the redemption of a ship and cargo. Now, some of these, the very last one is his definition of in theology. So he states, in theology, and I'm gonna get to that one. But, and I thought about only using that one definition, was the in thought. But there's a lot here in these other definitions. Repurchasing captured goods, right? Isn't that great? Like, either you're with me or against me, right, Christ said. So if we're, and he said to the Pharisees, your father the devil, okay? And we're not saved, we're under the power of the evil one, right? And so when Christ dies on the cross and redeems us, as Ephesians 7 is saying, through his blood, right, he is buying us, taking cargo. The enemy has us, right? I also think of, in that negotiation, Are the captives involved? No. They're not there at the meeting place on the redemption, which I like. We're the fodder that he's redeeming, and we're in the pen, we're in the corral, we're in the prison, so to speak. All right, next one, deliverance from bondage, distress, or liability to any evil or forfeiture, either by money, labor, or other means. So similar, I think of we're in bondage to sin, so we're ransomed from bondage to sin. Another one is repurchase as lands alienated, so taken lands. The liberation of an estate from a mortgage or the purchase of the right to re-enter upon it by paying the principal sum for which it was mortgaged with interest and cost, also the right of redeeming and re-entering. So that was not the thing that I liked about that was just we're talking about buying stuff back, right? Buying it back. Five repurchase of notes bills or other evidences of debt. Do we have a debt? by paying their value in specie to their holders. All right, and the last one, in theology, the purchase of God's favor by the death and sufferings of Christ, the ransom or deliverance of sinners from the bondage of sin and the penalties of God's violated law by the atonement of Christ. Wonderful. We violate the law, the rules have been broken, right? Perfection is what was required. Oh boy. Perfection is not what we're capable of, right? Even going forward perfection. So we have a lot of religions out there in the world that when you come to them, they say, okay, here's the path, right? The path is working towards a perfection, right? Working towards fixing yourself. The problem that that never deals with, number one, we all know, or we should know, that the scales are misbalanced, right? In Christ, it's our good works are filthy rags. They don't move the scale, okay? But the weight of our sin is heavy stones, right? So you can put as much good works as you can on that scale and nothing moves it, okay? But the part that religion forgets is the past. Let's just say that certain religions, you could attain perfection. You can't, but let's just say you could. Does nothing for the past, all of your past sins. They're your burden, your baggage. Let's say you could fix your, you know, I've never heard anybody deal with that, right? In these other religions. Let's say they think you could attain perfection. Who paid for the weight that you're dragging? You're still dragging it, okay? Even though you're not adding to it in this hypothetical situation. We need it all paid for. All of it, okay? Or we get none of it. None of the blessing. All right. Hebrews 9, 22. Now, we know, or we should know, One of the main purposes of the law was to make us aware of God's standard, and then it's a tutor to lead us to Christ. Why? Because we don't measure up, and at some point we just say, Lord, I just keep failing, right? I just keep failing, I'm never gonna, okay? And he says, that's where I want you, right? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's where I want you, because look to Christ. I've said this so many times, I think I actually remember Jordan rolling his eyes when I said this one time, but Hebrews is to the Hebrews to tell the Hebrews to stop being Hebrews, but it's a good basis to sort of understand what his arguments are, okay? He's talking to a Jewish crowd and saying, here's what the law's purpose was, here's what the law did, but here's what Christ did, and it so supersedes what you're looking to to go back to the law. So here's his argument, 922. And according to the law, one may almost say all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. What is he saying? What he's saying is that sacrifice, You had to drag the lamb, the unblemished lamb, down to the temple and go through this, you know, it was a financial cost, it was a time cost, it was an admission of guilt, it was facing, but then this thing died. This innocent lamb, truly innocent lamb, died and that shedding of blood was looking forward to the blood of redemption that we see in Ephesians 1, 7. So he makes that statement. You've got that part right. So he's drawing this distinction between you guys. Stop going back to the lamb. There is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And it's a one-time thing. Nor was it that he would offer himself often. Every time I read that verse, I'm sorry, I think of the Catholic cross. that has Christ still on there. I think of the idea in Catholicism of transubstantiation, which is that the cracker or the bread and the wine actually become the flesh and the blood of Christ, so he's like sacrificed over and over again, because they say it literally becomes his flesh and blood. No, Hebrews is saying, he accomplished it, and he's so magnificent, it's a one-time deal for all of humanity, for all of time, for all of sin. Nor was it that he would offer himself often. So when we sin, Christ doesn't have to go propitiate a new redemption, right? He doesn't have to go again. As the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own, because number one, his own blood is not sufficient, right? Because he's a sinner like all of us. But for Christ, his own blood as he enters is a one-time thing. Otherwise, he would have need to suffer often since the foundation of the world. Well, that's an understatement, right? Really often, like if every sin needs a new trip. But now once, what a wonderful, but now once at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. There it is. When it was God's time, God's plan, as stated, the consummation of the ages, he has manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So there's our clear understanding of what this sacrifice and redemption was. Romans 3. Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This is something that we have to understand. If we don't understand this, then we don't see our need for salvation. We might think that we, it would be just like human nature if that said some have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that we would say in our own mind, well, that's the other people. I'm the one that didn't, all right? The purpose of the law was to show us our sin. We get further revelation that all have sinned. There is no one that falls outside of this falling short. Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly, what is he talking about? On the cross. as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness. Here's another verse we could use for that He couldn't ignore it. because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed. Okay, so if you weren't familiar with your Bible and the Old Testament, that pass over sins previously committed, you might not know what that means. And so we're gonna go look at what that means. So when we see that pass over sins previously committed, we should think of the Passover, right, of the Old Testament. And in terms of redemption and understanding this buying out of the slave market or buying back things captured or buying out of debt, it's a very valuable message. So Exodus 11. 11.4. So just to give you your context, we're deeply into, well, actually, it's the last plague, okay? The 10th plague of, Egypt from the Lord through Moses as he is asking Pharaoh to let his people go and worship and leave Egypt as they've been enslaved for 400 years. 11-4, Moses said, thus says the Lord. Now he's speaking to Pharaoh here. Thus says the Lord, about midnight I'm going out in the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl, who is behind the millstones, all the firstborn of the cattle as well. Moreover, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before, and such as shall never be again. For those who think that's a bit severe, he's had plenty of opportunity to release. We're on the 10th plague, and he still has the opportunity to release at this point, I believe. Now if we give someone the message of the gospel, and we say, for everlasting life, you must come to Christ and His sacrifice. And if you don't, you will die in your sins. Isn't that the same thing that's said to Pharaoh, right? You got this choice, life or death, for your firstborn. What is the response from those who don't believe many times? What would be modern vernacular? Yeah, whatever, right? Yeah, whatever. Good story for you. I just think of Pharaoh going, yeah, whatever. But yet, he'd had a lot of things happen that were pretty powerful that he should have been like, Whoa, everything that's happened. I mean, he's on the 10th finger of plagues, but it says that the Lord wanted to show his power in this event. All right, so skip down to 12, verse three, because he's got to explain what's going on to the congregation. So he goes down to the next chapter, chapter 12, verse 3. Now, if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them, according to what each man should eat, and you are to divide the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old, and they take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month, and then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight." I just want to stop, pause for a second. Do you think there was some stuff going on in Egypt when that many people go out and take a lamb and take it from the field, you think the Egyptians were like, what's going on with the Jews? Okay. So I say there's more time here for a repentance. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doors posts and on the lentil of the house in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that same night and roast it with fire. and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Let's. Skip to 11, now shall eat it in this manner with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. There we go, there's that word that he's talking to the Hebrews about, right? Passover sins previously committed. What is the thing that's gonna allow the Passover? This representation of Christ, blood on the lentil. OK, blood on the two posts and on the lentil. This house is protected. Its sins are covered from this death of the firstborn. For I will go throughout the land of Egypt on that night and I will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt. And I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you in the house where you live. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt." Go down to 21. Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, Go and take For yourselves, lambs, according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb. You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lentil and the two doorposts. And none of you shall go outside the door of this house until morning." There's only protection, right, behind the blood. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lentil and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever when you enter the land, which the Lord will give you as He promised. And you shall observe this rite. And when your children say to you, what does this rite mean to you? shall say it is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when they smote the Egyptian but spared our homes and the people bowed low and worshipped. Then the sons of Israel went and did so just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron so they did. Now it came about at midnight when the Lord struck that the Lord struck all the firstborn and in the land of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captives who was in the dungeon and all the firstborn of cattle. Pharaoh arose at night and he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt for there was no home where there was not someone dead." Okay. Something I want you to just think about is they were to be girded loins girded, okay, ready to go. So this thing is butchered at twilight, so evening, right, as sun's gone down. And at midnight is when the Passover takes place. So they're all up eating, celebrating, probably anticipating what is this event. And then all of a sudden, in the middle of the night, an entire nation wakes up and tells them to get out. What an amazing event, right? And then the idea that you've heard of the Passover, probably, just hearing the news of what the Jews celebrate. Oh, it's Passover for the Jews. We're 2,000 and some years later that this is still going on, right? More than that. 3,500 years, probably, or more. What a testimony. Now, they're missing the point of it, right? They're not seeing Christ in it. This book is so relevant to what we're just even facing in the world in more ways than one. Okay, let's keep going. 1311. What we're doing now is we've seen what the Passover is, right? Now we're gonna see how the Lord thinks about this and what redemption is. This was not an idle thing where he just spared him and said, okay, you were spared that. Now when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanite, as he swore to you and to your fathers, if I didn't say it, 1311, and gives it to you, you shall devote to the Lord the first offspring of every womb and the first offspring of every beast that you own, The males belonged to the Lord. He bought them. He bought them. It wasn't that everyone was gonna die, right, in the Passover. It was that the firstborn. And so that blood purchased the firstborn. But every firstborn Offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck, and every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. They're mine, you need to buy them back with a sacrifice. And it shall be when your sons ask you in time to come saying, what is this? Can you imagine little kids like, why are we doing this? Then you shall say to him, with a powerful hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt from the house of slavery. And it came about when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beasts. Therefore, I sacrificed to the Lord the males, the first offspring of every womb, but every firstborn my sons I redeem. So this idea of there was a true payment made here. There was a purchase. Okay. So it shall serve as a sign on your hand and phylacteries on your forehead for with a powerful hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt. Now we're going to go all the way over to numbers. Okay, so one of the things I said early on was how fickle humans are. And when I was facing a violation of the rules, I had many ways of making it disappear, right? Ignore it, change the rules, whatever. Look how serious the Lord is about these things. When we come to Numbers 3, he continues on with this. All right, Numbers 3.11. And again, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, now behold, I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel instead of every firstborn. The first issue of the womb among the sons of Israel, so the Levites shall be mine. For all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to myself all the firstborn in Israel from man to beast. They shall be mine, I am the Lord. Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai saying, the number of the sons of Levi by their father's household, by their families, every male from a month old and upward you shall number. So Moses numbered, skip down to 340. So he does a census to get a number. After saying, I'm gonna trade the firstborn that I bought, for the Levites. We'll start in 28. Now those who were in the camp before the tabernacle eastward before the tent of meeting towards the sunrise are Moses and Aaron and his sons performing the duties of the sanctuary for the obligation of the sons of Israel. But the layman coming near was to be put to death. All the numbered men of the Levites whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the command of the Lord by their families, every male from month old and upward were 22,000. Then the Lord said to Moses, number every firstborn male of the sons of Israel from a month old and upwards, and make a list of their names. And you shall take the Levites for me, I am the Lord, instead of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the sons of Israel. So Moses numbered all the firstborn among the sons of Israel, just as the Lord had commanded him, and all the firstborn males by the number of names from a month old and upward, for their numbered men were 22,273. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take the Levites instead of all of the firstborn among the sons of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites, and the Levites shall be mine, and I am the Lord. For the ransom of 273, so he takes the 22,000, versus the 22,373, subtracts it, gets a difference, says we gotta account for this. That's pretty, that's accounting stuff, right? That's reconciling down to the dollar, okay? If you were doing it with your bank account. For the ransom of the 273 of the firstborn of the sons of Israel who are in excess beyond the Levites, you shall take five shekels apiece per head, you shall take them in terms of the shekel of the sanctuary, the shekel is 20 garah, and give the money, the ransom of those who are in excess among them to Aaron and his sons. So Moses took the ransom money from those who were in excess beyond the ransom, those ransomed by the Levites. From the firstborn of the sons of Israel, he took the money in terms of the shekel of the sanctuary. Now I pulled out my calculator and I multiplied 273 by five. And guess what? The math is correct. 1,365 is what was paid. Then Moses gave the ransom money to Aaron and his sons at the command of the Lord, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. He's serious about the payment, right? He's serious about the purchase. How many times in there is this statement, I am the Lord? It's a powerful statement, okay? Because it's saying, I'm telling you how it's done, right? I did this, these are mine. I heard a, I don't know if he's a Christian or not. He's actually, you may know him, son of Hamas. Anybody know that name? He wrote a book called Son of Hamas. He's literally the son of one of the founders of Hamas. Long story, great story if you want to read his book, it's called Son of Hamas. is a supporter of Israel. He ended up wanting to save lives, so he started working for Israeli intelligence. He's now a public speaker, can't do that anymore. But I've read his book, and I've watched a few of his, he debated at Oxford and a few other places. He's an interesting character. He speaks very directly. But one of the things he says is, you know, Why do you wanna mess with the land that God said was his? He said, there's one place you can have all the earth, you crazy people. That's irreverent. All you people, God is saying, this land is mine. He said, and of course, because God says this land is mine, meaning the area of Levant, Canaan, geographically Palestine, we call it, right? Everybody, every government's got their nose in it. Why? Probably because God said, that's mine, and rebellious man wants to get involved. And so when you see it here, I am the Lord, when he's stating all these things. What do we take from that? Well, what we can take from it is that when God purchased you, if you're saved, through his blood, you're his. What does that mean for your life, right? And how you live. You're mine, he says. All right. We'll keep that in mind for the week, right? We're the Lord's. Our Father, we just thank you for this. We thank you for those that are in Christ and that have seen that their life is full of guilt and sin before a holy God and that we need that. purchased blood of Christ to be redeemed. We thank you for it. We ask that you would go with us as we go into the week and we fight the difficult temptations and the struggles that are before us. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.