Let's open our Bibles to the book of Revelation, the very end, chapter 5, 9th verse. We're going back to that verse to look at the depths of the meaning of the doctrine of redemption. Let me just, you know, I have to say that I'm old enough to know that I have a limited time to get anything through because, you know, I watch you, you know, and pretty soon you get distracted. I see all kinds of things going on, you know, from the cleaning of the purse to the, you know, updating all the lists on your iPhone. It's all right, I know. So right at the front, I'll just tell you everything that we're doing. Redemption speaks of Jesus Christ coming into the slave market, and we're going to study that this morning, of sin. When Jesus redeems us, it issues into two of the bigger doctrines of the Bible. First, the redemption of Christ applies the justifying death that Jesus accomplished on the cross for us to our lives, the justifying death. Christ's death justifies us. But that issues into the sanctifying life of Christ, which is tied to our adoption. in Christ. So that's a lot of doctrine. To explain what I mean, it's kind of like, and I have a lot of friends who are doctors, but I'm very illiterate in medical terms, but our heart, which is somewhere around here, has two chambers. And if it's functioning properly, one chamber sucks in and pushes out the other chamber so that our blood is circulating through our bodies. And if the one chamber isn't working, your heart has a problem. in the 80s, that concept of the two parts of salvation, that the justifying death of Christ pushes into the other chamber of the doctrine, the sanctifying life of Christ, those doctrines got divided. And what was said is, in fact, I was at Grace Community Church with John MacArthur when he was at the front end of the fight. What he was saying is, a person cannot say that the justifying death I am trusting in, that never has the sanctifying life, if that's chamber of their heart is not working. then there's a severe problem. Maybe they're not even really alive. See, the whole lordship, you ever heard of the lordship controversy? The lordship controversy started in a church in Texas where the pastor, who was a faculty member at my alma mater, said that my problem in my church is that I have 1,500 people and none of them are saved from the waist down. What did he mean by that? He meant that the majority of the people in his church were practicing fornication. They were living together without being married. They were, you know, traveling around and finding sexual partners. And they all were in church and a lot of them were ministering. And he says, what can I do about it? They just don't get saved from the ways down. And John MacArthur was speaking at that school, and he said, if you have had the justifying death of Christ, and do not have the sanctifying life of Christ operative in you, then you are either very seriously ill if one half of your heart's not working, or you're dead. In other words, you've never been saved. That's the lordship controversy. Because as we'll see in the scripture, the Bible connects these two. For whom he justifies, them he also what? sanctifies. Now God does both, but if one of them is not happening, then the person should be in ICU in the church, not singing and serving and smiling and saying, hey, I'm an example. And so what we're looking at is that doctrine of redemption, which has two parts, the justifying death, the sanctifying life. And what's amazing is the sanctifying life of Christ allows us to be adopted into God's family. And as I told the first service, I won't tell that till later because I don't want to, you know, get out of order. Look at chapter 5 verse 9. What we see here is this amazing truth that we are bought and owned by God in verse 9. He tells us that the purpose that should drive us is to focus upon the fact we were redeemed. Now do you remember this is a 10th anniversary in 2002. Rick Warren preached a series at Saddleback called The Purpose Driven Life, and the purpose that should drive our life is redemption. And it hit a nerve, and 30 million copies of his book were sold because most people aren't sure why they're here. Especially Christians, and they kind of drift through life, and they're just feeling like they're not quite fully doing whatever it is they're supposed to be doing. And so his book hit a chord. But the chord it hit is the chord that should always be hit in our life, that we have been redeemed. And when you're redeemed, when someone actually goes in and buys you by dying in your place, all of a sudden you know that you have some reciprocity, some result from that death on your behalf, which is living a life for the one who died for you. That's what redemption is all about. So basically, I would like to say the redemption-driven life of Revelation 5-9 is that the redemption that will be the theme of our song in heaven, the redemption that will be the focus of our worship in heaven, should be the redemption that should be our purpose for living now. Don't wait to just sing about it in heaven. Don't wait to just worship the Redeemer in heaven. Live for Him now. In communion. is when we hold up a picture, a cup of Christ's blood, a picture of his blood, and a piece of unleavened bread that's to show his death. And do you know what the Lord's Supper is about? It's the communion of the redeemed. Those who, the justifying death portrayed by that bread, who are trusting in that, and those who the redeeming blood poured out bought them. So communion is a time we really ponder redemption. And that's what we see in Revelation 5-9. So, to help us calibrate our lives, the Lord shows us this scene in heaven. And what he's saying is, when you see what you're gonna be doing in heaven, why don't you sink your life with it on earth? To get in step with what I redeemed you for. The purpose is to glorify God. Let's listen to that. Let's all stand together. You have Revelation 5, 9. We'll read it and I'll pray, then we'll dive in and kind of unpack this incredible verse. Revelation chapter 5, the ninth verse, and they, those are the saved people that are in heaven, the redeemed, that's us. They sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. The drive train of the gospel. is that center of the ninth verse. Look what it says, "...and have redeemed us to God." You're justifying death on the cross. You redeemed us to God by your blood. That's the redemption price that cleanses us of our sins. And all that happened so that we could get adopted in his family, have him sanctify us to live out his life, and so that we could fulfill his purpose. That's what we need to learn how to do this morning. Let's bow before him in prayer. Father, as we begin to prepare our hearts for the most sacred, the most precious, the highest of all the celebrations that we ever are invited to be a part of, the communion of your body and blood, May we with more awareness than ever before understand that we're redeemed and that is the purpose that you left us here to glorify you as your redeemed ones. And may we a little more fully, a little more deeply, a little more consciously Live redemptively today because of your word impacting our lives, your spirit moving in our hearts. Open our eyes to your truth and change us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Last week we began to unpack what I call the three layers of redemption. This word, if you look at verse 9, this is our center point. You know, whenever you're doing Google Maps, you have to pick a place that you map from or to. This is where we're mapping from, okay? And what we're zeroing in on is that word redeemed. It says, and you have redeemed us. Now, that's one word in English, redeem. But God engineered the Bible using the Greek language. And the Greek language has three different words that are translated by one English word, redeem. Three different Greek words for one English word. What's fascinating is every single one of those three words speaks of a different facet. of redemption. See, God, redemption is so big that it couldn't be covered with just one idea. And so we see that our redemption is huge to God. So let's unpack what Jesus did on the cross, what's forever going to be our theme in heaven, and see that each word that God chose to express the work of Christ on the cross speaks of his power to redeem us. The first word, and it's the word that's right here in verse 9, it's the word agoradzo. Now let me explain, give you a picture. I mentioned this last week. If you went to any city in the ancient Roman Empire, the Roman Empire of Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar that Jesus Christ lived in, every city and town of the Roman Empire that went from, you know, way over by Iraq, all the way up to the lower parts of Russia, all the way over to Great Britain and all the way into Northern Africa, that huge area of the Roman Empire, if you went into any town and said, Agoura, Agoura, They would look at you and they'd know by that word Agura that you wanted to find this town square, the city square, the forum or the marketplace. Every city had one. Now the size depended on what city you're in. The one in Rome is huge. The one in little towns like in Israel today that are being excavated aren't that big. But all of them were the same for one reason. It was the exchange place where you bought and sold things. It was the most strategic spot of the city. And so what happened is a noun that described this Agora, which is a noun, began to be so synonymous with the activity that went on there, because the prime activity that went on in this square was the buying and selling of the millions of slaves. The slaves were the long-term employees of individuals. And those long-term employees, they were all treated all different ways. The majority of slaves in the Roman Empire were basically very well-taken-care-of workers, kind of like my dad was. He worked for General Motors for 46 years. He was really totally enslaved to their schedule. He didn't work when he wanted to, he worked when they told him to. He didn't do whatever he wanted, he did what they told him to, and et cetera, et cetera. And if they went into overtime or changeover, he had to cancel everything and did it. I mean, in the truest sense, he was enslaved if he wanted to be paid to that company. Well, in the first century you bought your skilled workers. And so you always went to the same place to get them, the agora. So soon the noun became a verb form. The word agora, marketplace, became known as agorazo, the place of buying and selling slaves. So the noun became a verb because of the activity that took place in that square. And so Paul and Peter and James and Jesus picked up on this word and took a concept that everybody knew about and gave us the first word. And that first word is bought at the slave market. That word that's in your Bibles in verse 9 of Revelation 5 means to be bought at the slave market. It means that someone went to a place and purchased you there. And that's what redemption means. So to take that concept, that most common word, it just has a depth of meaning that flows into this idea that salvation is not me thinking up, I need help, boy, maybe there's a God, let me go find him. Salvation is God realizing that I am enslaved in sin. And he comes to me. where I am, and comes into the slave market, and God the Son said, I will buy that one by dying and paying the price to redeem them. What was the price? You know, there's been huge discussion over this. It's the righteous wrath of God that everyone owes him because of their sin, Jesus took the entirety of my wrath owed to God, his righteous wrath against sin, and God treated Jesus like he committed every sin I've ever committed, past, present, and future. That's what your Redeemer is, the one who went and bought you at the slave market. Now, this, and we covered all that last week, I'm just repeating it, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Because Paul was writing to a group of people in Corinth. And in 1 Corinthians 6, I want you to see in verse 20, what is going on. Because the second time this word occurs, it's in Revelation 5, 9, agorazo, to be bought at the slave market. That word occurs a second time in 1 Corinthians 6, 20. And here, Paul says, for you were bought, there's the word, and if you wanna circle, if you're doing a little study, there is the word agorazzo, to be bought at the slave market. For you were bought at the slave market at a price. And by the way, Peter adds what that price is, 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19, he says, it was the precious blood of Christ. You couldn't have a higher, more precious payment than the actual lifeblood of the person, the purchaser. And so you were bought at a price, which was very high, but look at what this being bought at the slave market means. Look how Paul applies it in verse 20. Therefore, therefore what? Therefore, because you were bought at a price, glorify God. You notice what it says, in your body, That means this body of mine, once it's bought by God, is very important. God is looking Our purpose of being redeemed. God is looking that this body glorify him. That's what he bought us for. He didn't buy us just so we can enjoy heaven. He didn't buy us just so we can have a happy, you know, anxiety-free life. He bought us specifically, let me put it theologically, the justifying death of Christ was so that the sanctifying life of Christ would be lived out in my body. Now do you see why there's a controversy? There are many people who claim they have the justifying death of Christ. but they don't live out the sanctifying life. So, purpose number one, we were bought to be slaves that glorify God. And Revelation 5-9 tells us Christ bought us at the slave market of sin, he bought us with his own blood, and we as believers were bought for a sole purpose, glorifying him. Now, Turn back with me to the Gospel by John. Because Jesus, by the way, talked about all this. What's so neat for many people is to realize how interconnected the Bible is, you know? I do know that, I know very little about medical things, but I do know that one of the great struggles that surgeons have as they're doing their surgical work is that it's very hard to cut one part of the body without severing those, those feathery filaments of the nerves that radiate out all through the body. And if you, if you're not careful, you can cut out the cancer or the whatever the problem is and damage everything that's connected to it. Did you know that a lot of people think of verses like cutouts? And they don't realize every verse is interconnected with all the others. There are no doctrines that are just out there all alone. They're all a part of a fabric. And so every time you find a verse, it's connected, completely sewn with a bunch of others. So this doctrine of redemption, look at John 8, verse 44. Because the slave market, Jesus says, is this earth. Jesus in John 8, verse 44, explains this this Pauline doctrine of redemption by giving us the backdrop, and the backdrop is this. The slave market is sin, and the earth is a slave market, and all humans are born as sinners, and all subjects are born in slavery, and born under the dominion of Satan. You realize that? You know how you can become an American citizen if you're just born here in America? Did you know that just being born on earth makes you a subject of the devil? He is actually your father, Jesus said. See what he says in verse 44? You are of your father the devil, the desires of your father you will want to do. Do you catch that? You can see who your father is. Jesus said there's only two potentials, your father the devil or your father in heaven. Either it's God the father or the devil that is your father. How do you know? By what you desire. Look what it says in verse 44. And the desires of your father you want to do. You and I have the same appetites and desires as whoever fathered us. So when you're born again, The justifying death of Christ issues into new desires from a new father, your father in heaven. And that new desire is that you live out the sanctifying life of Christ. See, that's the heart, the drivetrain of the gospel. Sanctification and justification are two chambers of the same organ, they're two sides of the same coin. They are indivisibly linked, and if there's any problem with either one, there is a serious condition. Jesus says you were born with a serious condition the desires of your father you want to do he's a murderer He doesn't stand the truth because there's no truth in him. He speaks a lie. He speaks from his own resources He's a liar and the father of it and that's how all of us were born desiring our own way to the point of even be murderous and But, Jesus further explains, back up to verse 34, same chapter, John 8, 34. Jesus answered them, most assuredly I say to you, now here's Jesus furthering his discussion of this redemption of slaves. He says, most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a what? Slave of sin. Do you understand that we were born slaves of the devil? That's why no matter, you can take a pig, you can wash it up, you can powder it, you can put a bow on its tail, you can do whatever you want, you turn it loose. What does it desire? Filth. Understand? Religion powders people, puts bows on their tails, washes them externally, but does not change their desires. Only God can change our heart. See our heart desires something. And Jesus said, you know who your father is by what your desires are. So verse 34, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. We're enslaved by our desires, but Into the hopeless slavery our sins bring us, look at verse 36. In comes a Redeemer, Jesus. He said, I'm the only one that can liberate you. And I liberate you by changing you on the inside. I give you a new operating system. Give you new desires. And see what he says in verse 36? Therefore, if the Son makes you free, that's redemption. That's the justifying death of Christ, where he says, I'm going to be treated by God as if I committed every sin you ever committed. But because I did that, There is the other side of my work of salvation, and that issues into my sanctifying life lived out inside of you. Let me show you how that happens, because Jesus, who died on the cross to make us free, this morning tells us our redemption means that we were each bought to be slaves that glorify him. And the song of heaven that should reverberate through our lives every day as our purpose is, that I was bought to be a slave of God. Now, let's go to word number two. Goes me to Galatians chapter three, okay? Remember, we're tracking, we're walking, we're trailing words through the Bible. And we're looking at words for redemption, and there are three of them. We've seen the first one is this, agorazo. Here's the second word, translated redeem and redemption, but it's the second word. And the second word means to be bought out of the slave market of sin. The word is ex-agorazzo, and it's in verse 13 of chapter 3. And it says Christ has, and see the word there, redeemed. In the New King James, it's redeemed. It's very similar in English, redeemed, redeem, but it's a completely different word in Greek. And what it is, is it's the word agorazo to buy at the slave market, but a preposition has been joined at the front end of it. This second word means bought out of the slave market. It's like a house taken off the market. It's no longer for sale. Jesus, when he redeemed us, takes us off the market. We belong to him. We're no longer to be sold back into sin. We don't go back on the market, as it were, for the devil. Closely tied to the doctrine of redemption is this doctrine of adoption. Keep going in chapter 3. It says, verse 13, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree. But you notice he redeemed us from the curse of the law. What is that? The curse of the law is kind of like the idiot lights on your car, if you have an old enough car to have idiot lights. Idiot lights are those red things that used to say, you know, check oil, you know, check engine, check brakes. You know, a red light would come on. It's like the person that was driving their parent's car and they called up and they said, hey, how are you doing at college with our car? They said, oh, great. They said, I had this annoying red light that kept saying check oil. I just put tape over it because I didn't want to, you know, it kept bothering me, blinking at me. That is a picture of the law. The law only points out something's wrong. See, the check engine or check oil light doesn't fix, doesn't give oil, doesn't fix the engine. It just says there's something wrong. The law says you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong. Everything you do is wrong. That's a curse. We're just buffeted with everything we're doing wrong. But look what it says in 3.13, Christ has redeemed us. from the curse of the law. How did he do that? He came down into the slave market, and this word means he bought us out of the slave market. Look at chapter 4, it gets a little clearer. Look at verse 5, Galatians 4, 5. To redeem, same word, ex agorazo, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive adoption. There's the great doctrine of adoption. You know what adoption is? You know what the depths of the theological meaning of adoption is? It means we're adopted. Isn't that amazing? You know what it means? It means God comes to the orphanage, the slave market of sin, and through the justifying death of Christ, pays the price for our sin, and purchases us out of the slave market, and says, you now belong to me. You can live with me. And I'm going to live in you. When Bonnie and I were first starting out in ministry, as I've mentioned many times, we were in California, and I was teaching seminary at the Master's Seminary and pastoring at Grace Community Church with Dr. MacArthur, and there were a lot of nice people at Grace, thousands of them, and one of the nice people at one time says, hey, do you want to come up to our cabin? I mean, you know, I was from Michigan. I thought of this kind of little tiny thing up on stilts by a lake, you know, that you kind of, the floor creaks. His cabin was next door to Bill Gates. on the Puget Sound in Washington. So I didn't know that. So I said, yeah. And we get there and we're sitting in this multimillion dollar cabin. And I didn't know where we were. And he said, do you see that man walking? And have you ever seen Bill Gates' house? It's as big as the Portage Mall. And you'd see him walking by a window there, and we'd sit there and we'd watch and we'd watch. Ten minutes later, you'd see him go by that window. He was just going from his bedroom to the kitchen, you know? And he'd just walk like that. And we would sit there, and I thought, you know, if Bill and Melanie, you know, they're multi-multi-billionaires, can you imagine them going to a typical third-world orphanage and finding some emaciated, just terribly sick and decaying teeth and tattered clothes little child. And they say, we would like to adopt this child and she will become in our family. And can you imagine that little child saying, thanks for adopting me and turning around with their decaying teeth and all of their medical disorders and their frayed clothes and their malnourished condition. and staying in the orphanage? Did you know that's what the lordship controversy was about? Jesus, who came to the orphanage to buy us the slave market of sin, says, I redeemed you out of this place. You need to come out of this place. You need to let me clothe you, feed you. You need to let me get rid of the parasites that are sapping your strength, the sins that so easily beset you. You need to allow me to take you out of here. The pastor that kicked off the lordship controversy said, all my people aren't saved from the waist down. They like the orphanage better than the mansion. They like the rags. They like the parasites. They love that stuff. They don't want to live on the new diet. Their lusts are for the flesh. The justifying death that buys us, buys us out of the slave market of sin. You understand? You see there's a problem here. gospel message that tells people Jesus died for you so you can live the rest of your life with the parasites just totally eaten up by worms and shoddy and malnourished and sickly. He's got a mansion for you someday, but it doesn't affect you today. It's only half the gospel. Understand? And what Paul said is, look at verse 5, to redeem those who are under the law. What did the law do? The law was saying you're sick and you're a slave. to redeem those, to buy them out of being under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. The second purpose of redemption is this. We were bought to be adopted and never to live in the slave market anymore. That's what redemption is all about. Redemption is Jesus is treated by God like he committed every sin I ever committed. That's justification. That's why he died. But he did all that so that he could move inside of me and empower me to leave the slave market of sin and to live in newness of life. You know how Paul put it? Therefore, if anyone be in Christ, he is a what? new creation the old things are passing away see that's the gospel and that's redemption And that's what communion portrays, this cup of blood. Every time you hold that in your hand, you're saying, I was bought. I was bought at the slave market by a redeemer, and he bought me secondly out of the slave market to be his child, to be his purchased possession, so that I would glorify him. And you say, that's him. How is all that possible? In Christ. In Christ, we have redemption. In Christ, we have adoption. In Christ, we have forgiveness. And as we just read in John chapter 8, if Jesus sets you free from the slave market of sin, you're free indeed. We've gathered this morning to celebrate the communion of the redeemed. Let's bow for a word of prayer. And as you bow, the men are going to prepare to serve us communion. And communion is a time of communing with the Lord. And with head bowed and eyes closed, I want you to think, are you still acting like you're a slave to sin? Are you still craving the old stuff? Are you still clothed in the old rags? of self-righteous, of trying to work it out on your own. Communion is when we say, Lord, you redeemed me. I believe that you're justifying death. Took care of all my sins and set me free from the curse of the law. The law only can point out what I'm doing wrong. In Christ, in Christ, I have the power to have a changed appetite. to become nourished, to get rid of the parasites of sin that are sapping my joy and my peace and my victory and my confidence. And I just want to at this communion renew my thanks to you for redeeming me. Father in heaven, as we sing, as we soon hold the beautiful pictures of Jesus' body, broken and crushed with our sins, as you, Lord Jesus, were treated by God on the cross like you committed every sin we would ever commit, Our hearts say, because of your redemption, because we are bought out of the slave market, we want to glorify you with our bodies because they belong to you. Help us to see that the purpose that should drive our lives is that we're redeemed. We thank you for the bread that portrays our redemption. In the precious name of Jesus, we thank you. Amen.