The word redeemed is a very interesting word.
And it is defined as the idea of buying back, something from
bondage. In other words, it's a matter of
buying back by paying a price. And sometimes the price is very
high. Have you ever heard the term?
A king's Ransom? It's very old term.
Maybe we've used it in her own vernacular over the years.
Somebody might say, oh, that is so valuable.
They must have paid a king's ransom for it.
Have you ever stopped to consider where that came from
that phrase? A king's Ransom, I read that it
went all the way back to the time of the Crusades.
When the king of in England was named Richard Coeur de Leon and
he was captured by the enemy. Now, history tells us that the
people loved their kid, wouldn't it be great to be such a king?
I'm talking about in in the common fleshly world to be such
a leader, such a ruler, such a king that the people love Loved
you so much that they were willing to submit to excessive
taxation, just to free, you and redeem you.
Well, history tells us this King was captured and he was cast
into prison, and the people did just that they submitted to
excessive Taxation and large sums of money were taken in.
I also read that rich Nobles saw what was going on and they love
the king to and they dumped money in and the coffers
literally were overflowing with money.
To buy back that King and from that story in history we now
have the phrase, a king's Ransom.
Also going back to the time of the Crusades, there was Sir
grimwald and he was captured by the saracens.
Now the saracens that the term used to describe Muslims who
were evil and wicked and cruel. And those that opposed the
Crusades Now you don't really it's nothing new for them to be
cruel and hateful and that's exactly what they were and they
took this man. Sir grimwald and they said we're
going to execute him. We're going to take his life.
unless, Unless his precious wife is willing to cut her right hand
off and submit her right hand for her loving husband.
You know, the story tells that she didn't even bat an eye, she
didn't even can take time to consider.
She says take it and she outstretched her arm and took
off her hand for her husband. You see, there's always a high
price for Redemption. Buying someone back that is in
bondage. And I want you to understand
today and maybe in prayerfully this, we'll help you to
understand what price was paid for you.
You might think in your life, but there's nothing that that
you have, and no one in your life that's ever done anything
for you. Sometimes we feel sorry for
ourselves and our mind goes there.
But if you're a child of God, you've been redeemed and you've
been bought back out of the bondage of something.
We're going to get to that in just a minute. now, Peter says
that you've been bought or redeemed, By the precious blood
of Christ now, very briefly. We'll get back to this later.
Obviously, those that were listening and those that read
from Peter, would understand what he's making reference to.
When they talk about a lamb being slain, we talked about the
idea where the children of Israel were in Egyptian bondage.
God passed down a plague that the firstborn would die.
So watch that the firstborn was really sentenced to die until
what the blood, not just the blood, but the Precious Blood of
the Lamb was applied. I'd they took the life of that
lamb. They put the blood also in one
Basin and they took that blood and dipped it hyssop and put it
on the doorposts and the lintel. And the Death Angel would pass
over that house. What am I saying?
I'm saying that the death angel would pass over and because of
the blood they were redeemed or they were Passed over and not
killed but we're talking about something.
That's even greater as great as that, was it pales in comparison
to what Jesus has done for us. Taking these two verses to all
want to ask two questions. Number one, what are we redeemed
from? And number two, what are we
redeemed with now? I like to stay.
Can I call it the holy spirit's outline?
We're going to take these two verses, we're going to go
through and do an exposition of these two verses and build our
thoughts from it. The question is, what are we
redeemed from? Somebody might say, well, wait a
minute, everything in my life is going pretty good.
I don't have a need to be removed from any kind of
bondage. I have a great life.
What does Peter say though about this life?
First of all, we understand we are redeemed from something and
it is bondage. Now, I understand that we can
look at it from a general sense and we can say that when we've
been redeemed, we were redeemed from the bondage of sin but
there's more There's more. Notice First Peter 1 and 14.
It says, as obedient children, not conforming yourself to your
former lust. In other words, Peter is saying
that the element of our life prior to Redemption is lust.
Now, last as defined is this, it is a strong and illicit desire,
that reflects the bondage of sin and all of that, speaks for
itself and James chapter, 1 and verse 15.
You know, sometimes people say, well, God is testing me.
God is throwing obstacles before me.
That's not true. God is the right.
God is our refuge. The Bible says, when we talk
about Sin though, James 115, that lust, when lust has
conceived, it brings forth, sin and sin.
When it is finished brings forth death.
The new King James says desire. They're all right, we'll go back
to verse 14. Please first Peter 114 goes
further. Not conforming yourself to the
former lusts as in your ignorance.
Now, I know that there are things in our life that we learn
over time. There are those that have just
entered into the painting trade. And you're starting off as a
first period of Prentiss. There are things that you do not
know. And over time you learn those
things. So the day that you begin, your
job as a first period Apprentice, as part of the trade
you are ignorant of various aspects of it.
But that's not what I'm talking about.
What is the ignorance that we are freed from or redeemed?
From? What ignorance do we have in
mind? Go back to John 17 and verse 25
in John. Chapter 17 and verse 25.
This is Jesus Christ and he's praying to his father He said, o
righteous father. In other words, father, you are
righteous and then he says the world has not known you.
That's out of ignorance, but I have known you and these have
known that you sent me. So, therein lies.
The bondage of those that are not saved, they do not know God,
that's the clearest and most pervasive expression of man's
ignorance and they're ignorant of God.
But do you remember in John chapter 8?
When Jesus was talking those Pharisees, he actually describes
people that were ignorant by choice.
Remember when Jesus says he says, I'm gonna go away.
Now the one thing they did understand, they did understand
that he meant death. He said I'm going to go away and
you're going to seek me but you will not find me and where I'm
going, you cannot come and all they could think is wait a
minute, if he's going to die and he we're not going to go where
he's going to go, then he must be going to the deepest part of
hell, because we're going to heaven.
And Jesus says, your father is the devil, you've got your
directions, mixed up, you're not going to heaven, you don't know
me and you don't know the father, if you don't know me.
And you know what they said, they said, well, who are you all
the Miracles that Jesus performed?
It should have been obvious who Jesus was, but they willfully
were ignorant of that. Remember, as I don't know, year
ago, whatever. When I preach the sermon, I
talked about willful ignorance. And I talked about the idea,
Idea that today we have a category or a classification of
somebody in the in the world today that says that I may not
know her or I'm just going to ride the fence on this.
It's called an agnostic. Never forget that the Latin
equivalent for agnostic is ignoramus.
Same word and some people willfully are ignorant.
When you're redeemed, you're not only redeemed from lust but
you're redeemed from ignorance your because now you know God
now Notice some other passages about ignorance that's attached
to those that are not saved. Look at First Corinthians 2 and
14, but the natural man or the unsaved, man, does not know,
does not receive the things of the spirit of God for, they are
foolishness to him nor can, he know them because they are
spiritually discerned. So, in other words, something
happens in our life. That is revelation Revelation.
All I'm talking about is what's been revealed already.
There's not going to be new revelation of talking about the
word of God. So somebody is ignorant of the
truth, they're ignorant of God, they do not know God, but then
Revelation makes the difference. That's when the Bible says that
the gospel has the power to save one scholar mr.
Shepard wrote this about revelation.
Because sometimes people say, you know, I know God.
I know God's will. I know God's will for my life.
Shepherd says, this man by his natural faculties without
Revelation. That's without the word of God.
Could not learn the will of God, but in order that he might know
it. The spirit of God, who knows,
the things of God was transferred to the apostles and
made known to them of God's Will, and they reveal it to the
people. So, the natural man, then is the
man. He who has never heard the will
of God for. He has no way of knowing until
those who received the Revelation, make it known to
him. And that's when the Bible talks
about that, God has chosen the foolish sness of preaching to
save those. That believe what makes the
difference Revelation? All right, now Galatians chapter
4. You know, Paul's going to talk
about to two kinds of people, a safe person and a unsafe person
but first in Galatians, 4 and 8. Paul spoke of a time before when
they were not saved and this is what he said.
He said. But then indeed, when you did
not know God, you serve those things by Nature that are not
Gods. Then he says to those that are
saved, Galatians 4 and 9. But now, after you have known
God or rather of known or are known of God, Did you know?
That you can't know, God. Unless God knows you.
That's the question. The Bible says, the Lord knows
those that are his Those that are his are those that obey him.
Jesus said, if you love me, keep my Commandments.
If you love me keep my words in other words, obey me.
So when we obey the Lord and obey, the commands of the Lord
and are redeemed and redeemed from Ignorance by Revelation, or
the word of God, then we are known of God.
And that's a tremendous blessing.
Go back to verse 18 of our text. 1st Peter, chapter 1.
There's something else here. Knowing that you were not
redeemed with corruptible things, like, silver or gold.
Watch what it says, from your aimless conduct.
Now, the word aimless, there is translated as futile.
Now, Redemption is not only from the things that are governed by
sin and removing ourselves from that but get this it also guides
us away from a futile life. And you might wonder what in the
world are you talking about a futile life?
You know what Peter says, it's your aimless conduct.
You know what that means. It means it doesn't matter.
All the great things you will do in your life without being
redeemed, your life is futile. I'm going to tell you there's
some good people today. There's some great people that
have done great things with medicine, but without being
redeemed, your life is futile without the Lord.
It is aimless. It is vain.
It is empty. One scholar said, the life of
the unsaved man is a life that fails to meet the standards of
God. I want to ask you a question.
Consider this I want you to think about your life.
And I want you to ask yourself the question.
Why am I here? Why am I here?
Why was I born? Everybody wants to have a
purpose. Everybody wants to have some
kind of guidance or some kind of thing in their life, that gives
them purpose. But you are here for one reason,
and one reason only. And it's the only reason that
God created man and that is here, it is to honor God.
And if your life is not honoring, God, it is aimless or
futile, it has no purpose. You know, when God created man,
he could have created a bunch of robots that just fell in line
and fell down before God and did exactly what God wanted them to
do. But God did not do that.
He created man with the freedom of choice and free will.
And his desire is and his purpose for you.
And your life is to honor him with your life.
All right, so what are we redeemed from lust ignorance
futility. But there's one more look at
Verse 18. Again, please knowing that you
were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver
or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition of
your father's. Now what's the traditional?
Addition that we are talking about.
I got to make a couple points here, bear with me on this.
Sometimes people say that we do what we do out of tradition.
Now, there is a difference between something that we do and
tradition simply means that which is passed down by our
forefathers or those that have gone on before us right now.
Traditions are great. There's a lot of traditions in
my family. Thanksgiving is a tradition and
on that day, we do the same thing.
We watch the Cowboys play at 1:30.
Hopefully, they don't lose. We all eat at the same time, we
all do the same things we have traditions in our family.
We have a number of traditions that we do in our family and
there's nothing wrong with that. Peter says, though, when you're
redeemed, you are free from tradition.
The question is, what's he talking about?
He is talking about religious Tradition.
Now, got to make this point, there's a difference between
religious tradition that contradicts the word of God, and
there's a difference between that and Apostolic tradition.
Now, Apostolic tradition, is what we read about in the word
of God, and when we read in the New Testament, the apostles
doctrine, that is Apostolic tradition, and what they
commanded. And what They did we follow.
And that's right. That's not what Peters talking
about. He's talking about the
Traditions, the religious traditions of their fathers.
Now, to the Jew he was talking about Jewish Traditions were
redeemed from that to the Gentile.
He's talking about all the things that the Gentiles were
involved in by tradition all of their Idols.
What do you redeem from those Traditions too?
Traditions are very obvious and they're very prevalent in our
life. You know, Jesus, when he talked
about the Traditions Jesus spoke of that very thing in Matthew 15
and 9, he said, and in vain, they do worship me teaching for
doctrines, the Commandments of men.
So this is in response to the scribes and the Pharisees.
But what they said, they said that about the Lord's.
Disciples. Oh, they're doing wrong.
They don't wash their hands before they eat.
Big deal. You know, the Jews were by way
of tradition. They were more concerned with
the outward appearance, then they were on what was inside.
You know, Jesus said, Jesus, dealt with that very thing.
And he talked about the weightier matters, you neglect,
the weightier matters of the law.
Oh, you're like a fair Shake person.
That's counting all the this and that and whatever and following
suit with all that but inside you're not right.
The weightier matters of the law.
You neglect will achieve the said in response to these.
It said your disciples are doing wrong because they don't wash
their hands before they eat. He said, you are taking the
traditions of men and you are making it a Doctrine.
We are free from that. In Hong Kong.
There was an evangelist spoke about a man that was working in
a hotel. A very, very, very nice
well-behaved. Respectful well-dressed young
man. And this evangelist goes to him
and he says you know what I'd like to do?
You're such a good kid. You're such a good young man.
I would love it. If you'd read the Bible.
Could I get you a Bible? Could you read the Bible?
And the young man said, absolutely not thank you, sir,
but I could never read the Bible while my father was alive.
Tradition. Passed down from the father's.
You know, there's people today that don't follow what the word
of God says, because following the word of God, make condemn,
or convict a family member. But we don't need to follow what
the family member does. We're redeemed from those
traditions. We just follow the word of God.
In Korea. They're so intimately tied many
times to their mothers and grandmothers and fathers and
forefathers that they can't make a break to embrace the gospel,
they're caught in Tradition and those are things that are
bondage. So what are we redeemed from?
Well obviously the bondage of sin specifically, lust ignorance
futility and tradition but the second question What are we
redeemed with now? This is really interesting
because when you think about what are we redeemed with Peter
begins, First In this passage with, with the negative side and
he said not silver or gold. In fact, he says, knowing that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver
or gold, the negative aspect of it.
First is not silver and gold. Now, why did he say that?
What could he have possibly been referring to when he said silver
or gold? Now, remember redeemed is to be
bought back with the price. It's to pay a price to redeem.
You look at Exodus chapter 30, Talking about the idea.
They would have understood about silver and gold.
Exodus chapter 30 beginning there in verse 11.
This is regarding Ransom money. Says then the Lord spoke to
Moses saying when you take the census of the children of Israel
for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself
to the Lord when you number them.
There may be no plague among them when you number them.
Now, God does not command them to take a census.
He's just saying when you take the census, this is what you're
going to do and you're going to offer Something valuable silver
and gold. So there's no plague that comes
upon you. Now, by the way, at this
particular time, there were no coins.
In fact, I read the coins were invented and used for the first
time in 700 BC. So these were actual literal
pieces of silver now, go to Exodus, 30 and 13.
That is what everyone among those who are numbered shall
give half of a shekel, according to the shekel of the sanctuary
and a shekel, it says is 20 Gyros and a half.
Shekel shall be an offering to the Lord.
Look at the next verse verse 14, Everyone included among those
who were numbered from twenty years old and above shall give
an offering to the Lord. In other words, when you take
the census and the people are numbered everyone, that's twenty
years old, and above has to make atonement for themself to avoid
the plague. All right, you might ask, well,
why would God send a plague for taking a census?
You remember when David got himself in trouble for doing
that? Do you remember what David did?
David numbered, the people. And that was wrong.
David did wrong, David got in trouble for numbering the
people, why did David number the people instead of putting his
faith in God and His trust in God, he figured out this.
I'm going to count up how many we got and let's see how big our
force is. Got in trouble for that.
Numbering the people. So when Exodus says, when they
do that, when you number said you got to pay a ransom, the
implication is that it was wrong to do that.
And those that were involved were required to pay a ransom
for their sin. One commentator wrote this, he
said the taking of a census was bound up with the religious
ritual of purification due to the fact that the census itself
was considered a sin. It was considered a lack of
Faith in God. So it had to have a cleansing
feature by doing this. The Israelites would be
delivered from the punishment. That would they were liable to
be inflicted on them on account of their sin implicit to the
census and quote. Now, you know what Peter says
he's you're talking about something that is so great.
He said it's not silver and gold.
Exodus what was it? Silver and gold. pieces of
silver, monetary means Peter says not silver and not gold,
but then he says, but from the positive side, but from the
precious blood, Jesus Christ without blemish and without
spot. In other words, the price of our
Redemption had to be only With blood, you know, the word
precious. Comes from the word to my aios.
And it means to be held in honor.
It means to be esteemed dear now just like the lamb was
unblemished during the Passover and spotlessness.
Somebody might say, the wait a minute, was it all the blood
precious? I mean, after all weren't they
all just Innocent animals, innocent victims.
And the answer to that is no, in fact, if you had a sheep or you
had a lamb and that lamb was without blemish was without
spot, it was considered precious the word to my os'.
Now, the Passover feast, they had to do that.
They took one of those kind of lamps now.
Why was it precious? I read something interesting
about that. It was precious because it
represented get this. This future Generations.
In other words in the breeding process, a Shepherd that had a
lamb that was precious or was without spot or blemish in
represented future Generations, it was money in his pocket.
Now. When you talk about the
Passover, get this. What a Shepherd had a lamb like
that. And he had to give up the lamb.
It was a tremendous sacrifice to the shepherd and it was a
tremendous shit sacrifice to the land.
You want to know what price has been paid for you?
In this God is the shepherd. God paid the price, John 3:16
for God. So loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life.
So God is the shepherd and he paid a great price.
Jesus is the Lamb, the Priceless precious lamb of God.
And he gave his life. For All Mankind.
I'll tell you something. If understanding that?
Doesn't make us have a greater desire to serve God.
I don't know what will our life is aimless without the Lord.
Is the Lord in your life, is he the Lord of your life?
You know really I got to make this point to we talked about,
we talked about byproducts, we talk about things that see the
symptom of the problem. What do we always say?
What's the one thing we always say?
We always talk about attendance and priorities, we always talk
about that. But that is a symptom.
It's a symptom of a greater problem.
The problem is the heart. The problem is, we are not
changed. If we were changed on the
inside, out, that all of those other things would fall into
place, we would have our priorities right automatically.
You are here today because you woke up this morning and you
said, I have an appointment with my Lord and there's nothing else
that is more important than what I'm going to do right now.
Everything else that scheduled in the days after this, and it
doesn't matter. This is the most important thing
in our life. Why is that?
Because God is the shepherd, gave his Priceless lamb to
redeem us and get us out of the bondage of sin, which was lust
ignorance futility, and tradition.
And now we have eternal life. In First Peter chapter 1 and
verse 20. Watch this.
And First Peter 1 and verse 20, it says he indeed was
foreordained before the foundation of the world but was
manifest in these last times for you.
In other words, the great sacrifice of the Lamb had to be
manifest in these last days or during the last dispensation of
time. And now he stands and knocks,
you know, Jesus said in Revelation, 3 and 20, he said,
behold I stand at knock stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to
him and will dine with him and he with me.
The question is, the question is, and the point is the door
knob or the latches on your side, you got to open it up to
open up your heart, to the Lord. That's what he did for all of us
in our life. I had love my kids.
You love your kids. Nobody in the world has to tell
us to love our kids. Nobody has to tell me to love my
wife. My family.
There's a lot of important things that I have to do as a
man as a father, as a husband. But I'm going to tell you
something without Jesus Christ being first in my life.
Every single thing I do is aimless and futile.
Are you honoring God with your life today?
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