Bought With a Price - Part 1 of 2

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise, the worries of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace. This is Lisser Bradley Jr. welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. I hope you'll take time to write and let us know that you have listened.

We depend on our listeners for support to keep the program on the air on this station and others that carry the program. Our address is the Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. In the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 20, the Apostle Paul says, ye are bought with a price. The scriptures have a lot to say about redemption. In Job 19 25, Job said, I know that my Redeemer liveth. In Psalm 19 verse 14, David says, Oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

In Isaiah chapter 59 and verse 20, it says the Redeemer shall come to Zion. Romans chapter 3 verse 24 says, is being justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And then this passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 20, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. We sing about redemption, hymn number 489, Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Hymn number 605, how I love the great Redeemer. So reference to a Redeemer and subject matter relating to redemption is one that is seen repeatedly in the scripture, one about which we continually sing. What do you understand redemption to be?

What does it mean to you when we speak of the Redeemer? If someone asked you the question, have you been redeemed? What would be your response? Have you been redeemed?

What would be your response? We want to look at some of the things clearly taught in the Word of God on this important subject and particularly look at the lessons to be learned from this text in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 20. First of all, we consider the need of redemption. I've actually heard of people saying, I don't need a Savior.

I think I'm a pretty good person. The whole concept of needing redemption is foreign to them. So why is it that we need to be redeemed?

You need it because you have broken God's law. God is a holy God. He's the sovereign creator.

He had absolute right to establish laws and to say here's the penalty for violating them. The book of Romans chapter 3 verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. No matter how an individual might claim to be superior to others, to be righteous in himself, the fact is there is none righteous. Verse 19, now we know that whatsoever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. All the world, every member of Adam's family stands guilty before God. Verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

There is no exception. Now though an individual might try to make out a case for himself, saying I'm just not all that bad, or I may have my faults, I may have my personality flaws, but I really haven't done anything seriously terrible. I haven't really done anything terrible. I haven't really violated the laws of the land. I've never been arrested.

I've never done anything just terribly bad. But let's think about God's law. Jesus summarized it when he said that the first and greatest commandment is that you love the Lord God with all your mind, heart, soul, and strength. How well do you stand up in having kept that commandment? Could anybody be in such darkness today as to lay claim to the fact I've kept that commandment?

I have always, in every detail of my life, in every decision I've made and all the use of my time and my resources, I have loved God supremely. No, it's clearly evident that you love yourself. We hear much in our society today about the need of self-esteem.

That's already out the roof. You already think highly of yourself. That's not the problem. Most of what you've done in life has been to suit yourself. You wanted to do what you wanted to do. And little thought has been given to the fact that I am to supremely love God and honor Him in all things. By nature you are a servant of sin, a slave to sin.

This is why redemption is necessary. Let's look at the Gospel of John, chapter 8. These are the words of Jesus.

It's not a matter of what an individual may perceive and what the personal opinion may be. This is what Jesus has to say. John chapter 8, verse 32, And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Truth will make you free. But the fact is you need freedom because you're in bondage. They answered, We be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, ye shall be made free.

Now look at the audacity of this claim. The Jews who are hearing him say, We've never been in bondage to any man. What do you mean never in bondage? For 400 years they were slaves in Egypt. Certainly they had been in bondage. But in their self-righteous approach they say, You couldn't be talking to us. We've never been slaves.

We've never been in bondage. And so when we talk about the need for redemption, some proud soul may say today, I'm no slave to sin. Well, it's evident of the darkness in which one is held when they fail to see that for a lifetime you have constantly sinned against the holy God of heaven. Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committh sin is the servant of sin. So if you commit sin, you're serving sin.

You're in bondage. You're a slave to sin. This is because of your fallen sinful nature. Nobody ever had to teach you how to sin.

You handle it very well on your own. Nobody ever has to encourage you to sin. You sin because you want to sin, because you're a sinner by nature. Romans chapter 6 verse 16, Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness? To whom you yield yourself, you yield yourselves to sin? You're the servant of sin. You're a slave.

You're in bondage. Verse 20, For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. Prior to your experience of grace, when ye were indeed in bondage, ye were the servant of sin, and therefore ye were free, but not free, as man likes to boast of freedom, ye were free from righteousness. You are not living righteously and godly. And Romans chapter 5 and verse 10 goes so far as to describe the condition of man and nature as being at enmity against God. You're not only by nature a slave to sin, you are the enemy of God, because you resist God's commandments.

You break His law. You are a rebel by nature. God says this is the way you're to live and you disregard it. Oh there may be a certain sense of morality in your life. There's some things you haven't done because you wouldn't want to suffer the consequences of your action.

There are some things you've refrained from because you want to be esteemed by others. But you see man, by his own effort, does not recommend himself to God. And that brings us to consider the second thing, the means of redemption. We see the need of it. Man needs it because he's a fallen sinner, because he's a rebel against God, because he's God's enemy.

He needs redemption. But what's the means of it? Somebody may say, well I'm a rather independent individual. If I've got a problem, I'm not going to depend on anybody else. I'm going to solve it. But I want to tell you, this is one problem you can't solve.

This is one price you cannot pay. Say, well I look at some things, I'm not completely bad. There's some things I've done that are commendable, pretty good. You know what God says about that in Isaiah chapter 64 and verse 6? That even your righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

Even the things that you have done that you're proud of may have been done for the wrong motive. It wasn't done for the glory of God. And he says, whatsoever is not a faith is sin. If it wasn't an act that was carried out because of your faith in God and your dependence upon Jesus Christ, that action is not something that's acceptable and pleasing to Him.

You remember the lesson Jesus gave concerning the Pharisee who entered with the temple to pray? He felt good about himself. He says, I thank thee that I'm not his other men.

I'm not unjust, I'm not an extortioner. In other words, he's saying, I haven't done anything real bad. And not only that, I'm religious.

I fast twice in the week and I give tithes of all that I possess. Now if he was no doubt a respectable citizen, he probably would have been a fine man to have in the neighborhood. He kept up his property, he paid his taxes, he did all those things, did all those outward things that would make him a good citizen. But what about his standing before God? God rejected his prayer. He wasn't humble. He didn't come as a broken sinner. He came in self-righteousness and God did not hear his prayer.

You cannot pay the price. Your works are inadequate. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 says, it's not of works lest any man should boast.

Start trying to enumerate some of the things that you have done, commendable things, maybe how you've helped other people, you've been nice and kind. But it doesn't matter how many works you may be able to account for. This work of redemption doesn't come about on the basis of your works. Well, then, great emphasis is put on the human will by some theologians.

And yet, man in his fallen state is depraved in his will, in his mind, in his deed, every part of him, in his affections. Romans chapter 9 verse 16 says, it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that showeth mercy. So, although some might present the idea that it's just an action of the will, that if you just make the right decision, redemption will become a reality.

But here's what God says in his word, it is not of works God says in his word, it is not of him that willeth. Then the thought with many is, I need to become religious. If I've got a problem, if I'm a sinner, if I'm considered the enemy of God, I need to get things straightened out.

Particularly if you see that life is fragile, time is short, it's passing you by, you realize someday I'm going to die. Someday I'm going to meet my maker. I better get my house in order.

So, what can I do? Well, I need to become religious. So, some get the idea that if I go forward in an evangelistic crusade and sign a pledge card and say I give my heart to Jesus, that makes everything right. Or somebody else says, well, you know, maybe it's alright with me anyway because I was christened as a baby. Or another person decides, I guess, I've never been baptized, I need to be baptized. And if I go into the water, then surely my sins will be washed away. Various forms, ceremonies, and rituals are looked at with the idea that if I participate in them, I'm going to be cleansed, my sins are going to be washed away. But Jesus talks about the Pharisees of his day in Matthew chapter 15 of the 8th verse and says, this people draws nigh to me with their mouth but their heart is far from me.

You see, the problem is not the lack of participation in outward forms, religious rites, and ceremonies. The problem is a heart problem. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it? Jesus says it's out of the heart that the terrible sins come. It's not just Satan's temptation, it's not just other areas where you might point an accusing finger, the heart itself is corrupt. And from the heart comes envy and strife and adulteries and all of the other terrible sins of the flesh. He says it comes out of the heart.

So what's the need? Not whitewashing it all with participation in religious ceremonies, not just putting your name on a church row. What you need is a new heart. And that's what God gives by grace. He said I'll take away the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. This is the promise of the new covenant as recorded in the book of Jeremiah and confirmed in the book of Hebrews as being that which God does for us by his sovereign grace. So you cannot redeem yourself. But redemption comes through the blood of Jesus Christ. Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. 1st Peter chapter 1 speaks to this beautifully. Verse 18, for as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without splendor.

Without blemish and without spot. You are redeemed with corruptible things. You couldn't come before God and say I'm ready to pay the price.

Tell me what it is. How strange that some have held the view that even after one is departing from this life that money may be paid and contribute therefore to the release of that soul from purgatory and gained admittance for them to heaven. But this is, you're not redeemed with silver and gold. There's not enough money in the world to pay for the redemption of one single sinner. But you're redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

And as much as we sing about the Redeemer and as much as we sing about the shedding of his blood and we sing there's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains but I'm confident that none of us as much as we've read about it as much as we've heard it preached as much as we've sung about it comprehend the magnitude of what is suggested by being redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ. We see the Savior giving himself when the soldiers came to carry him away. When Peter was ready to fight he said get behind me Satan.

I haven't come to fight. He'd come to die. If he'd been so pleased he could have called for legions of angels to defend him but he gave himself because that was the purpose of his coming. They nailed him to the cross.

They had beaten him. They said his visage was marred that he didn't even have the appearance of a man. The crown of thorns was pressed down upon his brow. The physical pain endured at crucifixion is beyond my ability to comprehend.

The struggle to breathe as one moves against those nails in the hand and tries to lift himself up to breathe and the excruciating pain in the hands and then grasping for air. One breath and ultimately after being on the cross suffering the one being crucified usually dies of suffocation. But as we think about the horror of those physical sufferings they are almost insignificant in comparison to what it meant for the spotless lamb of God, the only perfect man that ever lived, God in the flesh to have sin put upon him. He made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him and when that moment came that the sins of his people are laid upon him the father turned his back. The earth shook.

The sun was blotted out with a dark cloud. The savior cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The agony of that moment is beyond our ability to comprehend that he was made sin for us. It took that price, it took the shedding of his blood to pay the price that was necessary to redeem us, to secure us, to purchase us.

He says you're bought with a price and that price was the precious blood of Jesus Christ. The book of Galatians chapter 3 verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written curse is everyone that hangeth on a tree. We were under the curse and condemnation of sin. We deserve to suffer. We deserve the wrath of God. But Christ was made a curse for us.

The penalty that was due us laid upon him. What a remarkable thing. How amazing is his grace that he gave himself to redeem us. Paul refers to it in the 20th chapter of the book of Acts verse 28. Take heed brethren unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. This of course he speaks not of an individual local congregation but of the church of the firstborn, the church of all the chosen and redeemed of God. He purchased the church with his own precious blood. He paid the price of the blood. He paid the price.

He got what he paid for. We see then the clear declaration that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer. This was the price necessary. The justice of God had to be met. The holiness of God had to be upheld. It was not just a matter of God saying I'm going to be righteous and overlook your sin because then he would no longer have been a holy just God.

The law had to be satisfied. The penalty had to be met and it was only then through this sacrificial death of Jesus Christ that we as guilty condemned sinners could be redeemed. As we see the declaration of it, we see also pictures of it in the scriptures. You remember when the children of Israel were in Egyptian bondage and God was sending the plagues one after another upon the Egyptians. And remember these are pagans.

These are people who have violated God's law. He says, I shall have no other gods before me and they had many gods. And in the process of bringing his people out from this land, he's going to devastate the land and devastate the land and devastate their gods and prove that he is the one true and living God.

Pharaoh's heart continued to be hardened. Nine plagues have come, now number 10. And in the book of Exodus, we read in chapter 12 and the 12th verse, For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, against all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgment. I am the Lord.

See, some would say, well, I have difficulty with that. I just don't understand why would a loving God mete out such judgment upon a people? You see, that statement reveals that we just do not grasp the holiness of God and his hatred for sin and that idolatry is a great offense and he was going to punish these idolaters. I am going to execute judgment on the gods of Egypt and the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are and when I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. God says at midnight the death angel will pass through the land and the firstborn in every family will die, but I'm telling you, my people, there is a way of escape.

You get a little lamb and you keep it up for 14 days and it might be proven to be without spot and without blemish and you cut its throat and you catch its blood in the basin and then you put the blood on the doorpost, over the door and on either side and when I pass through the land, and when I pass through the land, when I see the blood, I will pass over you and then the observance of that Passover was instituted and his people were to observe it every year, an annual event reminding them of that night when so many died in Egypt. Can you imagine the mother holding the little baby in her arms among the Egyptians and at night, at midnight, that baby dies and the cries and groans are heard throughout the land, but here's one of those Israelite mothers that nestles that little child in her arms and she may hear the cries from a distance, but her little child lives. Is it because of her own righteousness?

Is it because she's superior? No, it's because there's blood on the doorpost representing the sacrifice the lamb had to die and this sacrificial lamb pointed to Jesus Christ, our Passover lamb, who would come in the fullness of time and put away sin. What a wonderful truth to know that we've been bought with a price, and what a price it was that Jesus Christ laid down his life, poured out his precious blood to redeem us, to save us, to secure us. May we rejoice in the salvation that we have in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I hope that you were right and let us know you've listened. Our address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Till we greet you next time, this is LaSara Bradley Jr. bidding you goodbye and may God bless you. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, praising my Savior, praising my Savior all the day long.