Amen. And take your Bibles. If you ever going to start in first Peter chapter one. He's excited to go to Children's Church. Let me tell you.

Alright. First Peter chapter one. Be in prayer for we we had Vacation Bible School not this past week but the week before. We had several children that came. Pray that they will come back starting in September for Joy Club but also pray that we might be able as we visit with them over the next couple of weeks to get a few to come on Sundays as well.

So, please keep that in your prayers if you would. First Peter chapter one verses eighteen and nineteen. One of my favorite verses in all of God's word. First Peter one eighteen and nineteen and if you want to mark Ephesians two, we're going to be over there to read in just a few minutes from Ephesians chapter two but start here in first Peter one and verse 18. So, give you just a moment longer.

First Peter one eighteen. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. From your vain conversation which means conduct or lifestyle received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Let me read that once more. For as much as you know that you were 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 the lamb without blemish and without spot.

If you leave out that part, a middle part there, it reads this, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things but verse 19, the but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you Lord for your word today. Thank you Lord for the reminder of the price that was paid. To redeem my soul.

And all of ours who accepted Christ as our Lord and savior. We pray Lord if there's one here today for whom you died, for you died for the sins of the world, that they will receive you as their Lord and savior even today, we pray. In Jesus name, amen. I read this earlier from the bulletin Ephesians one seven. In whom the whom there is Christ, in whom we have redemption.

Through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. I'd also like to draw your attention to Galatians four, four, and five. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons, to redeem them. Why did Jesus come? He came to redeem us.

Redeem who us who were under the law, redeem us who were held captive by sin and Satan. To redeem us. From slavery and bondage to sin and hell. To buy us back. That's what the word redeem means.

Redeem means to affect, release by means of purchase payment or ransom. To affect release, release. That implies that if one needs to be released, that one is being held. The word redeem means to release one who is being held captive or being held in bondage. By means of a payment purchase or ransom.

If you run out of money and you can't pay this month's bill, you might take one of your most precious treasures down to the pawnshop and you take it to the pawnshop and you you you give it there and they give you a certain amount of money and they hold your prized possession captive until you bring back the redeemed payment in order to pay for that in which time you receive it what? You receive it back and now you have your most precious treasure back. You have redeemed it. So, it means to effect release by means of payment purchase or ransom. Redeemer, therefore, is one who pays the price of freedom or ransom.

Redeemed is one who has been bought back, freed, released from bondage that they were held under. A redemption is the process by which one is redeemed, okay? So, there is a process by which one is redeemed. If it's the pawn shop, that's the process. You bring it in, you pay it, you get it back.

There is a redemption. There is a process by which human beings can be bought back, redeemed from that which they are held in bondage to and that process is called redemption. Now, it is part of salvation. It is very similar to justification. As we studied last week, justification to be justified is mean is means to be declared guiltless, okay?

Or innocent. By means of our sin and disobedience to God's law, we have transgressed the law, we have broken the law, and therefore, in a courtroom or a legal setting, we have been found what? Guilty and are due to be sentenced. Wherefore, as by one man's sin enter the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for that all have sin. For the wages of sin is death and so, we looked at that last week.

Justification being a legal term by which one is declared guiltless, justified before God and and how does that happen? Well, it happens this way in respect to our salvation. Jesus Christ stood in our behalf, our advocate, and said, I will take their what? I will take their place so that they can be justified and that's what he did on the cross. He took my place and he took your place.

He voluntarily took our punishment for us and therefore, because he took the punishment, we can be justified and leave guiltless before God. Be welcomed in heaven. That's what the idea of justification is. Now, redemption is very similar but it's it's different. It is another way of describing what happens when you get saved and what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross and rather being a courtroom setting, it is more of a captive setting.

We have been enslaved. We have been kidnapped and we are being held for ransom by sin and by Satan. The only one who can affect a release from that captivity in which we are held is Jesus Christ based on what he did for us on the cross of Calvary. We must be, you must be redeemed. It is the only way to be saved, okay?

Let's take just a few minutes and look at it closer. Enslaved to what? Enslaved to sin and Satan. Romans seven fourteen says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Now, those words sold under is interesting.

It means to transport something for the purpose of selling it. That's what the word in the Greek means. It means basically trafficked. Trafficked. Heard about this maybe recently used in reference to people that are being trafficked across our southern border.

The cartels are trafficking people. They are holding them. They are holding them captive so to speak based upon a price they must pay in order to get from one place to another. Yes, sadly, people are still in slavery today. Some of them against the law but some of them even in places in The United States Of America and it is a terrible thing to be in bondage, to be sold into slavery, to be trafficked as a a thing of little worth and not a soul.

Who would traffic in the souls of human beings? I can tell you who would traffic in the souls of human beings and that is who? That is Satan. Satan, our enemy, God's enemy. He traffics in human souls, holds them ransom.

For payment. We are sold under sin. First Peter 114 references this bondage that we were in before we were redeemed in Jesus. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. As redeemed people, we have been ransomed.

We have been delivered. We have been set free from bondage to sin and the lust of the flesh and so as having been released from that and redeemed from that, we must not go back to that. There is no reason for those who are redeemed in Christ to live under the bondage and slavery of sin. For we have been freed from it. Look if you would in Ephesians two.

So, here's where Ephesians two comes in. Ephesians two and we'll begin in verse one. Where Paul describes this bondage, this captivity that humanity is under held in by Satan and sin. Ephesians two verse one and you have he quickened, who were, notice that word were, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince and power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Who is the prince and power of the air?

That is Satan. And before we are redeemed in Christ Jesus, we are controlled and led by sin and the rulers of this world particularly Satan. Among whom also we all had our conversation in time past in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as others. So, you're not in this boat alone. But you need to get out of this boat.

The only way to get out is through Jesus Christ. The only way to escape this bondage in which humanity is held by Satan is through the redemption that is found in Jesus Christ. Particularly in the blood of Christ and the payment that he made on the cross of Calvary. We are enslaved, held captive by sin's desires, to do as it dictates. Many today, when you bring them the gospel and you tell them you need to trust Christ, you need to accept him as your what?

As your Lord. As your Lord. That means, what does Lord mean? Lord means master. And they say, well, I don't wanna have a master.

I wanna do things my way. Well, you're not doing things your way. We're doing things sin's way. That's humanity. Look, look at humanity as a whole today.

See what is going on around us. Our people being held in bondage and be led along by that which is good and right and just and pure and moral or is it the opposite? And I think it would be pretty clear to say, we see more and more in our society the the end result of sin and captivity to Satan and that is, we're not going in the right direction, we're going in the what? In the wrong direction and you would think that we would learn how to fix it. You would think that we would quit with the wars.

You would think when we would quit with the foolish, immoral, immoral activities and thoughts and and we would we would see that the consequences are not worth it. And we would learn to live at peace with our neighbor but we don't, we can't, and we won't because we are held captive to sin and Satan. And there's only one who can free us from that. There's only one who can deliver us from that prison. And that is and that is Jesus Christ.

Who put us in that prison? Well, Satan did back in Genesis chapter three. Genesis chapter three, Satan came down to Earth from heaven. Why did he come down to Earth? Well, because he lost the battle where?

He lost the battle in heaven. He thought that he would take God's throne from him. He said, I will be most like the most high and he fought against God and he lost and he was cast out of heaven and he came to where? He came to Earth. And that I can't build my kingdom in heaven, so I'll build my kingdom where?

I'll build my kingdom on Earth. Well, how is Satan gonna build his kingdom? Satan can't create world. Satan can't create anything. But he can take and twist and pervert and take into bondage and captivity that which God created and that was his goal and that is what he did when he deceived Adam and Eve into sinning and disobeying God.

He robbed God. He snatched away that which was God's in order to hold humanity captive in sin. To hold them in bondage to sin. And to build his kingdom and his empire. In the face of God.

That was Satan's plan and it might even see seem that Satan has succeeded. But he has not. Because of Jesus Christ. He has not succeeded. He is lost.

Because I stand here today as many of you do. Redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We have been bought back. We are now part of God's family and we are part of God's kingdom which he is building and which will one day come to this Earth again. Psalm 51 verse five says, behold, David said, behold, I was shaping iniquity and incended my mother conceive me.

When do we start out in this bondage? Well, we start on this bondage when we're born. I praise God we don't have to stay in bondage to sin. You can be redeemed by Jesus Christ which brings me to the second point, not only were we slave, enslaved by. That by which we are redeemed.

Which is I've already mentioned is the blood of Jesus Christ. First Corinthians six twenty says this, for we are bought with a lot. We're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. We are bought with a price.

Now, what is Paul talking about? What price at what price were we bought? Were we and here comes the word redeemed or ransomed. What price? Well, the price is the death and the suffering and the shedding of blood of Jesus Christ.

On the cross. That is the price that had to be paid. The shedding of Christ's righteous, innocent blood. His sacrifice, the sacrifice of a lamb without spot and without blemish is the only sacrifice, the only payment that could be paid in order to buy us back. From sin and its end.

In hell. You are bought with a price. The price is the blood of Jesus Christ that he shed on cross for us. Even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. A ransom payment.

When Christ died on the throne, he came, he came to give himself a ransom payment to pay the payment, the debt, the the the price of our release that we could not pay. He paid that. On Calvary's Cross, for us. First Peter one hundred eighteen and nineteen, for as much as you know, you were not redeemed with corruptible things. Silver, gold, things that we fashion, things that we make, things that have no spiritual empowerment, things that are of not of value to God, things that are corrupted by our own, our own sinful nature and ways.

We're not redeemed with those things. Things of our making, things of works of our doing, even our very works are attained by sin but with the precious blood of Christ, the righteous, innocent blood of Christ. That is what we're redeemed by something that has eternal weight, has eternal value. That could pay what was necessary for our redemption from sin and Satan. You can throw as much money as you want at it.

Just fill the plates up, overrunning, fill the table up, not going to redeem your soul. Fill it up with good works. Be nice to your neighbor. Cut their grass. Buy em a car.

Buy em a house. Give all your money to one of these organizations to feed the poor. Give it all away. Cannot redeem your soul. Stop all that immorality.

Stop it all. You can't undo what's already been done. And the fact is, try to stop it all and you'll find out just how enslaved you are. We cannot by our strength get victory. Get release.

From sin and Satan. Can't do it. A slave can do nothing to buy his or her freedom. For he has nothing with which to pay. And neither do we in regards to sin.

Our righteousness, the Bible says, is as filthy rags. In Ephesians two here, it says, we're dead in trespasses and in sins. The law has nothing to offer. The law doesn't save. The law only what?

Condemns. For the by the works, the lost shall no flesh be justified, Paul says. Other idols, false hopes have nothing to offer. Well, you know, you can reform your life. You can make it a little better.

Maybe you can quit the drugs or or quit the alcohol or or maybe you can control your tongue a little better or maybe you can get yourself in a better place in life but they cannot redeem your what? Soul. Can't redeem your soul. Only Jesus Christ can do that because only he could pay the price because only he was righteous. For he became sin for us who knew no sin.

Only one who knew no sin, who was righteous, could pay the price that was needed to redeem us back. We couldn't pay it. But he could. Thus we redeemed and purchased not by silver and gold by the blood of Christ the blood of an overcomer. I ran across this illustration back several years ago.

Back several hundred years ago, there was a scientist named Louis Pasteur. You may have heard of Louis Pasteur. He had a associate named Doctor Felix Rue, a Jewish doctor in Paris. Doctor Rue's granddaughter had recently died from black diphtheria and many many others were dying too and he vowed to find out what had killed her. The medical association in Paris did not agree with Louis Pasteur's and Doctor Rue's experiments so they kind of exiled them from Paris and so, they went out into the forest and they built a laboratory not too lavish out in the forest where they continued to conduct their research on on germs and and medicines.

And in an effort to find the cause and the cure for black diphtheria, they bought 20 horses, 20 beautiful horses, and they led them out to the laboratory outside of Paris. And there, Doctor. Rue, out of a vault, sealed vault, pulled out a bucket full of black diphtheria germs. He took from that and swabbed the nose, the mouth, the eyes of all 20 of those beautiful horses. And what thing do you think happened to those beautiful horses?

Those beautiful horses died. One after another, they became feverish and they died. Now, not every disease affects animals the same way as it does humans but this disease did affect horses similarly to how it affected humans. And these 20 horses got a fever and then began to die. One right after another as some doctors and scientists who were interested came out in the forest to watch what was going to happen.

Nineteen of them died, one lingered. The one was very ill, couldn't get up off the ground, for several days did not eat. Some of the doctors and onlookers kind of got tired of waiting and they left. It's too bad. Because that night, the horse's fever started to go down.

A day later, the horse's fever was gone. A day later, the horse could stand back up on its feet. And began to eat. And the one of those 20 horses survived. What did Doctor Roo do?

He took a sledgehammer to the head of the horse that survived. I know it sounds gruesome, doesn't it? And he killed that horse. And he took from the blood of that horse that survived. And he took it to the hospital in Paris where they were holding, I forget how many.

They had segregated how many did it say here? One hundred babies that were dying from diphtheria and he took the blood of the horse that gave its life after having overcome the disease and he he inoculated all the 100 babies that laid dying in the hospital. All but three of them survived. A deadly plague and got better. Because of the blood of the horse that overcame and then gave its life to save the lives of others.

Now, the horse didn't choose that for itself. And it's a sad and gruesome story I know but it's not sad that 97 children and more after them lived because of the death of that horse. It is a sad and gruesome. If you've ever watched a movie about the death of Jesus Christ and how he died on the cross. It is a sad and gruesome story.

What happened to Christ is beyond our imagination in many respects. How he was brutalized? How he was how he was treated? And then nails driven through his hands. Hung left asphyxiating on a cross.

He had to pull on the nails in his hands in order to lift his rib cage up to catch every breath. It was devised by the Romans as being a quick but extremely torturous method of execution. Jesus Christ willingly, the overcomer, the one who overcame sin for us, who knew no sin, offered himself up as a sacrifice, as a payment, as a means to redeem us, to buy us back, to release us from the deadly disease of sin that was taking us to an eternity separated from God in hell. That's what Jesus did for us. To buy us back when there was nothing we could do for ourselves He purchased our redemption.

He paid the price that we could not pay. To save our souls to ransom us from our captivity to sin and Satan. And from its end in hell. To give us everlasting life. To make us once again part of the family that we were created to be part of in the first place.

Whose family? God's family. That's what Jesus did. That is the plan of redemption. No other religion offers you redemption.

No other religion, no other way offers you justification before God. Again, they offer you reformation They offer you a way to better your life in some respects. But they do not offer you eternal life. They do not offer you a way to be forgiven. Because there's only one way for your sins to be forgiven and that is through faith in Jesus Christ.

By the blood of Jesus Christ, we have been redeemed. Who verily, these are the following verses in first Peter, was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest and revealed in these last times for you. Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. So, how are we redeemed? How how do Christ paid the price but is everybody redeemed?

The answer is no. Can everybody be redeemed? The answer is yes. Let's let's pretend for a moment that the inoculation from the horse would save every person that took it. But some would not what?

Accept it or receive it and therefore died. This world and man tries and tries to make inoculations and vaccines. In some cases, they fairly well succeed but there is one thing in which they cannot inoculate you for and that is sin. There's something they cannot free you from and deliver you from. Sin and Satan, only Jesus Christ can do that but you must what?

You must receive his offer. You must receive it. By faith. Ephesians two, if you're still in Ephesians two, continue in verse four. Despite the condition in which we find ourselves in in verses one through three, it says, but God, that that's a wonderful brace phrase.

This is who you, this is where we were bound. This was our lot but God, but God, but God who is rich in mercy. For his great love wherewith he loved us. Even when we were dead in sins, held captive, hath quickened us, made us alive together with Christ by grace are you saved. Has raised us up together, made us to sit together in what kind of places?

Heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In contrast to hell in the lake of fire That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through what? Faith. It's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works.

Lest any man should boast. You must receive by faith God's offer of redemption. If you reject it, then you will die in your what? Sense. And you'll stand before God at the great great white throne judgment and the books will be open and you'll be judged out of those things written in the books and you'll be cast into the lot what?

A place called the Lake Of Fire. But you don't have to. Your name can be written in a different book. The lamb's book of life. If you will accept in a Christ payment for you.

If you will accept his sacrifice and his offer of redemption and forgiveness for sin. Your end can be much different in Christ Jesus. Freed from sin, forgiven from its guilt, from its power. From its penalty Freedom to become again the sons of of God but as many as received him, that's Jesus. To them gave you power to become the sons of the children of God even to them that what?

Believe on his name. Christ paid the price. If you have received it by faith and received Jesus as your Lord, then your sins have been washed away. The books in heaven have written pardoned. The payment, the ransom payment has been what?

Paid. Has been paid. In full. Jesus paid it all. Jesus paid it all.

All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Now what? As redeemed in Christ Jesus, we have a new position as children of God.

As redeemed in Christ Jesus, we have a new new life, a life of service to God instead of a life of service to sin. We have a new promise of eternal life in Jesus Christ that ends like this is mentioned in first John three and verse two. Beloved, now are we the sons of God? Doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is.

Back in the Garden Of Eden, Satan stole away God's most precious treasure. He, that image of God and man was marred by sin and man was separated from his God and held captive by sin and Satan but when Jesus Christ died on that cross, he bridged that gap. He paid that price and by the blood of Jesus, if you will receive it, you can be forgiven forever. You can be set free to serve so that one day you'll have crowns in heaven to lay at his feet. Is that you?

Have you been redeemed? If you have not, you can be today. All you have to do is receive God's offer by faith and Jesus Christ. Your Lord, let's pray. Dear God, thank you Lord.

For what you did for us on the cross of Calvary, for the blood that you shed there, for the price of our redemption, to redeem us back from sin and Satan, to release us, and to invite us and welcome us back into the family of God whereby we have eternal life in Jesus Christ, our savior, and promise one day, that we will stand before you no longer tainted by sin with a new body, corruptible, incorruptible, immortal, to receive an inheritance that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. Who are kept by the power of God through faith. Lord, thank you. Lord, help us to become more thankful and grateful every day as we're reminded and the price that you paid willingly the life that you gave for us. And that you are and approved to be an overcomer.

By your resurrection from the grave. Lord, if there's one here that is yet to trust the living savior. I pray they would this day accept and receive your gift of salvation, redemption, to the blood of Jesus Christ. Become your child In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen.