All right. All right. Praise the Lord everybody. This is the day that the Lord has made. Therefore, I will rejoice and be glad in it. Hey, Sister Melissa, I see you. Thank you all for joining this evening. This is the Wednesday Bible study service for the Greater Betha Worship Center Church located in Auburn, Washington. We are online tonight virtual. So, this may give me a little better opportunity to engage more with you all online. I just said see you, sister uh Melissa, and I'm sure some of the other family is there watching with you. Good to see my mother-in-law on here. Good to see you this evening over there in the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I see my wife, Lady Jante Michelle Robinson. Thank you for tuning in, sweetie. Go ahead and like and share. Also, we see you on Instagram. I'm not sure. Um I can't really tell by your name. I see 7771 mini me join. Thank you for tuning in on this evening. Go ahead, like and share um on the various social media platforms whether that be Facebook, YouTube, Instagram. Go ahead, let people know that we are on and we're going to get into the lesson on this evening. I pray that you all have been blessed and had a wonderful day. I pray the rest of your afternoon, uh, Sister Melissa and, uh, Sister Patrice, and I hope the rest of your afternoon and everything was all well and blessed. And so, we're going to go ahead and prepare our hearts and minds to get into our study on this evening. Oh, Evangelist, good to see you. Evangelist Minnie Williams, I haven't seen you in so many years, but to God be the glory. It's good to see you joining in. I pray that you have been blessed. You and your family. It's good to see you. Good to see you. You You go back. You go back to my beginning my beginning days in the Lord. Good to see you. All right, let's um say a word of prayer and then we're going to go ahead and get into our lesson. Of course, we're going to be dealing with uh scriptural salvation. Um continuing in those lessons and we're going to deal with redemption on this evening. And in fact, let me uh do this and put this on the bottom of the screen. Uh, I should have did it earlier, but I want to put this on here so we can know what our subject matter is for those that may come in later. Scriptural salvation, what it means to be saved and we're going to dig into redemption on tonight. Last week, for those who were on with us, and if you remember, we dealt with Oh, I did that wrong. We dealt with We dealt with reconciliation. Reconciliation. So, we're going to deal with redemption on this evening. What's going on here? I'm sorry. Give me a second. I'm trying to get this uh B to scroll on the bottom. There we go. All right. Let's say a word of prayer and then let's go ahead and get into our lesson on this evening. Father, we thank you and we bless you for all things for there is none like you. We thank you, Father, that you are the true and the living God. You are the almighty God. You are the most high God and we bless your holy name. We thank you for life, health, and strength. Thank you for being in our right minds and having the reasonable portion of health, health and strength uh in our bodies. Father, we thank you that all things are well. And so, Father, on this evening, we're praying that you would begin to honor your word. Even though we are gathering online, we pray that you would honor your word. That where two or three are gathered together in your name, that you would be in the midst of us, Father, because you are the alpha and the omega. Because you are the omnisient God, you understood that there would be a day and a time where we would not gather necessarily in person, but we can still be together with each other in spirit. Even as the Apostle Paul began to say to the several churches that he was writing to, specifically the church at Corinth, he began to say that he was there with them in spirit. And so, Father, we thank you that we are joined together. And so, let your glory and your presence be with those who are tuning in on this evening live and even those that will watch by replay. Father, we pray that as your word goes forth, that it will begin to cause light and revelation and illumination to come forth. For your word declares unto us at the entrance of your word, you begin to bring forth light and you give understanding to the simple. And so, Father, we pray that you will begin to give us understanding, enlighten the eyes of our understanding. Father, open our ears that we may hear from the spirit on this evening. Let our hearts be good ground to receive the seed of the word as it is coming forth that it may bring forth fruit in our life that you may be glorified through our life in Jesus name. Amen. All right. So, let's go ahead and get into this on this evening. Okay. We're dealing with this scriptural salvation. We're dealing with scriptural salvation. What it means to be saved. And so, there's a lot that we've been going through. And I pray that you all have uh some sort of note-taking device, uh some notepad or whatever it may be. I've been seeing you uh Sister Melissa. I've been seeing you with your notepad. So, that's good. So, uh I pray you're in a position where you can take some notes. And so scriptural salvation as we know we've been dealing with this. Why? Because it is significant for us to understand uh uh salvation according to the scriptures. Now why is that important? Because there is a lot of perversion of the scriptures and of salvation in this day and age. We understand that there that that's been a part of history the the the twisting of scripture. And so we understand that in this day and age as those who are called to be the children of God, to be the truth, the church, we're supposed to be those who uh begin to uphold the truth of God's word. The Bible talks about how the the the church is the pillar and the ground of truth. And I like to say it in this way that the church becomes the stronghold of truth. And so that means that we become those that begin to uphold the truth within the earth realm. We know in the world that there are various uh you know things out there, philosophies um that people are utilizing to bring forth salvation. And even in the church, we understand that there has been an infiltration into the church of a a false gospel, but we want to know what the scriptures say. We want to be saved according to the scriptures. So, we've been dealing with a lot. We've been going over a lot uh over these past few weeks. I believe this may be the fifth lesson, maybe the fourth or fifth lesson. And so what we've been dealing with, of course, one of the main things, our introduction that we always want to keep at the forefront of our minds is what? That God has specifications and intentions for salvation, which bring about his goals in and for our lives. This basically means that we cannot determine what salvation is. We can't determine it determine it based upon our feelings, based upon our natural thoughts. We cannot determine it. God is the one who begins to determine our salvation. And so salvation has a divine legal framework. This is what we were talking about. And one of the words that keep popping up throughout this lesson when we're looking at the different aspects of salvation, one word that keeps pop popping up is legal. All right? Legal. And I want you to take note of that because a lot of people they don't believe for whatever reason that God is a God of legalities. Because a lot of times when people hear uh words such as the law or they hear words such as legalism, they begin to automatically tie it to the Old Testament, tie it to the law of Moses. And what they don't necessarily realize is that God is always operating according to some law. Jesus came and he fulfilled the law of Moses. But then the Bible begins to tell us, and I think we're going to get into that scripture on this evening or I know I'll probably quote it, but the Bible tells us that he moves us from the law of sin and death and then brings us where? Into the law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus. That means that he fulfills the law. And so through the salvation in Jesus Christ, we move from under that law of sin and death unto under now into another law. So now we're operating by another law, the law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus. So God has legalities and he is a legal God. And so salvation has a divine legal framework that we must operate by. All right? God has goals for salvation in our lives and for our lives. And that's what we've been talking about. Salvation, you see that that quote down there? God's salvation can be measured against every other religious form of worship and can be readily authenticated by the scriptures. What that basically means is is that you can begin to identify if a person has true salvation, not by their church attendance, not just by their necessarily their good works, so to speak, but it's about the transformation within their nature that begins to bring forth, all right, the manifestation of the fruit of the spirit within their lives. All right, godliness within their lives. So people can say that they are saved, but you're going to be able to identify them by the fruit that they bear. And so even other religions, there's there's a whole lot of stuff out there right now. There's a lot of mixing and fusing of even Christianity. I don't know if you heard about this, but there's such things as as like Chrislam and things like that. It's a mixture of Christianity and Islam. There's there's people of course that are talking about that there are many ways to God. And there's people that's talking about Jesus. The uh I heard this, I may have mentioned this before, but I heard an individual talking about how if you are centered in love, no matter what religion it is, if you're centered in love, then that means Jesus is in that religion. And so they were saying it from the perspective of you can find Jesus within that religion in order for you to get to salvation. But that's not necessarily true. And it's not true at all. All right? And so you understand that the scriptures begin to show us what salvation is. And you can begin to discern what it is according to the scriptures. All right? It's not necessarily about your church attendance and all of that. So then we talked about we begin to talk about of course the definition of salvation, the Greek word so sauteria which has to deal with aspects of deliverance, preservation, safety, right? to be rescued. But then when we talked about salvation, we moved into the nature of salvation. And we talked about salvation bringing forth the new birth. All right? Which is very significant because Jesus says in John the 3 chapter, he begins to say that that you must be saved. You cannot uh perceive the kingdom of God. You cannot enter into the kingdom of God except you be born again. Born again has to deal with the new birth. This is the nature of salvation. The new birth brings forth the new creation. All right. And so we talked about how um Ezekiel 36, Ezekiel 36 starting at around verse 24 through 26 I believe it is. He begins to give us the picture and he prophesies what this new birth was going to be. He begins to say that uh God says that he will begin to give you a new heart. All right? He says he's going to take out the old stony heart. He's going to give you a heart of flesh. Then he says he's going to also give you a new spirit. And then he says he's going to cause his spirit to be on the inside of you. So this is a picture and he's prophesying of this new birth that's going to come. And so the new birth brings forth the new creature or the new creation. We talked about this new creature or this new creation comes from what? The new the new spirit, the new heart that God gives you, the new personal spirit that God gives you, which is your new creation spirit. And then the spirit of God that comes on the inside of you and that gives you new life. That's why you are a new creature. It gives you new life to walk in the newness of life. All right. So then there was a few other things that we talked about. I got to skip and go ahead. There was a few other things I wanted to say as far as review, but I do want to say this that we talked about holiness being the highest aim. That God's highest aim for salvation is to bring us into holiness. When we talked about holiness, we talked about the God difference. We talked about a distinction which has to deal with separation and sanctification. God separating us from the world. God separating us from sin, sanctifying us, putting us in the process of perfection. And so the God difference that salvation makes on the inside of us plus distinction brings us into holiness. All right, I hope you all are following me. This is just this is just a review. This is just review. All right. So last week but last week we talked about uh reconciliation and reconciliation as a core as a core part of salvation gives us the picture of a core dimension reconciliation as a core dimension of salvation begins to let me go here because salvation is made up of these aspects. These are some of the key core aspects of salvation. uh redemption, reconciliation, and righteousness. So, we talked about reconcile or reconciliation last week, which we talked about that being a restored relationship with God. All right? Reconciliation was about what? Compatibility and harmony. So, it was making us compatible with God again. It was bringing us into harmony with God again. And reconciliation was not just forgiveness. It was God making us compatible with his holiness. All right? reconciliation. It removed the in enmity that that was caused by sin. The enmity against God that was caused by our sinful nature, which means that there was a deeply rooted hatred for the things of God. That's what in enmity means, deeply rooted hatred. So there was this deeply rooted hatred that we had and opposition towards God. hostility that reconciliation or the process of reconciliation began to remove that and then it brought us into that spiritual compatibility with God. All right? And so when we get into this lesson on this evening moving into redemption and then we're going to go into righteousness uh next week. So let's look at redemption. So with this particular lesson, the objective is is that we're going to explore redemption. All right? The doctrine of redemption according to the scriptures as a core dimension of scriptural salvation. We're going to highlight the legal here it is again legal the legal spiritual work of Christ in purchasing humanity through his blood or rather purchasing well let me just leave it there. Purchasing humanity humanity through his blood. I don't want to go another way right now. All right. So, we're going to emphasize what it means to be redeemed, the price that was paid, and the believer's identity as God's purchased possession. All right? And so, as we get into this, all right, let me go here. We're going to look at these scriptures in just a moment, but let me say this. Redemption is that legal and spiritual act by which God bought humanity back from slavery to sin, death, and the law. The price was the life and blood of Jesus Christ. this. So, we're going to emphasize that salvation is not merely um being rescued from judgment but a divine transaction. Reconciliation on last week we talked about how reconciliation also has an aspect of it being a divine exchange. And so, we see this again with redemption that redemp redemption is not just uh being rescued from judgment but it is a divine transaction. All right? Jesus gave his life as a ransom to satisfy God's justice. So as a result, believers are no longer belong to um themselves but are God's treasured possession or purchase. All right? Redeemed for holiness, purpose, and glory. So let's look at these scriptures right here. Let's look at these scriptures. Titus 2. Titus 23 and 14. It says this. It says, "Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us." All right, he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. All right? So, so when we look at this scripture, it begins to point out to us, of course, that Jesus gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity. And so, redemption, when we look at redemption, it has to deal with God's legal purchase of a people. This is what God wanted to accomplish. He wanted to redeem his people from all iniquity. All right? All iniquity has to deal with uh the term iniquity. Let me look at the term iniquity. In the in the Greek word in the Greek, the word the word iniquity is tied to a root word that means illegality. There we go again. So in essence, when we talk about iniquity, iniquity is the violation of law. All right? Or in other words, it is lawlessness. It is violating what God's law is. It's something that is illegal. So there we go again with that. So Paul is writing here and he begins to say he wants to redeem us from all transgression or violation of his law. Now this of course was within the nature the Adamic nature that we had that we possessed when we came into this world. But if you look at that word it said that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify. Of course that means to cleanse that means to sanctify. All right. Um, unto himself a peculiar people. That's the key word that I want you to look at. Peculiar. All right. And this word means being beyond usual, special, one's own possession. So God desired that he would begin to purchase a people that would begin to bring them into a place that they would be his possession. So that's what we're talking about when we say peculiar people. So it don't when somebody just say you're peculiar, it don't just mean that you are weird. All right? In this context, it doesn't just mean that you're weird. It does mean that you are beyond usual. It does mean that you are special. And you're special because you become God's own possession. So this is what salvation does in the aspect of redemption. He begins to make you his own possession. And we know 1 Peter 2:9, that's not on the screen, but 1 Peter 2:9. Let me pull this off for a second. So 1 Peter 2:9, we know this. It's very familiar. It says, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." So you see the word there, peculiar again. So he wants you to be a peculiar people. Now this particular word is a different word for peculiar in the Greek and it comes from a word that means acquisition. It means purchased. So it carries some of the same meaning. It means one's own property. And then it also has that aspect of beyond usual that is special. One's own. So between these two words of peculiar we see that it is something that is special but it is also from this term acquisition meaning that you have been purchased. This is what it means when God says that he has redeemed us and we are redeemed by salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. That means he begins to buy us back. Romans 3:24-25 says, "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God." All right. So propitiation when it says that that um it says whom God has set forth to be a propitiation talking about Christ that means that he was the atoning sacrifice. He was offered to God on our behalf. Isaiah the prophet has that that prophecy where he begins to see out into the future. He begins to see Jesus Christ in the sacrifice. And we know Isaiah 53. You know most of us are familiar with where it says uh he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. But if you keep reading and you go down a little bit further, it begins to talk about how the father made him a sacrifice or an offering for us. He made him to be the offering. So he was the atoning sacrifice to be offered to God. And not only the atoning sacrifice, he was the appropriate or acceptable sacrifice. That's what Christ was. He was the only one that could redeem us. All right. And so when it talks about the remission of sins there, the remission of sins that are passed, remission of course means to pass over or the disregarding of the punishment of sin. So through the Lord Jesus Christ through salvation and being redeemed or through redemption, God begins to remove that punishment of sin in our life. And so what we've got to understand about this redemption when it comes to salvation is that it's not symbolic. It's not symbolic. It's a real spiritual transaction. It's a real transaction in the spirit realm. We talked about this previously on our um earlier lessons. We talked about how salvation deals with passing from death to life. All right? Passing from death to life. That means to switch not only necessarily your position, but it is to switch your jurisdiction. You are now coming under another law. You are now coming under a new rulership. And so when you look at that passing from death to life, it only happened because there was a spiritual transaction that begin to take place. God purchased you. God purchased you and made you his own. Now, let's look at a few words um in the Bible that are redeem and redemption. These are the Greek words because well, we're looking at the Greek words, the New Testament words that were translated into the English word redeem or redemption. So, that first word we see is exor and it denotes to buy out. All right? Especially of purchasing a slave with a view to his freedom. Now, that is significant because you know a lot of times we don't want we we you know I ain't no slave. I ain't no slave. Well, you got to understand that the Bible declares unto us that we were a slave to sin. All right? You are a slave to sin to whom you yield your members or your bodies to be servants to. That is who your master is. And you become the slave of them. All right? So, so this word for one of the words for redeem or redemption talks about buying out, a buyout, the purchasing of a slave with the viewers of his freedom. So God purchased us with the view of freedom. All right? To bring us into a place of being free. Then there's another word lutro and that is to release on receipt of ransom. Now that word ransom is significant and we'll get into it in a moment. All right? to release by paying a ransom price to redeem. Now, for those of you who are uh into movies and you like to watch movies, you probably seen uh some movies where there was a ransom, meaning that uh somebody may have been abducted, someone may have been kidnapped. And then so the kidnap kidnappers begin to call the family and they begin to say, you know, you got it. we demand this amount of money in order for you to get, you know, the individual back, your loved one back. In other words, they're saying, you've got to pay us something in order for there to be a release. And so, when we look at redemption, all right, there had to be a ransom that was paid. And so, we'll talk about that in a moment. There's another word, lutrosis, a redemption. The redemptive work specifically of Christ bringing deliverance through his death from the guilt and power of sin. So a lot of us are familiar with that. We know about the redemptive work of Christ bringing us into that place of deliverance. All right. Then you have apollutrosis which is a releasing for that is on payment. It's a releasing on payment of a ransom. All right, I want you to pay attention to these words when we're talking about salvation and the connection of salvation to redemption. All right, so Jesus's life was our ransom. So Jesus's life, his sacrifice, became the ransom payment required to secure our release from the bondage of sin and the law of sin and death. His sacrifice fulfilled the legal there it is again the legal and spiritual demand necessary for redemption. All right. So so there was a spiritual transaction that was that was taking place. The ransom has to deal with that price or the payment demanded or paid for for a release. So you got to understand that there was nothing that you could do of your own to begin to free you from the bondage and the curse of of sin and the law of sin and death. There was nothing that you could do. There was nothing that you could do. Jesus had to be that ultimate sacrifice that was acceptable that met the standards of the father to begin to bring forth a release on our behalf. So in the old testament and in Hebrews the writer talks about it in the old testament they sacrifice those animals. The blood of those animals was only a a symbolism. It could not necessarily carry the power to begin to I'm going use this terminology to exterminate sin within humanity. It did not have the ability to do that. All it did was cover sins for a year. When the high priest would go in on the day of atonement that would sacrifice for the sins of the people and also for his sins and it would just cover for a year. It did not have the ability to actually remove the sin from out of the nature of humanity. Only Christ could do that because the ransom payment had to be a human being, a human life because Adam and Eve fail in the garden and they basically in essence turned over their nature that was in the beginning created in the image and likeness of God and and carried the same uh spirit of God at that particular moment before they fell. All right? They turned all of that over and their nature over to Satan for him to begin to change and corrupt their nature. This is why God says to Adam, he says, "The day that you you surely eat, you will die." But we know he did not necessarily die physically immediately. He died spiritually immediately. What does that mean? That means that the glory of God left. That's why when their eyes were open, they were able to see that they were naked. The there the glory of God left. But then the actual spirit of God that was in them in that moment. Not talking about just the breath of life. Not talking about the breath of life that gives you organic life. The spirit of God that made Adam and Eve immortal in the beginning. That spirit of God left and there was a corruption of the human body and the human DNA. So it required that there would be a human that will begin to kill sin in the flesh in order for there to be a redemption from that Adamic nature. All right? So Christ had to be that atonement or that that that sacrifice, that ransom that was paid. It was his life. Matthew 20:28, you probably already read it. It says, "Even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many." All right? So, he came to give his life as a ransom or as that payment that was demanded. And we're going to get into why there was a demand for payment and where that demand came from. We're going to talk about that in a moment. All right. So, his life had to become that that payment for us. And so then first Timothy 2:6 says talking about Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. All right? So he gave himself to be that ransom. His life paid the price to redeem us. So Christ's atoning his atoning work as a ransom lies in in this divine costliness and the inability of h humans to rescue themselves from the bondage. This is what I was saying. You couldn't rescue yourself. So, humanity was held hostage under the power of sin and death. And only the life of the son of God was valuable was valuable enough to redeem us. All right? Only his life was valuable enough, was pure enough to meet the terms of the release. And so, his death was not incidental. It was not accidental. It was an intentional. It was intentional and transactional. All right? It was for a purpose. And there's a key statement that Jesus says, and I may say this later is coming to me right now, but a key statement that Jesus made when it came to his life. He said they could not take his life, but he laid his life down. All right? They could not take his life. He laid it down. Why? His life had to be offered. It had to be an offering for the sins of the people. All right, let's keep going here. So, a price had to be paid. There was a ransom and a price had to be paid. And so, 1 Peter 1:18 and 19 says what? It says, "For as ye know that you were not redeemed with for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corrupt things as silver and gold from your vain conversation." That word conversation does not mean your vain speech. It means your vain lifestyle. All right? Conversation most of the time when you see it in the Bible um in the New Testament, conversation speaks to a lifestyle, not just your your speech. So um your vain conversation received by tra traditions by tradition from your fathers. So in other words, he's talking about you got a vain lifestyle that you received by traditions that came from your fathers. Now that is significant. And I wasn't even supposed to stop right here on this point, but that just made me think that there's a lot of us that are living vain lifestyles by the traditions of men. And I'm talking about in the church. I'm talking about there's a lot of people, not everybody, but there's a lot of people because of the traditions of men that have been passed down, they're living vain lifestyles. All right, let me move on from there. I digress. Verse 19, but with the precious blood. So, in other words, he's saying, you weren't redeemed by corruptible things like silver and gold. You weren't redeemed by the empty vain lifestyle that you received from the traditions of men, but you were deem you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. All right? So, he was the one that came that had no blemish, that had no spot, that had to be sacrificed. Now, the key thing about that is is that he was actually sacrificed or slain before the foundations of the world. That's what the scripture says to us that he was a lamb that was slain before the foundations of the world. That speaks to God's foresight and his fornowledge. All right? That that speaks to God having a preparation in advance. All right? Having providence and predeterminations, but we won't get into too much of that. So, at the heart of the image of redemption is the idea of paying a price to regain something that will otherwise be forfeited. All right. So, I need you to get that in your spirit. That God so loved the world, this is a scripture that people like to quote. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him would not perish but have everlasting life. So, you got to get in your mind the picture that God sent his son because there was a price that needed to be paid. The price needed to be p paid for humanity and those who belong to him. Otherwise, it would be forfeited. it would be forfeited. So, Galatians 3:13 says, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." So, Christ removed the curse, the law, the the the curse of sin. Sin comes with a curse. And the Bible tells us in Proverbs that that a that a curse cannot come causeless or without a cause. And so curses come in the lives of individuals primarily because of sin. But Christ has redeemed us or purchased us. He has bought us back or bought us from the curse of the law because he was made a curse for us and he was nailed to the cross. crucifying and removing the curse. So redemption carries a double connotation. Catch this. It implies deliverance and restitution, but also a cost that must be paid. So salvation, we talked about the aspect of deliverance, rescue, being saved or preserved and safe. Then there's the aspect of restitution. We can connect that to reconciliation, the restoration of relationship, bringing us back into a place of unity and harmony with God. But redemption also carries this aspect of something must be paid. There's no redemption if there's no payment. There's no redemption if there's no payment. So listen to this. Listen to this. I want you to catch this. This is something that's historical. So in the medieval understanding of redemption, all right, their understanding of redemption was based on the premise that Christ paid a price to Satan as a way of purchasing his own or those who belong to him. So in the medieval times when they looked at redemption, they based it upon this thought that Christ had to pay a price to Satan as a way of purchasing his own. Now let me say this. Now, Satan did begin to gain um a sort of power over the human nature, but the New Testament doesn't necessarily teach that Christ had to pay a price to Satan. Although Christ defeats Satan on the cross, Christ did not owe or pay Satan anything. So, this is the picture. Christ redeemed his followers from sin, the condemnation of the law and death. So what it's saying is that Christ did not pay anything to Satan, but Christ began to pay the price that God set forth as a standard to begin to redeem his people from sin. So the price was set by God in essence. It was set by God. So the sacrifice had to fulfill what go what what God has set as a standard. The ransom was not paid to Satan but it was to fulfill the requirements of God's holy law. All right? So I just say that to say that that God didn't pay Satan. Jesus life wasn't a ransom paid to Satan but it was given to pay the requirement of God's holy law. That's what redemption was and the life that Christ shed for us. Let's keep going here. Got a lot of scriptures. So, Ephesians 1:7 says, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace." And then there's also a uh scripture reference that you can cross reference with Colossians 1 and for and 14. Then you have Romans 6:23 that says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." So this is what we've got to understand when it comes to this aspect of redemption. Is that the law of sin and death required the payment because the wages of sin is death. So the payment for sin is death. This is why it was necessary for there to be a death in order for the price to be paid. So Christ steps in our place. This is why you should be grateful. Right? If you're not already grateful, this is why you should be grateful because Christ took your place on the cross. All right? the punishment that was meant for you that you were uh that you had to fulfill that you were guilty of. Christ stepped in your place and took the punishment and took the pain for you in order to make the payment that God required in order for you to be redeemed and saved. Without Christ's sacrifice, you cannot be saved. This is why, you know, this is why there's no other way to the father. This is why in Acts the 4th chapter, it talks about there's no other name under heaven whereby men can be saved but by the name of Jesus. Why? Because he was the only atoning sacrifice that was acceptable to God. He was the only one that had pure enough blood that was shed to die on that cross for sin. He's the only one that was resurrected or he was the first fruit of the resurrection. Let me say that he was the first one to be resurrected in the sense that he came back from uh death, hell, and the grave because for those of you that don't know, he did go into he did go into the into the grave and he went and he descended into hell. All right? And that's necessary. He needed to do that. The soul that he received, catch me in catch me, listen to me closely right here. I wasn't going to say this, but I'm going to say it. the soul portion of him that he received from his mother, Mary, her humanity qualified him to go to hell because it was a corrupted soul of humanity that he received from his mother. Now because his earthly father Joseph had no dealings in his conception but his conception was of the holy spirit from his father. He received the spirit from the father and so he was qualified to go into hell because of the soul that he possessed and because the father made him to be sin for us. But his soul could not necessarily stay in hell because he never actually committed any sin. And so he was the first resurrected or the fruit the first fruit of the resurrection of those who would come back with a new life. All right? He's the only one that can do it. So under Adam, humanity was sold into the law of sin and death. We were sold into the law of sin and death. Sin's penalty is death. That's what we just seen in Romans 6 that we just read. Sin's penalty is death. That is the payment for sin. So Jesus's death fulfilled the legal demand to free us. So believers now live under the law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus. This is what I was telling you. And so when we get into salvation and we're talking about redemption, remember what did I tell? Okay, let me see. Hold on. Let me pause for a second. Let me pause for a second. Let me see. Got to let me see. Before Jesus paid the cost for our sins after he went into hell, did he bring lost souls out with him? Yes, he did. Yes, he did. The Bible says he led captivity captive. That basically means that all of those who died in faith going all the way back to uh I would I I was going to say going all the way back to um Noah, but you can go further back than Noah. You can go to um to Abel because he he he had innocent blood that was shed. And the Bible does say to us that Abel's works was righteous. So we can say that he died righteously and we can say that he died in faith. So going all the way back to uh to to Abel, we know all of those that died in faith, whether that be Abel, whether that be Noah, whether that be Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, you know, David, those who died in faith, the prophets, those he be to lead captivity captive. They when he went into hell, he basically freed them. when he resurrected, they came out with him. Another question. All right. If they died in faith, how did they end up in hell? Because, right, because there was no uh how can let me say it in a clear way, a simplistic way for you. Because humanity was given over under the law of sin and death, they had to go into hell. Now the thing about hell for those who died righteously, we see this the revelation comes forth in the New Testament where Jesus begins to give the parable and he talks about how there's a place that was in hell called Abraham's bosom. So those who died in faith didn't necessarily go into a different a dark part or the different part of hell because you know hell if you do a study on hell there's different compartments and aspects of hell. So those who died in faith went into Abraham's bosom. They went into Abraham's bosom. All right. So that's why because there was no actual um redemption. There was no actual redemption for sin yet. So those who So at that particular time, this is why the law came into place, right? The law came in place to begin to bring a measure for for sin. But still yet those who died in sin because the sacrifices of animals could not necessarily purge sin. They had to go into hell but they went into Abraham's bosom in hell. I hope you understand what I'm saying. So Abraham's bosom is a place that was a secure place. Jesus said to the man on the cross, you know, today you'll be with me in paradise. Some people call it paradise, quote unquote. So it was a different compartment. They weren't tormented, but rested in Abraham's bosom. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. All right. If there's any other questions, if I see them, go ahead and um post them in there and I'll try to get to them as I'm going. Thank you, Sister Melissa. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Right. They weren't tormented like sinners. All right, where was I at? Okay, let's keep going. I think we're here. So, redemption, of course, as we've been talking about, is God's purchase. And I want you to catch this aspect of purchase. Because when we're talking about salvation, because the main point, remember, God has intentions. God has a goal when it comes to salvation. And so, you've got to understand this that salvation brings divine ownership. All right. Salvation brings divine ownership. So when we talk about scriptural salvation, what does it mean to be saved? All right. Part of it means that you become God's purchase. You become, you know, Kirk Franklin in the 90s, he had what? God's property. You You become God's property. Salvation brings divine ownership. You are not your own. This is where I want to get to because God purchased you. So when you are saved, you are not your own. 1 Corinthians 1 uh 1 Corinthians 6 rather excuse me 20 it says for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are gods. So listen to what Paul said. He said you were bought. You were purchased. He's talking about redemption. You were paid for. So now because you have been bought, because you have been purchased, you are now under God's divine ownership. And he says, "So for that reason, glorify God in your body." Glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. All right? So your shall your body, natural body, and your spirit belong to God because you are now his purchase. 1 Corinthians 7:23, you are bought with a price. He says it again, be not ye the servants of men. So in other words, don't don't don't follow after what men are trying to tell you to do and different things of that nature, but follow after God because now you belong to him. So because you are God's purchase, this brings us back to that point that I was saying. Because you are God's purchased possession, that means that now you have to live according to his way and to his standard. All right? And so with ownership, you got to understand this that with ownership comes responsibility. So with ownership comes responsibility because God owned you. Now there is a responsibility. Your responsibility, we talked about this before. This word holiness. Your responsibility is holiness and obedience. All right? That's the believer's standard. Holiness on in obedience because God owns you. He purchased you. That means you don't you don't get to just do things because you want to do them. And I'm not talking about just in your normal everyday life. Even though the Bible does tell us to acknowledge God in all of our ways. Even though we should be led by the spirit in everything that we do. I'm talking about just in a very simplistic, you know, day-to-day aspect. I'm not talking about do what you want to do like, oh, I want to go to the store. I'm not talking about that. You can't do what you want to do in regards to your life as far as um living a doing things that God says are a sin and then you say, "Well, no, it's not a sin to me." You can't do that. You can't determine necessarily what's a sin to you. And when I say what's a sin to you, what I mean by that is this. There are some things, hear me clearly, when I say you can't determine what's a sin to you, I'm talking about what God says is a direct sin. You can't that you can't determine whether that's a sin to you. That's a sin to everybody. Now, there are some things that are not necessarily sins, but they're convictions for people. All right? There's some things that are convictions for people based upon whatever their mantle may be, based upon what God has spoken to them. Um, you know, the disconvictions for some people. So, for instance, I don't want to use that example. Let me not go there. Some things are convictions for some people that are not necessarily sins. All right. Making up your own beliefs, especially those that go against God, the creator. Exactly. Exactly. You don't have the right to do that. If you want to do that, just go ahead and live your life and not say that you're saved. Just go ahead, live your life, don't say you're saved, and then reap the the, you know, reap the consequences of it, whatever that may be, when you die. According to the Bible and according to the truth of God's word, you're you're going to open your eyes and you're going to be in hell, eternal torment where there is weeping and nashing of teeth. We don't talk about that very much often now because there's so many doctrines now that's going around that there's the belief that there is no hell. Now, let me just insert this. I didn't want to go here. But some of this belief that there is no hell, people really believe it because they begin to go back to what we call in theology, they call them the the the fathers of the church, the early fathers, those that begin to write church history and different things like that. Some of those early church fathers begin to have this belief based upon certain things that hell was not a reality or did not truly exist or that it was some sort of allegory or that it was something that just wasn't real. And so because people begin to honor in essence uh church history and honor, you know, theologians and theology more than they actually honor the scriptures, they, you know, they uh they accept it and they begin to fall into that trap. Let me see. Let me see. Yeah. Yep. We got to talk about the reality of hell. It is a real thing. Now, let me say this also. You know, people talk about, well, what if what you believe isn't true? Me and my wife talk about this. We say this. We've said this before. We say this often. You know, here here's where I am. First of all, let me just say this. For me, my life in Christ is wonderful. My life in Christ is a blessed life. I'm not living a life where I feel like I'm being forced to live this way out of some sort of uh tormenting fear of going to hell and I'm not living this life um not enjoying it but feeling pressured to live this life. I enjoy my life in salvation. So first of all let me say that. Then the second thing is if for whatever reason which I don't believe to be true. I'm just giving you you know an example. If for whatever reason I live this life saved unto the Lord and I die and there is no hell. Here we go. My wife said it. Lady Jay said it right there. I'm not missing out on nothing. I still didn't miss out on nothing because I don't want to I don't want to partake in sin anyway. I don't want to partake in sin. So, I'm not missing nothing anyway. But here's the flip side. If you don't believe and you live this life enjoying all the pleasures of sin and enjoying all of the the pleasures of wickedness and we happen to be right and you die, you're going to eternal separation from God, eternal torment. That's going to be your fate. If I die and there is no hell, I'm good. I'm fine. But if you die, that's another problem. That's another issue. Let me move on. Let me move on from there. All right. Where was I at? Let me see where I was at. Okay. I didn't want to do that. Where was I at? All right. Okay. So being bought, being bought, there's a Greek word, the Greek word for being bought has to deal with has to deal with doing business or the marketplace. It's the it's doing business or the marketplace has to deal with buying or selling. So we understand that. So there's nothing necessarily um that that word is is leaving out. When we think about something being bought, we know what it means. All right. Is doing business. So there was a transaction. So the debt, so the debt of sin or the debt that Christ had to pay uh represented not as a debt that was cancelled. So sometimes we say that, right? We say stuff like, you know, he he canled our debt. You know, people may say something like that, but it doesn't necessarily represent um a debt that was canceled, but it is a debt that was fully paid. Jesus fully paid the debt. So the slave or the captive is not liberated by a mere, you know, favor, gratuitous favor, but it was the ransom price that was paid. And it was it was it came forth to bring them free. They were set forth because of that that price that was paid in full. So let me see. And do I want to say this? Yes. So when the price is paid, the original owner receives back the alienated or the person that was separated from them and lost possession because he has bought it back with a price. That's from the East Bible dictionary. So you've got to understand that the original, it says the original owner. So you got to understand that God of course was what? our original owner before Adam sold humanity over to the devil. So the original owner receives back what was separated or lost to them. And again, this price was not paid to Satan. It was God's holy standard that had to be met. So Christ met the standard and now we are bought back as God's possession. So the blood of Jesus is the receipt of heaven's legal acquisition of your soul. There go that word legal again. So the blood of Jesus is the receipt of heaven's legal acquisition of your soul. So when we talk about this that you are bought by God and you are under divine ownership, you got to understand I said this, I'mma say it again. God didn't buy you for you to live however you please. Sila sila means pause, meditate, think on that for a moment. God didn't buy you to for you to live how you want to how you want to live. He redeemed you for holiness. All right? So redemption is a core element of salvation and it brings to the forefront because when we talked about reconciliation, it was talking about this restoration of a relationship, becoming compatible with God's holiness, you know, coming into harmony with God and unity with God. And redemption does that also. But redemption brings forth the aspect of you were bought. You are his possession. Remember that word in the beginning we talked about peculiar people. It was talking about you are purchased people. You belong to God. And for some people, I don't know that may rub them the wrong way. If you if you're in a position and in a place, you know, some people in the world, they hear certain things and it rub them the wrong way. It makes their stomach turn. What? What you mean that we that we are owned by God? I don't have a problem with being owned by God. You want to know why? Because he is the king. And so because he is the king, that means that I now come into a royal family. You know what that means? That means that now I have an inheritance. You know what that means? That means that now I become a part of everything that the king and his kingdom releases to me. I I I I partake of all of it. And when you look at kings and kingdoms, the king is often his his royalty and his majest majesty and the worth of a king is often seen. We talked about this when we went through kingdom is often seen in how the the subjects of the kingdom or the children of the kingdom, the citizens of the kingdom, how well they are represented and taken care of. So, some people got a problem. What you mean you're owned by God? I don't got a problem with being owned by God. I don't got a problem with being God's child. I don't have a problem with being saved because it's only by the grace of God. And I don't know where I would be without God's salvation. And salvation when you're in Christ. This is what David said because I was going to say the Bible talks about how there is joy unspeakable and full of glory. Joy unspeakable, full of glory. This is what David said in Psalm 51. Uh it was a psalm of repentance unto the Lord. And one of the things that David said, we know that he said, "Creat in me a clean heart." And all those different things, but this is what he also said. He said, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation." See, there's a joy that is in salvation. The old the old church used to say what this joy that I have. The world didn't give it and the world can't take it away. And so when we talk about salvation, you've got to understand that you are now God's possession. And you know what else that means? That means that you are now God's responsibility. I remember I remember uh evangelists my former my former first lady evangelist missionary Jones she she had at one point in time when she started saying that she started saying I'm God's responsibility I'm God's responsibility because you belong to him because you are his purchased people you are his responsibility exactly those people need to ask themselves do they have a problem belonging to their parents Thank you. Thank you for breaking that down. And well, for the most part, a lot of people don't have a problem belonging to their parents. But anyway, some people will say, "Yes, I do." Then how can you have a problem with belonging to the God that created you and your parents? Amen. Amen. All right. Best thing that ever happened to me. Yes. Jesus is the best thing. I ain't going to start singing. That ever happened. Jesus is the best thing that ever happened. Do y'all know that song? Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to me. All right. So, All right. So, um, let me close this out. Let me close this out. This is my final state. Well, this should be my closing statement. All right. So redemption, as was stated, this is how we're going to sum this all up. Redemption is the legal and spiritual act by which God purchased us through the blood of Jesus. It wasn't just to rescue us. It was to reclaim us as his own. All right? It was to reclaim you as his own. Jesus paid the full price, satisfying God's justice and freeing us from the law of sin and death. As the redeemed, we no longer belong to ourselves. We belong to God. Our lives now reflect his ownership through holiness, obedience, purpose, all of those things. Also, I would say power. Redemption doesn't just pull us out of something. It brings us fully into God's will. So redemption isn't just I think I said this last week or I might I might have said it Sunday. I don't know. But no, I don't think I said it Sunday. May have said it last week. Redemption is not just a get out of hell free card. All right. It doesn't just pull you out of something, but it brings you into something. It brings you fully into God's will as his purchased possession belonging to him. Amen. To God be the glory for all the things that he has done. All right. We bless God. We bless God for all of you on this evening. If there's any other questions, again, go ahead and drop them real quick or any other comments uh that we may see. I see that. I don't know if she's still on, but Sister Kimberly, good to see you on this evening. I don't know if uh Charlie is still on. Thank you for joining this evening. All right. In fact, now I'm Well, I ain't going to go there. All right, let's uh go ahead and say a word of prayer before we transition into our worship and giving on this evening. Father, we bless you and we thank you for all things. We thank you for the redemption that came through Christ. Father, we could not redeem ourselves, but God, you saw fit to bring forth your son to redeem humanity that we may come back into a position of being like you that we would be delivered from the corrupt Adamic nature and be brought into the new creation, the new life that is after the last Adam. We thank you that Christ was the last Adam. Meaning that those that come through Christ and are born by his seed or the seed of his word that means that the admic nature has now been ended in Christ and we come into a new nature. We thank you, Father, that according to your word, because of your exceeding great and precious promises in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have caused us to be partakers, sharers of the divine nature. And so, Father, we thank you for the redemption that comes through salvation. Help your people to know and to realize, let it be within their hearts that they are not their own. They are bought with a price. They belong to you. And so our responsibility is a is holiness. It is obedience unto you. It is to follow you, Father, to follow the leading of your spirit that you may bring us into the path of greater purpose and bring us into your will that it may be fulfilled in this earth even as it is in heaven. We thank you, Father, for the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that we receive through him and the redemption that we receive. For the blood of bulls and bullocks and goats could not save us, but there had to be the shedding of his blood for the remission of our sin. And so we thank you and give you glory for it in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Glory to his name. Let us receive our worship and giving on this evening. Um you see the ways to give on the screen there. For those of you who are part of uh Bethl, you understand that we do not um try to pressure you to give, but we do encourage you to give. We try to teach the principles of giving because uh I haven't said it in a while, but I'm going to say it now because I I feel that I should say it. What God can get through you, he will get to you. All right? So we don't pressure you to give um but we encourage you to give. We teach you the principles. And so our our giving is worship to the Lord. And so when you come into a position where you can begin to honor God with an acceptable sacrifice, Paul said, "Whatever you begin to purpose, whatever whatsoever a man purposes within his heart, so let him give not grudgingly nor of necessity. For God loves a cheerful giver." And so what God can begin to get through you, he can begin to give to you because now you become a vessel and a conduit that he can begin to use to bless. The Bible talks about how God says he will make you a blessing. I don't know about you, but I I want that. I want God to make me a blessing. Now, if he makes you a blessing, you know what that means? That means that you can't be stingy. That means that you can't be selfish. That means he's making you a blessing so that you can begin to bless others. Blessing others, you can begin to bless ministries. You can begin to bless individuals. God begins to use you for his glory to build up his kingdom within the earth. And so God wants to wants to create kingdom financiers. He wants to create kingdom um bene benefactors. Kingdom benefactors. those who begin to sew into kingdom initiatives so that his kingdom can be advanced in this earth. So you see the ways of giving on your screen. Um you can give through uh through zel greater bethwcgmail.com. You can give through cash app. If you're watching this on a TV, if you're watching it on an iPad and you got your phone, you can scan those QR codes that will begin to take you right to our giving portal. So there is no mixup in the giving. And so we want you to go ahead and freely give as the Lord is leading you on this evening. Amen. All right. Father, bless these your people as they are releasing unto you and worshiping you through their giving. Father, we know that you are the source of all things. You are Jehovah Gyra. You are the Lord who sees and provides for us. And so we thank you, Father, that you are the God that supplies all of our need according to your riches and glory by Christ Jesus. And so, Father, honor that which your people are releasing unto you. If there's anybody on here that has a desire to give but cannot give, Father, we pray that you would begin to bless their desire to sew and you would begin to give seed to the swer so that you can begin to multiply their seed sown that it may bring back a harvest, oh God, into their life that they can begin to take care of everything that they need to take care of and then also be a blessing to those who you tell them to be a blessing to. And so we thank you and praise you for it in Jesus name. It is so. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Thank God again for all of you that have tuned in. Thank you family. Thank you family. The family that has joined in on this evening. We pray that you are blessed. We pray that you receive that lesson. Um I want you to be reminded for those of you who we have your your information, your email. You can be looking for a email to come to you. Please check your spam. I'm not I don't know why. um they keep going to the spam, but check your spam. Um and be on the lookout for an email coming up, whether that be tomorrow, between tomorrow and Friday, that will give you the link back to the replay of this Bible study. And then also there will be a study guide that will be given also that I will send to you so that you can begin to go through that study guide, look at some of the main points, look at some of the the definitions and words that were given so that you can begin to meditate on them. Also, um, in that study guide, there will also be some action steps for you to take. There's some, uh, reflection questions for you to think on and ask yourself. And then there's also declarations for you to begin to, uh, speak over yourself and declare over yourself in regards to redemption and what that brings you into. Amen. So, be on the lookout for that. Also, um we know on Friday we will be online with Lady Jay at 6:00 a.m. Pacific time um on Facebook and on YouTube for Reignite. So, we want you to join in um with her on Friday morning as we pray online for those that are in the area and have the ability to make it. We will be in our daily worship and prayer uh at the church tomorrow from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. And then of course we will be back together on Sunday in person um for our worship service at 11 a.m. Amen. Amen. All right. To God be the glory. Thank you uh Sister Melissa. Thank you uh to my mother-in-law. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. I'm I'm glad that you all thought that it was a good lesson and hopefully you can begin to meditate on that and allow it to begin to bring forth the redemption that God really wants to bring forth in your life and the nature that he wants to bring forth through redemption in your life. All right, you all have a blessed and wonderful evening. We will see you on the next one. You all have a wonderful rest of your evening. Be blessed.