SPEAKER_00: This number was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Fork's number Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: But if you'd like to open your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter seven, I'll show you something here about God's redemption and his ability to redeem people.
SPEAKER_01: You know, in South Africa, the when you enter into eighth grade, eighth grade is part of high school.
SPEAKER_01: And so here I come as an eighth grader into high school, and there's all these ginormous kids.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, guys have beards and things, and uh and I mean it it was rough.
SPEAKER_01: And I and I remember there was a guy, Herman, and and Herman uh made it his career to be in high school.
SPEAKER_01: Uh in those days, you they they held you back.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't know how old this guy was.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm sure he had kids, and uh, you know, what's your dad doing?
SPEAKER_01: He's in high school.
SPEAKER_01: Um and and he was a bully.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he would hurt us.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and then one day I look at this and I'm like, uh, you know, I'm really praying that God will just squash you like a fly.
SPEAKER_01: I I I really did not like this guy.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't a Christian, so I didn't care much about him.
SPEAKER_01: But uh thinking back, uh God could have shown his might by just taking him and just flattened him, right?
SPEAKER_01: He could do that.
SPEAKER_01: But it takes a mighty God to save a man like that.
SPEAKER_01: It takes a mighty God to save a man like me.
SPEAKER_01: And if we think about uh bullies and how they can arrest, intimidate people, I think of uh Pharaoh uh way back there in Israel's history after the 430 years of enslavement.
SPEAKER_01: And we will notice there in Deuteronomy 7, verse 8 that God says that the Lord, I am the Lord, who brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: It is not that Pharaoh let them go because he had second thoughts and he pursued them, but it was rather the Lord that brought them out of Egypt and rescuing Israel from the mighty hand of Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_01: Pharaoh would not give up.
SPEAKER_01: He did not stop harassing Israel, and at the Red Sea, he lost his entire army.
SPEAKER_01: And so there, Pharaoh is humble.
SPEAKER_01: Pharaoh has lost his power.
SPEAKER_01: He's rendered powerless without an army.
SPEAKER_01: This tyrannical oppressor no longer could intimidate, oppress, or enslave Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Israel was redeemed by the mighty hand of God.
SPEAKER_01: If we think of another picture of redemption, we can think of the Philistine army.
SPEAKER_01: The Philistine army taunted and mocked and scorned at the feeble armies of Israel, but it was only because they had what?
SPEAKER_01: Well, who, should I say?
SPEAKER_01: They had Goliath.
SPEAKER_01: They could mock as long as Goliath is standing close by them.
SPEAKER_01: But then God provided a redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: He provided David, the soon to become king, the shepherd king, David.
SPEAKER_01: And David slaughtered this diabolical instrument of injustice and disempowered the Philistine army that day.
SPEAKER_01: The moment that Goliath fell, the Philistines, as 1 Samuel 17, verse 51, says, when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
SPEAKER_01: They fled.
SPEAKER_01: They were powerless, they were disarmed because their champion was dead.
SPEAKER_01: And so God showed them once more mighty in the act of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: And that is the title for my mesjit this morning: that God is powerful to redeem.
SPEAKER_01: God is mighty to redeem.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if we think of redemption theologically, we can think of this picture of someone that is enslaved by a tyrannical slave master, and then someone comes and pays the ransom, a price that buys the freedom of that slave.
SPEAKER_01: Biblically, God provided a ransom through his son Jesus Christ that was the payment for sin, and thereby he purchased the freedom of those who were enslaved to sin and those who were enslaved by the fear of death.
SPEAKER_01: But dear brothers and sisters, if God was not mighty in this act of redemption, what assurance do we have that our redemption is secure and eternally secure?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna give you three reasons why I believe God is a powerful redeeming.
SPEAKER_01: He's mighty in the act of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: First, uh, because God orchestrates redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, because God disempowers the enemy, and thirdly, God eternally secures the redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: So let's begin here with God orchestrating redemption.
SPEAKER_01: And let's go back at that prototype of our redemption when Israel was redeemed out of slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you notice in Deuteronomy 7, verse 7, it's very clear that Israel had nothing to offer God, but that his redemption of Israel is by his sure goodness.
SPEAKER_01: He says the Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of the peoples.
SPEAKER_01: You were nobody.
SPEAKER_01: You had nothing to offer God, and God chose to rescue and redeem you.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's loving kindness takes the initiative and redemption.
SPEAKER_01: God orchestrated Israel's redemption out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: He orchestrates our redemption back to front.
SPEAKER_01: It is his initiative, it is by his grace and by his mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord is mighty and powerful in the way that he orchestrates redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, it is one thing for God, a mighty God, to obliterate a person, it is another thing for a mighty God to save a rebellious person.
SPEAKER_01: Redemption for God is never a quick fix.
SPEAKER_01: For God does not just seek to take care of our issues of health.
SPEAKER_01: He does not seek to just take care of our financial things and work and things.
SPEAKER_01: God's redemption is far bigger than that.
SPEAKER_01: God redeems in such a way that He conquers any threat to that redemption.
SPEAKER_01: If you turn your Bibles to Hebrews 2.14, I will show you something about God disempowering those who pose a threat to the redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 2 14 tells us something about how God disempowers the enemies of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, God has shown Himself as the author and the initiator and the perfecter of redemption, but he is the one who ultimately secures the redemption of the redeemed by conquering the enemy that threatens them.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: It says this, since therefore the children share in the flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think of this.
SPEAKER_01: If God did not disempower or render powerless Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, he would have come after the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And he would have enslaved them once again.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine if David just merely knocked out Goliath the giant.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine he would wake up in a field hospital and two days later he's on the battlefield.
SPEAKER_01: The whole thing starts over again.
SPEAKER_01: But here is the beauty of how God redeems.
SPEAKER_01: In the redemption of his people, he might destroy the one who has the power of death.
SPEAKER_01: The Son of God incarnated, flesh and blood, born of a virgin, died the death, we died.
SPEAKER_01: Death on a cross.
SPEAKER_01: And through his resurrection, he showed God mighty in redemption, because at the same time he redeemed the saints, he also rendered powerless him who had the power of death.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a English Standard Version, it says that he partake in the same things that through death he might destroy.
SPEAKER_01: But that word in the NSB is, I think, well translated, it says that he might render powerless him who had the power of death.
SPEAKER_01: That phrase in Greek, render powerless or destroy, means to render inactive.
SPEAKER_01: It is like Pharaoh without his army.
SPEAKER_01: It's like the Philistines without Goliath.
SPEAKER_01: They nothing.
SPEAKER_01: They disempower, they powerless.
SPEAKER_01: And so here Christ comes in in human form, lives a perfect life, dies on the cross, and rose from the dead on the third day, and there he strikes a mortal blow to the head of his enemy.
SPEAKER_01: The incarnation and ultimately the resurrection of the Son of God rendered powerless him who had the power of death.
SPEAKER_01: That is the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Our ancient enemy, the devil, wielded death like a like a powerful spell over people.
SPEAKER_01: It was like a sword over the heads of people.
SPEAKER_01: But ultimately at the cross, no, at the resurrection, that he delivered his people from the fear of death.
SPEAKER_01: As it says there in verse 15, to deliver them, meaning to redeem them.
SPEAKER_01: All those who, through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery.
SPEAKER_01: He has no ability to use death in an ultimate and final way in the lives of the redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: Because Colossians 2.15 assures us that God had disarmed the rulers and authorities.
SPEAKER_01: He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ ultimately redeemed his people from death.
SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, he conquered the one who had the power to enslave people in fear.
SPEAKER_01: He released the devil's grip on us.
SPEAKER_01: He not only freed all, but also brought relief to those who cower through life, being scared to death of death, as one author says.
SPEAKER_01: And was the lifelong friend of D.
SPEAKER_01: Al Moody, Pastor, Baptist Pastor F.
SPEAKER_01: A.
SPEAKER_01: Meyer, and he says the following so eloquently.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Jesus, the mighty to save, stands between you and your besetting sins, between you and your fears, between you and the power of the adversary.
SPEAKER_01: He is mighty to redeem.
SPEAKER_01: As we look at redemption from the perspective that God is a powerful redeemer, we can say the following: God is powerful because he orchestrates redemption back to front.
SPEAKER_01: God is powerful in disempowering the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: But thirdly, God is powerful in redemption that he eternally secures redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to John 10, verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: I'll show you something there.
SPEAKER_01: John 10, verse 10, Satan is portrayed as a thief that steals.
SPEAKER_01: Now, my dear brothers and sisters, you have been redeemed, you have been bought with a price.
SPEAKER_01: What prevents Satan from stealing that?
SPEAKER_01: What prevents the devil from taking back your eternal life that Jesus Christ has given you?
SPEAKER_01: Can He rob us of our eternal destiny?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's look at verse 28, what Jesus Christ Himself said.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.
SPEAKER_01: And no one will snatch them out of my hand.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 29, my Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
SPEAKER_01: It's very interesting here that the word for the Father is greater than all.
SPEAKER_01: That word is the Greek word is not megas, but meson, which means greater than the greatest.
SPEAKER_01: There is no one greater than the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And because the Father holds the redeemed and he holds their redemption, no one can pry his hand open.
SPEAKER_01: No one will snatch them out of my hand.
SPEAKER_01: Our redemption is not a half-baked job.
SPEAKER_01: God makes sure that we are redeemed, fully redeemed, and that we stay redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: And dear brothers and sisters, let me just say from this scripture, I have no doubt that not even you or I can undo our redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Because not my will is greater than the Father's, and it's the Father's will to keep them.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew Henry has a wonderful comment.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Those are safe who are in the hands of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The saints are preserved in Christ Jesus, and their salvation is not in their own keeping, but in the keeping of a mediator.
SPEAKER_01: He says, For there are mighty contests as years supposed about the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: Christ had himself experienced the power of his father, upholding and strengthening him, and therefore puts all his followers into his hand too.
SPEAKER_01: He that secured the glory of the Redeemer will secure the glory of the redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because there is no one greater than God.
SPEAKER_01: My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
SPEAKER_01: My dear brothers and sisters, I am convinced as I looked at these few passages about God being mighty in redemption, I've come to the following conclusions.
SPEAKER_01: God is mighty in redemption because he redeems by his own initiative and he orchestrates redemption back to front.
SPEAKER_01: Front to back, rather.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is mighty in redemption in that he's enemy.
SPEAKER_01: The devil has been disarmed.
SPEAKER_01: He has obliterated his power by taking death out of his hand.
SPEAKER_01: And then thirdly, God is mighty in redemption because he secures the redemption of the redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: No one can take away their final redemption.
SPEAKER_01: But here is something that I am convinced of.
SPEAKER_01: That neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, no powers, nor height, nor debt, nor any other created thing, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God and the redemption which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing can separate us from his love, the love that redeems us, and the redemption which we have in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: What an assuring and comforting thought.
SPEAKER_01: That our redemption is in the hands of the mighty God.
SPEAKER_01: Not in my hands, not in your pastor's hands, not in some uh some confession.
SPEAKER_01: Our redemption is in the hand of God, powerful God.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray him and thank him for giving us redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Dear Heavenly Father, we are incredibly thankful that you orchestrated our redemption.
SPEAKER_01: You are the author and the perfecter, the completer of our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: No one can undo that.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, this journey of faith is often a very tiresome, a very burdensome, a very challenging journey.
SPEAKER_01: It has many trials and tribulations, and we often even doubt whether we will see our heavenly inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: We doubt often whether our redemption will last to the very end.
SPEAKER_01: But we are assured that the mighty of the mightiest, the greatest of the greatest, holds the redeemed in his hand.
SPEAKER_01: And no one can pluck them out of his hand.
SPEAKER_01: Is one of the most comforting thoughts that I've ever thought about.
SPEAKER_01: And so thank you for these words in your scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Bless our day and our week together, having this great assurance that we are eternally secure.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.