The Results of Redemption

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Redemption results in surrender, exclusivity, testimony, and priority

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Series: The Journey: Strolling through the Scripture with the Savior

Title: The Results of Redemption

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ATTN

ILL - PIC - DALLAS COWBOY

Are you a Dallas Cowboy Christian? Ok, I know what you’re saying right now: “Hey, I’m not a Dallas Cowboy fan, so I’m certainly not a Dallas Cowboy Christian!” Ok, fair enough, but you might be more of a Dallas Cowboy Christian than you think.

You see, in 2019 the Cowboys were given 1 in 20 odds by Vegas to win the Superbowl. On paper, they were considered to be one of the best teams in the NFL. They were considered to have one of the top defenses; they had arguably the best running back in the game, one of the best offensive lines, one of the best receivers, and an up and coming quarterback. On paper, they looked good!

But, no matter how it looked on paper, they finished 8-8, missed the playoffs and got their coach fired. What happened? Well, paper teams never go anywhere; practice teams do. The Cowbosy looked good on paper, but they didn’t consistently play like they looked. When it came to their football skills, it was present on paper, but it was absent in practice.

BACK

So I ask the question again: Are you a Dallas Cowboy Christian? You were raised in a Christian home, you may have even went to a Christian school. You made a profession of faith in Christ and were baptized. If we looked on paper, you’d have looked like a world-beater, but what does it look like in practice? What does it look like in your life?

The simple truth is this: You and I were meant to RESPOND to our great redemption. When you are redeemed from your bondage to sin by the blood of Jesus, that has great consequences. Now, I say all of that to introduce you to our text for today and you might think that, when we’re talking about Christian redemption, this might be a strange text to look at. After all, we are not saved by keeping the law, but by faith, and yet I want to talk about our Christian redemption through the words God gave Moses in

Exodus 20:1–11 NKJV

And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

ILL - PIC-RED SEA

If you’ve been keeping up with our journey through the Scripture, you know the context of these verses. Moses has led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. Over and over again, God has provided for His people as they have traveled. Now they have come to Mt. Sinai, the very place God had told Moses He would bring them back to worship. And what worship they are about to experience! God is about to call His people to make a covenant with Him and He is about to express to them Who He is through His law.

But when we come to , we often make a mistake. We rush past vv 1-2 right to the do’s and don’ts. That’s a mistake! You see, God doesn’t begin the chapter with the do’s and don’ts. He begins the chapter like this:

Exodus 20:1–2 NKJV

And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Before He gives them His moral law, He tells them WHY He is calling them to follow Him: It is because He has redeemed them from their slavery. BECAUSE they are redeemed they obey willingly!

And God spoke all these words, saying: 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Before He gives them His moral law, He tells them WHY He is calling them to follow Him: It is because He has redeemed them from their slavery. BECAUSE they are redeemed they obey willingly!

NEED

And this is a message we need to hear as the church today. I want to ask you to listen because I know that some of us struggle with idolatry. Now we don’t carve out images and bow down to them, perhaps, but we do have things in our lives that claim the allegiance that belongs to God alone. Hey! Is there anything you are looking to for comfort, help and support, other than God?

Others of us may struggle with integrity. We look at our identity on paper and everything looks to be in order, but when we look at our lives, the two don’t match. I know that I’m not telling you something you don’t already know, but you might feel powerless to change. Listen!

TRANS

There are results to redemption and we are going to look at the first four commands here to examine the impact our redemption is supposed to have on our lives. In the first place, the result of redemption is:

Redemption brings surrender.

EXP

In v 3, you find the first result of redemption:

Exodus 20:3–4 NKJV

“You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

Exodus 20:3 NKJV

“You shall have no other gods before Me.

You shall have no other gods before me. Simply put, in their heart of hearts the Israelites were not to allow themselves to worship any god but Yahweh. And that inner worship must be reflected outwardly. V 4 goes on to say: You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; Think about the audacity of a man who thinks that, with his own hands, he can create his creator! That is the unique atrocity of humanity. It flows from the impulse to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is our desire to CONTROL our god.

By the way, when I was studying for this message, one commentator I read gave several reason why man turns to idolatry in the first place. Let me quickly give them to you. Man turns to idolatry because an idol is:

Man turns to idolatry because an idol is controllable.

CONTROLLABLE: In ancient idolatry, the idol holder maintained their control over their idol with food. It was the unique responsibility of the idolater to “feed” the idol by leaving physical food for them. If you “fed” the “god” adequately and regularly, then that god was required to bless you with abundance of crops, fertility, cattle, etc. Man turned to idolatry because an idol was controllable. And then, an idol was

Man turns to idolatry because an idol is easier.

EASIER: Idol gods weren’t that interested in covenants, laws, or moral behavior. Food was important; keeping a covenant was not. You see that even with the Israelites themselves. When the living God speaks to them in , the people are scared to death. They found it much easier to follow a Golden Calf back to Egypt when Moses fails to reappear from his conversation with God. They probably thought God had killed him and who needed a God like that. Idolatry was easier and then, idolatry was

Man turns to idolatry because an idol is sensual and sexual.

SENUSAL and SEXUAL: It was sensual in that it could be seen; It was sexual in that the worship of an idol actually encouraged illicit sexual activity with the temple prostitutes in order to get maximum blessing from that idol. Men preferred idols because it satisfied their desire for sex and it satisfied their desire for a god they could touch, but last of all men turned to idolatry because idolatry was

Man turns to idolatry because an idol is guaranteed.

GUARANTEED: All you had to do to guarantee the idol’s powers was to carve it out, speak a few incantations over it and it became a functioning conduit for anything you wanted. It was like a quid pro quo. If you did certain thing, you were guaranteed a certain response.

May I just stop right here and say that we often try to treat Christ LIKE an Idol. We say, “If I pray this, Jesus, then I expect You to do that!.” When you treat Christ like that, you are treating Him like an idol.

So what is the right response to a living God Who has redeemed you? It is surrender! Instead of trying to control Him, you surrender and let Him control you. Now, I know I just said a lot right there. As a matter of fact, it is much easier to “surrender on paper” than it is to “surrender in practice.” What’s the difference? Let me give you a picture:

ILL

ILL - CANCER PATIENT ON KNEES

At the age of 35 Christian psychologist and researcher Dr. Jamie Aten was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer that had spread to his pelvis. Aten said:

For the first six months, whenever I asked for a prognosis, all my oncologist would say was: 'I can't tell you that it's going to be okay, Jamie. It's too early to tell. If there's anyone you want to see or anything you want to do, now is the time.'" Cancer wasn't the first disaster I faced. My family and I had moved to South Mississippi six days before Hurricane Katrina. But this disaster was different. There was no opportunity to evacuate as I did before Katrina made landfall. This time the disaster was striking within: I was a walking disaster.

Aten learned that the key to both traumatic situations involved what he calls "spiritual surrender." Aten writes:

Spiritual surrender helps us understand what we have control over and what we don't. In a research study I led after Katrina, we found that people who showed higher levels of spiritual surrender tended to do better. This finding didn't make sense to me at the time. It seemed like a passive faith response. Fast forward to my cancer disaster. I vividly remember taking the trash to the curb one winter morning while praying that God would heal me. The freezing air felt like tiny razor blades cutting across my hands and feet because of the nerve sensitivity caused by chemotherapy.

Wondering if God even heard my prayers for healing, I kept praying as I walked back inside my home. Then all of a sudden I dropped to my knees and prayed the most challenging prayer of my life. Instead of continuing to pray for God's healing, I asked that God would take care of my wife and children if I didn't make it.

This was the hardest prayer I had ever prayed. For the first time in my life, I truly experienced spiritual surrender. I finally understood. True spiritual surrender is far from passive—it is a willful act of obedience.

Here’s the point: When Yahweh delivers you, the only logical response is surrender. You discover quickly that you do not control Him, He controls you.

APP

And, O how we need to hear this today. The Christianity of our culture teaches us that, when we are saved, we receive a controllable Christ. We are taught by our culture that God will surrender to us: He will surrender His holiness to our desire to sin. He will surrender His sovereignty to our desire for healing—all we’ve got to do is confess it and have enough faith. He will surrender His design for the family to our new definition of marriage. But if that’s your Jesus, you’ve just got an idol of your own opinion, not the Jesus of this book! The truly redeemed have only one logical response: It is not control it is surrender!

TRANS:

The Israelites had been miraculously redeemed through 10 displays of God’s authority over all other so-called “gods.” They had been miraculously delivered when the waters of the Red Sea, through which they had just walked, closed over the chariots of Pharaoh. They had watched water miraculously flow from a rock to quench their thirst and save their lives. And out of that redemption, their covenant God was asking for a unique relationship with them. That relationship involved surrender, but it involved something more. It also involved

Redemption bringsEXCLUSIVITY

Redemption brings limits.

EXP

Now, when I say limits, I mean that this relationship is exclusive, I mean that God declares that He will not receive divided worship. You cannot belong to Him and worship Him while holding on to any other god.

Notice what He says in v4:

Exodus 20:4–5 NKJV

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

EX 20:

In other words, I will not share my divine relationship with you with anyone or anything else. Ours, He says, must be an exclusive relationship.

And that exclusivity is serious, so serious, in fact, that He goes on to say that, if we try to worship other gods, He will visit His judgment of that on the third and fourth generations of our children. He takes this exclusive relationship with His people very seriously.

And why is He so serious about it? Because He is so deeply committed to that relationship. He goes on to say,

Exodus 20:5–6 NKJV

you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

O listen your exclusive, jealous God is after a deep, intimate, serious relationship with you and me. He will not share that place of love in your heart with anyone or anything else.

ILL

Now, when you really understand just how committed the God of this universe is to us, I think it is only logical that, if He really exists, He would require that relationship to be exclusive.

ILL - PIC - WEDDING

Imagine a married couple taking their vows at the altar. The preacher turns to the man and asks the man, “Will you have this woman to be your wedded wife. Will you promise to love, honor, comfort and keep her in health and in sickness, in prosperity and adversity, and keep yourself unto her only as long as you both shall live” The pastor waits for a response, but the man says nothing. The pastor raises his eyebrow impatiently and gives him the evil eye. His wife to be is squeezing his hands with all her might and looking at him in a mixture of anger and disbelief. Finally that pastor says, Well??? The man replies, “Give me a minute, I’m thinking about it!”

That’s about to be the shortest wedding in history right there! Any healthy marriage requires exclusivity. In our relationship with God, exclusivity is required as well.

Listen, if religion is the invention of man. If man is in control of it and sets the parameters for it, then he can set the rules, change the rules, and run after any idol he decides to create. But if there really is a God; if His son is Jesus Who died on a cross, paid for our sin, and rose from the dead, conquering the grave, then THAT God deserves an EXCLUSIVE commitment.

ARG

And I know that there might be some here today who might take issue with this. They might ask me something like this. “Hey Rusty, how do you know that Your God is the one and only God? How do I know that this God is worthy of my exclusive worship?

There are so many answers I could give today and if this is really your issue, perhaps you and I need to talk some more, but can I tell you two of the greatest reasons I worship Yahweh exclusively? The reason is HISTORY. You see, history tells us that there really was a man named Jesus who lived and was followed by many. History tells us that this Jesus was betrayed by his own people and sentenced to die on a Roman cross. The evidence points to the fact that He did just that.

And history also tells us that this same Jesus who lived an amazing life and died a horrible death, actually rose bodily from the tomb. In fact, many atheists have been converted trying to prove that Jesus didn’t rise and have become Christ-followers because the evidence for that resurrection was so convincing. And listen, If this Jesus really lived, and if this Jesus really died, and if this Jesus really rose from the dead, then you have good reason to believe that there is only one God, whose name is Yahweh and that God has one co-equal Son and His name is Jesus Christ and He deserves your exclusive worship today.

TRANS

And when you come to this Jesus and experience His great redemption, just like those Israelites, the result of that redemption is surrender; the result of that redemption is exclusivity, and then the result of that redemption is

Redemption brings testimony.

EXP

V7 gives us our third command: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. Now, when I was growing up, this command was reduced pretty much to attach the name of God to some other curse word. The idea was that you should never use God’s name to attach it to some curse you might throw at someone else. Now maybe that’s involved in this, but it makes this command much too small.

The idea of taking God’s name in vain is not just to use His name thoughtlessly or even to use it to hurt someone else. It is to use His name FALSELY. To say that you are one of His people who worship Him—to take His name to yourself—then live a life that denies him or goes against His character. Taking God’s name in vain is to call yourself a disciple, but live as if you don’t know Him at all.

That’s why I chose the word, “testimony” to describe this command. When we are truly redeemed and we take God’s name, we must be careful to reflect God’s character.

ILL

PIC - PASSPORT CONTROL

Once Chuck Colson was standing in a long line in the airport in Jakarta, Indonesia. He and some Prison Fellowship colleagues had been traveling all night. It was now early morning. The terminal was hot and steamy, and they were tired. As Chuck relates in his new book, Being the Body, "Passport in my sticky hand, I was exhausted and exasperated at the long, inefficient line snaking ahead of us. I was worried we would miss our next flight and the ministry friends who were waiting for us." But, Chuck adds, "I was also determined not to let my frustration get the better of me. I talked with my friends; we laughed and made the best of the situation."

Two years later, he received a letter from a businessman who lived in Singapore. The man had been a follower of Confucius, but he sent his children to Sunday school at a Presbyterian church for moral training. One Sunday, as he picked up his kids, he heard the end of the sermon. A visiting missionary held up a copy of Chuck's first book, Born Again. On the cover was a picture of Chuck.

A few months later, this businessman was stuck in a long line in the steaming Jakarta airport. Glancing over into the next line, he spotted the same face he'd seen on the cover of Born Again. He was so impressed by Chuck Colson's calm demeanor and cheerfulness that when he got back to Singapore, he got the book, read it, and committed his life to Christ.

The point is this: When you really know this redeeming God, your testimony will show it! So here’s a question: How many people who would never place the word “God” before some kind of curse, still live a life that takes His name in vain every day?

APP

And how we—you and I—really need to hear this! It is so easy for us to take His name, especially in this country. As Tony told us when he was here, the Chinese consider all Americans to be Christians. It’s something that’s even expected in the south. But you and I both know that really living out our faith seems so drastic to us.

But please don’t miss what I am about to say: When you really know Christ; when you’ve really been redeemed, the result of redemption will be testimony. You will begin not to just wear the label, Christian, you will live the life, Christian. You will not take the name in vain. It will be real.

TRANS

That’s what happens when you are redeemed by God. His redemption brings surrender; His redemption brings limits; His redemption brings testimony and finally His redemption brings

Redemption brings priority.

EXP

The fourth commandment is the longest, and I think God may have given more explanation here because He may have known we would struggle with it. Look at v 8:

Exodus 20:8–11 NKJV

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

It was the Sabbath Day which was the covenant symbol of the Israelites. It set them apart from everyone else, but it was more than just an outward symbol; It was a demonstration of the priority that Yahweh had in their lives. These verses describe that priority.

The Sabbath requires INtention.

First this great “God priority” would require great intention. V8 says

Exodus 20:8 NKJV

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

God tells them that they must make an intentional effort to keep the Sabbath day “holy.” “Holy” means “set apart . . . different.” They were to make an intentional effort to set apart this day and make it different from the rest.

The Sabbath requires ATTention.

Not only would this great “God priority” would require INtention, it would require ATTention. V9 says

Exodus 20:9 NKJV

Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

Exodus 20:9–10 NKJV

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

Ex20:

You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh is a Sabbath day of rest (notice this!) DEDICATED TO THE LORD YOUR GOD. In other words, even though every day should be lived with a consciousness of God, this day would be DEDICATED SPECIFICALLY to Him. He would receive our attention. He would be worshiped!

The Sabbath requires rest.

This “God priority” would require intention and attention, but it also would be a day on which man would PURSUE REST. V11: On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. God commands us in this verse to TAKE A DAY OFF! We are commanded to rest!

And, as if to address the guilt that workaholics feel when they take a day off, in v 11 God tells us specifically the reason we are to take a day off. It’s because this “God priority” IMITATES GOD. God, Himself, took a day off and rested and one of the most amazing verses in the Bible is in .

Ex 31:16

Exodus 31:16–17 NKJV

Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’ ”

To be refreshed means “to breathe in.” Throughout creation, God was breathing out. On the sixth day, we are told God breathed into man the breath of life. All of Creation was spoken into existence as God breathed out. On the Sabbath, He breathed in. He was refreshed.

It says 16 Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’ ” To be refreshed means “to breathe in.” Throughout creation, God was breathing out. On the sixth day, we are told God breathed into man the breath of life. All of Creation was spoken into existence as God breathed out. On the Sabbath, He breathed in. He was refreshed.

That’s a great picture of the rest that the Sabbath offers. For six days we give out as we work. On one day per week, we breathe in—we rest and receive strength.

ARG

So right about now, I’d be willing to bet that some of us are getting a little nervous. You are saying, “Wow, Rusty, are you about to become a Seventh Day Adventist? You’re talking about the Old Testament here. We are not bound by the Old Testament law are we?” Well, you’re right: We are not bound by the Old Testament CEREMONIAL law; We do not offer sacrifices or pay the temple tax. We are, however, bound by the MORAL law! Why else do we have laws against stealing or murder? So let me ask you: In which part of the law is this command found? It is found in the MORAL law. Now, granted, the Church tended to shift this day to Sunday to commemorate the resurrection of Christ, but that does not negate the principle.

ILL

ILL - SHEETZ

Robert Morris preaches a great sermon on the Sabbath entitled, “Sabbath, the only command that Christians are ok with violating.” I highly recommend that you watch it. In that message he tells of how he became convicted about taking a day of rest—a Sabbath—each week. Since he is a preacher, his Sabbath is on Mondays. One time one of his staff members who wanted him to be involved in some kind of activity said, “Pastor, I know that Monday is your Sabbath, but would you be willing to (and here he filled in the activity he wanted the pastor to do for the church.) Robert replied, “Why don’t you just ask me to commit adultery? Hey, and why don’t I stop on the way, rob a Sheetz station, and kill a couple of people while I’m at it?”

Wow! He takes it seriously! But the truth is, he was just acknowledging that the Sabbath is located in the Moral Law! It applies to us.

And I know that someone else might still resist and say, “Didn’t Christ give the Pharisees a hard time about keeping the Sabbath when He was here?” Well, He did have a lot of disagreements with the Pharisees about the Sabbath, but they were never over the keeping of the Sabbath, but over the PURPOSE of the Sabbath. Through their extra rules related to the Sabbath, the Pharisees even prohibited helping others on the Sabbath. It was their abuse of the Sabbath, not the keeping of it that Jesus attacked.”

EXP

And, by the way, I believe the greatest reason we struggle with prioritizing God through taking a weekly Sabbath is this: It requires faith. When you give up one day per week, it’s easy to begin to think about all the things you could be getting done while you are sitting still: Like making another sale; like balancing another client’s books; and, if you’re like me, making another visit or writing another message. It takes faith to believe that God will allow you to achieve His will in 6 days: To do as much in six days as you might otherwise do in seven.

It’s kind of like tithing: A person who commits to tithe quickly has to decide whether they trust God to provide with 90% what they need. They quickly find that God can do more with 90% than they, themselves could do with 100%, but it takes faith to discover that. It’s the same way with practicing the Sabbath in your life. It takes faith and focus to so acknowledge God and rest, but it will pay great dividends.

VIS

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