Redemption – Part 2 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Redemption Part 2 with Pastors Lawson and Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today you’ll learn how Redemption is the message of the Bible.

Redemption Part 2 Transcription

Welcome friends of the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in. Today we’re gonna be talking about redemption. Redemption is the message of the Bible. Revelation 2:7 says, “To him, who overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” Paradise is not found in the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Paradise is found through knowing Jesus. Open your heart and receive God’s good work. So good to have you with us today. We’re sharing on redemption. We began yesterday talking about Ephesians 1:7, where the scripture says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. And when we talk about redemption, the Greek word for redemption is apolutrosis, and it means freedom. That means released by the payment of a ransom, liberation, deliverance, salvation, riddance. Praise God. We have been set free from the devil’s power. When I was a kid, they used to have these little sitcoms, shows and they’d show a little devil over here and then show a little angel over here. And the people say, “Well, the devil made me do it.” When you really understand who you are in Christ and what Christ has done for you and how he’s raised you up and seeded you in a glorified position, God has raised us up in Christ, you have to take a step down out of your glorified position in Christ to actually get involved in the devil’s mess. And the devil cannot make you do one thing as a believer, glory to God. So we are victorious through Jesus. We’re overcomers and we don’t have to pay attention to the devil in one bit at all.

And if you look at, like we were going through Genesis, just how God created Adam and Eve and placed them in this garden, gave them authority, gave them the ability to be fruitful and multiply. He created a man in his own image, male and female. He created them. You can really see what the enemy’s trying to attack today is really what God blessed man with from the very beginning. Blessed them with dominion, with authority, with purpose, with identity, with assigned genders. God creates male or female. It doesn’t really matter what people prefer.

You’re not a cat.

It’s not a preference. Preferences don’t really matter when it comes to how you were created.

I like something you said, Aaron, when you were teaching a while back in church, you made a statement and you said, “When they dig your bones up a thousand years from now, if they’re here, they could tell whether you’re a male or a female, because that’s what your DNA says.” You’re a male. That’s how God made you.

Yeah.

And we have all these liberal.

From your bones, they won’t be able to tell what you prefer, if you prefer.

Just crazy. The world’s crazy. And a lot of this stuff is an attack on people’s identity. And even when people, a lot of people are mixed up in their identity, and that’s why they’re not happy in life. But a lot of these people, you’ve studied the facts on it, but when they get sex changes and all this crazy stuff that they do, they’re not happy anyway. They’re just unhappy people.

Yeah. And I like that word for redemption, that’s a payment of a ransom. A lot of people really struggle with self-worth with understanding how valuable they are. I love what the psalmist said, “That I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are your works. And that my soul knows very well.” That’s a great statement of understanding that, that your worth comes from the creator because you were created with purpose. You were created with intent. You were created with beauty, with thought, and when you understand that there’s a creator and that God is a good creator, he loves you, and that you are very good in his eyes.

Yes.

And when God created mankind, he said, “this is very good.” That you have a tremendous amount of worth. And you understand too, like we’re talking about the redemption, what Jesus did for us at the cross, when you understand the payment that he made for that ransom. That’s really what determines your worth, your value. And God paid the ultimate price for you. Your value is far higher than any other person, any other.

Being, created being.

[Aaron] Yeah.

Man is the highest of God’s creation. I love what you’re saying. One thing that we talked about a little bit, there’s been teaching in philosophy about evolution, so on and so forth, which there is no fossil record to support. That is a lie. But I believe the reason that we’re having an epidemic of teenage suicide and different things is because we have not taught people that they are created by God and that their identity is in Christ.

And just the incredible value of human life. The incredible importance of human life. Recently in Canada, they legalized medically assisted suicide. So if people are older or struggling with an illness, they can opt to just have the doctor kill them.

They’ve done this in the United States, if I’m correct up in some of the northeast state, very liberal areas. They’ve said you can actually kill a baby within a week of when it’s born or something. Just, my god, how ungodly can we be? How dumb can we be and still breathe? That’s outright murder. I mean, abortion in my opinion is murder. I mean, God is the creator of life. And partial birth abortion, Colorado’s one of the six most liberal states in the United States. They can crush a child skull coming out of the mother’s womb and call it an abortion. It’s murder. It’s taking human life. It is terrible. And there are some states, thank God, that are turning this around, since Roe v. Wade has been overturned, there are states that value human life. Years ago when you drive through the state of Kansas, they had these big signs out by the internet, big billboards, abortion stops a beating heart. That’s still the truth.

Well, really it comes down to understanding, like to Genesis 1 is their creator. Is he a good creator? Does he care about what is the value of human life?

And we need to get our value and our identity in Christ. We need to get it from God.

Like you said yesterday when the serpent came and kind of deceived Eve, he was making her feel like she was less worthy. Like you’re missing out. You’re lacking. Really try to make her identify as a victim. And God has a tremendous amount of value in your life.

Yes.

And so when we see this in Genesis 3, where you’re talking about, I wanna go back to that because we see when Adam and Eve overstepped God’s one command, “Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” And we saw how Satan came and twisted the Word of God and then got Eve to misquote the Word of God, and then Satan outright contradicted the Word of God. And we see “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.” Same things Jesus was tempted with in the garden. Same things we’re tempted with 1 John 2:15-17 talks about that. Satan really has no new tricks. He does the same thing. But he outright lied to her and told her, “Listen, you’re gonna be like God.” They were already made in the image of God. So he got them from a victor’s mentality to a victim mentality, said, you don’t have something. And then when they sinned, the Lord God said to the serpent in verse 14, “Because you’ve done this, you’re cursed above all cattle, above every beast of the field on your belly. You will go and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And now, this is the first promise of redemption in the scripture. Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman.” So the serpent and the woman become enemies. “And between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.” This is speaking about Jesus, the seed of the woman. “And under this woman, he said, ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and conception.'” Now, if you read Timothy, you can be redeemed from that curse. “And sorrow will bring four children, and your desire will be to your husband and he will rule over you. To Adam he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife in eaten of the tree, which I commanded you, saying you shall not eat. The ground is curse for your sake. And in sorrow you will eat of it. It will bring forth weeds, thorns, and thistles. And you will eat the herbs of the field. In the sweat of your face you will eat bread.” I do not believe that work is a curse, but to work and be unproductive and have it go in reverse, that’s a curse. And when he did this, it says in verse 21, “That Adam also and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothed them.” So God clothed their nakedness. And this was actually another type of redemption. He made a promise or redemption, a type of redemption, clothed their nakedness. And the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become as one of us to know good and evil,” in verse 22, “lest he put forth his hand and take of the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground. So he drove out man, that he placed at the east side of the Garden of Eden, and put a cherubim there, a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way the tree of life.” So man was driven out of this provision, this ultimate place of wealth that God had given him. And God put a cherubim there, I believe it says, “To guard the way of the tree of life.” I don’t believe that God wanted man to be able to eat of the tree of life in a fallen state and live forever in that fallen state. And so we see, immediately when God send God gives a promise of redemption. There’s a type of redemption. He covers their nakedness and he also protects them somewhat from their selves.

Even even the garden. It’s kind of a picture of God’s presence. Even the temple, even when Christ comes again, he’s gonna enter through that Eastern Gate. So this is actually kinda pointing to the ultimate fulfillment of everything that Christ has done through redemption. When he comes again, he’s gonna enter through that Eastern Gate.

Well, revelation. It’s the revelation of Jesus Christ. And we talked about this in the first broadcast. If you can understand the beginning of the Bible and the end of the Bible, and then understand what changed everything in the center of the Bible, Christ, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. That changes everything. And so we see that in Genesis, and we read this scripture in Revelation 2:7 that says to him, “Who overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” So we see that man’s been restored to this position. He’s been restored to paradise. So paradise is not found in the lifestyles of the rich and famous, but paradise is found through knowing Jesus Christ. Paradise is found in a relationship with God. And so we’re going back to the tree of life. We’re going back to the throne of God. And we’ll come back in a few minutes after the break, and we’ll share with you in Revelation 22 how the scripture talks about “There shall be no more curse.” So when Adam and Eve sinned, when they missed a mark in the garden, what happened? The Earth was cursed. The serpent was cursed. God said, “You’re gonna have sorrow in childbirth, you’re gonna have pain in childbirth. To the man he said, “You’re gonna work and it’s gonna be fruitless. The ground’s gonna bring forth thorns and thistles.” And so there was this ultimate curse. But then immediately, God in the midst of this, gives them a promise, redemption. Gives them a type of redemption and covers their shame, covers their nakedness, clothes them with skin, and then sets an angel to guard the way to the tree of life, protects them from themselves, so to speak. And so we’ll come back right after the break, and we’ll talk about how this fulfillment of redemption has taken place. So thank you for staying tuned. We’ll be right back after this short break, blessings. Friends, I’m so glad you’ve been watching. Today we’ve been teaching on the subject of redemption and who we are in Christ. This is some of my best teaching. In fact, I got a revelation of this over 40 years ago in Andrew Wommack’s meetings when I was just a child, and it revolutionized my life. And I believe if you get a revelation of who you are in Christ and what happened in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, it will literally transform your life. And so we have a lot of great teaching on redemption, what Jesus did for us in his death, burial, and resurrection, and who we are in Christ. I encourage you to get this teaching. I believe just like it transformed my life, it will transform your life. So get on the internet, give us a call. We’d love to hear from you. Thank you so much, and God bless you richly as you allow his word first place. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us and we’re continuing talking about redemption. Redemption is the message of the Bible. And we were in Genesis, but we’re gonna go to Revelation. So we’re gonna turn to Revelation 22 and read in Revelation 22. Aaron, if you wanna read there, Revelation 22:1-5. This is talking about the ultimate fulfillment of redemption.

So it says here, “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of God and of the lamb in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore 12 fruits, each yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the lamb shall be in it, and his servant shall serve him. This shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.”

Wow. What a promise. So we see, we’re going back in verse one, to the river of life, we’re going back to the throne of God in the lamb. In verse two, we’re going back to the tree of life. And it says, “The leaves of this tree are for the healing of the nations.” Some people have questioned, what does that really mean, the healing of the nations. Finis Dake has some great in-time teaching. And he said, it may be that this is nations of people who are maybe born during the tribulation period, but I have no idea if that’s true. That’s just a little mentality. But praise God, we know there’s gonna be total healing, total health, total wealth, total blessing, total fulfillment, living in eternity in the presence of God. And then he makes this wonderful statement in verse three. And he says, “There shall be no more curse.” Wow. Now, there’s two aspects of the curse. There was the curse of the law. So when God gave the law in the Book of Exodus, we see it in Leviticus and we see it also in Deuteronomy. But when he gave the law, the children of Israel thought it would bring a blessing. God said, if you’ll keep these statutes, you’ll be blessed. But they couldn’t keep it, so it became a curse. That’s why we call it the curse of the law. But the Bible actually says in Galatians 3:13 that “Christ has redeemed us,” has purchased us, has bought us out of the curse of the law being made a curse for us. Jesus paid the penalty for the curse. He became a curse for us. And it says in verse 14, “So that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.” That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So we’re already blessed in the spiritual realm when we get born again. But we still have to deal with the physical realm and this physical body. This physical body still has to deal with death until Christ comes. Now, when Christ comes, he’s gonna put the last enemy under his feet, which is the enemy of physical death. And that’s, I believe, when he says here in Revelation 22:3, “There shall be no more curse.” And so death will be destroyed. Praise God, completely destroyed. And the devil will be completely destroyed. He’ll be cast into the lake of fire forever, to burn forever. And he says that the Lord God, the throne of God, we’re going back to the throne of God. We’re gonna live in the presence of Jesus, in the presence of Jehovah, our creator, forever, forever. “The Lord God in the lamb or the light of this city.” We’re gonna live in the light forever. Darkness is gonna be completely destroyed. Death is gonna be completely destroyed. The devil’s gonna be completely, he’s gonna be no power whatsoever, completely, done with. Praise and glory to God. I’m glad I’m on my way to heaven. And so what a promise that we have. I’m gonna tell you, hell is not gonna be any party with the devil and your good buddies. It’s gonna be total pain. The Bible talks about it. The worm does not die there. The fire’s not quenched. Can you imagine being eaten by worms forever and never dying. Burning for, I don’t know if you’ve ever burned yourself, but just burning forever and not being burned up. It’s an awful, awful thing. And hell was not God’s plan for any believer. Hell was not God’s plan for any human. But if you read the Bible, if I read Jesus correctly in Matthew 7, there’s gonna be a lot of people in hell. Because they did not choose God’s way of salvation. They did not choose redemption. So God made redemption available for everybody in the death beyond resurrection of Christ, but you’ve gotta choose. You’ve gotta choose it. You’ve gotta accept it. God’s not gonna make you serve him. He’s not gonna make you receive Jesus. It’s by far the best. It’s by far the best life. It’s a good life knowing Jesus. The Bible says in Romans 5:1, therefore being justified, I love the New King James, where it says, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.” That’s the only way to live. Live at peace with God. It says, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus.” So when you believe on Jesus, you’re made at peace with God. And the Holy Spirit comes to live on the inside of you. This is the first aspect of redemption. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse,” Galatians 3:13-14. “Being made a curse for us, for its written. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” Verse 14, “So that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So we have the spirit of God in us as believers. This is the very first aspect of how redemption begins to take place in our life, is the spirit of Christ inhabit us, dwells in us as believers. What marvelous we have peace with God. The Bible says this in Galatians 5:21-22, right in there, it says, “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance, against such there is no law.” We have the love of God in us. We have the joy of God. Romans 14, a lot of people say, “Well, I would be a Christian, but I can’t do it. I can’t do it.” Christianity is not about our works. It’s not about our performance. It’s about a life giving relationship with God. Romans 14:17 says, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink.” It’s not a bunch of religious rules. “But it’s righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” We’re right with God. How are we right with God?

Through Jesus.

Through Jesus, through putting faith in Jesus and it’s peace. We’re at peace with God. There’s only one way to be at peace with God and that is through Jesus. And Jesus in his death, made peace with God by his blood. We can read about that in Ephesians 2. But when Jesus was born, what did the angels sing, Aaron? “Glory to God in the highest and on earth.”

Peace and good will toward men.

Peace and good will to men. So Jesus made peace between God and man. And when Jesus was born, the angels announced redemption. Peace on earth, good will to men. You can receive God’s good will today. You can be at peace with God because Jesus has already come. So this scripture again, Romans 14:17, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink.” We’re not talking about a bunch of religious rules. We’re talking about a relationship with God, but it’s righteousness. Right standing with God, it’s peace. We’re talking about being at peace with God. You wanna be at peace with God today. And the way to have peace with God is Jesus. Believe on Jesus and joy in the Holy Ghost. The Bible talks about the joy of salvation. Isaiah 12:3, “Therefore, with joy shall you draw well, water from the wells of salvation.” I know when I first got saved, I was just eight years old, but I had this amazing joy on the inside. Praise God. Aaron, you got saved when you’re just six years old. Did you have that sense of joy?

I did, yeah.

Praise God. What a marvelous joy. We have joy. I’m not talking about outward circumstances. I’m not talking about outward situations. I’m talking about an inward peace, an inward joy. I’m talking about being right with God through Jesus. The Bible calls it justified by faith, just as if we’d never sin. It’s marvelous to live at peace with God. I can’t imagine being at odds with God. Can’t imagine, I don’t wanna live that way. I wanna live at peace with God. Hallelujah.

Amen.

What a marvelous privilege. Aaron, share something.

Yeah. Well, Jesus, he’s the prince of peace. And as believers, we can have this type of peace that the world can’t give. We can have this peace that surpasses all understanding. It’s not even possible to really understand why we have that peace. People have looked at me before and just said, “I don’t know how you don’t worry so much.” And it’s because that we have access to that supernatural peace through Jesus. When you have peace with God, it passes people’s understanding.

Aaron, you studied to be a musician. You studied classical music. You studied at very high level. You’ve got BA, a master’s and a doctorate. And a lot of people who were studying were friend and I think some of your under instructors said, “Why are you so peaceful?” I had an instructor at high school say, “Why are you so happy?” I’m happy because Jesus lives in me, because I have peace with God, because I have this joy. But peace with God is actually paid for by the blood of Jesus. And in this series, in redemption, we’ll be talking about the price of redemption is the blood. Jesus paid the price so we can be at peace with God. And we don’t have to be separated from God. We don’t have to be at odds with God. Hallelujah. We can be at peace with God.

Amen.

And the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, all of these things. So we’re not talking when we talk about receiving Christ, when we talk about a relationship with God through Christ, we’re not talking about a religious set of rules. We’re talking about a relationship with God through Jesus. We’re talking about being at peace with God.

Amen.

Why don’t you share something, Aaron, as we close here.

Yeah. Well, just thank you so much for joining us today. I believe that God, he has a great plan for you. He has a great purpose for your life, and he’s created you. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. And man, if you don’t really understand that, really feel it deep down in your heart, we would love to pray for you. I believe that God has a great purpose for you. He has a great plan for your life. So if you would like prayer today just to tap into that supernatural peace that he has for your life, give us a call. We’d be happy to pray for you. Also, if you’d like to become a partner with this ministry, you can partner on a monthly basis, whatever you would like. We love our partners here, so give us a call. God bless you and see you again soon.

[Narrator] You have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. The power of sin is broken, and you are no longer a sinner but a saint. Get the redemption package, which includes Redemption and In Christ Realities on either CD or digital download for $37 when you call 719-418-4000, or visit CharisChristianCenter.com.

Friends, I certainly hope that you’ve enjoyed the program today, and it’s ministering to you to move into that which God has for you. And I wanna say a great big thank you to all of our partners for helping us share this gospel across the United States and across the world. It’s because of our partners that we can take this message of grace and faith around the world. If you would like to join our partners and receive that blessing, give us a call today. Blessings.

[Narrator] Thanks for watching Grace For Today. This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer, or have a question, please call us at 719-418-4000 or to partner online, go to CharisChristianCenter.com/give. You can ride a set PO Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80962. See you next time on Grace For Today.