The word -Ransom?

Turn with me if you will in your Bibles to Psalm chapter 49. Psalm 49, I will try to keep the pace that has been set so far. Psalm 49 and verse number 6. What I have on my mind today is a little bit of a word study and if you look at me you'll probably realize pretty quickly that I'm not much of a wordsmith so hopefully you'll bear with me.

Psalm 49 and verse number 5 says they that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, this is what it is said of them, none of them can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him. For the redemption or the word there is ransom again, for the ransom of their soul is precious and it ceases forever. So here he's telling them that none of their riches can with all their riches that they have they are not able to redeem a brother's soul.

Now turn with me if you will to Job chapter 33. Job 33 just for one verse. Job 33 and verse number 24.

Job 33 and 24 says then he is gracious unto him and saith deliver him from going down to the pit. So in Psalms he says no one can pay the ransom for a soul but here he says I have found a ransom. Now turn with me in our New Testament to 1st Timothy chapter 2. 1st Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 6. A well-known verse 1st Timothy 2 and verse number 6 says who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time.

Who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. We'll read other scriptures potentially as we go along as as we have time but what I would like to first of all look at here is the word ransom and what the word ransom means. I think today in our world if we think of the word ransom we would think of a kidnapping someone who has been taken hostage and there's a price that is required and we read in Psalm there and he says that all the wealth of this world is not able to redeem to pay the ransom of one soul and that was the problem that man faced and the word that we have there in the Psalm is the word kofar and it's found 17 times in our Old Testament and it's simply the thought the price of a life.

Kofar was the price of a life. It is taken from the root form of maybe the word kofar which is to be an atonement or maybe you would think of Yom Kippur as we were reminded of yesterday the day of atonement and so that's the thought that we have here and he says there is none and all the wealth in all the world that can pay the ransom for a soul and so we're left with a problem and now and you might say it's starting to sound like a little bit of a gospel meeting but bear with me hopefully I can bring it around. Then we come to Job and Job chapter 33 we have these beautiful words he says you can deliver him from the pet.

I have found a ransom. Where is the ransom? We have it 1st Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 6 for there is verse number 6 who gave himself it tells us in the previous verse there is one God and one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus and that is the who in verse number 6 who gave himself a ransom for all. A ransom for all.

Most of the time I don't get down into word study you can ask I don't know if Brandon's still here or not I spent two weeks with him in an Airbnb up in Wisconsin and we're I was gonna say we were picking each other's brain and I was picking his brain and we were like a couple of squirrels we'd go here and then had another thought we'd end up over here and then before we know we didn't know where we started I'm trying to get better at it and so I tried to burrow in a little bit and try to find a word and dig a little bit and I found it interesting that when I looked at this word in 1st Timothy chapter 2 in verse 6 he gave himself a ransom I just assumed Paul went back to Mark chapter 10 in verse 45 or maybe to the gospel of Matthew where the same thought is given that the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and give his life a ransom for many and I thought here's the Apostle Paul and he picked up that word and he used it here and he did in a sense but not completely he took that word Lutron that our Lord Jesus Christ used when he was here on earth and he said I will give myself a ransom that is the thought of a price and he added a prefix to the front of it that carries the weight of the cross and he puts at the beginning of that word Lutron anti Lutron what's the word anti Lutron sometimes when we think of the word anti it is a thought of against but that's not the thought here it is a thought of in the place of in the place of and I know we don't find in our Bibles the word substitution but we have the picture right here and that is what we have here it wasn't simply that a price was paid for us and when I look out at an audience like this and I see all of the of God's people that are sitting here and I think of the ransom price that was paid but when that ransom price was paid it wasn't paid from a great distance see and I believe it was March of 1985 there was a man by the name of Terry Anderson and he was an American journalist and he was playing tennis and as he finished playing tennis over in the country of Beirut he came off the tennis court he was abducted he was kidnapped by the Muslim leadership over there at the time and he was held captive for just shy of seven years and in his time in captivity chained to a radiator for almost seven years moved several times but never let to see the light of day for almost seven years he said the one thought that crossed his mind over and over again was simply this I wonder if I'm worth the ransom and as anybody willing to pay the ransom and the question that we have in Psalm is simply this he says no one can pay no one on earth can pay the ransom but then he says I have found the ransom and when it comes to him being our ransom Jesus Christ who became our ransom who gave himself a ransom it was not simply that he dipped into the storehouse as it were of heaven and maybe took from the foundations of what we would read in Revelation of that city wall some of the jewels or maybe part of the pearl gates or maybe chunks of the streets of gold he didn't come into the world that he had spoken into existence and take the wealth of this world no he sent the very best of heaven but more than that he came in the place of which means not only did he come and pay the ransom price but he gave himself a ransom he took our chains he took our place in the slave market of sin that is the picture that we have here and so if you'll allow me you think of a slave that is bound chains on his on his wrists and on his legs and many times slaves were beaten and what picture do we have of our Lord Jesus Christ marks in his hands and in his feet a back laid open by a Roman scourge and he came to the very place where we were found guilty before a righteous and a holy God bound in sin shape and iniquity and he came into the marketplace of sin and he became anti Lutron for us a substitute and as I look over this audience I think of how many times he came over and over again wave after wave if you will billow after billow that fell across his sinless spotless soul yes he came once but in that one coming he made ransom for the sins of the world and that's a beautiful picture for us child of God if that doesn't give you hope if that doesn't give you joy that he came and he found a ransom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sin when Terry Anderson was finally freed and brought out into the daylight and allowed to return home and the price had finally been paid he was interviewed and somebody asked him the question they asked him this question because he said I forgive my captors so they asked him the question would you ever go back to the Middle East and his response was I remember this was 1991 so a million dollars meant a little more back then than it does today maybe but he said not for a million dollars it is a dangerous place we have been set free and sometimes I think when we think of being set free actually I want to if you will turn with me to Galatians chapter 5 Galatians chapter 5 verse number 1 says stand fast therefore in the liberty and if you'll allow me the word really there is freedom so stand fast therefore in the freedom wherewith Christ hath set you free so he came as our anti-lutron he took our place and his hands were the hands that set us free so we have freedom in him and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage drop down to verse number 13 for brethren we have been called unto liberty only use not liberty again that's the word freedom so brethren we have not been called into freedom only we have been called unto freedom only use not freedom for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another so maybe here's where I can make it a little more practical we have been set free he came and he took our place and sometimes we as believers we know we have been set free but we have a wrong understanding of freedom see when Terry Anderson was set free I don't think his first thought was let me go back to the same tennis court where I was abducted he wanted to go home set free many times I think when we think of the word set free in the word here and I'm probably gonna mispronounce this is a lutheria that's the word a lutheria it's mentioned 11 times that freedom that Christ has set us free a lutheria and it's not the thought you actually if you take the root word and you trace it back far enough it goes further back than Greek it goes back the linguists have traced it all the way back to actually a indo-european word its ancient root does not mean unchanged it does not mean autonomous and means belonging to a people freedom he has set us free not to do whatever we so desire but that we are belonging to a people and Terry Anderson's first thought that he wanted I want to go home I want to go back to a family think of redemption think of a ransom that is paid in our world today when there's a kidnapping who generally pays the price a family member and when the person is set free where does that person want to go home to the family not to wander aimlessly not to do as they desire not to go back to the place of danger and Terry Anderson was very right to say not for a million day not for a million dollars would I go back he said because it is a very dangerous place and how many times do we as believers having been set free from the slave market of sin we go back to the place that we have been set free from and yes no we can no longer be brought into bondage in the sense that we can lose our salvation no my friend but the Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 12 says all things are lawful unto me but all things are not expedient and I will not be brought under the bondage of any of them set free but I will not go back to the slave market of sin we can maybe go back for the center but not for the sin to go back into this world we're to not be part of it we can go back into that slave market to try to tell others of the news that there is a ransom for sin but not to go back for the things that we once were held by and Terry says I would never go back not for a million dollars and here it is it's a thought of not being autonomous to do as you please but it is a belonging to a people see back in that day people that were free had a tribe but slaves had no one people who were free grasped that had a tribe but slaves had no one we as children of God we have been brought into the family of God we have someone and if you turn in Galatians chapter 4 and verse number 7 just across the page in my Bible we read these words therefore thou art no more a servant so no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an heir of God through Christ sonship it's a beautiful picture brought into a family and I'm going to turn to one last portion of Scripture and with this I'll sit down if you will turn with me to Romans chapter 8 brother Scott mentioned it just very briefly in the thought of this stems from propitiation and Romans chapter 8 and verse number 15 it says for ye are no more for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the adoption of sons the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father see it in Roman time if you go back and you look in that day and I think sometimes we get so taken up with our Western world that we think the Bible was written in our Western world and it wasn't it was written in a day long ago and you go back to that day see back under Roman law and this is when Paul is writing these words under Roman law back in the day in first century Rome a man who had a biological son born to him by blood if that son turned out to be maybe not what he wanted a waste or disgrace or somebody that he didn't want to own as a son there was actual legal process that existed for that father to go and disown his son he was removed from the family tree it was as if he never existed he was disowned but in first century Rome if you went to a courthouse and you went through the legal proceedings and you adopted a son here's where it's beautiful that father could never disown that son see maybe with a birth of biological of a biological son it was maybe an inconvenience maybe something that wasn't planned maybe something you didn't want but when it came to that an adoption of a son it was thought about it was planned the price was paid the signature was signed upon the dotted line and he was your son and the father could not disown that son no matter what happened and that is what we have here that he came and he paid the ransom price anti-lutron he set us free but not to wander in the wilderness alone no my friend to bring us home to a family to be at the adoption of sons whereby we cry have a father and this is the reason dear child of God that we have this privilege to come into a family of God is it any wonder we were just reminded of Job is in any wonder that Job could say those words I know that my Redeemer live it I know he lives seeing a day gone by when a kinsman Redeemer came and bought someone out if that kinsman Redeemer died that person could potentially slip back into bondage oh no my friend the one who ransomed us he lives in the power of an endless life and he says that you are my son and he is my father this is the beautiful picture that we have been ransomed set free and it's not just that a price was paid but he came and he stood in our exact place and this morning if you're not saved I know this isn't the gospel but if you're not saved I want you to understand that heaven pay the greatest price that was ever paid for the redemption and the ransom of a soul and not only did he pay he did not pay in a far-off place but he came right to where we were him for me him for you him for the sins of the world and this afternoon if you accept him and place your faith and trust in the finished work of the cross the promise is he will set you free and he will bring you into a family the adoption of sons whereby we cry have a father