I want to begin this message
by turning to Deuteronomy chapter 15. If you would look over with
me in Deuteronomy chapter 15. You know, the Lord would have,
he had Moses to keep before the ears of the children of Israel
the fact that it was the Lord himself who delivered them from
Egyptian bondage. And as we arrive in the book
of Deuteronomy, chapter 15, he says this in verse 15. This is
a magnificent verse, and of course all scriptures are. This one
has especially been blessed by the people of God through the
years because this doesn't only have an application to the Israelites
through the leadership of Moses out of the land of Egypt. But
it has an application to every child of God who has been delivered
out of our captivity and bondage to sin and to Satan and to the
world, delivered by the bloody death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Deuteronomy 15, 15. Moses tells the children of Israel,
and thou shalt remember. Ever notice how many times in
the scriptures God tells his people to remember? And really
isn't that what the Lord's Supper is about? Remembering our Lord's
death until he comes again? The Savior said, this do, this
do, not something else, but this do, take the bread and take the
wine in remembrance of me. We must therefore be in danger
of forgetting. Oh, may God stir up our memories
as to that which we were by nature and that which we are by grace. He begins by speaking of what
the Israelites were by nature and what we are by nature. Verse
15, and thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land
of Egypt. And then remember not only what
you were by nature, but remember this. The Lord thy God redeemed
thee. Therefore, I command thee this
thing today. In the word of God, we're constantly
bid to remember that which we are due to sin and that which
we are due to grace. I was reading a little bit from
a Puritan yesterday, and it was refreshing to me to read him
as he said, we look too often within, because a lot of the
Puritans stress that, a continual examination within. And this Puritan said, his name
was Thomas Goodwin, He said, we look too often within when
we ought to be looking without. That is, looking to our Lord
Jesus Christ, who is our life, who is our righteousness, who
is our sanctification, and who is our redemption. He said, keep
the eyes of your soul upon Christ. Yes, remember what you were,
but then look to Christ Jesus and be reminded of that which
you are by grace, you're redeemed. He redeemed you by the blood
of his cross. And remember this, everything
in the kingdom of God is motivated by grace and redemption, everything. We owe everything that we are
and everything that we hope to be and everything the Bible says
we will be, we owe it all to the grace of God given to us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. And we owe everything
to that sacrifice of the Son of God by which he bought us
out of bondage and captivity. Don't forget what you are by
nature. And don't forget what you are
by grace. You're a child of God. This past Lord's Day, I put in
the bulletin a short article by William Jay. I hope that you
took the time to read it. William Jay was the son of John
Jay, who was the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. And I enjoyed reading the autobiography
of William Jay. And in his autobiography, he
tells of a visit he had with John Newton. And we know the
name John Newton because he wrote Amazing Grace and many other
songs as well. I know Brother Mahan loved to
read the sermons of John Newton, and I do as well. I'm thankful
that years ago there was put into my hands the works of John
Newton, and I have all of his hymns that he wrote, and he wrote
many. And I have in my library all
of the sermons that he preached that are in print. And in his autobiography, William
Jay tells of a visit that he had with John Newton. Brother Newton was in his study
in Olney, England. And William Jay noticed that
Mr. Newton had this text of scripture,
Deuteronomy 1515, He had the words of this framed, and it
was right on the wall as he looked up from his desk. Every day he
would study. He was a very studious man, a
man of the Word of God, as all of God's preachers are. And when
he looked up from his desk, he would see this verse, and he would always prepare his
messages with that verse in mind. Remember what you were and remember
what you are. And John Newton lived and acted
under the influence of his memory of God's sweet grace to him. It's reflected in his preaching.
It's reflected in his songs that he wrote. And especially it's
reflected in the conversation he had that day with William
Jay. You can imagine two preachers
getting together and having a conversation, a visit. I would think over a
cup of coffee, but I don't know that for sure. But they would
visit with one another, and they often did. And John Newton said
to him, I'm very glad to see you, brother. He said, I have
a letter that I just received from a fellow who lives in Bath. He said, perhaps, brother, you
can assist me in answering this letter. And he continued to say
to William J., do you know anything about Mr., and then he gave the
name, Mr. So-and-so. He called the man's
name. And William J. told John Newton,
he said, as far as I know, the man is well, physically. He said, you know, he used to
attend the ministry faithfully and listen to the gospel. But
now he's become a man of a wicked reputation, a leader of every
vice, And Newton said, well, I have
a letter from him. He says, perhaps a wonderful
change has come over him, for he wrote me a very penitent letter. And William Jay said this, I
can only say that if ever he should be converted, if ever
God would save that man, I should despair of no man being saved
by the grace of God. And Newton said, and I, brother,
I have never despaired of anyone else being saved since God saved
me by his grace. For you see, Newton remembered
that which he was by nature, and that which he was and is
by grace. The experience of every child
of God in conversion is certainly somewhat different. No two people
are converted under the same circumstances, and you must never
try to copy or mimic or desire the kind of conversion that somebody
else has experienced, because the Lord will lead you through
a different way, a different way to himself because Christ
is the way, but it will be under different circumstances. All
people aren't converted under the same circumstances, but we're
all saved by the same grace and through the same redemption that
is in Christ Jesus. For the moment, it was as though
William Jay had forgotten that. And he needed a reminder, and
Brother Newton was there to remind him. I don't despair of God saving
anybody since he saved me. And those
are my words, not Newton's words now. Because I was a religionist, head over heels in love with
for he will Arminianism, thinking that I made the difference, having
a self-righteousness, a righteousness that I established by my own
doing. Oh, I said I believed on Jesus,
but I would have said and did say that faith came from within
me. It originated within me. But
then God did something marvelous and miraculous to me. He took me out of error. He lifted me out of that bondage
that I was in. The bondage of false religion
and self-righteousness. And he showed me my righteousnesses
are just filthy rags. And I needed a righteousness
that exceeded the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.
He showed me that though I wasn't a drunkard, I didn't swear, I
wasn't in outward wickedness as we typically think of wickedness,
But he showed me that I was wicked because I set my own righteousness
above that of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you something,
that is vileness. That is absolutely wicked. And
he delivered me. So I don't despair the conversion
of anybody. There's nobody too hard, but
what, God can't break the heart. I can't do it, and you can't
do it. You say, well, there's so-and-so
in my family has absolutely no interest. There was a time when
you had absolutely no interest. And God did something for you,
so don't despair of that child or brother or sister or mother
or father or uncle or aunt or whoever it is. Don't despair
of their salvation. God is able to save. He saves
the vilest of the vile. And He saves upon this ground
grace and redemption. Do you remember those two things?
Grace and redemption. Now, I want to talk to you about
divine redemption. And I want to take you back to
the very first occurrence of the word redeemed in the Bible. And it is in the book of Genesis
chapter 48. Genesis chapter 48. It's the
first time the word redeemed is used in Holy Scripture. And it comes from the lips of
a man who was crooked He's a man who stole his brother's
birthright. He's a man who, like all of us,
came forth from the womb speaking lies. Jacob. Jacob. He knew something about
redemption. You can say a lot of things against
Jacob. He made a lot of errors and blunders,
he sinned multiple times, as do we. But God did something
for him. And he who is Jacob by nature
is Israel by grace. He's a prince with God. He's
royalty. He's a child of God. And he says
this in Genesis 48 verses 15 and 16. And he, Jacob, blessed Joseph
and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did
walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day. Now watch it, fed him physically,
yes. But more than that fed Him spiritually. He was fed with that bread that
comes down from God that is the staff of everlasting life. He fed me all my life long until
this day. And isn't that your testimony
as a child of God? God has provided for you all
your life long, right up to this day. We all must say that. And there isn't a period there
at the end of verse 15, but there is a comma. So he's not finished
with his thought. He says the angel, capital A,
which redeemed me. There's the first time redeemed
is used. The angel which redeemed me from
all evil, bless your sons, the lads. And they're at least 20
years of age or better by this time. And let my name be named
on them. I adopt them into my family.
and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow
into a multitude in the midst of the earth. The angel, he says, which redeemed
me." The angel with a capital A is
none other than the Son of God. We know that, right? We've studied
the Old Testament enough to know that this angel, this messenger
of the covenant, this ambassador from God, This one who came down
in the Old Testament and often presented Himself in the form
of a body to His people, this is the same Son of God who came
down and permanently joined Himself to our nature in that body that
God had prepared for Him. This is the angel of the covenant
and the angel which Jacob says redeemed me. Now wait a minute. This is hundreds and hundreds
of years before Christ came. And there's certainly no doubt
about the fact that this angel used with a capital A is speaking
of not a created angel, But the angel of God, the Son of God,
the angel, the messenger of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet Jacob speaks in the past
tense, he redeemed me. He redeemed me from evil. Well, how can that be? Christ
hadn't even come yet. He hadn't been born of the virgin
yet. But you see, it had happened
in the mind and purpose of God. The angel of the covenant is
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he had redeemed Jacob in the purpose
of God before the world was ever made. That's why in Revelation
13, 8, we read that Christ is the Lamb who was slain before
the foundation of the world. This had all been purposed by
God. And Jacob says, the angel which
redeemed me from all evil. And I'll tell you, the same angel
who redeemed him from all evil, redeemed us from all evil. And he says, this is the one
who must bless the lads. Now notice this, and I pointed
out that there's only a comma between verses 15 and 16. In
the same breath, when he speaks of God, he speaks also of this
angel. Because it's important to know
that this angel is himself God. He is God over all, blessed forever. He's always been God. And this
angel who redeemed Him from all evil is the one who blesses people. You see, there are no blessings
for any son or daughter of Adam apart from the Redeemer. Now, there may be daily mercies,
and there are. And all of humanity partakes
of daily, physical, temporal mercies all over. But those who
are truly blessed of God are blessed in this angel, in this
angel who redeemed us. In fact, God doesn't bless anybody
any other way except through this messenger, except through
this angel. Look with me over in Numbers
chapter 6. Look at Numbers chapter 6. Numbers chapter 6. And verse, let's start with verse
22. Numbers chapter 6. And verse
22. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, saying, On this
wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. Now remember, that angel,
Jacob said, the angel blessed Joseph's sons. So now, here's
the command of God unto Aaron and his sons to bless the children
of Israel, saying unto them, the Lord bless thee and keep
thee. That's God the Father. Verse 25, the Lord make his face
shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. There's God the Son. Verse 26, the Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee and give thee peace. There's the Holy
Spirit. You see, all of the divine trinity
are involved in blessing poor sinners like you and me. Jehovah the Father has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in And He
keeps us. He preserves us. He's the one
who chose us to be His children. He's the one who maintains our
standing before Him. And then in verse 25, here's
God the Son. The Lord make His face shine
upon thee. That's the Son of God. And be
gracious unto thee. Where do we see the glory of
God? Think about it. Where do we see
the glory of God? Is it not in the face? The face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord make His face shine
upon thee. The Son of God has to reveal
Himself to us and be gracious to us. And then here's the Holy
Spirit. The Lord lift up His countenance
upon thee. The Lord make His presence known
unto thee. That's the Holy Spirit who is
our comforter. He's the one who indwells us.
He's the one who abides with us. He's the one who comforts
us daily. And He is the one who speaks
words of peace. He speaks words of peace based
upon the purpose of God in election and the purchase of Christ Jesus
in redemption. He gives us peace. And nobody else can bless us
but the Lord Himself. So Jacob says this, The angel
which redeemed me from all evil. The angel which redeemed me. A past act. And you would do well
and I would do well to every day think about that redemption
as in Christ Jesus. And if we have to put that verse,
Deuteronomy 15, 15, if we have to put it in big letters and
frame it, and I need to do that myself. And if I don't do it
literally, I need to have it impressed upon my mind that I
was a bondman and the Lord redeemed me. He
redeemed me. Let me tell you something about
this word redeemed. It expresses an action on the
part of this angel. For you see, in redemption, we
are passive. We're not active. But He was. He was very active. If you read
the old timers, they'll talk about the passive obedience of
Christ and his active obedience, and usually they'll say, the
old writers will say, the active obedience of Christ was his life. and the passive obedience of
Christ was in His death. I do not think that our Lord
had any passive obedience. All of His obedience has been
active because when He went to the cross of Calvary, He was
not passive. He was there as the mighty warrior
conquering the foes of His people putting away our sins and bringing
in for us everlasting righteousness, that doesn't sound like a passive
redeemer to me. He has been active for us in
every facet of redemption. And the word redeemed, look it
up if you have concordance. Somebody asked me one time, if
you were stranded on a desert island, I don't know that that
ever happened to me. If you were stranded on a desert
island, nobody else there. But you take three books with
you, what would you take? Well, I'd take my Bible, I'd
take Strong's Concordance, and I'd take John Gill's Body of
Divinity with me. That'll do me the rest of my
life. But if you look up this word redeemed in Strong's Concordance,
you'll find that this original word redeemed or the root word
redeemed is also translated as kinsman. And you've heard of the kinsman
redeemer from the book of what? Ruth, right, from the book of
Ruth. You remember how Elimelech decided
he's going to leave Bethlehem Judah thinking the grass is greener
on the other side of the... I started to say tracks. I didn't
have tracks in me. Grass is greener on the other
side. and they moved into the land of Moab. And he and his
wife Naomi had two sons. They got over there and two sons
got married. Orpah, one married Orpah and
the other married Ruth. And then Elimelech, he had died.
He left Bethlehem due to foolishness. Because you know what Bethlehem
means, by the way? House of bread. That's what Bethlehem
means. House of bread. And Elimelech
said, because they hit a famine, said, we've got to leave here.
Big mistake. Left. He and Naomi and the two
boys packed up and went to the land of Moab. Elimelech died. The two boys that got married,
then they died. And Naomi was left broke. She didn't have any money. She
told her daughters-in-law, y'all going back to your mama's house,
which by the way, leads me to think that Orpah and Ruth were
sisters. I don't know that for sure, but
side note. Said, you go back to your mama's,
and I'm going home. And they both, Ruth and Orpah,
cried. And they said, no, we're going
with you. And Naomi said, no, go back home to your mother's
house. Orpah said, I'm going. Kissed her goodbye. And Ruth
said, I'm not leaving you. I'm staying with you. So Ruth
went with Naomi back to Bethlehem, Judah. Naomi said something like,
you know, I went out full and I came back empty. I went out
and I had everything. I'm coming back, got nothing.
You know, the Lord does have ways of humbling us, doesn't
he? Came back. But then, and I won't
have time to go through the whole book now. It's just four chapters.
You can read it. The main male figure shows up. His name is Boaz, and he's a
kinsman. Had to be kin. And he had the right to redeem
Naomi and Ruth if he wanted to. He had the ability to. But the
question was, was he willing to be the kinsman-redeemer? And he bought back everything
that Elimelech had foolishly lost. Now, our Lord Jesus is the true
kinsman-redeemer. And Adam was like Elimelech,
played the fool. Right? He was just a fool. He rebelled against God, plunged
us all in the state of sinfulness. Well, what's going to become
of us? Is there any hope for us? Is there redemption for us? Well, there is one. There is
one who is capable of and powerful enough and has the ability to
redeem. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
But is He a kinsman? Behold, He takes upon Himself
flesh and blood, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He's the Redeemer. He's the kinsman
Redeemer because He's not only the Redeemer, but He's kin to
us. He is our elder brother. That's what He is. He's kin to
us. And He had the right of redemption just like Boaz had the right
to redeem Naomi and Ruth. Well, our Lord Jesus had the
right and the ability and He was willing to buy us from all our creditors. And the
biggest creditor that we had was the justice and law of God. And he bought us. He redeemed
us. He paid what we owed. Our kinsman
redeemer. So whenever you read in the Old
Testament the word redeem, or redeemed, or redemption, think
of kinsman redeemer. And you can look it up in Strong's
and Cordish. You can read just as good as
I can, maybe better. And you'll find that it's also
translated kinsman. You see, our Lord Jesus had to
be our near kinsman to redeem us. And He's the one who redeemed
Jacob from evil, from all evil. And He is the One who came down
and redeemed Israel from their Egyptian captivity at the price of the death of
the Passover Lamb. And He is the One who redeemed
us, that Lamb of God who laid down His life to redeem His people. He's our near kinsman. He's family. And I'll turn it around and say
this. We're his family. You think of that. You're his
family. And He, it says in Hebrews chapter
2, is not ashamed. He's not ashamed to call us,
you know what He calls us? Brethren. He's not ashamed. He sets upon His throne of holiness
and sovereignty and authority. And we're down here just peons
of the earth. Nothing to us by nature, but
He says, you're my family. For by divine predestination,
we're adopted into the family of God. And our elder brother
paid the price of our redemption. We are redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ. I'll have some more to say about
this, but I'm gonna save those remarks till next Wednesday,
because I nearly got finished on what I intended to preach
fully tonight. I'll carry this over to next
Wednesday, the Lord willing. But remember what you are or
what you were by nature. And remember what you are by
grace. You were redeemed like Jacob
from all evil. Let's get our psalm books and
we'll sing a final song.