I think I heard someone say that's
how we knew that Jesus was a barista. That would be funny. There's one for
you to put in your joke catalog. Hebrews chapter 9 if you would.
The Lord will be pleased to be with me this morning to help
me in some thoughts that I have on a particular subject. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 22. It says that almost all things are
by the law purged or cleansed with blood. And without shedding
of blood is no remission. Without shedding of blood is
no remission. Some of these words here we probably
need to define a little bit so that we can know what we're talking
about here. It says by the shedding of blood
there is no remission. Remission of what? Well, there's
no remission of sin. There's no remission of what
under the law we have been condemned. We've transgressed God's law,
therefore we have sinned. And whenever we have transgressed
God's law by sinning, the law demands that we be condemned
to die. That's the Bible's penalty or
debt for sin. All that sin shall surely die,
for the wages of sin is death. Okay? So that's why we sang just
a while ago in the hymn that we were just singing about the
debt has been paid. It cannot be exacted twice. If the payment has been paid,
it's been paid. You can't ask for it two times. And it's talking about the wage
of sin, death. And so it says here, Almost all
things are, by the law, purged or cleansed with blood. So what
is he talking about there? What are the all things? Almost
all things are, by the law, purged with blood, and without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission. Well, those things that are transgressed
under the law. Those things are the things that
are purged or made clean, or they are purified, okay? So what is this talking about
kind of in a nutshell? Well, this is talking about our
sin under the law. And again, this is the sin of
God's elect. It isn't everybody's sin. Actually,
this is a good defense for particular redemption. Limited atonement, as some would
call it. But particular redemption. because
one of the effects of Christ's shedding of blood is that it
purged all that was done under the law. So if Christ died for
everybody, as all the religious people out there say, Jesus dies
for everybody, and that his death was universal and his love was
universal to everybody, then that purging of sin has taken
place for everybody. Therefore, everyone's sin has
been purged, has been cleansed. And if that's the case, then
that means everybody will be saved. Therefore, the Unitarians
are correct. We need to be changing our church
and joining up with them. But the fact remains, the Bible
says that there will be some in hell. So the fact that there
are some in hell and there are some that will be in heaven means
that the Unitarians aren't correct. Not everybody will be saved. Therefore, if everyone is not
saved, what is the reason for why there are some that are saved? Because of what we see right
here. Everything done under the law that condemned them has been
purged And there has been remission of all that sin. What does the
word remission mean? Does anybody know what the word
remission is? I didn't look that up, by the way. I don't know
a perfect good definition. But I know that sometimes remission
means to draw back from or to take away. Whenever someone is
going through cancer and they said the cancer is in remission,
it means that it's not growing or getting any bigger. It's receding
or it's been taken away. It's gone. They don't have it
no more. Well, I think that can probably be looked at as what
it's talking about. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no taking away or removal or stopping of sin. But let's think about it. Jesus
died roughly 2,000 years ago on the cross. And so that's when his blood
was shed. So my sins, if he paid for my
sins then, but I've just now become a Christian however many
years ago, what about all my sins that's going forth? Is all
my sins going forth still? No, whenever Jesus died for sin,
he died for the sins of all those before him. He died for all the
sins of all those past him that goes into the future. His sin
is central in all of time because it was brought forth to manifest
an eternal redemption that already was decreed by God before the
foundation of the world and was already done there. He stood
as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. But
it was manifested in time at the time He came. And there was
a perfect allotted time that God, in the fullness of time,
God sent forth His Son. It was His appointed hour to
die. God had a specific time in history,
in our history, in their future. God had a specific time for Christ
to come to manifest what already stood as secure, as complete,
as finished before the foundation of the world in the councils
of heaven. God had already declared all
of His children to be just, to be righteous in Christ Jesus.
He had already blessed them with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. They have been called. They have
been sanctified. They have been justified. They've
been glorified before the foundation of the world. It is a complete
and finished thing. Now, brethren, that doesn't mean,
and we aren't saying, that that denies anything that happens
in time or that there's any need for Christ to come in time. Christ
came in time to manifest that because that is the basis and
the ground for which God in that declaration had decided would
be the very grounds for all that salvation to take place. God
had before the foundation of the world declared that Christ
would be the atonement for His people who He had chosen before
the foundation of the world who would be fallen in Adam to be
redeemed from the curse of the law, to be recovered or redeemed
from sin and from death to be redeemed from their sins. And so God had purposed that.
And it stood as finished before the foundation of the world in
the standing before God, in the righteousness before God, the
imputation of righteousness. had already been given to His
people. That's why all of His children, whenever they come
into this world, they come into this world already justified
before God because they have an advocate with the Father.
They have one who has already redeemed them from all the curse
of the law. They have one who has already
been sinned for them. The imputation of sin was put
upon Christ and the imputation of righteousness was put on His
people. There doesn't have to be an actualization of that for
that to be counted because imputation is different than impartation.
Impartation means that it actually becomes part of you and you actually
become that which you have been imparted with. Okay? Imputation
is just a declaration of. Imputation is laying upon one
are announcing or pronouncing upon one as though they were. See, Christ was imputed our sin. He wasn't imparted our sin. What
does that mean? That means the sin of all of
God's people was laid upon Christ and Christ became as though He
was guilty of all those sins. even though he really wasn't.
Christ never actually did do all the sins of his people and
he never actually did become a sinful person. It was just laid to his account.
He was treated as if he was that sinner. And then on the other
hand, imputation of righteousness to us doesn't mean that we have
become in and of ourselves righteous. We are not righteous people.
We are called righteous. We are the righteousness of God
in Christ. But we are not righteous because
we are still in the flesh. We are not righteous. But we
have had Christ's righteousness imputed to us or put to our account. We are declared as righteous. We are seen as righteous. We are held in God's esteem in
standing as a righteous person even though we're actually not.
And we continue to not be. That's what imputation means.
Imputation doesn't mean a change of nature. It means a change
of standing before God. Our standing before God has been
righteous from the foundation of the world because the Bible
says to us that blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth
not sin. So, to the child of grace, God
has never imputed sin. Therefore, we stand before God
as redeemed from all eternity. However, in the manifestation
of time, we in our flesh have sinned, we are guilty, and are
due just condemnation for sin And so therefore, Jesus came
as our substitute and died in our place. His death and the
shedding of His blood is what was the remission of our sin. And that's what this verse here
is speaking of. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.
If you remember in the Old Testament, in the types and foreshadows,
that was a picture to teach about what Christ would do in the flesh. we see that there was bulls and
goats that would be brought before the priest and they would be
offered up for sin offerings. Whenever an Israelite would sin,
they were to take an offering to the priest, that priest would
offer up that sacrifice, and the shedding of that blood, that
would be sprinkled upon the mercy seat, and that sprinkling of
blood was to atone for, or to to cover their sins. However, whenever Christ came,
He died and the shedding of His blood was not only just to cover
our sins, but to completely remove them. Because we learn that by
the shedding of blood of bulls and goats, that didn't please
or satisfy God. That didn't satisfy His justice. All that did, all that was, was
just a type and a foreshadow until Christ came. It was an
appeasement until Christ came. It was something that God overlooked
and He let their sins be as they were because Christ would come
to die for them. We see that the shedding of blood
is what causes the remission or the removal of sin. So we see that that is by blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. That's why Christ had to die.
That's why we sing about his blood. That's why we sing about
his blood all the time. I know some people that may not
know or understand, that probably sounds like a gross thing whenever
they hear, come in amongst Christian circles and they hear people
singing about the blood all the time. But the Bible says that the life is in the blood. That's
what is our makeup. What makes us alive is our blood. If you put like a band around
my hand and tighten it down as tight as you can and cut the
blood off from my hand, guess what's going to happen to my
hand? It's going to die. Matter of fact, not to be gross
or anything, whenever we were younger, my brother, he was in
the FFA and everything, he grew raised pigs. One of the ways
that they would castrate the pigs is they would put a rubber
band around there and leave that and eventually that would die
and just fall off. Instead of cutting them off,
they'd put a band around them and they'd fall off and do the
same thing with calves and bulls and all like that. What happens? The blood doesn't flow in and
it dies. Why? Because in our blood it
carries oxygen. Our cells are rejuvenated by
what's in our blood. Our blood is the life of what
we are. Whenever our heart stops beating,
do we die because our heart stopped or because our heart stopped
beating blood through our system? Blood. Yeah, our heart stops
and blood stops flowing. If blood stops flowing, then
we don't get air We don't get brain function. We don't get
any kind of function. Our cells begin to die. We die
because the blood doesn't flow through us. The blood is the
life of the person. And whenever we get cut, if we
bleed out, nothing happened to my brain, nothing happened to
my heart, nothing happened to anything else in me. Why did
I die? Well, because my blood ran out. The life force or the life blood
is what keeps us going. And so whenever we talk about
the shedding of blood, that is symbolizing the giving of all
that is life on behalf of somebody. If there's a shedding of blood,
then that means that life has been given on behalf of somebody
else. So Christ dying for us and the
shedding of that blood and the giving of that blood And the
sprinkling of that blood, as it were, is a symbolizing of
Christ dying on behalf of all of us. He gave up his life for
us. And that blood is what God looked
at or saw as payment for our sins. Now, let's look at a few
other verses in Scripture where we see this talked about. In
Colossians chapter 1, if you'll turn over there, Colossians chapter 1 Luke verse 12 says, Give thanks
unto the Father which hath made us meet, to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us
from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom
of his dear Son, in whom, his dear Son, we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. So here we see that
Christ's blood is closely tied to and is the very grounds in
which redemption takes place. Now there's another word that
we probably need to define. What does the word redemption
mean? To redeem. Well, in most of our understanding
and most of our usage of the word, to redeem means to purchase
back or to buy back. Okay, it means to buy something
that back, something that already was mine. How many in here has
ever went to a pawn shop and hawked something for some money?
Anybody ever done that? I remember growing up, we were
fairly poor, and my mom had a sewing machine, had this plastic cover,
I can't remember the brand, may have been Singer, I don't know.
but she had this sewing machine, and I don't know how much she
originally paid for that thing, but by the time that thing gave
away and was of no working sort anymore, it probably was a $20,000
sewing machine. Because every time we needed
money, my mom would go and hock that sewing machine to get a
little bit of money. Well, what does that mean? When
you take it down to the pawn shop, and the pawn shop will
give you a certain amount of money for your machine, or for
whatever it is that you bring in, they give you that money
and then they give you a certain amount of days to pay them back
that money and then you get your property back. But if you don't
pay them back after a certain amount of time, that property
becomes theirs and they can do with it whatever they want to
do. You lose your property. There's been a few times I think
we've lost some of our property because we wasn't able to pay
it back. That's redeeming. Whenever my
mom would go back in, she's redeeming something that was already hers.
She's bringing that money back for what was already hers to
redeem that. Well, let's think of that in
terms of spiritual things here. The Bible says that we were God's
children before the foundation of the world. The Bible says
that, as far as the Father is concerned, it says, thine they
were. We belonged to God before we
were given to Christ Jesus. So we belong to God in the eternal,
vital union that was there before all of time. We were united with
God. We were one with Him. And that
He gave us, when Christ was brought forth, He gave us to Christ to
be as a surety and a substitute for us. But He gave us to Christ
and we were in union with Christ because He was in union with
the Father. He is one with Him. Why? Because He is God manifested
in the flesh. God came and dwelt in flesh. And we were in God and God was
in Christ. And so, because of that union,
we were His. But yet, whenever we were born
of Adam and we were brought forth in Adam, and we had this nature
that had fallen, Now those people needed to be redeemed. And so
we have been redeemed back to God, and it says here, through
His blood. So redemption is closely tied
to Christ's blood. The remission of sins means that
we have been redeemed. Whenever Christ came and redeemed
us, He redeemed us from our sins. We've been redeemed from our
sins. And how did He do that? By His blood. By His blood, there
is no remission of sin unless there's shedding of blood. By
His blood, He redeemed us and brought us back from our sins. Look again at the passage. In whom we have redemption through
His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. That's the remission
of sins. He's removed our sins. He's taken
it away. It's the same as forgiveness.
If someone forgives somebody for something, it should be,
I've forgiven you of that, we're forgetting about that. You know? We've had disagreements in the
past. Me and Brother Larry, we've had disagreements in the past.
There was a time that we had to come together and reconcile.
And it was a blessed time, and I'm glad for it, brother. We
reconcile. What do we do? We forgive and
we forget. We go on. We move forward. Why? Well, I
know that I'm a sinner and I'm probably going to sin and probably
going to do something that's going to be upsetting again.
Same thing with Brother Larry. We're going to continue to do
it. There's no sense in just keeping these things up because
if we keep these things up, they're never going to go away because
they're always going to be before us. But for as a Christian, because
we have been forgiven much, we ought to forgive much. That means
whenever somebody has done something against me, I forgive them. And I don't hold that against
them anymore. I let it go. And so, we see here,
God has forgiven us of our sin. Now, brethren, I don't know,
I don't think I could ever expound on that to its fullness. I don't think I could ever express
anything, the importance of that, or even
the gravity of it, that we have been, and when I
say we, I mean God's people who are sinners by nature. We have
been forgiven by a holy God who the Bible says will not acquit
the wicked. He said He will not let the wicked
go. He will not turn a blind eye
to sin. He will punish all sin. And for God to look at me, and
for me to think about how sinful I am, and to know how wicked
my heart is, and how many times not only have I sinned against
people, But how much I've sinned against God. How much wickedness
I've done on the outside, there's even more corruption on the inside.
And knowing that, and to know a God who is perfect, and righteous,
and holy, and just, to forgive that, is beyond words. I can't even
explain it. And it says here, that because
of His blood, through His blood, we have forgiveness of sin. There is remission of sin. Forgiveness
for our sins. There is forgiveness. I don't
care what you've done, brethren. I don't care how bad you are,
how wicked you are, how evil you are. If Christ has died for
you, those sins have been forgiven. The Bible says they've been forgiven
as far as the east is from the west. Now you tell me, how far
is that? You can't measure it, can you?
You can't measure how far east is from the west. Because if
you start heading east, you're going to keep going and you're
never going to find the west. You're always going to be going
east. You're always going to be going east. Always going to
be going east. The Bible says that He has covered
our sins. He has removed our sins. He has
redeemed us from our sinfulness. He has brought us back. He has
purchased us back to Himself. But how did He purchase us? He
purchased us with His blood. See, for us, for you, to be forgiven
of all your sin, somebody died in your place. That was Christ. Christ is the one who suffered
and bled and died so that you could go forgiven before God.
So that you wouldn't have to die in your place. So that you wouldn't experience
that eternal wrath of God because of your sin. Look with me back
at Hebrews again, where we were back in chapter 9. Look if you will at verse 11.
It says, But Christ, being come a high priest of good things
to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made
with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified
to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? See, Christ died for us, and
it says here in verse 11, or excuse me, in verse 12, that
He entered into the once in the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption. Now brethren, that redemption
didn't take place 2,000 years ago, and that's where the start
of it was. Some people think that our redemption
started 2,000 years ago. Our redemption is an eternal
redemption. You say, well, how can I redeem
somebody before He actually redeemed them with His blood? That's what
we're trying to say. So many people castigate us for
holding up the eternal aspect of salvation and are so focused
upon the time manifestation of what God has already declared
that they miss the very point of what is being said here. Christ
has eternally redeemed us. He has eternally bought us. Have we been lost yet? No. Adam wasn't even created
yet. Had we sinned personally? No. Had never been born yet.
Had the cross even happened yet? No. He had not come in time yet.
But God right here says this redemption, and He uses the word
redemption there. He didn't just say salvation.
He didn't just say His plan, His purpose. He said eternal
redemption. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. Now if something is eternal,
that means it's eternal. That means it happened before time
and it continues on after time. It makes its way all the way
through time. It's something that is eternal is outside the
constraints of time, but it surely doesn't negate what takes place
through time. Eternal is eternal. My salvation
didn't start whenever I knelt down at some old-fashioned altar.
My salvation didn't start whenever some man preached the gospel
and the Holy Spirit touched my heart. Salvation didn't start
when I repented of my sin. It didn't start whenever I accepted
Jesus as my Lord and Savior. My salvation didn't start there.
My salvation began before the foundation of the world. It's
an eternal redemption. The salvation, objectively, is
in the work and the man himself, Christ Jesus. That is where salvation
is found. Salvation is found in no other.
What does the Bible say? There is no other name under
heaven whereby men are what? Saved. Not by a preacher. Not by a seminary. Not by a church.
Not by some organization. Not by some missionary effort.
There's only one name under heaven by which men are saved, and that
is by Christ, His finished work. His work. Within Himself, for
who He is. All that He is. As our Redeemer. As our Advocate. As our Mediator. As our Substitute. As our Surety. As our Priest. As our Prophet.
As our King. All those characteristics, all
those offices that Jesus displayed, Those brethren are what is our
salvation. He is our salvation. And He has
stood as our redemption from the foundation of the world,
even though in our experience it has not yet happened. See, whenever I come to be born
into this world, even though I sin and do not know about my
salvation, I don't know anything about Christ, about Him, I don't
know about the doctrines of grace. I don't know any of that stuff.
I was already saved. If I'm his, I was already saved. Well, I thought, I thought preachers
that you had to, you know, you had to be born again to be saved.
Well, those who are saved are born again. I will say that. But I wasn't saved at the moment
that I was born again. Some say, well, I thought you
had to hear the gospel to be saved. Whenever you're saved,
you'll hear the gospel. You'll hear it. Because the fact
that you're saved means that you have been born of God. At
some point, God will cause you to be spiritually alive and here. But that gospel isn't what brought
you to life. It isn't what redeems you, but
blood redeems you. Christ redeemed you. He redeemed
you. The preacher that preached the
message is just declaring to you what was already done, what
was already declared. That's all He's doing for you. God isn't waiting in time to
open up your heart by some man preaching, because I know many
people, and I know biblical proof, that there are men whose hearts
have been opened before the preaching of the Gospel has come to them.
Yes, I will say, go on the record, I do believe that someone can
be born of God before they hear the gospel. Most people don't
believe that. Most people take issue with that.
And that's not diminishing. I had a conversation with a gentleman
this week who has had conversations with me in times past about this,
but he believes that there is an importance of the preaching
of the gospel because that is what God uses to save people.
If that's the case, then we're beholden to all those people
who are preaching. We better get back to that missionary
work again, because people are dying and going to hell if they
don't get preached to. Now, there is one preacher who
is greater than all preachers, and it doesn't matter where you
are or what you know, even how much you've read this. He's already
saved you. and He's the one that has to
declare that to your heart before you believe it. But anyway, that's
getting off on another thing. Salvation is an eternal redemption,
but that redemption still is based upon the blood of Jesus
Christ. Look, if you would, at Ephesians
chapter 1. Preacher, why do you always go
to Ephesians chapter 1? You talk about that all the time. Brethren, some of the greatest
doctrine and truth is in that first chapter. Listen, there
is so much. I don't think none of us here
can exhaust it what's in Ephesians chapter 1. Look at verse 7. It says, in whom, speaking of
Christ Jesus again, in whom we have redemption. In whom we have
redemption. There is redemption in Christ
for whom? Well, if you look at the context
here, Those who are faithful in Christ Jesus. Those who have
been united with Christ Jesus before the foundation of the
world. Those who have been chosen in Him. Eternal election. Unconditional election. Does
the Bible preach election preacher? Absolutely it does. You mean
to tell me that God chooses some and not others? The Bible says
it does. Who are the ones who have been
redeemed. Those who have been chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world and have been blessed
with Him with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, those are
the ones who are redeemed. There's your limited atonement
again. And to think, some people think that limited atonement
can't be found anywhere in the Scriptures. There it is, right
there, plain as day. Who is he writing a letter to?
The faithful saints. Who are those who are blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places? Those who
have been chosen in Christ Jesus. When did that take place? Whenever
they made a decision for Jesus? No. Before the foundation of
the world. And what was the outcome of that? Redemption. In whom
we have redemption, but why? Through His blood, the forgiveness
of sin. So again, we see redemption and
forgiveness of sin cannot come without the shedding of blood,
and it is Christ's blood That is the basis of our redemption. It is the basis of our forgiveness. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. And if there is no remission
of sin, that means we are still in our sin. If we are still in
our sin, then we still are guilty before God. And if we are guilty
before God, we will certainly pay our wages, which the wages
of that sin is death. But praise the Lord, the Gospel
says that to you, who are chosen in Christ, you have been blessed
with all the spiritual blessings in heavenly places, according
as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that you should be before Him holy and blameless. Now how can
that be? Blessed substitution. Blessed
imputation. To the praise and the glory of
His grace wherein He has made us accepted In the Beloved. See, we're not accepted on our
own stuff. We're accepted in the Beloved. We're accepted on
behalf of Him. Why? Because in Him we have redemption. Through His blood, the forgiveness
of sin according to the preacher who preached
to you. Is that what it says? That we have forgiveness of sins
According to your earnest repentance, keeping the law, going to church,
praying to Jesus, getting baptized, helping the poor, helping the
widows, clothing the naked, feeding the
hungry, None of that's found there, is it? There's only one
thing that this redemption is according to. It comes from the
riches of His grace. How are you included in the redeemed?
Because of His grace. Not because of anything that
you did. Not because of anything your parents has done. Not because
of anything a church has done for you. not because of anything
that anyone in this life has ever done. It is according to
the riches of God's grace, who in 2 Timothy we find that that
grace that is given to us, let me just go back and read it so
I don't misquote. He has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His purpose and grace." So see, it's not just in God's purpose. See, they say, well, yeah, we
were justified in the purpose of God, but we weren't actually
justified until time, until either this or that, whether it was
the cross or whether it was your belief or your repentance or
your faith whatever it was. No, brethren, we were saved and
called with a holy calling not according to our works but according
to His own purpose and grace. His purpose to give grace and
the giving of that grace because we find in Ephesians it clearly
says that the grace was given to us in heavenly places. It isn't waiting to give it just
necessarily in time. Again, brethren, what we see
in time and what we experience in time is that very thing, the
experience of it, the manifestation of it. But it was already a done
deal, a done work already before the foundation of the world because
He gave us purpose, or in His purpose and grace. It was given
to us before the foundation of the world. given to us. Not just promised to us. It's
promised to be manifested in us. It's promised to be felt
by us. It's promised to be cherished
by us and to be enjoyed by us. There is a promise that this
salvation will come to those for whom Christ died, and this
salvation will be understood, and it will be loved, and it
will be enjoyed, and they will be God's people, and He will
be their God, and they will worship Him, and they will love Him,
because He will spread His love abroad in their hearts. All of
this comes because of what was given to us in the foundation
of the world. Just because it takes time for
that to be manifested out doesn't mean it is not already there. Look at 1 Peter if you would.
A couple more verses and we'll be through. 1 Peter. Chapter 1. It says, for as much as you know
that you are not, verse 18, for as much as you know that you
are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition of your fathers.
Now, look what he says there. I hadn't planned on speaking
about this, but this just kind of jumps off the page at me.
It didn't say from your vain conversation of hate, greed,
lust, killing, stealing, bearing false witness. It says here,
and this again is Peter, and Peter primarily was the apostle
to the Jews, from the vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers. This is the following after of
the law and the amalgamation that those religious Pharisees
had at the time of Jesus of incorporating in the things of God with the
things of idol worship, veil worship. They got from Babylon. That's a whole lot like the Pope
and the Catholic Church, don't it? For as much as you know that
you are not redeemed with corruptible things, I'm going to ride this
horse just a little bit. Everybody falling down worshiping
this pope. I told Larry, I said I didn't
get involved in the conversation this week, but here's my take
on it. That man that stands and says
that he's the vicar of Christ, and that all those bishops, people
that are underneath him, that supposedly gives veneration for
sin, that supposedly blesses you, that supposedly can tell
you that you're not going to hell if you do this or do that
or do this or do that. That's an Antichrist. We know
that. That's an Antichrist. They are
Antichrist. That whole religious system is
Antichrist. But right here, this firmly tells
us that we are not redeemed with corruptible things. The Catholic
Church says you can be redeemed If you marry within the Catholic
Church, if you keep the Mass, you can be redeemed if you give
your indulgences, you can be redeemed if you follow this or
that or do whatever this priest tells you to do, or whatever
this 10 Hail Marys, light these candles, whatever the case might
be, whatever that priest tells you that you need to do, then
you will be redeemed or remitted of your sins. Brethren, listen. They are completely misunderstanding
all of salvation and the Gospel. Number one, the Bible says that
all of our sins are sealed up in a bag and Jesus Christ paid
for every one of those sins. So as every one of those sins
have been manifested in us as we go along, these priests are
saying, well, you have to be resolved to those sins, otherwise
you're going to go into purgatory or go into eternal torment. No,
those sins that they were, if you're a Christ child, those
sins have all been. Listen, I don't know what sin
I'm going to commit tomorrow, much less ten years from now
when I'm still alive, but every one of those sins that will be
committed, they've already been purchased and redeemed by blood. No priest can absolve me of that
because Christ already absolved it. No man has the power to absolve
it anyway. And here are these religious
men, these zealous idolaters, are saying that you can be redeemed
by corruptible things, by giving of gold. Think of what that says
here, as silver and gold? The whole Catholic Church was
built, that Vatican that's over there right now, it was built
on the guilt of sinners who thought their eternal destinies could
be released into heaven if they give their gold and silver. How
did they get all that money to build the Vatican over there?
On the backs of deceived people who thought that priests could
absolve you from sin if you give them money or give them your
property, give them your belongings, whatever it was. That's how that
Vatican got made. When you see all that shining
gold and you see all those magnificent buildings and all that pomp and
circumstance and all that, that is people that is working off
the backs of sinners and their eternal guilt. for God. They're taking their sin and
using that sin just like the Pharisees of Jesus' days. They
continued to have the power. They had continued to take the
prestige. They continued to take the glory
from Christ and to put it on themselves because they could
keep the law. And those who did not, they made
sure that everybody knew about it and that they were to give
their tithe, that they were to give their sacrifices, they would
do everything to take care of them and to give them the honor
that they thought was deserving. Right here, brethren, we see
plain as day, our redemption is not with corruptible things
from the vain conversation received by traditions of our fathers.
Whether that be the keeping of the law or whether that be keeping
of some religious ceremony or tradition or whatever it might
be, it's by the blood, but with the precious blood of Christ.
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, here it is again,
but was manifest in these last times for you." Now brethren,
I don't know how much, especially this week, I've been castigated
for saying that. And all I've been doing is saying
what Scripture is. From the foundation of the world, this is true, but
it's manifested in time. It's brought forth in time, but
the declaration of it, the standing of us before God, the work of
Christ and all that He would manifest in time was all declared
as already satisfying God. But with His precious blood,
He entered into the tabernacle not made with hands once. Well,
when did He do that? Before the foundation of the
world when He stood in the land slain. But then He manifested what He
did in time. Because we're people of time.
We're not eternal people. He came in time to show us what
happened outside of time. "...who verily was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was manifested these
last times for you. Who by Him do believe in God,
who raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, that your
faith and hope It might be in God. Lastly, let's look at Revelation
9. Revelation 5, look at verse 9.
It says, And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy
to take the book. This is speaking of Christ here,
by the way. Christ is the one who is seen. The revelation is
the revelation of Jesus Christ. Whenever we go to the throne
room, seen here in Revelation, and we see the heavenly worship
that has taken place, We see Christ on the throne. We see
one throne. We see one person sitting upon
the throne. We see the face of one who is
the image of the invisible God sitting upon the throne. And
they sung a new song saying, thou art worthy to take the book
and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue
and people and nation." Notice that he didn't say that he redeemed
every kindred and tongue and people and nation with his blood. He said that we were redeemed
out of Whenever the Bible says that He loved the world, for
God so loved the world. Whenever it says that Jesus is
the Savior of the world. All those universal type words
that people like to use to prove that Jesus loves everybody and
Christ died for everybody. This is what it's talking about. You got to take it within the
context of Scripture. out of. Those whom Christ died
for, He died for out of the world. Every part of the world. Out
of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. There
is representation within God's elect from every kindred, tongue,
people, and nation. Not one group of people will
not be represented among the elect of God. Therefore, He did
love the world, not just the Jews. He did redeem the world,
not just the Jews. He did be the Savior, He was
the Savior of the world, not just the Jews. It's always in
that context. Everywhere you go, you'll find
that the context is either someone speaking to Jews, reiterating
the fact of the inclusion of Gentiles so that there is a one
Israel, not two, not a physical Israel and a spiritual Israel,
but there is one Israel of God and that is the spiritual Israel
of God that has no dividing wall of Jew and Gentile, but that
all are one in Christ Jesus. All are the same in Christ Jesus.
Of one blood he has brought us all together. So anyway, we see here, though,
that He has redeemed us to God, but He redeemed us again by His
blood. That's why we sing about the
blood. That's why we talk about the
blood. That's why we talk about Christ crucified. It is because
that is the standard and the basis by which we are saved.
That is what God has accepted on our behalf and has been satisfied
with so that we, before Him, are holy and without blame. All
right. Anybody got any questions or
comments? Anything you'd like to add? Reviews? Corrections? Anything to say? I want to appreciate everybody
praying this week for the several things that we've been asking
prayer for, for Gracie. I'm glad to have her back today.
I thank you guys for praying for my stepmom and my stepdad
and all the stuff that was going on with them. And we're grateful
to that. We're grateful for Heather. She finally got through the nursing
school and got the pomp and circumstance over with yesterday. And she
is now an official RN. So, anyway, she'll be starting
her new job doing that before too long. But anyway, thankful
for all the prayers on all that. All that. Dr. Lynn Terry, he's
doing really good. Great, great. Has he got his
prosthetic yet? He was measured for what they're
working on. Good. All right, anybody else got anything
you'd like to add? about our staff that left us. I'm praying for her. She's going
to go teach at the North Middle School. Yeah. She just left this Thursday. One of your teachers? No, our
staff at the Boy Scouts Club. Oh, OK. All right. Anybody else got anything? Father, we thank you again for
this day. We thank you for your mercy, your grace. We thank you
for the blood of Jesus Christ that has cleansed us from all
our sin. We've seen the hens, what can
wash away our sins. And today we've seen nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Father, Lord, we know that without
the shedding of blood, there would have never been a remission
of one of our sins, much less all of them. But Father, Thankful
that from the foundation of the world, Christ stood as that bloody
land. That Christ's blood has entered
into the Holy of Holies, that he has sprinkled that blood upon
the mercy seat, that you have received that to yourself and
are satisfied. Father, by your grace, that salvation
has been applied to each one of your children. And we're so
grateful to you for it. Lord, we thank you again for
all the answered prayers, This week, Lord, we thank You for
Your kindness and Your goodness and Your mercy, even though we
don't deserve it. We come to You so often with
our prayers and our petitions for the selfish things in our
lives. Sometimes we forget to praise and honor You for who
You are and to give You thanks and glory even despite unanswered
prayers. Father, You're worthy of all
our praise and all of our glory. no matter what happens in our
life. So Father, these times, whenever our prayers align with
your will, we thank you that you have given those to us, that
you've put our heart to seek after you, because we know that
in you is our only hope, and that with you is the sovereign
ability and authority and power to achieve all these things.
Lord, we just are grateful that you give us the heart to pray. And even so, Lord, whenever those
aligned with you. So, Father, Lord, we thank you
again for this answer prayers and with Gracie and with my relatives
and with Brother Lynn Terry. Lord, we just pray that again
that you would keep our minds set upon Christ, upon you. As
we leave this place, that you would keep us safe until we meet
again. So in Christ's name we pray,
amen.