Good morning. Good to see you
all again. Good to be back here among friends,
among brethren. Let's turn to Ephesians 1, Ephesians
1. Very well-known, well-known passage
of Scripture. Ephesians 1 will start in verse
1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God to
the saints which are at Ephesus and unto the faithful in Christ
Jesus. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him, in love having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the
praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved." Now, I love this passage, and this is so
rich. This is so rich a passage, and
these truths are very, very high. Verse 3 says, we have all blessings
in Christ. Is there any blessing that you
possess that is not in the Lord Jesus Christ. No sir, every blessing
is in Him. Verse 4 says, He hath chosen
us in Christ and there is no other way to be chosen except
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 5, He's adopted us to Himself. We are a children adopted And
verse 6, we've been accepted in the Beloved. We've been accepted
in Christ. Now these are wonderful, wonderful
statements. But if we gloss over, or if we
miss completely verse 7, then we miss the foundation upon which
these first six verses rest. If we miss verse seven, we miss
the whole message of the Bible, which is, which says, verse seven,
in whom we have redemption. You see that? In whom we have
redemption through his blood. In this one verse, We see how
God saves sinners through the blood of Christ. Now, John, in
his first epistle, says, you have an unction from the Holy
One and know all things. And if you know, if you know,
and if you love, that redemption is through the blood of Christ.
Friends, you know all things. You know all things. There's
nothing you don't know. Now I want to talk a little bit
about redemption. Redemption is a bit of a peculiar
word. We don't use it too much in everyday
language. We might talk about maybe turning
in a coupon, redeeming a coupon for 20 cents off your loaf of
bread. Or if your favorite sports team
loses, you might want them to redeem themselves, get revenge,
win again next time. But just as different words hold
different meaning for different people, redemption has an altogether
different meaning for the believer. Redeeming a coupon at Walmart
just doesn't quite capture the idea of redemption for the child
of God. When I think of redemption, I
think of Christ ransoming my soul. And when I think of redemption,
I think of someone who has been kidnapped, kidnapped, taken captive
by an exertion of force through someone stronger, held in bondage,
and the only way to get this person back, the only way to
recover this person is, well, a debt has to be paid. A price has to be paid. A demand
has to be met. You see, a price paid in exchange
for a life saved. That's the idea behind ransom.
That's the idea behind redemption. Because you and I owe a debt
that is insurmountable. We can't pay it. We need the
Lord Jesus to pay our debt. We need the Lord Jesus to ransom
us from this debt and we are born into this world so foolish,
so thinking that by our own good works we can somehow chip away
at this debt and we'll lessen it and eventually eliminate it. But when you come to God on the
grounds of your own works, and not on the blood of Christ. If
anything, you increase your debt and you incite God's wrath. When someone comes to God, when
someone attempts to ransom his own soul by offering from himself,
something to God from himself, Well, he just gets rejected. The Lord says, just depart from
me, you worker of iniquity. I don't know. Listen to listen
to Proverbs 635. He, that is, God, will not regard
any ransom. He won't regard any other ransom
than the Lord Jesus ransom. Does neither will he rest content,
though thou givest many gifts. Now today is Easter, and it's
around this time that a lot of religious folks like to celebrate
what they call Lent, where you've got to give something up or try
to do something good or try to better yourself a little bit.
Maybe try to get a little closer to God. Hopefully God will be
more pleased with you. And all that really is, is just
trying to give God gifts. and he won't have any of it.
He's only satisfied with the blood of Christ as the acceptable
payment for the ransom of your souls and my soul. Now I want
to look at ransom a little bit in the Old Testament. Let's turn
to Exodus 30. See how it's used in the Old
Testament. Exodus 30 verse 12. When thou takest the sum of the
Children of Israel after their number, then shall they give
every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord when thou numberest
them, that there be no plague among them when thou numberest
them. Now this may seem a little strange. There's just a numbering of the
people. This is really just a census being taken. So what the Lord
is saying is that you need a ransom even just for this. It might
seem like a mundane activity, just taking a census. But just
by the mere fact that you and I are numbered with the inhabitants
of this world and that we walk this planet as sinners, it is
enough for the Lord to cast a plague upon us. We're nothing but sinners,
and if we are to be accepted before God, well, the Lord demands
a ransom. Verse 13, this they shall give
everyone that passeth among them that are numbered half a shekel
after the shekel of the sanctuary. A shekel is 20 giras, and half
shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. Everyone that passeth
among them that are numbered from 20 years old and above shall
give an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more.
And the poor shall not give less than a half shekel when they
give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for your
souls. Now for the Lord God to require
of every Israelite to be in possession of the ransom money is to say
unto them that apart from that ransom that is by yourself, if
you're going to approach me, by yourself. You have to have
this ransom and you deserve to die apart from this ransom. See,
it was not enough to be of the camp of Israel. It was not enough
to be some well-respected elder or to be a priest or even to
be the high priest. Everyone, rich or poor, young
or old, had better have this half shekel. And this shekel
couldn't be any old shekel. You had to get it directly from
the sanctuary, and Christ is our sanctuary. And our ransom
has to come straight from Him. Now a half shekel might not seem
like much, but it's what the Lord demanded. And since it came
from the sanctuary, it was worth far more than any gold or precious
jewels or costly items you could bring. And people might not think
much, most people don't think much of the blood of Christ. They will sooner trample it underfoot,
count it an unholy thing, and regard their own righteousness
as of far greater value. We just read in Proverbs that
the Lord regards no man's gifts as a ransom. It has got to be
exactly what the Lord requires, no more, no less. You see, a
day is coming when the Lord is going to number this whole world.
He's going to take one great census and the whole world is
going to be numbered before God. and everyone that doesn't have
that ransom. Everyone that is without that
ransom money, which is the blood of Christ covering you, making
atonement for your souls. If you don't have that, you'll
be subject to an eternal plague. And it's my hope this morning
that the Lord impresses upon us our dire, dire need for the
ransom. There is no greater need than
for the shed blood of Christ to ransom our souls. Now, why
was this money, this half shekel, why was it so important? What
was the significance of it? Why was it so special? Well,
for one, it typifies that every believer, each and every believer,
is bought with a price. Every believer is bought with
the blood of Christ. Every individual had to be in
possession of this money. You see, a lump sum for the camp
of Israel, or for each of the twelve tribes of Israel, that
wasn't going to cut it. Each Israelite had to have on
his own person this half shekel and every believer has to have
on his person the blood of Christ. You see, a general salvation
that says Christ died for everybody and therefore me, but I've still
got to do my part or else I'll go to hell. That that doesn't
give me any hope. But the gospel, the gospel, which
says Christ effectively redeemed his people from their sins and
shed his blood for each and every one of them. That gives me hope
and that causes me to cry out to the Lord, cover me with your
blood. I need your blood to be shed
for me. Let me give you another reason
why this shekel was important. Every Israelite was redeemed
the exact same way. There wasn't someone who had
a lump of gold. You know, even the millionaire
had to have that half shekel, just like the poor person had
to have that half shekel. Every believer is redeemed the
same way by the blood of Christ. And Jude speaks of a common salvation. What every believer has in common
is that they've all been redeemed by Christ's blood. Now, if somebody
comes to me and says, well, I've been redeemed by something else,
something other than the blood of Christ, or I've been redeemed
by something in addition to the blood of Christ, the blood of
Christ and my works, the blood of Christ and my free will, the
blood of Christ and my baptism, or what have you, I would say,
well, We don't have anything in common. You know, what every
believer has in common is the blood of Christ has been shed
for them. There's one way of salvation,
not many. Here's another reason why this
shekel, here's another significance to this half shekel. God is telling
these Israelites, you're indebted to me. They couldn't approach
God just any way they pleased. And you see, you and I have accumulated
an infinite debt by our sin. And being debtors of God, the
only way you and I can approach God is by the blood of Christ
as the acceptable form of payment. So what was this money used for? Turn with me to chapter 38. Chapter 38, verse 25. And the silver of them that was
numbered of the congregation was 100 talents. And a thousand,
seven hundred and three score and 15 shekels after the shekel
of the sanctuary, a beaker for every man that is half a shekel
after the shekel of the sanctuary. for everyone that went to be
numbered from 20 years old and upward, for 600,000 and 3,550
men. So, there's over 600,000 Israelites, all who bring their
half shekel, and all those shekels added up together is 100 talents.
And here's what those 100 talents were used for. Verse 27. And the hundred talents of the
silver were cast, the sockets of the sanctuary. And the sockets
of the veil and the hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent
for every socket. So these shekels were melted
down and cast or formed in to these sockets. And these sockets
were the foundation of the tabernacle. They held the whole structure
of the tabernacle together. What this is saying is that the
foundation for worship in Israel, like today, is redemption. And the dwelling place of God
was founded upon atonement. These sockets held everything
together just like the blood of Christ is the foundation of
our redemption. Turn to 2 Samuel 24. 2nd Samuel 24, look at verse
1. This is another instance of a census taking place, a numbering. And again, the anger of the Lord
was kindled against Israel. And he, God, moved David against
them to say, go number Israel and Judah. For the king said
to Joab, the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through
all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number
ye the people, that I may know the number of them." And if you
read the rest of this passage, what you'll notice, in light
of what we read in Exodus 30, is that there's a conspicuous
absence of David not taking up the ransom money. And there was
no mention of it. And that's why the Lord's anger
was kindled against him. David's sin was that he counted
the Israelites as God's people. apart from the atonement and
God forbid that we ever consider ourselves as God's people or
attempt to come to God apart from the atonement, apart from
the blood of Christ. Paul says in Ephesians 2 that
it's by the blood of Christ that you draw near to God. Abel brought
a blood sacrifice to God. Cain brought the fruit of his
hands. In Genesis 40, we see that butler bringing the cup
of wine to Pharaoh, the cup of wine representing the blood of
Christ. He was just bringing to Pharaoh
what Pharaoh already had. But the baker was concocting
his own recipes, symbolic of works, and he was beheaded. The
butler was restored to his position. Abel was accepted. Cain was rejected. They each came with an offering,
but David failed in his obedience to take up the atonement. And
David was rejected for numbering the people apart from the ransom.
Now, we read in Exodus 30 that if you fail to bring this ransom,
the Lord would send a plague, and that's exactly what he did
here. Look at verse 15. So the Lord sent a pestilence
upon Israel from the morning, even unto the time appointed,
and there died a of the people from Dan even to Beersheba, 70,000
men. So we see just how importantly
the Lord regards his atonement, and we see the awful consequences
of approaching God apart from this ransom. Outside of Christ,
there's only wrath. Now I remember years ago, talking
to a man who was just absolutely convinced that he could get to
God any way he pleased. He just thought there were multiple
ways of getting to God, but that kind of thinking won't get you
to God. Jesus said, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Now I hope the Lord gives us
better wisdom than that of David who played the fool for what
he did. But truthfully, we've all been foolish. We've all tried
to come to God based on our own self-righteousness. Before we
tasted of the grace of God, we were trying to please God, trying
to come to Him by our own works. We were all in jeopardy and all
deserving of the Lord sending a plague upon us. But thankfully
that wasn't the end of the story for us. And this isn't the end
of the story for David here. You'll see the Lord is merciful
and he had mercy on David. Look at verse 16. And when the
angel stretched forth his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it,
Jerusalem was on the brink of destruction. But the Lord didn't
intend to destroy Jerusalem. Maybe the angel thought he did.
You know, when we were when we were lost, when we were made
to see our lost state and to see the plague of sin that dwelt
in us and to feel like we were on the brink of destruction,
we see death all around us, within us, and we feel like the Lord
could and should strike us down at any moment. and we deserve
it, but here's what the Lord says. So the angel stretched
forth his hand to destroy Jerusalem, and the Lord repented him of
the evil and said to the angel that destroyed the people, it
is enough. Do you know what that sounds
like? Sounds like what our Lord said, what our Savior said on
the cross, it is finished. Now it's enough for God to be
satisfied with the blood of His Son. Is it enough for you that
the blood of Christ cleanses you from all your sin? Or are
you looking to something else? I hope by His grace we're all
as satisfied with the blood of Christ as God is. And the Lord
said, it's enough. Stay now thy hand. This is where mercy rejoices against judgment. And do you know where all this
took place? It was on Mount Moriah, which itself is a picture of
redemption. It was upon Mount Moriah that
Abraham went to go sacrifice his son Isaac. And he said, the
Lord himself will provide a lamb. When the tabernacle which had
the foundation of those silver sockets. When that was succeeded
by the temple, Solomon's temple as the place of worship, the
foundation was Mount Moriah. And if you read the last verse
of 2 Samuel 24, this is where David built the altar upon Mount
Moriah and the plague was stayed from Israel. This is the foundation of redemption. Let's turn back to Ephesians
1. The foundation of my redemption is only the blood of Christ.
It's the blood of Christ alone. The foundation of my salvation
isn't my believing. It's not my sanctification. It's
not my regeneration. And it's not even election. And
I love election. I need to be elected. But if Christ was not the Lamb
of God slain before the foundation of the world, I couldn't have
been elected. We just read a little while ago
in verse four of this chapter that he has chosen us. How? In Christ. You see, election
only makes sense as it relates to redemption. You can't come
to the electing father but by the redeeming son. And it's only
then that you come to understand you've been elected. Paul told
those Thessalonians, Larry said this, knowing brethren be loved
your election of God. But he said that Paul said that
only after he mentioned of their hope in Christ. And it is every. The hope of every believer is
redemption through Christ. Through Christ alone, let's look
at verse 7 one more time. In whom? That is in Christ. We have redemption only through
His blood. And what this means for us is
the forgiveness of sins. You see, the forgiveness of sins
is our greatest need. There is no greater need a person
has than for their sins to be forgiven. In Matthew chapter
9, that man with the palsy came to Christ, his friends lowered
him through a roof of a house. He thought his greatest need
was to be cured of that palsy, but he received something far
better. Before Christ even healed that
man, he said, son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven.
Before he even healed him. And believer, you can be of good
cheer, your sins are forgiven. Whatever troubles you have in
this world, And the Lord will take care of those too. But He
has taken care of your greatest trouble, which is your sin. If
you've been redeemed by Christ, if He shed His blood for you,
you can't be anything but forgiven. And the Lord has done all this
according to the riches of His grace. How else could He do it? It's not of our works. It's not
our gifts. It's not our gifting God. Has
He given you grace to build your house, not on the sinking sands
of free will or works or religion, but has he given you grace to
build your house on the rock, which is Christ, being held together
by his blood, like those silver sockets held together that sanctuary. Like Noah's Ark was held together
by pitch, and that pitch actually means atonement. You see, it's
all one big picture of how God saves sinners. This Bible is
one big revelation of how God sent His Son into the world to
save sinners by shedding His blood for them. Has the Lord
given you grace to trust in the blood of Christ alone as your
foundation for redemption? Now, I want to look at one more
verse in Acts. Acts 20 verse 28. Take heed therefore
unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy
Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which
he hath purchased with his own blood. Now, something that I've
never noticed before when I've read this verse is that you don't
actually see the name of Christ in that verse. Of course, Paul
is talking about Christ, but he calls him blood. He calls
him God. He says, God purchased the church
by his own blood. And it took the very shed blood
of God to redeem his people. You see, Christ, as a man, died
on the cross. But Christ, as God, shed divine
blood. The shed blood of a mere man
won't do you or me any good. It took God's blood. That's what
God demanded as payment. His own blood to purchase his
people. And I hope the Lord gives us
the grace to believe that. Now, as I was preparing this
message, I had come across a number of passages that dealt with the
blood of Christ, and each one sparked new thoughts, and we
could have kept going and going, but one day this corruptible
will put on incorruptible, and we'll be enabled to hear for
an eternity from our Savior Himself, what He's done to save His people.
I look forward to that day. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we're so grateful that
you've been pleased to purchase your people with your own blood. Lord, give us all the grace to
believe on this and to not look anywhere else. Lord, please bless
these two messages to our hearts this morning. Lord, please bless
Brother Bruce as he preaches in West Virginia this morning
and bless all your preaching everywhere throughout the world.
Lord, make us to see that only the blood of Christ is our ransom. Let us come to you on no other
footing than His blood. In Jesus' precious name I pray.
Amen.