Seeking the Lord's help, I direct
your prayerful attention to the Word of God, the Word that we
read, the Gospel according to Luke, and chapter 21, and reading
from our text, verse 28. Verse 28. And when these things
begin to come to pass, Then look up and lift up your heads, for
your redemption draweth nigh." Luke, Gospel according to Luke
chapter 21 and verse 28. Our Lord is recorded in this
chapter is speaking to his dear disciples concerning the end
of the world. Yes, dear friends, the world
shall end one day. That which we see now, that which
continues from year to year and how different this year has been
than the previous. Yet there shall come a time when
time shall be no more. And we are to know and to realize
this. Our Lord taught it so very clearly. We know of course in this chapter
and one's similar as recorded in the Gospel according to Matthew,
that the Lord treats the question of the apostles as one because
they asked when the sign should be, when those stones would be
cast down of the temple, and when the end of the world should
come, and no doubt thinking that the stones would remain until
the end of the world. whereas the temple was to be
destroyed and thrown down at 70 AD and the end of the world
is yet still to come. But in much of the chapter here,
you can read some of the signs as those things that were certainly
accompanying the destruction of Jerusalem, but the others
which could only be interpreted, especially in the context of
our text, with the signs in the sun and moon and stars as being
that of foretelling the immediate end of this world and we know
that no man knows the day nor the hour and that those signs
shall be right at the very end when it's right at the very doors
and it's spoken here in our text as being a time not just of the
end of the world but for God's people when their redemption
draws nigh. And they're specifically told
that when these things come to pass, and we're to be observing
and watching and noticing these things, that then we're to look
up and lift up our heads. And you know, very often in times
of trouble and tribulation, there is a looking down, it is like
Peter that saw the waves and the billows and his faith failed
him and he beginning to sink he cried saying Lord help me
and so we can have and certainly in the context here many woes
and many trials and many troubles and it may be this afternoon
that all you can do is to look down and you can't see above
those sicknesses and trials and fears and troubles and tribulations
that are found in your life. And yet here is a time when it's
coming to the end and when there are very fearful sights and we
are told in verse 26, men's hearts failing them for fear. How are God's dear people to
be different than that when the powers of heaven shall be shaken
and men are fearing for looking at those things that are coming
upon the earth. But here is God's people and
they are to be different. They had to look up, they had
to be looking away from those troubles and away from those
terrifying things and that they had to be looking for the Lord.
The angels told the disciples when they saw him ascend up into
heaven that he shall come again in like manner, he shall come
with power and great glory, and that time is the same time as
the end of the world. But in our text is specifically
then spoken as a word of encouragement for the people of God, a word
really of bringing to a consummation many many things and it's spoken
of as redemption, your redemption draweth nigh. In other words
the people of God are to be brought from this world and they are
brought to be with Christ and all that that means in a changing
of this body and being put on with an immortal, a celestial
body and being then brought to glory to be forever with the
Lord. And the very idea of redemption
means that it is to be set free by the payment of a price and
that those here spoken of as to be redeemed were held captive. And certainly we are here below. We are captive. We are captive
to sin. We are captive to this world.
Even Job, in all his afflictions, he says that all the appointed
time will I wait till my change come. And he was held below until
the Lord should bid him go. And so We have the idea here of really
the very end in the redemption train, shall we say. And what
is upon my spirit this afternoon are the steps to redemption. Our text speaks of the very last,
as it were, the last step, the last part in the road for the
people of God. and how vital that that is, because
even if there is a beginning on the way, there must be that
end, that consummation. If Christ, we speak with reverence,
but if our Lord had suffered and bled and died at Calvary,
offered Himself a sacrifice, but then not risen from the dead,
then there would be no salvation. The apostle says, if Christ be
not risen, then are the dead not risen, and ye are yet in
your sins, and your faith is vain. If you read the first epistle,
of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 15, you see how important it
is that Christ rose from the dead, that there is the resurrection
from the dead, and he that endureth unto the end shall be saved. And we do want to note, though,
that with God, where He begins, He always finishes. So though
we have the end of the journey here, if we can trace the first
steps to redemption, then we will know that He which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. And it will come to that time
when so shall we ever be with the Lord. And the Apostle points
us to that in the types of running a race, let us run the race that
is set before us. looking unto Jesus, or speaking
of His self and His own death, absent from the body and present
with the Lord. And this is spoken of then, that
redemption, taking to Himself, the Lord taking to Himself the
purchase of His precious blood, the fruit of His work, his church
that he hath made, to be washed and cleansed and ready for him,
and to appear with him in glory, and to be able to say, Behold
I and the children whom thou hast given me. And this then
is to be the great culmination to all what the Lord has done,
and may we never set our sights on anything lower than that. The Apostle, again referring
to 1 Corinthians 15, speaks of those that had rested short of
that, and even with the name of Christ, if in this life only
we have hope in Christ with all men, most miserable. It is the solemn position of
those who just have a name to live and yet be dead, who are
living for time but not living for eternity. They're not living
for that which is to come. They're not realizing that there
are strangers and pilgrims here that this is not their rest,
it is polluted, and so really for them redemption is not redemption,
this is so much their home, but for the people of God then this
life is not that which they long to remain in, but desire to be
redeemed from sin and Satan, and the world and self and their
all nature and brought to be with Christ. So we have in our
text the signs that come, the things that are seen to come
to pass and the reaction that there is to be a lifting up of
heads when you see these things With this realization your redemption
draweth nigh. Well I want to look with the
Lord's help at the steps to redemption and I want to look at it as in
seven steps to redemption. Firstly then, Chosen in Christ. The people of God are chosen
in Christ from the foundation or before the foundation of the
world. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. We have those beautiful
words in Jeremiah 31 verse 3. Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, and therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn
thee. And redemption, it must begin
there. It begins in Christ. Those that are chosen in Him,
and our Lord speaks about it in this way, thine they were
and thou gavest them me. Those people are the ones that
were to be redeemed. And so the first step in redemption
is the choice. the setting apart for that and
when we think of the children of Israel with the Passover then
when they were planning that Passover They needed to think
of the families that were going to observe the Passover, be in
a certain house at that night. Those that were going to partake
of the lamb, would it be enough? And those that were going to
shelter there. So there was a consciousness
of those that were to be the beneficiaries. And then there
is also the laying up of the Lamb, a separating of the Lamb
for that same purpose as well. And we find this with salvation,
that both the Lord Jesus Christ is set apart as the Redeemer
and the One that should shed His blood, and the people of
God are also set apart and they are chosen in Christ and appointed
to obtain salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul
writes to the Romans in Romans chapter 8, he has that beautiful
chain and it begins with those that he did foreknow and That
chain is begun by God. There's nothing in us, there's
no cause in us, why the Lord should set his love upon us.
We are told with Jacob and Esau that Jacob have I loved, Esau
have I hated, and it was before they were born, when they had
not done any good or evil, that the purposes of God according
to election might stand. And we know of this truth, the
scripture teaches it very clearly. But the scriptures do not teach
fatalism, they teach a glorious and beautiful chain, a chain
that begins in God and ends in God. And so the first steps to
redemption is that which is hidden in God, known by God. But then the next step was one
which was very openly performed by God, by the Lord Jesus Christ
at Calvary. You could really say that one
of the steps was Him coming to this earth, a body has thou prepared
me. But I pointed as to the very reason
why the Lord came. The Lord testified to Pilate,
that for this cause came I into the world. Our Lord testified
at twelve, Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? And in His ministry, His teaching,
His holy life, His perfect obedience, He was about His Father's business. But for this cause My Father
gave me a commandment, what I should say, what I should do, but also
a commandment to lay down His life for the sheep. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring. The Jews and the Gentiles
and one fold and one shepherd, But the vital step in redemption
is the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. He had laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. If you and I are redeemed, then
our names were in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation
of the world. Our names also were written upon
Him We read in the beautiful type in the Old Testament of
the high priest with the names of the children of Israel, the
tribes, on his breastplate and on his shoulder. And with them,
not without blood, but he went and appeared in the holy place. And the Lord Jesus Christ, he
knew for whom he suffered. He had laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. And we see the very evidence
of it in the Garden of Gethsemane when He is pressed down and weighted
down and so amazed of the weight of those sins that were laid
upon Him. Those that He was then to bear
away to go to judgment and then to go unto death. And it is at Calvary that Christ accomplished
the redemption of his people, a vital step in the final redemption
of his people. Remember later on, just a few
chapters passed in Luke, in chapter 24, After the Lord had risen
from the dead, he appears to two that went on the way to Emmaus,
and they were very sad. You might really picture them
looking at the ground, walking, despondent and sad, and here
comes this stranger and he joins with them and he asks the reason
of their sadness, why why they were so sad. And they tell him of what had
happened in Jerusalem, they thinking he was a stranger. And they say
this, but we trusted that it had been he which should have
redeemed Israel. Beside all this, today is the
third day since these things were done. Of course they had
the idea that the Lord would again return the Kingdom unto
Israel, a redemption just in this world, a literal one, but
the Lord's Kingdom is not of this world, and the redemption
that they had actually witnessed and seen was that redemption
that was typified in all of the sacrifices, and so our Lord,
when He would show them this, He, beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, He expounded unto them the things concerning Himself. And His words to them were, Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His
glory? Redemption was at a price, and
that price, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. And the hymn writer says, my
soul looks back to see the burdens thou didst bear when hanging
upon the accursed tree and hopes her guilt was there. So when we have steps to redemption,
that vital step, if your sins, my sins, were put away, if we
were set free, by payment of a price. That is when the payment
was made. That is when the price was met.
Only one sacrifice this world has truly ever known for sin,
and that is what the Lord Jesus Christ offered on Calvary. The third step to redemption
is when this is beginning to be made known to the sinner. themselves. Every one of God's
people, when they are born into this world, are born in sin and
shapen in iniquity. There is no difference between
them and the wicked. The Word of God says, and such
were some of you, but ye are washed and ye are cleansed. The Scriptures call it by the
name of conversion or calling or the new birth or believing
And each refers to that time when a soul is quickened. In one sense, it does refer to
different times. I often think of it with my own
case. The Lord says, I give unto them
eternal life, they shall never perish. When the Lord gave me
eternal life, it was not believing, in that sense of believing that
Christ died to put away my sin, It wasn't joy, it wasn't peace,
but it was life from the dead. It was realising how ignorant
I was, outside of the secret, so far off from the Lord. It
was realising that. And so, in that sense, the redemption
in making known to a sinner is giving that eternal life leading
to Christ, teaching, bringing to a need, a felt need, realising
a sinnership, and being brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, redeemed by calling. And if we
think that aspect of the redemption, it is a separating, come ye out
from among them, touch not the unclean thing, And I will receive
you, and ye shall be My sons and My daughters, saith the Lord
Almighty." It is a very clear separating from the world, the
same as the children of Israel had to separate from Egypt, they
couldn't. offer the abomination of the
Egyptians before their eyes. They had to be separated. They
had to go out into the wilderness. They had to go out unto the Lord.
And even then, there's further separations. Who is on the Lord's
side? Let us go out unto Him without
the camp bearing His reproach. And that redemption then is known. It is known by that particular
person. The hidden, secret, counseled
purposes of God in the choice and redemption at Calvary is
first known by calling. And may we always remember that.
Election is known by calling. Don't ever put the wrong way
around. And all the time asking, am I
elect? The important thing is, are we
called? And if we are called, then we
know that we are elect. And many have made mistakes in
that way, and seeking all the time, as it were, to want to
know the hidden purposes and choice of God but not in the
way that God has revealed it shall be. We think of the early
church when the word was beginning to be preached and we read that
some believed the word spoken and some believed not. And then
in another time we read this, as many as were ordained unto
eternal life believed. And so the believing is what
is revealing the ordaining to eternal life. It is the calling
that is making known the eternal choice of God. We don't call
ourselves, God calls and God calls those who are elect. So when we have redemption and
we have a redemption that draweth nigh You know, the Old Testament
church, they look forward to the coming of Christ and those
signs, those things that Mary laid up in her heart, that redemption
was drawing nigh. And I believe there were many
there, well, Simeon, of course, and Anna. spake very clearly,
Anna spake of Him, that is of the Lord Jesus Christ, to all
them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Redemption was
drawing nigh in that sense. Well, with calling as well. a
sinner that's brought into concern, a sinner that feels their sins,
a sinner that is seeking the Lord, a sinner that is truly
confessing their sins, that is seeking salvation through the
Lord Jesus Christ. When we see these things, Your
redemption draweth nigh. In fact, really it is at the
very doors, it already is so. The calling of God is something
that cannot be hid, and it is when the Lord brings a sinner
into concern and prepares that ground, and gives them the language
of the Hemorrhoid to give me Christ, or else I die. And that desire of that soul
is not satisfied until Christ is made precious. Unto you which
believe He is precious. The love of God shed abroad in
the heart by the Holy Ghost. It is when the Lord makes known
Himself to His people, so they say with dear Thomas, My Lord
and My God. It is the work of God that redeems
His people by calling. Calling is a redemption. Calling
is a setting free from the pull of the world, the bondage of
the world, the attraction of it, the drawing of it, the enslaving
of it, The captivity to it, it is a setting free like the children
of Israel had, but how hard, how Egypt tried not to let them
go. They didn't want to let them
go. And it is, well, Paul says to the Ephesians that the same
power that was put forth to raise Christ from the dead was put
forth to raise them from a spiritual death, to quicken their souls
into life. And so redemption by calling
is a vital step to redemption. If you and I are to be found
in our text, and at last in heaven with our Lord, then we will be
called, called by the grace of God. There's another fourth step
to redemption, And that is the profession of being redeemed. God's people are brought to know
that they are God's people, that they are part of His family,
that He has redeemed them, that He has suffered for them. They
are brought to assurance of that, and assurance, it varies from
one child of God to another, and it varies from time to time. I remember asking a minister
in New Zealand concerning assurance, he turned to me, he said, Roland,
he said, have you got assurance? He says, don't look for it, 10
minutes later. And I knew what he meant, because
Whereas we always have assurance as the Lord's people that the
Word of God is true, and we believe that where He has begun, He will
finish. But the actual realization of
that, the joy of it, the persuasion of it, those times are few and
far between. They're very, very precious times
when belief is so strong And when we so believe that when
this life is done we shall be with Christ. But it is not always
like that. We don't go from not believing
we are saved and not believing the Word of God or not trusting
and then to trust one minute and to be saved one minute and
to be lost the next minute and to be just dependent upon our
feelings whether we are saved or lost. The true work of God
is much more stable than that. It's anchored upon Christ and
Christ's Word, not upon our frames and our feelings. But we do have
frames and we do have feelings, and we do lose the sweet comforts
and joy. And that's why David, when he
had sinned, and in Psalm 51, when he pens that beautiful psalm
of repentance. He says, restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation. Sin mars it, it takes it away. But there is to be a profession
of redemption. Those that are redeemed are to
testify of what God has done for them. Come and hear All ye
that fear God, and I will tell what he hath done for my soul. And that is what our Lord gave
the commission for the disciples as well. Go ye into all the world,
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. And the Lord had a mind and an
aim to this. And even regarding the world,
he says, By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples
indeed, in that ye love one another, and the love of Christ constraineth
us. And so that part of step in redemption
is for those that are being redeemed, they make profession of that
here below. that they are redeemed, that
Christ has shed his precious blood for me. He has set me free
from ignorance, from darkness, from unbelief. Such were some
of you, but now you're washed, you're cleansed. There has been
a difference made, and we don't ascribe that difference to ourselves. We ascribe it to the Lord and
put the crown on His head here below. not thinking while we
wait to heaven and then we'll put the crown on his head. But
if we haven't put the crown on his head here, then how shall
we do so hereafter? And so the redemption that the
Lord has wrought in us is what we praise the Lord for, bless
the Lord for, and make profession of being His, not ashamed of
the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's steps to redemption. And in one sense, one aspect
of that step of redemption is the answer of a good conscience
before God. It's a hard thing to live day
by day with the conscience that all the time is smiting us, all
the time is niggling, all the time is saying, look, there is
this that should be attended to, it is not, this crown that
is to be put on the Lord's head, and it isn't, this that should
be done, and as what was said of the Apostle Paul, it is hard
for thee to kick against the bricks. And so the baptism is
not the putting away of sin and by the washing of the flesh,
no, but it is the answer of a good conscience toward God. It is
the ordinance that God has given for a believer that leads them
to the Lord's Supper to show forth his death till he comes. and the showing forth of His
death is the showing forth of that redemption and every church
member in that way is publicly pointing to Christ, pointing
to Calvary and saying, I was redeemed there. That is where
the Lord Jesus Christ set me free by shedding His precious
blood and He has wrought that in my life and I desire to show
it forth and to testify unto all that would hear, to be known
and read of all men." So a step to redemption, a path the Lord
went, John Baptist went, the Ethiopian went, and we trust
that each believer will. And though, of course, we do
know and I know many there Brethren, those in Australia, my own dear
mother is blessed right near the end of her life. The baptism
is not necessary for salvation in that sense. We don't believe
it like the Roman Catholics would believe that unless you've had
the last rites, unless you've been baptized, you cannot be
saved. It is not a works, it is all
of grace. But we should never ever think
that just because that is the case that then it is not to be
attended to. It is very clear, command by
the Lord and those that love the Lord will want to walk in
it. It is a step unto redemption. You might say the first three
steps chosen in Christ redeemed by Christ at Calvary and redeemed
by calling, we have had no part in that. God has done it. It's all been on His part. Without
our aid, He passed by us and He bid us live. But this next,
this redemption of a profession That is where it then becomes
where a sinner lays, as it were, claim and testifies and within
a free will offering that they are redeemed. And how beautiful
that is in the eyes, in the ears of the Lord. You know when we have the Song of Solomon and
all the time there's the dialogue between the Bridegroom and the
Bride, the Church and her Heavenly Bridegroom Christ and Christ
loves to hear from the Church and the Church loves to hear
from Christ. What would it be if there was
a a man and a woman that were supposedly in love and they walked
a lot together and people saw them together and the bridegroom
or the man gave very much evidence of love to the woman but the
woman never returned it, never confessed it and never said what
He was to her, one-sided. Well, that's not to be so between
Christ and His Church. Where there is true redemption,
then it will follow from one step to the next step. Another step of redemption is
to be redeemed from trouble. All of God's people will have
trouble. Our Lord was very clear, in me
you shall have peace, in the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. The apostles,
when they would comfort the disciples in their path of tribulation,
said to them that you must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom. And man is born under trouble
as the sparks fly upward. We read at the end of Psalm 25,
redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. And
in one sense, the only right way to get out of trouble is
to be redeemed out of trouble, to discern that the only reason
why we're delivered out of it is because Christ has died, that
He has then cause that there be an end to that. There be a
terminating of that trial and of that trouble. And it's a blessed
thing to be able to notice and view that the troubles that we
come into and then brought out of, we're brought out of because
Christ hath redeemed us. He's set us free from them. you
know there's no real right that we should ever be delivered from
trouble but Job especially he testifies that it was the Lord
that brought him out of that and he had to then offer for
his friends and he saw the Lord as he truly was mine eye seeth
thee wherefore my I repent and repent in dust and ashes. And the testimony of those brought
out of trouble was that it is the Lord that delivers their
soul. And all the troubles, the trials that we have here below,
the running with the footman if you like, Each deliverance,
we think of Jacob, his deliverances from Laban, his deliverances
from Esau, each one is a sweet token that the Lord is able to
deliver and willing to deliver. Each Ebenezer we have in review
confirms his sweet pleasure to bring us quite through. But then there's the redemption
at death. When we die, this soul returns
immediately to God that gave it. And in that sense, it is
a time of redemption. When we see the signs of our
mud wall cottage shaking, that soon we must pass this earthly
scene. Then we are to look up, our redemption
draweth nigh. What a different picture of death
does this present to us. Redeemed then physically from
this earth, the soul set free from the body of clay, this mortality
must put on immortality. a change, absent from the body,
present with the Lord. Some are not given any signs
of that impending change. Others are given many months,
sometimes years, when they feel that their temporal tabernacle
is being slowly taken down. But it's spoken of as a day of
redemption. When the Lord has that soul that
He's purchased, when He has that child of His to be with Him,
where He is, the Master hath need of Him. And so He must go,
however much family and church and friends may feel the need
of that one here. When the Lord has need for him
in heaven, then that soul must go, and must be there. And then we have another redemption,
which is the redemption of the body, the body that is laid in
the grave, that of which Job says, that after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. In Romans
8 we read that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
until now, and even our bodies. Our bodies are redeemed as much
as the soul, and we shall be given a new body, a celestial
body, an incorruptible body, And that redemption then, when
we think of these last two points at death and at the resurrection,
they are what are joined together in one for those that are alive
when the end of the world comes and when the Lord comes again
that is spoken of in our text. This shall be the same as when
our Lord came the first time There was a people on the earth,
many of the Lord's people, many of His Israel didn't know His
coming. But Peter, James, John, the disciples,
they did. They were alive, they realised
that they were alive when the Messiah came. And there will
be a people on the earth that will realise that it has fallen
to their lot and in God's providence that they will be the ones that
are alive when the Lord returns. They shall see him coming in
the clouds with power and great glory. They are those that shall
literally look up and lift up their heads, for their redemption
draweth nigh. They shall be like Elijah, instead
of death, taken up immediately into heaven, They shall be as
Paul sets it forth to the Thessalonians, that the Lord shall come at the
last trumpet sounding, the dead in Christ shall rise first, and
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up with them
in the clouds, so shall we be forever with the Lord. the death
and resurrection brought together to one for those that are alive
when the Lord returns. But each of these steps, they
are redemption, and it is steps to redemption. So at last there
shall be a people, an innumerable multitude with the Lord in heaven,
and of that people each of them have walked those steps to redemption. Each of them have had the marks
on the way, as it were, of being a redeemed people. May we be
amongst them. None of us are yet in this last
step. But may we be in the steps of
being called, the steps of a profession, the steps of being delivered
from trouble. the steps of knowing that the
Lord is our God, and that the Lord has redeemed us from all
evil. Dear Jacob, he testified that
at the end of his life. The angel, when he blessed the
sons of Joseph, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, blessed
the lads. Well, this is what we so vitally
need. the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, the redemption that is in this text. Do we have it,
dear friends? Do we have the comfort of it?
And do we have that blessed prospect that though in the midst of troubles
and trials, that at the last we may look up and realize the
Lord is coming to take us home and to take us to Himself. Father, I will that they whom
Thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold
my glory. And the Lord goes right back
to where the Lord Father gave them to Him and then His will
is that that same number, same people be with Him in glory. May we be numbered with them
May I be now and to eternity. Amen.