Good evening, everyone. Let's
open tonight's service with a hymn from the Hardback Tymnal, number
62, Crown Him with Many Crowns. Let's all stand together. Number
62. He crowns the Lamb upon His throne. Mark how the heavenly anthem
crowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing for
Him who died for thee. And hail Him as thy matchless
King through all eternity. Crown Him the Lord of all. Behold His hands and side. Rich fruit yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky can fully
bear that sight. But downward bends his wandering
eye, Who triumphed o'er the grave,
Who rose victorious to the strife, O'er those He came to save? His glory shall we sing, Who
died and rose again, ? Life to bring and lives that
death may die ? ? Crown him Lord of heaven
? ? One with the Father Lord ? ? One with the Spirit through
him given ? ? From yonder glorious throne ? Please be seated. There's a line in that hymn we
just sang that stood out to me tonight. It's in the third stanza
who rose victorious to the strife. For those he came to save. For
those he came to save. We used to sing that hymn. In
religion and I never. Never saw that. But that's who
he. got the victory for a very particular
people. How thankful we are. Let's open
our Bibles to Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4. We'll begin with the last verse
in chapter 4. Who, speaking of Christ, was
delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not
only so, But we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not a shame,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost, which is given unto us. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man, and the idea here in verse seven is the
self-righteous, for scarcely or hardly would anyone die for
a self-righteous man. Yet peradventure for a good man,
some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then. being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of his son, notice when we were reconciled to God. Not when we believed on his son,
we were reconciled to God when Christ died. When he cried, it
is finished, we were justified and reconciled. We shall be saved by his life,
and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement, the covering. Sunday we prayed for Ryan's family
and his father passed away Monday so want us to pray for Ryan and
Also Burt met with his doctor on Monday To review the scans
that he had had last week and they've determined that his treatments
aren't helping, so they're going to stop everything. He'll be
home tomorrow. And Bert's daughter, Olivia,
I asked her if it was OK to say this, and she said it was, is
expecting, and she has the flu. And last time she had the flu
while she was expecting, she lost her baby. Want us to pray
for Olivia. She's anxious about that. All
right, let's let's pray together. Our heavenly father. Thank you for putting into our
hearts. A desire to know the. To worship the. To love the. to believe on thee. Lord, had you not done a work
of grace for us, we would be going about our own way, doing our own thing with no interest,
for our souls are no interest in you. So Lord, for causing
us to want to be here, We're thankful. We pray, Lord, that
as you have put that in our hearts and brought us to this place,
that you would now be pleased to speak to our hearts, that
you would send your Holy Spirit in power and that you would reveal
to us the glory of Christ and increase our faith and forgive
us, Lord, of our sins and cause us to find our rest and our hope. in thy dear son, our successful
savior. Lord, we pray for Ryan, ask Lord
that you would use the loss of his father to speak truth and
hope to his heart. Lord, we pray for our brother Bert. Thank
you for him. Thank you for the hope that you've
given him and for the for the grace that you've provided in
this time of tribulation and trial. And Lord, we pray that
you would help us all to help one another and lift up one another
and bear one another's burdens and pray for one another. Lord,
we pray for Olivia, ask for your hand of strength to be upon her
and recover her from this sickness and enable her, Lord, to to carry
this child. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 29 in our Spiral Gospel
Hymns hymn book, 29. Let's stand together. I was lost and did not know it,
rushing madly to my end. But my God, who's rich in mercy,
would not let me die in sin. Hallelujah, God has saved me,
Saved me by His sovereign grace. Jesus, Thy the Spirit hold me,
I am saved by sovereign grace. Chosen by my heavenly Father,
and redeemed by Jesus' blood, I am justified, forgiven, and
accepted by my God. Hallelujah, God has saved me,
Saved me by His sovereign grace. Jesus died, the Spirit called
me, I am saved by sovereign grace. God the Spirit came in power,
Gave me life and set me free. He revealed my pleasant state. saved me by his sovereign grace. Jesus died, the Spirit called
me. I am saved by sovereign grace. God has saved me. By the power of His grace, He
will guide, guard and protect me. ? Till I see my Savior's
face ? Hallelujah, God has saved me ? Saved me by His sovereign
grace ? Jesus died, the Spirit called me ? I am saved by sovereign
grace Please be seated. Paul said, I am what I am by
the grace of God. And the only way that we can
know what we really are by God's grace is by what he has said
we are. You open your Bibles to 1 Peter,
1 Peter chapter 2, This is our fourth Wednesday
night in verse nine. And here's our Lord describing
his people. He says, first of all, they are
a chosen nation, chosen by sovereign grace, chosen in Christ and chosen
for Christ. The Lord not chosen us, we never
would have chosen him. Secondly, he calls his people
a royal priesthood. We have a great high priest,
the Lord Jesus Christ, our forerunner, who has entered into the holies
of holies. And because he has gone in and
put his blood on the mercy seat, Therefore, we, as the sons of
Levi, are able to enter into his presence and make sacrifices,
the caz of our lips, the praise and worship that we offer to
God. He calls us a royal priesthood,
a company of priests who are able to enter into the very presence
of God. Thirdly, he calls us a holy nation. Holy by virtue of our union with
Christ. As he is, so are we. He has imputed to his people
his righteousness. We look at ourselves, we don't
see much holiness. We don't see any holiness. But
here's what God says. They are a holy nation. They are a peculiar people. And that's where I want us to
spend some time tonight. A peculiar people. The literal
translation here for peculiar people is purchased possession. Purchased possession. We have
been bought with a price. He owns us. and he has bought
us with his precious blood. We see in what he has done for
us and is doing in us as a peculiar people. Turn with me to Ephesians
chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. Here's the same The same word
that's used here in our text we find in Ephesians chapter
1 and verse 14. Let's read verse 13. In whom
you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth. You
can't trust God until he opens your ears and your heart and
reveals himself. We don't just call on men to
believe. We tell them who to believe and
what to believe. And so faith comes by hearing
and hearing comes by the word of God. And so James says it
pleased God to begat us with his word, with his word. So there's
no There's no separation of the preaching of the gospel and the
faith that God gives to believe on Christ. And he says here,
you trusted him after you heard the word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation. I love the way the Lord phrases
that. This is the good news of your
salvation, not to your salvation. Just as we read in Romans chapter
4 and 5, our justification was settled on Calvary's cross. Salvation
is sure. It's secure. And what we're hearing
and believing is not in order to be saved, but we're hearing
and believing what God has done when he saved us. And in whom also after you believed,
You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise which is the
earnest of our inheritance. So the Lord gives us his Holy
Spirit in the new birth. The Spirit of God comes and he
resides in us and he And he points us continually to Christ and
reveals to us more of his glory and convicts us of our sin and
keeps us. And so the Lord's saying this
salvation that was secure, that was purchased on Calvary's cross,
resulted in you hearing and the Holy Spirit given to you as an
earnest, a down payment. It's just a taste of the glory
that shall be revealed in us. Look what he says, and here's
the phrase that we have in our text in 1 Peter chapter two,
which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession unto the praise of his glory. The full redemption of what he
purchased has not been revealed to the full praise of his glory
yet. It will be. It will be. And the evidence
of that is the Spirit of God that speaks peace and hope and
comfort and light and truth to our hearts. It's been given to
us as a gift. as a earnest down payment to
that day when the full redemption will be revealed in what it is
the Lord actually purchased. What did he purchase? He purchased
the whole church. We have no real experience. We know by faith what the Lord
has revealed in his word about the church in glory. But here
he says the redemption of the purchased possession will be
revealed in his glory in that last day. So we look through
a glass darkly now, we look through the eyes of faith, then we will
see him in the fullness of what he purchased for us. Notice that the translators translated
this purchased possession as a peculiar people in our texts. And surely some of us are more
peculiar than others, but in a very real sense, all jokes
set aside, God's people are peculiar. They're different. He's made
them to differ. Their understanding of who God
is is completely different from what the world has. Their understanding
about themselves is completely different from what the world
views themselves to be. their values in terms of what
it is that's important. I read a statement by Augustine,
I think I put it in the Bulletin maybe for this coming Sunday,
I can't remember, but he said the difference between temporal
things and eternal things is that You love temporal things
more before you possess them than you do after you possess
them. And the longer you possess them, the less you love them. Whereas in spiritual things,
you don't love it until you possess it. And after you possess it,
you love it more and more and more. Is that not a... Is that not the difference between
the believer and the unbeliever? That we have an interest, we
have a desire for, I'm not saying that we don't get in our sinful
unbelief, we get caught up in the things of this world, surely
we do. And therein is a difference as well, because the spirit of
God, we get, We get too attached to something and the Holy Spirit,
who's been given to us as an earnest, will convict us of that
and correct us in that. I'm certain he will. He does
it for me all the time. And I need it a lot. So what
a blessing. I'm so thankful the Lord has
given us this earnest down payment until the purchased possession
is fully revealed in all of his glory. But he purchased us. We're not ourselves. We have
a completely different view and understanding and values in terms
of how it is that God is pleased to save sinners. We know that
we're not saved by works. We know that our free will had
nothing to do with our calling and our salvation and that Christ
accomplished everything that God required. We have another
place where scripture says we have the unction of the Holy
Spirit. That this is what he purchased for us and this is
the earnest that he gave us in this glorious purchase that he
made of his people. Our desires are different, our
hopes are different, our values are different in that regard. We are a peculiar people. And
as I said, we see the sinfulness of our worldliness, but the Lord
doesn't let us stay there. Labor not for that meat that
perishes, but that meat that is to eternal life. Look, you're there in 1 Peter. Turn back with me to 1 Peter
1 and look with me at verse 18. For as much as you know, you
know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things. You
did not become his purchased possession by something corruptible. You weren't redeemed by your
corruptible free will or by your corruptible works or by your
corruptible wisdom and knowledge and understanding. Those things
are all corruptible. We were not purchased. We did
not become his possession by corruptible things. And you know
that. as silver and gold from your
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers."
He's talking about religion. You know, we're a peculiar people
in that we can't go to a man-made works, free will religion. We
can't be a part of it. We won't be a part of it. We
have no desire for it. We hate it. We hate it. A works gospel robs us of our
hope of salvation. If my salvation has something
to do with corruptible things, then I have no comfort. I have no hope. So these vain traditions received
from your fathers is the is the religion that is passed down
from generation to generation. And all men are the same. And
all religions are ultimately the same. It doesn't matter if
it's Islam or if it's Hinduism or if it's some other form of
free will Christianity, Judaism, they're all the same. I've said
this so many times, but it's so true. You know it's true.
The only difference between one religion and the next in the
world is what the list of do's and don'ts are for that particular
religion. That's the only difference. But they all have things that
you must do in order to be redeemed. And here's what our Lord's saying.
You weren't redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold.
You know that. Your redemption was made sure
and God has given you the Holy Spirit to assure you of that
and to comfort you and to teach you. Look at the next verse. But here's what we were redeemed
with, the precious, the priceless blood of Christ as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you, for you. It was always God's purpose. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
lamb. the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world."
He's the Lamb that was before God before time, slain before
the foundation of the world. This purchased redemption, this
purchased possession, this peculiar people that God has made us to
be has always been. It was sure before the manifestation of Christ
was made 2,000 years ago. And it was sure before the manifestation
of Christ was made to us and in us. It was just as sure as
it is now. Precious blood, priceless. How many times we are reminded
what God said, when I see the blood, the Lord Jesus Christ
took that blood and put it on the mercy seat. And God said,
here, I will meet with you. God saw it, God's pleased. There's two sides to this glorious
truth of, of being a purchased possession. The first side is
that we are not our own. We don't belong to ourselves.
The Lord said in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20, we are bought with
a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit,
which are God's. And so this, This truth of being
bought with a price, the price of the blood of Christ and being
purchased by him and to him speaks to us in terms of responsibility
that we have to not be ourselves. We belong to him. 1 Corinthians 7, verse 22 says,
you are bought with a price. Be ye not therefore servants
of men. Be ye not therefore servants
of men. Oh, the fear of man. We all deal
with it every day. The need for the approval of
man. And here our Lord's reminding us Don't be the servants of man,
you my servant, I bought you, you belong to me, I purchased
you. And the second half of that glorious
truth is that what he has purchased belongs to him and he will keep
it and protect it and nothing can happen to it, it's his. the security and the confidence
that we have of knowing that he has bought and paid for our
very souls and lives. We were slaves to sin. There was a time when we couldn't
believe, could not believe, couldn't see. I'm amazed sometimes how
simple and clear You can be about the gospel with an unbeliever
and their response is such that you know they didn't hear a word. Not a single word you were saying.
It was just, they're deaf, they're blind. Who made you to differ? What do you have that you did
not receive? A man can receive nothing except to be given to
him from heaven. So we were dead in our trespasses and sins. We
couldn't believe. We couldn't see. We couldn't
hear. We couldn't trust Christ. We were dead. And he purchased
us from that spiritual death and made us alive. We were under
the domain and under the power of Satan himself. Slaves to our own way of thinking. And the Lord has made us to be
his own. We are his purchased possession. Our Lord's encouraging us here,
brethren. He's saying to us, you belong
to me. I bought you. And I paid the ultimate price
for you. You know, I saw a sign recently that said it was in
reference to Vietnam. And speaking of those who fought
in Vietnam and it said, it said, all gave something and some gave
everything. And I thought, you know, that's
true. comes to war and I'm thankful
for those who gave for our freedom. But the truth of the gospel is
that all gave nothing and one gave everything. All gave nothing and one gave
everything. Everything that God required
in order to purchase us From our dead, unbelieving, sinful
heart, and make us His own, the Lord Jesus Christ did it in the
shedding of His precious blood. That was the price that God required.
Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. In the day in which you eat of
the fruit, you shall surely die. All of sin comes short of the
Lord. The wages of sin is death. God requires an atonement and
that atonement has to be a perfect sacrifice. It had to be a sinless
sacrifice. Only the Lord Jesus Christ could
purchase us. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
43, Isaiah 43. Verse 1, but now, thus saith
the Lord that created thee. And Scott and I were talking
about this. You know, you don't have to prove
to one of God's people. with logical arguments, you don't
have to prove to one of God's people with apologetics and theology
that this particular, you just have to say, thus saith the Lord.
And they bow. And in that, you are a peculiar
people. You say to the world, you read
any portion of scripture to the world and the majority of men
are gonna have some objection to make about it. When you hear
what God says, you just bow. Why? Because he's purchased you.
He bought you. You're not your own anymore. And when God speaks, you know
that it's God speaking, and you know it's true, and you receive
it and rejoice in it. But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and that it formed thee, O Israel.
I love the fact the Lord gave us both names here. Israel, Prince,
Jacob, Supplanter. Here's what we are. Our new man. He's a royal priest. God has made his people to be
a kingdom of priests and kings and priests. And we have union with Christ
in our new man and a sinless, perfect righteousness in him. That's Israel. That's Israel. Jacob, on the other hand, he's
a deceiver and a supplanter. Always scheming. He that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have purchased thee. I've redeemed thee. I paid the ransom. You belong
to me. Don't be afraid. I own you. I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. You belong to me. When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for
thy ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for thee. The nations are dropping
the bucket to me. You are the apple of my eye.
I bought you, I loved you. I'm not going to forsake you. Oh, here's why we have reason to
not be afraid. because he purchased us as a
peculiar people, a purchased possession. He paid the full
ransom. When Paul met with the Ephesian
elders in Acts chapter 20, one of the things that he said
to them was, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the
flock over which the Holy Ghost has
made you overseers, to feed the church of God, to feed the church
of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." With his
own blood. He bought the church. He paid
the dowry for his bride. We see that. In Hosea, Hosea,
turn with me. I think it's in Hosea chapter
two. Turn with me if you will in your
Bibles to the book of Hosea. Hosea chapter three, I'm sorry.
Hosea chapter three. Verse one, then said the Lord
unto me, go yet, love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an
adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children
of Israel, who look to other gods and love flagons of wine. So I bought her to me for 15
pieces of silver and for an Omar of barley and a half Omar barley. Now the significance of that,
Gomer had sold herself into harlotry. She is a picture of what we are
spiritually, unfaithful to our husband, worshiping other gods. And the father saying to Hosea,
you go down to the auction block and you purchase that harlot
to yourself and make her to be your wife. And he paid for her 15 pieces
of silver and an omar of barley. Barley was the cheap man's grain,
the poor man's grain. It made cheap bread, barley did.
It wasn't the favored wheat. And the price of a slave was
30 pieces of silver. So what is the Lord saying to
us here? What Hosea paid for Gomer is not a direct correlation
between what Christ paid for us. He's he's showing her he's
showing us how how wasted she was and how worthless she was
and how little value she had on her. That's all they wanted
for her on the auction block. She had so destroyed her life. And hear our Lord the Father
saying, go down there and buy that harlot, possess her, make
her to be your own. And look at verse three, and
I said unto her, thou shalt abide for me. many days, and shall
not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man,
so will I also be for thee." So he commits himself to her
and he commits her to himself and makes her to be his bride. You're mine. You're my purchased
possession. You're my peculiar people. I've
made you so. We are what we are by the grace
of God. We look at our lives and we see
that we're not very peculiar, we're pretty common. We pretty
much live our lives like everybody else in this world. We don't
see the fact that we've been delivered from our sin because
sin is so real in our lives. And yet here's what God says,
and so it must be, it has to be, this is the way it is. This
is what God is saying about his church. You're no longer in bondage
to sin. You can believe now. You couldn't
believe before. and you're mine, you belong to me.
Hebrews chapter 10 verse 39 says, but we are not of them that draw
back under perdition. Now in Hebrews chapter 10, the
Lord is telling us the dangers of apostasy. Those who make a
profession of faith and then they fall away. Those who have
heard And then they forsake the gospel. And after all the warnings
that are given in Hebrews chapter 10, the Lord says, but you are
not of them that draw back unto perdition. You are them that
believe to the saving of your souls. Now I looked up that word,
I was looking up the word possession, purchased possession, and it's
translated in that verse I just read, saving. So you have been
purchased, you belong to God. And you're not gonna fall away
to perdition. He has bought you and he's gonna
keep you to the saving of your soul. Second Thessalonians chapter
two verse 14 says, where unto he called you by our gospel to
the obtaining, that word obtaining is purchased possession, to the
obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. So this all
goes back to what the Lord said in Ephesians chapter one. that
he's given us the earnest until the redemption of the purchased
possession. So the full revelation, the full
manifestation of what Christ has bought cannot be seen now. It cannot be seen, child of God.
You can't look at your life and see it. You can't look at him
and see him except by the eye of faith. And what are we left
with? We're left with, Lord, I just
believe you. Whatever you said is true. I
don't see it in my life. But I know it's true because
you said it. You said it. And that purchased possession
is going to be fully manifest in the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ in the saving of our souls and the obtaining of his glory. That's the purchased possession.
You are a peculiar people. You are a purchased possession. You could not redeem yourself.
No man can redeem his brother, the scripture says. There is
no price that you can pay to satisfy what God requires for
our atonement, for our redemption. Second Samuel chapter 24, David,
at the very end of his life, errs in numbering the children
of Israel. He's an old man. He's having
a moment of pride and wants to know that his life has some meaning
and some success to it. And so he sends Joab throughout
all of Israel to number the men that are a fighting age. And
Joab says to him, David, this is not right, don't do this.
You're doing this for your own glory. And David insisted, and
Joab obeyed, and Joab went out and came back. And Joab told
David, there's 500,000 men in Israel that can draw the sword.
We have an army. And as soon as Joab told David
that, the Holy Spirit smote David's heart. David knew that he had
sinned. He knew that he had done this
out of pride and self-righteousness. And the Lord spoke to David and
he gave him three options. He said, you can choose between
one of three options. You can either have seven years
of famine You can have three months of fleeing from your enemy,
or I'm going to send a pestilence for three days. And David thought,
don't let me fall into the hands of men. I want to fall into the
hand of God. And so he chose the third option.
And the Lord sent an angel. One angel came into Israel and
slew 70,000 men. 70,000 of his army were killed. And
the angel was about to go into Jerusalem and slay more, and
God stopped him. He said, that's enough. That's
enough. And after the pestilence, David
wanted to make a sacrifice. He wanted to worship God as the
hope of a blood sacrifice, atoning for his sins. And so David went
to a threshing floor and a guy by the name of Aaronaw. And Aaronaw said, you can have
the threshing floor. Here's some oxen. You can have
them. You can take the yokes and use that for wood to build
the fire. Aaronaw was going to give David
everything. And David said this. David said,
and here's the point of the whole story. I will not make a sacrifice
to my God that costs me nothing. I've always thought of that in
relationship to my own walk of faith and how our religion is
not a religion of convenience. You know, most men The Lord has
made us a peculiar people in that most people just want, you
know, $2 worth of God. Just give me enough, give me
enough God to, you know, help me out in my time of trials.
But when God gives you the earnest of his spirit and he shows you
what the Lord Jesus has done in making you a peculiar people
and a purchased possession, you understand this is a lot more
than $2 worth of God. This is my life and Christ is
my life. And so David said, I will not
make a sacrifice to God that cost me nothing. Pray the Lord
will enable us by his grace to make sacrifices that are not
just convenient. They will won't. We won't. order worship and prayer and
giving around our busy schedules, but that we will order our schedules
around the worship and prayer and giving and the sacrifices
will be from the heart. But as I read this in light of
this message, I saw David as a type of Christ, saying to his father, I will
not make a sacrifice to God that costs me nothing. Cost him everything. Cost him everything. He laid
down his life for sheep. He atoned for the sins of his
people. Jonah we know is a type of Christ
who was cast into the sea and swallowed up by the whale and
spent three days in the belly of the earth as a type of Christ
before the resurrection. Jonah went down, the scripture
says, to Joppa and got on a ship to go to Tarshish. And the scripture
puts it like this. He paid his fare. He paid his
fare. The Lord Jesus Christ paid the
fare necessary to redeem his people. Everything that God required. was paid for in full. You know, when the Lord said
it is finished on Calvary's cross, that word from what I understand
in the original language was a word that they would write
on a bill once it was paid in full. You know, you go now to
pay off a bill and you love that stamp that says paid in full.
Paid in full, you can't pay any more on it, it's already been
paid. You get out of the bank and try to make a payment on
a bill that you've already paid off in full, they're not going
to take it. You can't make payments on a thing that's been paid in
full. When the Lord said, it is finished,
that's what he was saying, paid in full. You have my purchased
possession. I've redeemed you. I bought you
with a price, not with silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ. God was pleased with the price
that I paid and you're not your own. You belong to me. I'm going to keep you. In man-made religion, the price
has not yet been fully paid. Christ made an offer for salvation. But now you have to put your
two cents worth in in order to make it work. You have to either
make a contribution of your will or make a contribution of your
works or make a contribution of your wisdom. One way or the
other, you've got to do something. in order to make sure that what
God requires for the payment of your soul has been paid in
full. Because Christ didn't actually
do it all. He needs you to do your part. How blasphemous is that? If Christ
died for everybody, as they say, then everybody's saved. And,
you know, universal atonement if Christ
died for everybody, if he paid the price, if he paid the ransom
price. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
55, Isaiah 55. This is so needful that we'd
be reminded of this because there's a recovering Pharisee in each
one of us and we have thoughts of trying to atone for our own
sins by our commitments and by our
works and by our bartering with God and making deals. You know,
Lord, I'll do this if you do that. You know, that old man
of works is still there. Jacob, that supplanter, that
deceiver, he's still there, isn't he? That's why it's so necessary
for us to see things as God sees them. And look what he says in
Isaiah chapter 55. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And ye that have no money, come
ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. word price means to barter. Don't
offer God something to pay for your sins and don't try to make
a deal with God about something you'll do. If he'll do something,
you'll do something. No. Come without money and without
price. The ransom price has been paid.
The blood's been shed. Everything that God requires
for The church to be his purchased possession was paid on Calvary's
cross. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread and your labor for that which satisfies
not? Hearken diligently unto me and
eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Oh, we spend so much of our time
and effort, don't we? trying to satisfy ourselves with
something other than Christ. There's no shortage of money
changers in the temple, all trying to make a deal with God. Romans chapter 10 says that the
Jews were zealous for God. They had a zeal for God, but
not according to knowledge. not according to knowledge. For
being ignorant of the righteousness of God, they went about to establish
their own righteousness, not knowing that Christ was the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. We are his purchased possession. We are his peculiar people. And he paid it all. He paid it all. when Boaz was
meeting with those 10 elders at the city gate in order to
redeem Naomi and Ruth, he met with, he said to that
kinsman that was nearer to Naomi than he was, if you're going
to redeem her, redeem her. And that kinsman said, I can't
redeem her. Or the kinsmen said, I'll redeem
Naomi, but the Moabites, no, I can't redeem the Moabites.
Ruth, if I let her into my family, it'll mar my inheritance. And
so Boaz said, let it be known this day to all Israel that I
have purchased that which Elimelech lost. everything that Limelech,
Naomi's husband, lost. Boaz stood up publicly before
those ten elders representing the Ten Commandments, and that
one kinsman that was nearer to Naomi than Boaz was, representing
the law, which could not purchase us. The law can't buy us. And the Lord Jesus Christ, as
Boaz is saying, let it be known to all Israel that I have paid
the full ransom price. I have purchased back everything
that Elimelech lost. And Naomi is mine. And Ruth is
mine. Ruth is mine. I bought her with
a price. Let us close with one verse of
scripture in Job chapter 33. Job chapter 33. Verse 22, yea, his soul draweth
near unto the grave and his life to the destroyers. If there be
a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show
unto man his uprightness. Then he, God, has been gracious
unto him and saith, deliver him from going down to the pit. I
have found a ransom. God is speaking. And he says,
I have found a ransom for him. When the Lord Jesus Christ died
on Calvary's cross, the church, every single one of the sheep of God in the church
of Christ were purchased. And God says, I found a ransom. I have found a ransom for her. Our heavenly father, thank you.
Thank you for your word and thank you for the hope of salvation
that you've given us in my dear son. Cause us Lord to reflect and
to rejoice in what you have done. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 125, let's stand together. Thy strength indeed is strong. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Kind indeed, Thine all in all. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.