All right, Exodus chapter 30.
Now, we'll be looking at verses 11 through 16, and our subject
is a memorial of atonement. I want you to look there at that
last verse, verse 16. It says, thou shalt take the
atonement money of the children of Israel and shalt appoint it
for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. Remember
they made the silver foundation out of this ransom silver. They made the hooks and some
hoops and things out of this silver. Now, look what it was
for. That it may be a memorial unto
the children of Israel before the Lord. That was the purpose
of this. It was to put them in remembrance
continually. The silver in that foundation. Every time they would go in to
make an offering, they were reminded constantly that God had ransomed
them. They were in Egypt, they were
bound, there was no way to free themselves, and God ransomed
them from Egypt through the Passover lamb. They were reminded of that
constantly when they would see that silver. They were reminded
that they were sinners and that their salvation was entirely
of God. Today we don't have a tabernacle. We have what is the equivalent
of that tabernacle. We have the preaching of the
gospel. The preaching of the gospel is to put us in continual
remembrance. Number one, that we are sinners.
Vow sinner. We eat, sleep, and breathe sin. In our flesh dwells nothing good.
Our very best righteousnesses are filthy rags before God. And
we're reminded constantly that God alone ransomed us. God alone sent his son who paid
the blood, his blood, the price of ransom and ransomed his people
from the fall. We're constantly reminded that
God is our salvation, that we're not our own, we're bought with
a price, we belong to him. And this is what Paul meant when
he told Timothy, if thou put the brethren in remembrance of
these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ. As
we hear what God declares in this passage, let us hear it
personally. Each one here that is a child
of God, born of God, believes on Christ, hear this to you personally. and hear it as what God's done
for you personally. Because that's what this was.
It was a memorial to remind each one what God had done for them
personally. It's by God's continual reminding
the believer through the gospel. It's by the gospel continually
reminding the believer that we're ransomed from the fall by the
blood of Christ. that it's freely by God's grace. It's by that message that God
continually, it's that message that he uses to create and continually
renew in his people a spirit of meekness. This is the message. This is how we're kept unified
It's by God using this message that we're sinners, saved by
grace, forgiven freely, that he creates a spirit of meekness. Now, the first thing I want us
to see here is that the way of salvation is of God. Salvation is of God. The way
of salvation is of God. He says in verse 11, and the
Lord spake unto Moses saying, when thou takest the sum of the
children of Israel after their number. God ordained this. God purposed everything that
took place here. He ordained everything that was
taking place here because he's showing us that everything in
the salvation of a sinner is of God. It all originates with
God. We see this beautiful picture
of Christ ransoming his people here and we see how that It's
for a particular people. And we have to remember this.
It's all of God. God purposed it. God provided
it. God performed it. The need, sin
entering in, was of God. The Savior, God chose. The price
required, God ordained. The people saved, God chose. All is of God. Salvation is of
the Lord. We have a lot of unrest going
on in the country, and I couldn't help but think of that when I
was preparing this. The problem is with God. That's
the problem. God is the authority. He's the
authority. Salvation begins by God giving
us a fear of God in heart. We have to be made to bow to
God from the heart, bowing to God's way of salvation. When
we bow to God as the authority and bow to God's way of salvation,
everything else will follow. Everything else will follow.
He's the authority and he made his messenger Moses here to be
the authority over Israel. He sent Moses with this message.
They didn't have Christ come to them and speak this to them.
They had just a man come and speak to them. But for those
that were true elect of God and truly born of the Spirit, God
taught them in their hearts what this meant. You know, when he's
given us a heart to bow to God, we won't have a problem bowing
to God's word. We won't have a problem bowing
to that word delivered by his earthen messenger because we
know God's the authority. And we won't have a problem bowing
to anybody God puts in authority. His pastors, his civil rulers,
a husband, a father, we won't have a problem with that. Because
we see God's the authority, God's ruling, God's working his will
in the midst using his message whether what they do is right
or wrong, he's doing it. And we can bow to God and trust
God. You know, when God made Israel,
God didn't give him a king, he gave him his messenger with his
word. That's what he gave him, to rule
the people. It wasn't until they rejected Samuel that God gave
a king to Israel. They wanted a king like the other
nations had. And you remember what God said?
They've not rejected you, Samuel, they've rejected me. What you
see going on in our country today, they're rejecting God. That's
what it is. That's the heart of the issue.
That's the heart of the issue. It's always the heart of the
issue. Sinners will read the Bible and they'll say, or you
tell them the truth of the gospel and they'll say, well, I don't
like that. Well, take it up with God because this is God's word
and this is God's way of salvation and sooner or later we're going
to take it up with God either in grace when we're made to bow
or in judgment. but God's way is going to be
done. So our first need is to be given a humble heart, a contrite
heart to bow to the authority, and God's the authority. And
secondly, notice this, God provided a ransom for the particular people
that God chose. This was for a particular people.
He says here in verse 30, verse 12, chapter 30 verse 12, when thou
takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number. The ransom was provided for the
children of Israel. There was a lot of nations around
Israel. God didn't give his oracles to
those nations at this time. Only the children of Israel. And you notice it says the sum
of the children of Israel after their number. That means God
provided a ransom for the total sum of his people in Israel. And that teaches us what the
Bible teaches us throughout. Salvation is by particular redemption. By particular redemption. That
means God chooses whom he will and Christ came and redeemed
God's elect alone. And God told Moses that's his
glory. He said, I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. I'll have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. That's God's glory. It's God's prerogative to choose
who he will save. That's his prerogative. That
puts vile rebels like you and me at the mercy of God, and that's
where we need to be wrong. We need to be brought down to
see salvation's not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth
but of God that shows mercy. Christ went to the cross and
he redeemed each of God's particular people. His name is Jesus for
he shall save his people from their sin. Christ said, I'm the
good shepherd and the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He said, as the Father knoweth
me, even so know I the Father, and I laid down my life for the
sheep. Now why do we preach this? Well,
first of all, because it's God's Word. That's why we preach it.
But secondly, it's not only how God is glorified, it's how His
Son is glorified. Look at John 17. John chapter
17. Verse 1 says, These words spake
Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father,
the hour is come. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son
also may glorify thee. See, this is about the glory
of God our Father and the glory of His Son, Christ Jesus. That's
what salvation's about. That's why God's not going to
share this glory with you and me. Now watch, as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
all flesh? No, to as many as thou hast given
him. Look at verse nine, I pray for
them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast
given me, for they are mine, and all mine are thine, and thine
are mine, and I'm glorified in them. See that? I'm glorified
in them. Christ is glorified in that He
successfully ransomed His people from the fall. He's glorified
in that He paid the exact price God demanded, the price of His
precious blood, and accomplished redeeming us from the curse of
the law. He accomplished it. The world
makes it out to be that Christ tried to do it and made it a
possibility, but you by your will makes it a reality. That's
not true. That doesn't glorify Christ,
that glorifies the sinner. This is for the glory of God
choosing whom He will choose and for the glory of His Son
redeeming each one He chose. That's what this is about. Now
believer, you hear this as what God the Father and His Son did
for you personally. He chose you, not because of
anything in you. How often do we regard people? We're nothing but respecters
of persons. We make our estimation of people
based off of who they are and what they've done. That's knowing
a man after the flesh, and that's wrong for a believer. Just flat
wrong for a believer. If He chose you by grace and
saves you by grace, then that means there's nothing in you
that's going to ever make God reject you. And I'll tell you
how we ought to apply that. That should make me and you know
our brethren after the Spirit. What did Paul mean when he said,
we know no man after the flesh, yea, though we've known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, here's what he meant. Here's what's
knowing somebody after the Spirit. knowing a believer after the
spirit. It's knowing that if any man is in Christ, he's a
new creation. Old things are passed away. I'm
talking about before God. The old man's gone and all his
sin is gone and behold, all things have become new. Now, if God
works this, if he teaches us this in our heart and creates
a spirit of meekness in us, we're going to know one another after
the spirit rather than after the flesh. What does that mean?
When our brethren are overtaken in a fault, we can do one of
three things. One, we can hear the charge and
we can treat them like they're guilty as charged. And we might
later find out they're innocent. And we might find out that the
witness had a motive or something for charging them. And we'll
feel awful about that. Or we can treat them like they're
innocent and exalt them. And we might later find out they're
guilty, and we feel awful about that. Both of those are knowing
a man after the flesh. Or, we can treat him like a sinner,
saved by the grace of God, perfectly righteous in Christ, and be merciful
and kind and forgiving. If we do the other two, we're
gonna stand in the tent door with ham and say, look, look,
look, and talk to everybody. If we know men after the flesh,
we're going to turn our backs and walk backwards and cover
their nakedness like the other two sons of Noah did. That's
a spirit of meekness. That's a spirit of meekness.
That's knowing a man after the spirit. And that's true of all
of us, brethren. That's how we are to treat every
believer no matter how offensive or what have you. We see a confession of faith
in Christ. This is accompanied with a confession
of our total unworthiness. Look here in verse 12, the second
part there, he says, then, he's talking about when you number
them, when you take a census, he says, then shall they give
every man. That means each man personally
has to come this way. They give every man a ransom
for his soul unto the Lord. Now remember, this was not actually
ransoming them. This was putting them in remembrance
of a ransom that already took place. They're out of Egypt.
But this was to remind them constantly that God did the ransoming. But
they're required to come with this ransom for their soul when
thou numberest them, that there be no plague among them, that
there be no death, that God don't kill them. when thou numberst
them. This they shall give every one. He keeps pointing out that each
one personally has to bring this. Every one that passeth among
them that are numbered must bring half a shekel after the shekel
of the sanctuary. A shekel is 20 giraz, and a half
shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. That means this
is what God required. Everyone, there it is again,
each one personally that passeth among them that are numbered
from 20 years old and above shall give an offering unto the Lord. Now this was to acknowledge something
that God had already accomplished for them. God had already paid
the ransom in the Passover lamb for them. That's how they were
brought out was through the blood of a lamb. and they're delivered. So now God declares to them through
His messenger what He requires. Isn't that what the preaching
of the gospel is? The ransom's already taken place. The redemption's
already happened. Atonement's already been made.
Reconciliation's been accomplished by God. The gospel is God sending
His messenger to His people and saying, now let me tell you what
God requires of you. What does He require? God says
He will have each one acknowledge that they're God's. That God
ransomed them through the blood of the Passover lamb. God required
each and every ransomed child of Israel that was numbered to
personally bring the ransom price which God required. This was so that they would not
die. God requires His elect must come to Him with the exact ransom
price God demands and that's Christ. We must come with Christ. We must come acknowledging God
has saved us and we didn't save ourselves. God has purchased
us and we're not our own. We come to God saying He ransomed
us, not we ourselves. We come to God saying we belong
to God, we're not our own. and all we deserve is death.
How do we do that? We come through faith in Christ.
That's what we come confessing, through faith in Christ. You
remember years later, David numbered Israel, but he did not require
that this ransom money be paid. And what was the sin in that? What was the sin in that? David
took the glory rather than giving the glory to God. That's what
the sin was. David counted them his people
rather than acknowledging it was God who ransomed them. It
would be the equivalent to me counting up the members of this
congregation and making a boast and saying, I did this. Same
thing. And you know what God did? He killed 70,000 Israelites. He sent a pestilence. He sent
a plague and killed 70,000 people. Because it's the same as coming
to God without Christ. It's the same as saying I don't
need redemption. I don't need a ransom. I can
present myself to God and God will kill you and me if we come
to him that way. Justice demands he do so. So
what must we bring? He said to them there, he said,
the offering they must bring is a half shekel after the shekel
of the sanctuary. And he told them clearly what
it is. He said, a half shekel is 20 giraz. And he said, and this is the
offering of the Lord. This is what I require. It couldn't be
a half shekel that was in circulation amongst the people with some
of the edges shaved off so that it wasn't the exact weight. It
had to be the exact amount that God required. It had to be precisely
what God required. The Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed
Redeemer, our substitute, shedding His precious blood is the exact
payment God demands. the exact ransom price. Holy
justice. God's so holy, His law has to
be upheld. It must be upheld. This is the
argument people are given when they say that we're still under
the law. God's law must be upheld. And we say, yes it must. But
you and I can't do it. Christ did it. That's why He
sent His Son. So quit trying to add to Christ
by bringing sinners back under the law. Christ did it. He did
it. And He's the exact price holy
justice demands. God required the blood. He required
the life of His Son in the place of each elect to ransom His elect
from the demands of holy justice which was death. Christ is the
half shekel. He's the half shekel. He redeemed
His people by paying the exact ransom price. Matthew 20, 28.
The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister
and to give His life a ransom for many. And that's what He
did. He gave His life in place of
His people and that's the ransom. That's the ransom. For as much
as you know, you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold as received from the vain conversation by the tradition
of your fathers. You know what they did? God did
this one time. One time. And the children of
Israel turned it into a tax for the temple and continued to do
it. Continued to do it. It may be that he did it twice.
It's in numbers, but I think it's the same places right here.
But they turned it into a perpetual thing. And that's what the money
changers were doing when Christ went in the temple to turn the
money changers over. They would give you change so
that you could have a half shekel. But they charged you for it to
make change for you. And there's Christ who is the
shekel of the sanctuary. There He is. And they're making
money off of people, off of an ordinance God gave What does
it picture him? That's why Peter said you weren't
redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold. That was
a picture. What does it picture? You're
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot. That's the price God demands. So God sent Moses with His word
and told them this. Just like that, God sends His
preacher with His gospel and declares to us through the gospel
that Christ is the price God demands. And God says He will
receive Christ alone. He ransomed all God's elect and
it's finished and God will receive Him alone. Nobody else. God hath
made him sin for us who knew no sin. That we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. Either God succeeded or God failed. That's the only alternative you
have. Did he succeed? God says he did. And God says,
therefore you come with Christ only. And that's the message
of the Gospel. And when we hear this message,
He gives us faith to believe the Word of God. And we come
through faith in His Son alone. And when the Child of Israel
came, He did so acknowledging He was a sinner. He acknowledges,
I'm coming that there be no plague, that there be no death. This
is the only way God will receive me and not kill me. Coming to
God in Christ, we come confessing that all we are in ourselves
is sinners. Any work we've ever done is sinful, and God won't
receive us if we come in ourselves. Christ said, I am the way. I am the way. There's one way
to God, and it's Christ. He said there's only one way
we can come to God, and that's by Him. Thomas Brooks said this,
he said, to men have faith in Christ, their best services are
but glorious sins. Listen to God, shall I count
them pure with the wicked balances and with the bag of deceitful
weights? Anything you and I bring to God
outside of Christ, it's not the pure shekel of the sanctuary. It's a deceitful weight and God
won't receive it. So we come confessing that when
we come in Christ, we come confessing He's our only salvation. We can't
come trusting Christ in something else. In my hand no price I bring,
simply to thy cross I cling, to Christ I cling. He alone. Knowing this, knowing this, that
it's by the precious blood that we're spared the condemnation
we deserve. Have you come with the one offering
of the Lord? Have you come to God with the
one offering He requires? That's what God's people ask
ourselves continually. Is it I? Have I come with the
offering God requires? God gets the glory for drawing
us, but when we come, we come with nothing but Christ confessing. We're nothing but sinners. And
that message, knowing that God did this, will make us show mercy
and grace and forgiveness because we receive mercy and grace and
forgiveness continually. Continually. Now, fourthly, God
requires no more no less than Christ. You say, well, you just
covered that point. Well, God covers it again. Look
here, verse 15. The rich shall not give more,
the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when they
give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for your
soul. Now, right now sinners are burning down cities in America
in the name of inequality, injustice. There's only one place where
sinners are equal. Just one place. And that's in
Christ. The only place. It's the only
place. I saw a sign yesterday that said,
we want justice. I thought, no you don't. No you don't. There's only one
place we're equal. There's only one place justice
is settled. That's in Christ. That's in Christ. The rich shall not add to Christ. The poor shall not give less.
It declares that every child of God, rich or poor, has been
purchased with the same exact price in Christ's precious blood
and each are equally ransomed and equally righteous. There
is neither Jew nor Greek There's neither bond nor free, there's
neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Where there's neither Greek nor
Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian or Scythian, bond nor
free. That's saying it's not our race,
it's not our works, it's not our education, it's not anything
about us. What is it then? Christ is all
and in all. Now let me tell you something.
If you start teaching sinners that all that's true but now
you're going to have to sanctify yourself by your work and if
you do a good enough job, God's going to give you a better reward
in heaven. You know what that's teaching a sinner? If you give
more than Christ, you can put a difference between you and
those brethren. You won't be one anymore. You'll
be above them. That's satanic is what that is.
That's a lie. No. In Christ, we're equally
righteous, equally holy, equally redeemed, equally accepted, equally
loved, equally secure. When we get to heaven, the reward
of heaven is going to be Christ, our righteousness. And if you
need a better reward than that, you'll get another reward than
that. I can tell you that, but it won't be Christ. Now, the foundation of the tabernacle
was made of silver sockets from this ransom silver. And here's
my point on that. I'm talking about sanctification.
They took this silver and they melted it down and they made
those silver sockets. And so everything the priest
did and all the offerings he made that God commanded, He didn't
add anything to that foundation. He didn't add to redemption accomplished. He didn't add to the full righteousness
of the law being provided and satisfied and God's people being
made perfect and complete before God. He didn't add to that. That
foundation was done. That's what we have pictured
here. There's nothing we can do more or less that's going
to add to or take away from Christ our foundation. It's done. It's
done. You can't change it, and thank
God we can't change it. Now again, the purpose of this
offering was to make that foundation to be a memorial unto the children
of Israel before the Lord. Now think about this, brethren.
This gospel is to constantly remind each believer personally
that in ourselves, we're sinners with no way of saving ourselves.
We're vile sinners. That's all we are today in ourselves,
in our sinful flesh. Because we have a new nature
that's holy, but we have an old nature that's sinful. And so
no matter what we do, sin's mixed with it. We're reminded personally
that God saved us by his grace, free grace, sovereign grace,
by his mercy withholding from us what we deserved in ourselves.
By his long suffering with us. He suffered long, think of how
many years of rebellion against God we were in. And think of
now how much we rebel against God and how long suffering he
is. And He continues to forgive us rather than giving us the
condemnation we deserve. Now listen to Lamentations 3.19. Remembering mine affliction and
my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul hath them still
in remembrance. And what's the result? And my
soul is humbled in me. That's the first thing he does
in this gospel. He reminds us of our sinfulness and humbles
us. This I recall to mind. There's
another remembrance in this gospel. Therefore have I hope. It is
of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. Because his compassions
fail not. They're new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. That's the two things. That's
how God creates a spirit of meekness, and that's how God renews a spirit
of meekness in his people. And we need that constantly,
constantly, or we get proud and arrogant and self-righteous and
find fault with everybody else, and we're the only ones right.
And he has to keep reminding us of this gospel to bring us
back down, to humble us because he makes us remember the wormwood
and the gall that I am personally. And yet God in his faithfulness
continues to have mercy and grace upon me and forgive me. And that's
how we're continually constrained by the love of Christ to know
no brother after the flesh. but to know each other after
the Spirit, so that we're gracious and merciful and forgiving to
one another. If we take our eye off Christ,
now don't think a brother's falling away when he does this, but when
we take our eye off Christ, we cease to remember I'm the chief
of sinners. You stop remembering you're the
chief of sinners. And we cease esteeming our brethren
better than ourselves. And we become fruit inspectors.
We start inspecting God's fruit. You know this word, the only
one it tells me to examine is myself. It don't tell me to examine
you. And it don't tell you to examine
me. It tells me to examine myself. But we become fruit inspectors
and we're overtaken with a hard, condemning heart and we'll attempt
to justify it using the sin of others. Do you know what the
issue is? It's the heart. That's the issue. It's the heart. We've ceased
remembering what sinners we are personally. We've ceased to recall
that God's freely, undeservingly, continually shown us grace and
mercy and forgiveness in Christ. And so God brings us back to
hear the gospel. And he uses our trials and everything
else to bring us to be humbled and meek in spirit, to consider
ourselves, lest we also be tempted. so that we don't deceive ourselves
into thinking we're something when we're nothing. And he brings
you back down to the feet of Christ and you come all over
again where that one price God demands. And God receives you. Isn't that merciful? Isn't that
gracious? I pray God will bless you. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Our Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for mercy,
for grace, for forgiveness, for long-suffering continually. We thank you that you do this
for the sake of Christ. If you did it for our sakes,
Lord, you might stop doing it one day. Christ's work is perfect,
it's complete, and we're thankful that you do what you do for His
sake, and you look at us in Him, and you remember us in Him, and
you keep us in Him, and you keep us looking to Him. Lord, let
this be a reminder, let this be a continual remembrance to
us. Put us in remembrance of you
and what you've done for us freely by grace, and keep us in that
spirit of meekness. Don't let us become proud. Don't
let us walk in our flesh, overtake of our flesh. Keep us low. Keep
us low. Thank you, Lord, for complete,
accomplished ransom and redemption and reconciliation. Thank you
that you have completed the work. Make us stand on this foundation
firm and sure. Lord, be with those that are
sorrowing today. Be with those that are heavy
laden and those that are overcoming the flesh and be with your people. Help us to remember this about
one another and to keep our eye on Christ. Remember what we are. Forgive us our sins, Lord. In
Christ's name we ask it, amen.