May God be pleased to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
Gospel of Luke chapter 21 and we'll read verse 28. Verse chapter
21 in the Gospel of Luke and reading verse 28. And when these
things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your
heads for your redemption draweth nigh. This chapter really has two references
principally and the first is when the Lord was speaking to
Judah with regards to what would happen to natural Jerusalem. And he told them that it would
be destroyed and what they would have to do. And we know of course
that, as always, God's words come to pass. Most people didn't
think they would, but they did. which the Jews thought, well,
that would always remain. Well, it didn't, you see. It
was destroyed. And then we see the reference
here to the destruction of all things, the time when the Lord
will return in all his glory. And as sure as Jerusalem was
destroyed, So surely the end of all things will occur. There
is no doubt. There is no doubt. Let us never
think the world's going to continue as it is forever. Man likes to
think that. Man's planning for the future.
They're worried about what's going to happen in hundreds and
thousands of years. Well, we're thankful we have
the Word of God. which encourages us in this way,
that to the Church of God, to the true Christians, there is
a wonderful prospect before us. Those who are not, those who
live for the day, for this life, there will be a terrible prospect
for them, a terrible prospect. And how often we forget the Word
of God which speaks so forcibly on both fronts. And there are
those today who tragically believe in a heaven, but after judgement,
no hell, annihilation. My friends, such teaching is
false. Such teaching is of the devil. Such teaching is to lull People
to sleep, to think, well, it doesn't really matter how I live. Hopefully I'll go to heaven,
but if not, well, there'll be annihilation. That's the lie
of the devil. And don't forget, the devil's
been a liar from the very beginning. When he deceived Eve in the Garden
of Eden, when he asked the question, hath God said? That's the same
question he asks us today. He came and said, well, hath
God said? Don't believe it. It's not true. Like many in the
world today, they say the Bible is just mythology. It's just
lies. It's just fairy tales. There's
no truth. Blessed be God, the Savior said,
when he prayed to his father on the 17th of John, thy word
is truth. Never think it's not. Never think.
A single word in the word of God is not true. Never think
that things are not going to come to pass, because they will,
without any doubt. Now, the word really here, just
in this verse, which is central to this occasion, pointing to
the end of time, and central to our lives, is a single word. And I hope you young people will
guess what it is. in this 28th verse, there's a
single word which is so, so important. And that is this word redemption. This word redemption. Now, we
have it here referred to really, the time when the Lord will return. And that means that all his people
will be delivered, freed from all the things which have existed
and will exist down to the end of time, all those sinful situations. And there will be a wonderful
deliverance for the people of God. And they will be found with
Christ forever. And it will be a wonderful redemption.
But let's be clear, only those who will be redeemed on that
occasion will be those who are redeemed and will be redeemed
in a spiritual sense. And if you and I are not redeemed
in a spiritual sense, we will not be redeemed on that great
day when the Lord returns. And so, it is a very important
question for all of us to have a personal, and I do mean that,
a personal understanding and experience of the truth of this
Word applied to our own hearts, to our own lives, that we may
have the positive evidence that we are redeemed. That means we
are delivered, that means the ransom which is placed upon us
has been paid, and I hope you know. If you don't, I'll tell
you. What will pay the price of our
redemption? You young people, do you know
what it is? Word of God tells us, redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. And that's what you and I need
to know, that Christ, the blessed God, now blessed God, the second
person in the Trinity, almighty God, is that one who has personally,
for each one of us, redeemed our souls. And the only currency
which would pay the price for our freedom, the price for our
deliverance, was his shed and his precious blood. And the Word
of God tells us in the Hebrews, without shedding of blood, there's
no forgiveness, there's no remission of sin. And you and I today,
we all need to know that we possess this great and glorious favour
of redemption. Redemption. Now, it's spoken
of on many occasions in the Word of God. And just a few references
to encourage us and to direct us to the significance of it. It's not something which you
and I should think we don't understand. We need to understand it, that
it may penetrate into our hearts. And we should be therefore very
thankful that we have the Word of God. In the Psalms, in the
49th Psalm, we read this in the 8th verse. where the psalmist
says, for the redemption of what? Of their soul is precious and
it ceases forever. That means it always continues. And the previous verses says,
they that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the mastery
of their riches, none of them, can by any means redeem his brother
because they haven't got the right currency. Nor give to God
a ransom for him. They can't pay the price needed
for redemption. So we're told here how true it
is. The redemption of their soul
is precious. What does that mean? It means
it's valuable and so it is. It's exceedingly valuable that
our souls are redeemed. It is most precious. Without it, without it, let us
reiterate, without it, we are forever lost. Without it, we
shall spend eternity in hell. And again, you may say, well,
the old pastor keeps on telling us about eternity. It's very
important. That you and I understand that
eternity is not something that just goes on for a time and then
is cut off and finishes. We should not think that God
will suddenly come and say, oh well, these people have suffered
long enough. That happens naturally. People
perhaps are in prison and they may get a reprieve and they're
delivered from prison. God is in one mind. God does
not change. I am the Lord, I change not.
What God has said comes to pass. What God has said continues.
What God has said doesn't stop. And therefore we must all realise
that if we're found in hell, no escape. Forever. Forever. Just you go home and
try and think of how long ever is. Just try and work it out. It may make you tremble to think there is no end. And
if you and I are not redeemed, that's where we'll be. In hell, and the Word of God
describes it too, it's not a pleasant place. It's a terrible place. It's a place of darkness. It's a place where there's gnashing
of teeth. And you say, well, what does that mean? I'll tell
you what it means. You know people gnash their teeth out there.
Things are getting wrong. But there'll be a continual gnashing
of teeth in hell. And there'll be no relief. No
relief. That's why we have that parable
where the Lord spoke of the rich man and Lazarus. They both died.
Will die. They both died. What happened
to Abraham? Sorry, what happened to Lazarus,
the poor man? He was carried into, figuratively,
Abraham's bosom, into glory. What happened to the rich man?
He opened his eyes in hell. Opened his eyes in hell. What
a terrible place it was. And he said, hey, come, tell
my brothers. I've got five brothers back home. Tell them what the
terrible situation. What was the answer? They have
Moses and the prophets. Those are they to whom they should
listen. Even if someone came out from
the dead, they wouldn't believe it because they don't believe
the word of God. Do you and I believe the word of God? And what did
he want, this rich man? My tongue's thirsty. Let me have
a drop of water." Nothing to relieve thirst in hell. The man said, well, perhaps it's
going to change tomorrow. There's no time in hell. There's no time
in eternity. There's no day or night. It just
goes on and on and on. Does that give you some little
understanding of why? We have such a statement as this,
the redemption of their soul. Our soul is precious and it ceases
forever. So never underestimate the value
of your soul. Never think, well I'll carry
on in my life for a bit longer, doing this and doing that because
I enjoy doing it. You may enjoy doing it. If you're
in hell, you look back and you wish you hadn't enjoyed doing
it. So you see the Lord gives us
words in the Word of God to warn us and to direct us. And we'll never be able to say
in hell, well I didn't understand, well I didn't know. We're all
without excuse you see. It's a very solemn thought, isn't
it? To be found like that, without excuse. And then the Apostle Paul speaks about
this redemption. Well, we would expect that, wouldn't
we? I hope we would expect it. The Apostle Paul was a man of
God, and he rejoiced in salvation. He rejoiced in redemption. And
when he wrote to the Hebrews, he tells us this great truth. He says, verse 14 in the ninth chapter,
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God. And for this cause,
he is, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the mediator, that means the
one who stands between us and the Holy Father, the mediator
of the New Testament, that by means of death, his death, for
the redemption of the transgressions They were under the First Testament.
That means the First Testament, of course, was the Ten Commandments,
the law of God. The transgressions, they were
under the First Testament. They which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. Well, it's very clear words here,
isn't it? Very clear words. And we should
be thankful it is so. And rejoice in them. So what
do we have? the mediator of the New Testament
and Lord Jesus Christ, that by means of death, his death, he
died. It was through his death, and
it was only through his death, that there was then this redemption
for, it was by means of death, for redemption of the transgressions. That means all of our sins, our
sins are transgressions. Our sins condemn us to hell. One sin does that. One sin. Don't ever think you're not a
great sinner. One sin condemns us to hell. And so that sin,
that sin, all our sins, have to be taken away. And how are
they taken away? there's a ransom required. I'm
sure we're familiar with what ransoms are, especially perhaps
in the Middle East, we've heard of those people who've hijacked
a ship and in order for people to get the ship back, they've
demanded a ransom. Unless that ransom's paid, there's
no handing back the ship and therefore the money has to be
found. to actually pay the price of
that, to actually get the ship back and pay the ransom. It's
exactly the same with us. What's really happened, the devil
has tried to hijack us and there's a price to be paid,
there's a ransom to be paid for our redemption. And how is that
to be paid? It can't be paid in currency
of the world. It's not the right value. It wouldn't pay. So here we have
this statement. By means of death for the redemption
of the transgressions. The death of Christ was the only
thing that would satisfy the requirement of Almighty God to
pay the ransom that was required to free us from the condemnation
of sin which would send us to hell. And so here we have this statement
for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament. They which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. So what a blessing it is if you
and I are therefore called by the grace of God. God calls us
to listen. He calls us to hear his voice. He calls us out of the darkness
of nature into the glorious light of the everlasting gospel. And
as it comes, And he calls us. We hear his voice. We need then
to know that he has died in order to redeem our soul. He's died, the blessed Lord Jesus. And in dying, what happened? The evidence of his death was
the shed blood. Yes, the life is in the blood. You can read of it in Leviticus.
The life is in the blood. The life of Christ was in the
blood. The blood was shed, evidencing
the death of Christ. And what did that do? That death,
my friends, and only his death, no other death, no other death
would be satisfactory. You may ask the question, why
not? because any other's death would not have been satisfactory,
because it wouldn't have been a sinless death. The Lord Jesus
Christ, in redeeming us, redeeming the whole Church of God, it had
to be a spotless, pure, undefiled death that would satisfy the
holy and righteous demands of God. So who was able and who
was willing to do this? No one. No one born into this
world of the seed of Adam because all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Nobody was able to satisfy therefore
and produce an adequate payment to free us from our sin. And therefore, God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of the Father, graciously and gloriously
humbled himself and became obedient unto death. even the death of
the cross. No one else was able to redeem
the Church of God. Today, I suppose we should ask ourselves
the question, what do we think of the Lord Jesus Christ? What
value do we put on his death? What value do we put on his shed
blood? You might think of the words
of Jeremiah, is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? What does Christ's death mean
to you and me today? Don't just say, well, I don't
think it's very relevant, I don't think it's very important, perhaps
the most important thing you'll hear today, maybe the most important
thing you'll hear in your life, to know you need to be redeemed. What a blessing then if we have
the evidence that we are amongst those indeed who are redeemed. We are redeemed. It's very, very
important. It's so important, because if
we're not, we should never enter into this text. We should never
know the blessing of this. And when these things begin to
come to pass, then look up, lift up your heads for your redemption,
and draweth nigh, because it won't be. There won't be any
redemption. There's no point in lifting up your head, because
you're not redeemed. We need, we must be amongst those
who are redeemed, for whom the Lord Jesus Christ has stood in
our place and paid the price. It's a wonderful picture and
I hope you understand it. It's a wonderful picture that
we have in the Word of God of substitution. Because you and I could never
pay the price required to deliver us from our sins. We could never
pay the price because we're sinners. We could not pay the price ourselves.
And therefore, we need someone to pay that price for us. It's like someone, isn't it,
coming, having being a criminal. And let us not forget that we
as sinners are criminals before God. We're criminals because
we've disobeyed the Word of God. But you see, if a criminal goes
to court and perhaps he's condemned and he has to pay a fine, a price,
to satisfy the law so that he might be freed. And he hasn't
got any money. And he can't pay the price. And therefore he can't be freed. And that's the same in our situation,
your situation and mine. We cannot pay the price which is required to satisfy
the law of God for that which we are condemned by, disobeying
the law of God. So that we are guilty, we are
going down to hell unless we are redeemed. The only one, the
only one that can redeem the blessed Saviour, what did he
do? He stood in our place. He stood in our place. And we have that very beautiful
picture in the Old Testament of Abraham and Isaac. It's an
interesting account, isn't it? I'm sure you young people and
children are familiar with that occasion when Abraham was told
by God to go and offer up his son as a sacrifice, Isaac. He
was only a boy. He'd been the answer of the promise
which God had told Abraham that Abraham would have a son. And
there he is, this little lad's born and growing up. And now
God says to Abraham, hey, take your son and offer him up. Well, just going aside for a moment,
what did Abraham need to do that? He needed faith to believe. that
God was able to raise Isaac up from the dead in order that the
promise of God might be fulfilled, in order that his children and
the many that would emanate from that would indeed be those whom
God would bless. And now you see, Abraham's faced
with this order from God, go, sacrifice your son. Abraham didn't say, well. He
didn't argue. He didn't say, I think, Lord,
you made a mistake. Can't be so because the promise
won't be fulfilled. He was obedient to God. And that's a wonderful blessing,
for you and me, to be obedient to God. Obedient to God. You might think in your life,
and again I'm just going aside a moment, you might think, well,
I can't really do that, it's just going to be too costly. Abraham didn't hesitate. He didn't hesitate. Took eyes
at his son. On they went, three days journey.
He left his servants, went on with his son. What did his son
say? He was observant. He said, here's
the fire, here's the wood, where's the sacrifice? What did Abraham
say? Faith. God will provide himself
a sacrifice. Where was it coming from? What
faith? And you see, of course, he went
up the mountain, Abraham built the altar, put eyes up there
on to slay him in order that he might be the sacrifice. The
Lord stopped him. Yes, his faith had been proved. In actual fact, it was a faith
that God had given him. And then we see there the wonderful
picture of substitution. Instead of Isaac having to be
slain, there was a ram caught in its horns in a thicket. Go
and take the ram and offer the ram up as a sacrifice. We see there substitution. And therefore in your life and
my life, what do we see? The Lord Jesus Christ being taken
in our place and offered up to be a sacrifice acceptable unto
God. Our life wouldn't be, if we gave
our life it wouldn't be satisfactory, sinful life. The Saviour's was
a perfect life, a sinless life and therefore His sacrifice was
acceptable to God in order to redeem our souls. The glorious
picture You think about it. You meditate upon it. See how
the whole picture of salvation all comes together. It's a wonderful
picture and it comes back to this great need for all of us
to be amongst those who are redeemed, who are delivered from the curse
which we have brought upon us because of sin. so that sinneth
it shall die. We're all guilty. We need the
Saviour. We need to be redeemed. We need
to have all our sins washed away. Without shedding of blood, there's
no remission. Redeemed indeed with the precious
blood of Christ. The Psalms again, just referring
to the Psalms for a moment. Psalm 130 and the seventh verse
in that psalm speaks like this. Let Israel hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy,
and with him is plenteous redemption. Yes, where's your hope today? Where's your hope? I hope it's
not in yourself. I hope your hope, as we sung,
didn't we, in that hymn just now, my hope, and you and I need
to be able to say it personally, personally, my hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. If I asked
you this morning, is that true? Could you put your hand up and
say, yes, by the grace of God, it's true. And I can praise God. And I can bless God for his great
grace, for his great mercy that found me out. It came to me. Yes. You see, these truths, these
blessings, They come to us personally. And when this comes, something
wonderful happens. The light from heaven shines
into our heart. And it's that which really proves
the work of God within us. The light shines. We're delivered
from the darkness of nature. And we behold, what? The Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the
world, yes, who takes away my sin. It's all about reading these
things. You and I need the blessed application
of the Holy Spirit to our soul. so that we have the evidence
that we are redeemed, we are blessed, we are amongst those
who, by the grace of God, will be at that great day amongst
those who will be redeemed, delivered from all things and go to be
with Christ eternally or to be caught up with the Saviour when
He returns in all His glory, yes. Oh, the day hastens on,
doesn't it? It hastens on as we see it by
the signs of the times, don't we? The signs of the times which
we read something of in this chapter. There's plenty of other
signs of the times. You can read it in Jude. Jude tells us, verse
18, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last
time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. And so there are today. There's
a multitude of mockers. who mock the truth of God, but
time's hastening on when they'll come and be crying out for the
rocks to cover them. But you see, blessed be God if
the Lord's given us a wonderful evidence that we are redeemed. And the apostle Peter, he said,
wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. For if you do these things, ye
shall never fall." Well, are we diligent before God in our
concern to know that we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ?
And have the evidence that the glorious God has stood in our
place and he's paid the penalty for our sin. He's ransomed us
from that condemnation so that we are free from it. I'm clean. Just God, I'm clean. Yeah, it's
not because of what we've done, because of what He's done. This,
my friends, is the Gospel. This is the glorious reason why
we're able to come and declare what? The unsearchable riches
of Christ. They are unsearchable. To think
that Almighty God should come and redeem and save such a wretch
as you and me, unworthy of any notice, should be cast off, cast
off as they come from the ground, put upon the dung heap, put upon
the rubbish heap, not of any value. But if we're redeemed,
we're of great value. Because Christ has paid the price
of our redemption with his blood. Well this morning my friends,
may we be concerned that we have the evidence that we are redeemed.
And if we are, then we can be found amongst these. Now this
word speaks of when you see these things begin to come to pass,
look up, yes, because there's a glorious inheritance. Look
up. Believing that it's well with
our soul, eternally. When these things begin to come
to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption
draweth nigh. Amen.