Okay, turn with me again to Exodus
chapter 30, if you would please. Exodus chapter 30, tonight we'll
begin in verse 11. Exodus 30, verse 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses
saying, when thou takest the sum of the children of Israel
after their number. In other words, when you make
an account of them, or when you see how many they are. Then shall
they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when
thou numbers them, that there be no plague among them when
thou numbers them." Now here we see that the Lord commands
his people to give every man a ransom. That word ransom, used
as a noun, means a payment or a payoff, a price, which usually
is in reference to a release or a deliverance and a rescue. You've heard the term used many
times, and as a verb, the word ransom means just that. It means
to obtain the release or the freedom for the exchange of a
prisoner. The ransom spoken of here We
find in verses 13 and 14 to be a half a shekel of silver, which
was to be an offering unto the Lord. And at first glance, this
seems to be contrary and foreign to the scripture. How is this
passage in harmony with what Isaiah wrote? Remember what he
wrote? He said, come to the waters and buy without money and without
price. And didn't Peter write for as
much "'As you know that you were not redeemed "'with corruptible
things as silver and gold.'" So what is the Lord requiring
here? Besides that, naturally speaking,
Israel was already a redeemed people. They sung at the Red
Sea. Do you remember that hymn that
they sung there? They said, "'Thy and thy mercy
has led forth the people "'which thou hast redeemed.'" Why then
was a ransom price now necessary? How does this relate to the gospel? How does this relate to our salvation? In our very first study back
in Exodus, I was surprised today when I went back to look that
that was in June of 2018, we mentioned that the book of Exodus
is a beautiful story of redemption. And it certainly is that. I went
back to those notes and I found some of the same things that
I'll remind you of tonight. First, we saw that Israel had
a great need. They were in bondage. They were
slaves in Egypt. Bitter bondage captivity they
were in. Second, we beheld the might and
the power and the holiness of the Redeemer himself displayed
in the plagues that he brought upon Egypt in order to force
Pharaoh to let God's people go. Then third, we saw the character
of redemption. Redemption must be purchased
by blood. We saw that in the blood of the
Passover lamb. God said, when I see the blood,
that blood that he instructed them to put on the door and the
lintel, he said, when I see that blood, I'll pass over you. That
being a picture of the blood of Christ and the redemption
that we have in him and in him alone. And then fourth, we saw
recently the tabernacle and the priesthood, and we saw the provisions
that God made for his people in all their failures. In spite
of us as sinners, the Lord provides for us, makes provisions for
us. And then in tonight's study, we see something of the people
of God entering into the privileges of that redemption. You know,
there are privileges to our redemption. Did you notice in the verses
here that we read that the giving of this ransom money was connected
with the numbering of Israel? The fact is made no less than
five times in verses 12 through 14. So the question is, how is
this ransom connected with the numbering of the people of Israel? Well, first and foremost, numbering
has to do with ownership. A farmer will number the sheep
of his own flock, but he won't be concerned at all with how
many sheep belong to the flock of another farmer. His concern
for numbering has to do with the sheep that belong to him.
So it has something to do with ownership. And in the scriptures,
when God numbers or orders anything to be numbered, it says, taking
the sum of them, that's how Moses describes it here in our text.
Well, that denotes that they belong to him and that he has
the sovereign right to do what he will with his own. And we
know that God's sovereign and he does have the right to do
what he will with those that belong to him. He has a sovereign
right as God to do that. And then that brings me to my
first point tonight. And that is very simply that
God has a people. God has a people. And they are
a particular people. God ransoms, God delivers, God
pays the price. God frees and rescues certain
particular people. Now this is a doctrine, a teaching,
that's what a doctrine is. This is a teaching, a doctrine
that is despised by the religious world in which we live. You know
that and so do I. You tell people that God died
for his elect and not the whole world and it upsets folks. But
that's what God teaches from cover to cover here. That's what
this book plainly teaches us. Everything concerning the salvation
of sinners is of God. Now, I don't know how to say
it any plainer than that. God purposed it, God provided
it, God performed it, Christ purchased it. The Bible knows
nothing of a universal salvation or a universal love or a universal
atonement. God so loved the world means
that God loved His chosen particular people, which were in the world.
The Bible declares, as I said, from front to back, cover to
cover, a redemption made effectual by the Lord Jesus Christ and
given to a particular people chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world. And the Bible is dogmatic about
that, about this glorious fact. We just went through the chapters
of Exodus that dealt with the tabernacle. We saw the priest
and the high priest and the priesthood. We looked closely at the garments
of the priest and the high priest. All these things were just plain
pictures and types of what is revealed very much in the book
of Hebrews as we've seen. There's absolutely no way that
you can take these things that we've studied and make them fit
into today's religion. You just can't do it. You can't
do it. Do you know why? Because modern
day religion is wrong. That's why. God's word is correct. What this book teaches is what
God says. And we see the high priest of
God going into that holiest of holies. He goes into that holy
of holies with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel on his shoulders
and on his breastplate. And there's absolutely no way
that can represent a salvation that's universal. No, sir, he
went into that holiest of holies to offer a sacrifice unto God
for a particular people. And I find such great comfort
in that. And I've had people say things like, well, you believe
God delights in sending people to hell. No, no, I don't believe
that at all. Matter of fact, the scripture
is very clear about that. God finds no pleasure in the
death of the wicked. God says, come, let us reason
together. So that's not the case at all.
But it's simple and clear, and it's a picture and a type of
God redeeming a particular people whom Christ carries on his shoulders
and has on his heart. That's what the high priest going
into the holiest of holiest pictures with those names on his shoulder
and on his breastplate. God provided a ransom only for
those that he chose. And God has that right as God. The ransom God provided was the
sum of the children of Israel after their number. And what
a picture that is of God's elect people. No doubt there were many
nations outside of Israel in this time. There's no doubt that
there were other tribes, tongues, and nations, and people that
were slaves and were in bondage to others. And no doubt in my
mind, that was the case. Not just Israel, but to none
of them, none of them did God provide a ransom. To none of
them did God deliver out of their bondage. God provided a ransom
for the total sum of the children of Israel after their number,
which basically means for each and every one that God chose.
Now redemption is particular. I can't say it any plainer than
that. God told Moses that his glory was found in him having
mercy on whom he'd have mercy and having compassion on whom
he would have compassion. That's the glory of God. And
God will not share his glory with another. That's the truth
that puts thou rebels like you and I at the feet of God's mercy
and grace. We have to be made to see, we
have to be taught by divine revelation that it's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. That's God's glory. Christ died
on the cross and he redeemed each of God's particular people. Not one of them will be lost,
not one. Thou shalt call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sin, Matthew 121.
Christ is the good shepherd. He's the good shepherd. He giveth
his life for the sheep. That's what he said. with his
own mouth and his own words. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. Particular people, the sheep.
There's sheep and goats. He didn't lay down his life for
goats. And he don't take goats, Lou Anne, and make them sheep.
He lays down his life for his sheep. They were always sheep.
They were just not yet of his fold. Them he must bring. Oh,
do you see how particular salvation is? How particular our redemption
is? It's the glory of God for Christ to successfully ransom
all for whom he died. And it's Christ's glory that
he didn't fail, but he accomplished that which God sent him to do.
He accomplished that salvation of each chosen child that God
sent him to save. And if you're sitting here tonight,
trusting in Christ, I'm telling you, rejoice. You can't be lost. If God saves you, He pum saves
you. He saves you good. He saves you
forever. None for whom Christ died will
be lost. As I said on Sunday mornings,
we're We're studying the book of John and now we're in the
17th chapter and verse one of that glorious chapter says, these
words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
father, the hours come glorify thy son, that thy son also may
glorify thee. And then he said this, as thou
has given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou has given him. Now, those many are God's
particular people. and every one of them is gonna
be saved. He said in verse nine of that very chapter, John 17,
he said, I pray not for the world. This is proof of particular redemption. He said, I pray for them. Who? God's particular people. I pray
not for the world, but for them, which thou hast given me, for
they are thine and all mine are thine and thine are mine and
I'm glorified in thee. Salvation is for the glory of
God the Father and His Son. And our Lord Jesus successfully
ransomed and made atonement for God's elect. He successfully
put away the sin of His people, and He did so by the sacrifice
of Himself. Now you've heard all this before,
but that's what this is teaching us here. in this ransom money. Christ made us the very righteousness
of God in himself. God chose us not based on anything
in us done by us. God chose us by his own free
and sovereign grace. And God's people know that. They
know that and they rejoice in it. Nothing in you, nothing in
me that calls God to choose us. and there is nothing in you and
nothing in me that will cause God to reject us. Now that's
good news, isn't it? Christ ransomed us by his own
precious blood. So I ask you, what's going on
here with this atonement money? Exodus chapters 12 and 13, we
see very clearly that the redemption of Israel, as I said a moment
ago, was secured by the blood shedding of the Passover lamb.
The Passover lamb pictures Christ, the lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. So why then the ransom money? That's what I want us to think
about for just a few minutes tonight. The shedding of blood,
blood shedding, was the way by which actual atonement was made. But this atonement money, it
shows us something here of the preciousness of that blood by
which sinners are redeemed. And understand this, understand
what I'm saying. It's the blood of Christ that
saves and it's the blood of Christ that atones. The giving of this
monetary ransom, this half a shekel of silver for a man's soul, it
says, no more signified that salvation could be secured by
the sinner's own efforts than it did the sinner furnishing
the bullock or the lamb implies that the sinner or the one who
offered the sacrifice was purchasing God's favor. There's no merit
in that. Instead, it's the Lord teaching
His people in picture and in type and in figure that Christ
alone can make atonement for sin. And the shedding of the
blood of the sacrifice was what God saw that caused Him to pass
over our sin, nothing else. And I mean to be redundant. But
this atonement money, this ransom money, pictures the preciousness
of that blood. Again, 1 Peter 1 18 says, for
as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ
as a lamb without blemish and without spot. That's how we're
redeemed. The ransom money teaches us something
of the costliness of Christ's sacrifice. This ransom money
teaches us something of the preciousness of our Savior. It says, unto
you therefore, which believe he is precious. Peter said that,
1 Peter 2 7. He is precious. And that's what
this ransom money is showing us something about. Now look
at verse 13. It says this, they shall give everyone that passeth
among them that are numbered half a shekel, half the shekel
of the sanctuary, a shekel is 20 gera, that's how that's pronounced. "'And half a shekel shall be
the offering of the Lord. "'Everyone that passeth among
them that are numbered "'from 20 years old and above "'shall
give an offering unto the Lord.'" Now I'd have you notice that
God required this of every man personally. Several times in
these verses, God says, every man that is numbered must give
a ransom. Everyone that is numbered must
come to God with this ransom money. This was an offering unto
the Lord, which means that God required it. This was not to
receive a ransom. Christ's blood took care of that.
But this was to acknowledge the ransom that had already been
accomplished for them. God had paid the ransom in the
Passover land when he redeemed them out of Egypt. But here God
declares what he required. Now, first we see that God required
each one of them to personally acknowledge that they belong
to him. He will have them to acknowledge
that God ransomed them through the blood of the Passover lamb.
God required each and every ransom child of God that was numbered
to personally bring the ransom price that he required. Now stay
with me on this. This will bless you. God requires
that all his elect must come to him, acknowledging that he
has saved us, not we ourselves. God gets all the glory in our
salvation. We must come acknowledging and
professing that Christ has ransomed us, that God has ransomed us
with the blood of His precious Son. God numbering the people
was a sign of His possession of them. Those God numbers belong
to Him and they're His own. I love the thought of belonging
to Him, don't you? Now, if you remember years later,
David numbered Israel, you remember that? but he didn't require that
they bring a ransom price. And by doing that, David took
the glory for himself rather than giving it to God. David
counted the people he numbered and he regarded them as his people
rather than acknowledging that it was God who had ransomed them.
And it would be the same as me tonight numbering each of you
and then boasting that you're here and that you worship God
was the work of my hand. Same type thing when David numbered
the people. And do you remember what happened
when David did this? God sent pestilence and killed
70,000 Israelites because of David's sin. Now that's how serious
it is for man to try to take and steal the glory of God. He
will not share his glory with another. Serious, serious thing. So what must you and I bring? Well, God declared the offering
to be here for God's people to bring a half a shekel after the
shekel of the sanctuary to the offering of the Lord. It had
to be the exact weight and measure that God demanded. And the picture
here is this. The precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the exact price that God demanded and that God
required. God's holy justice demanded perfection
and only the precious blood of Christ met that requirement.
Beloved, Christ is this half shekel. He is this ransom that
paid the exact price. Did not our Lord come to give
his life a ransom for many? That's what Matthew chapter 20,
verse 28 said. And just as God sent Moses here
with his word, God sends his preachers and he declares to
us that through this gospel that we preach, that Christ has ransomed
his people from the fall of Adam in, by, and through the sacrifice
of himself. God requires that we come confessing
that by His blood, Christ ransomed all His elect, for He hath made
Him. God hath made Him to be sin for
us. Who knew no sin? Christ knew
no sin. And He did this that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's how we're
ransomed. God declares that he'll receive
those that Christ redeemed is wearing the ransom that he requires. And you know what that ransom
is? It's his own son. Put on Christ, friends. What
great grace it is when God gives us faith to come to God wearing
the righteousness of Christ. What a privilege. When we come
to God in Christ, we come confessing that we're sinners. We come confessing
that there's nothing good in us. Paul said, in me that is
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Nothing we do, nothing
we are. We come professing that all our
so-called righteousness is nothing but filthy rags. It's only by
Christ's precious blood that we're saved from the condemnation
that we deserve. And we do deserve it. We deserve
it because the wages of our sin is death, condemnation, eternal
wrath, forever being separated from God. That's what we deserve.
Instead, in Christ, he gives us love and mercy and grace,
where Christ purchased possession. were purchased by his own blood.
Now look at verse 15. The rich shall not give more
and the poor shall not give less than a half a shekel when they
give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for your
soul. The ransom and the atonement for sinners is the same for all. It didn't matter if you were
rich, it didn't matter if you were poor. It didn't matter if
you were educated, it didn't matter if you were uneducated.
It didn't matter if you were young, It didn't matter if you
were old, it was the same for all. The ransom for the atonement
required the same from everyone. The rich shall not add to Christ
and the poor shall not give less than Christ. Every child of God
has been purchased with the same exact price, that being Christ's
precious blood. Every single one of God's elect
equally ransomed and equally righteous. That's what scripture
teaches. There's neither Jew nor Greek,
there's neither bond or free, there's neither male nor female,
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. There's neither Jew nor
Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision. Barbarian, Scythian, bond are
free, but Christ is all and in all, Colossians 3 11. There's
only one sacrifice that God will accept. Therefore, all who are
redeemed have to bring the same exact thing, and that's the sacrifice
that Christ made. That's the precious blood that
He shed, pictured by that blood on the door, and God sees and
passes over us. Said in a message recently that
the blood of Christ, the most precious thing that there is,
the blood of God, The blood of God was shed for you, Sharon.
That's just overwhelming, isn't it? If you remember from our
studies of the tabernacle, the foundation of the tabernacle
was made of those silver sockets from the silver of this ransom
money. That's significant. Every single
thing that the priest did in the tabernacle in the service
of God was done upon a foundation that was already complete, and
it was complete by the ransom money. They took that silver,
that half a shekel that the people gave, and they made these sockets
that was the foundation for the tabernacle. And every single
work we do as God's priest and God's service is done on the
finished footing and foundation of the redemption accomplished
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the ransom of
God. All of God's saints being equally
righteous and equally holy in Christ, our righteousness, we
are equally redeemed in Christ who is our sanctification. Nothing,
now listen, nothing can be added or taken away from something
that's already finished, right? Look at verse 16. "'And thou
shall take the atonement money "'of the children of Israel and
shall appoint it "'for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation,
"'that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel "'before
the Lord to make an atonement for your soul.'" So we see here
that the purpose of this offering was to make this foundation to
the chosen of God a memorial unto the children of Israel before
the Lord. Now, a memorial is simply a remembrance. It's a tribute. It's a testimony,
testimonial. It's a constant testimony. It's a perpetual tribute to remind
God's sheep that there's no way for us to save ourselves. That's
what we're to be reminded of as we look at these things. It's
the continual remembrance of our personal sin and our unworthiness. It's a constant reminder of God's
free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness
of our sin. No other way for our sin to be
put away other than by the shedding of Christ's blood. What can wash
away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
And I can tell you this from experience, if we take our eyes
off Christ, we'll cease to remember these things. It's just that
it is so easy to take our eyes off the Lord Jesus and get them
on ourselves. And when we do, it never fails. We begin to fear and we begin
to doubt and we begin to question our salvation. We begin to say
things like, well, I know we can save others, but how could
he save me? Oh, keep your eyes on him. Keep
your eyes on Christ. The psalmist said, I will remember
the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy works
of old. Keep your mind and your hearts
on Christ's work, not your own. That's where your salvation lies,
not in what you do. David said, remember his marvelous
works that he had done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth.
What's the promise of God given to all who find salvation, atonement,
and ransom in Christ? Look at the end of verse 12 again.
It says, there shall be no plague among them when thou numbers
them. Friends, the biggest plague we have is sin. Sin is a disease
that will in the end kill men and women. Unless Christ in mercy
puts that sin away, we're all doomed. Did our Lord not say,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me? Did the Lord
Jesus not say, this is the will of Him that sent me? That everyone
which seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life. And I'll raise Him up at the
last day. Now there's your hope. There's
where you need to keep your eyes fixed. There's where you need
to set your mind and your heart on. "'All who refuse to bring
God's ransom "'will die under his wrath. "'But all who bring
Christ, who is our ransom, "'shall have no plague upon them, "'or
among them,' it says in the text." Not if they're in God's number.
Not if they are one of those particular people that we spoke
of in the beginning. Why is that? Well, for the simple
reason that there's one God and one mediator between God and
man, the man Christ Jesus, that's not all it said, who gave himself
a ransom for all. For all? Did Christ give himself
a ransom for all the world? No, you know that. For a particular
people he did. He did for all that were given
to Christ before the foundation of the world. He did to all that
the Father gave Him. So what am I trying to say? I'm trying to say that Christ
is our ransom. Christ is our only hope. He's
our atonement. He's our forgiveness. He's our
wisdom. He's our righteousness. He's
our sanctification. He's our redemption. Christ truly
is all in all. There's no ifs in Christ. You
know, I was reading again last week about that poor man that
had the son that was possessed of an evil spirit that threw
him into the water to drown him and threw him into the fire to
destroy him. The Lord Jesus had just come
down from the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, John, and James.
He finds the Pharisees, or the religious men of that day, giving
the rest of his disciples a hard time because they couldn't cast
the demon out of this poor child that was in this horrible condition.
And the Lord Jesus came upon that man and that man said, Lord,
if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, have compassion
on us, help us. And the Lord Jesus said, if thou
canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
You see, this man's if was in the wrong place. It's not if
Christ can, it's if you can believe. Can you believe? Do we believe? That's a question I ask myself
often. Do I really believe? And it was
then that the father of this child cried out and said with
tears, Lord, I believe. And I do, I believe. But he said,
help thou mine unbelief. You know, with the leper, the
child of God says, Lord, I know you can. I know you can heal
me. I know you can make me whole.
I know you can heal my leprosy. I know you can put away my sin. There are no ifs, ands, and buts
with you, Lord Jesus. If you will, you can make me
clean. I know you can, believe me. Brothers
and sisters in Christ, the answer is always the same. It's always
the same. And in that, we can find such
hope and so much comfort and so much assurance. Christ has
not turned down one yet that truly needed mercy and grace
and help in time of need. No, sir, not one time. He always
gives the same answer to those who have need of Him. I will. I will. I will. And if you want to be made clean,
if you want to be made whole, if you want to be made well,
there is no if. No if. He'll make you so. You know why? Because Christ
is your ransom. That's what this is about. That's
what this is picturing. And I sure hope that the Lord
will use that to give you some comfort. Everything's going to
be all right to those who put their trust in Him. He shall
save His people. from their sin. And I'm so thankful
for that. May God be pleased to make it
so, for Christ's sake.