If you will, take your Bibles
and turn again with me to Psalm chapter 49. Psalm chapter 49. We'll be looking at verses 6
through 9 this morning. The Scripture says, they that trust in their wealth,
and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches. None of them can by any means
redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. Why can't he do that? Why is it not possible? That
a man who has much riches, who is wealthy in the things of this
world, why is it that he cannot redeem his brother? He cannot
redeem him before God. For the redemption of their souls
is precious. That word precious means costly. The redemption of a soul. Is most valuable. Valuable. And it ceases forever, in other
words, when it's done, it's done. When the soul is redeemed, it's
redeemed and it's redeemed forever. None of them can redeem his brother
that he should still live forever and not see corruption. Now, the title of the message
this morning is simply Precious Redemption. Precious Redemption. I think I'm going to have to
get this out. Excuse me. I don't think I can
preach with it in there. There we go. precious redemption. Now, in our land, we live in
a very wealthy land. We live in a very wealthy country.
And there are many wealthy people in this world. There are more
millionaires now in this age than there has ever been in the
history of this country or the world. This has been more wealth
And I'll tell you this, you and I may think we're impoverished
here, but really we don't have any idea what poverty really
is as it is in some of the third world countries. We would be
considered very, very wealthy just to have a home with running
water. Just to have enough food to eat
for tomorrow. We would be considered wealthy
by some standards. So there are many wealthy people. And I'll tell you, these wealthy
people can buy just about anything they want. They can buy anything
they want. They can buy all kinds of extravagant
toys, yachts and boats and cars and have the best food at the
best tables. These wealthy men are powerful
men. Powerful. They're rulers. Rulers. Many of them make the laws, many
of them are judges of criminals, and many of them are even able
to buy judges so that they can get themselves out of trouble.
They're wealthy, they're powerful men. But friends, the wealth of this
world, it can buy power, it can buy fame, and it can buy earthly
possessions and earthly pleasures, and even buy people. You can
buy people. That's just true. But the one thing this wealth
and the things of this world cannot buy is redemption. The wealth of this world cannot
buy your redemption before God. The Scripture says none of them
can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom. I'll tell you, believer in Christ,
listen to me, it is foolish for us to envy wealth. It is absolutely
foolish. That's like standing in the middle
of the desert with a pool of water and the other man's got
a bunch of sand and you're envying his sand. It's worthless. The wealth of this world is worthless. How ignorant to covet the things
and the riches of this world that's passing away. It's going. I noticed this, if I have a dollar
in my pocket, pretty soon it's gone. I've noticed that. Have you? I've noticed that.
It goes real fast. It doesn't last. And I'll tell
you, it may buy a moment. It may buy a time, a season of
joy and pleasure. But that never lasts long. It's always passing. Always. And this leaves only a void in
the man's sinful heart to want more. Have you ever noticed that
the wealthy are never satisfied with wealth? They always want
what? More! I'm not picking on wealthy people
because that's exactly how we are. That's exactly how every
person in this room is. By nature, if we have something,
it's never enough. We always want something more. And when we get it, what do we
want? Something more. And that hole
in the heart, the void, only grows bigger and wider as the
more we get, the more we want. The sins of this world and the
wealth of this world cannot satisfy the heart. It cannot satisfy
the conscience. The conscience of man. Every
one of us have a conscience. And we know it is wrong to lie,
to steal. We know it is wrong to use God's
name in vain. We know these things. And when
we do them, our conscience sounds an alarm. But the natural man,
what he does is he puts a hot iron to it. And then over time,
it becomes less and less and less conscience. But it's still
there. He can't get rid of it. Why? Because you owe God something. You owe God. You owe God a debt that you cannot
pay. Every one of us owes a debt to
God that we cannot afford. And nothing in this world will
ever relieve you of that burden. Nothing in this world will ever
satisfy that conscience. Nothing. Why? Because nothing
can redeem your soul in this world. Nothing. Nothing. I remember there was a very popular
comedian. He was interviewed just before
he died. And they ask him, you know, you've got success, you've
got fame, what more is there? And he says, I'm happy! I'm happy! He went home, his wife shot him
and killed herself. That man's in hell this morning. And so is his wife. Why? The wealth did not satisfy
them. They found it to be empty and
vanity because it cannot redeem the soul. And friends, the moment
that's fast approaching us all, whatever happens to the wise
man happens to the fool. Whatever happens to the king
happens to the beggar. We all are dying people. And the moment is passing. The seconds are ticking away. And there is a day, there is
a moment appointed of God Almighty that you shall give an account
for your souls to God. Not to me. You won't give an
account to me. I won't give an account to you. You and I will have to give an
account to God of the debt we owe Him. The debt of our sins. But friends, it's not only wealthy
people who try to, with their millions, buy redemption. Some
people think that if they just give to the church and put their
name on a plaque on a building somewhere, that hey, they got
a ticket to God, they're doing well. Some people are trusting
in their riches and what they can give the church, their charity,
their effort. They think that God sees their
charity and says, Oh, well, he sinned. I guess since he gave
a little money to the church, I guess I'll just redeem him.
No. By no means. By no amount. You can give all you have to
the church of God You can give your body to be burned for Christ,
but if you're trusting in that to settle your debt with God,
you are deceived. God will not redeem you. He will not let you go from His
justice until you have paid the debt in full. But there are some religious
men who are smarter than to think that. They know that God's holy. They know that God must be satisfied. And they heard about Jesus. They
heard that Jesus died for sin. That Jesus paid the ransom price. They know that that's necessary. But then they try to add their
wealth of good works to His sacrifice. They try to add to His sacrifice. Friends, God is holy and just
and must punish sin. But some who believe that in
the riches of their free will works religion to pay the price
for their sins, are just as deceived as the others. Just as deceived. Friends, salvation and redemption
is not Christ plus you. It's Christ. Salvation is in the person and
the work of Jesus Christ alone. And the moment you add your riches,
the moment you add your works to the sacrifice, you've defiled
it, you've made it sinful, and it's no good. See this in Galatians with me.
Go to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. Verse 2, Paul says, Behold, I, Paul, say
unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. For I testify again, to every
man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to the whole law,
Christ is become of no effect to you, whosoever you are justified
by the law, you are fallen from grace." He said, I don't care
who you are. I really don't. These people were adding circumcision
to Christ. That's what they were doing.
They were obeying that law, that one law of circumcision. And
they were adding it to the death and resurrection and blood of
Christ, and they added that one thing. Paul said, Christ shall
profit you nothing. Nothing. And I'll tell you this,
if you add your will, your works, your goodness, whatever you want,
fill in the blank, if you add anything to Christ, you are not
redeemed. You have no hope. of redeeming yourself. Matter of fact, that is spitting
in the face of God. If you're adding your work, you're
saying that Jesus Christ was not enough, that God's Son and
His death was not holy enough, that you need to add your two
sins. Man does not need help to be
saved. Man needs a resurrection. I don't need God to help me,
I need God to do it. Man is born dead and needs life. He doesn't need to be re-educated.
He doesn't need religion. And he doesn't need to make a
decision. Matter of fact, the decision
of life and death have already been made. Do you know that? Life and death have already been
made and you didn't pick either one of them. Man is not neutral. He's not in the middle choosing
evil or God. Choosing hell or heaven. No,
man is born dead. That choice was made a long time
ago by our father Adam when he sinned and you and I were born
dead. We had no choice in that decision. We had no decision about that.
I didn't say, well, I choose to be born alive. No, I was born
dead. Just as I didn't choose my parents,
God gave them to me. And friends, the decision of
life has already been made. This is the wonderful gospel.
The gospel of God is that Christ, that God from eternity has purposed
redemption. That God Himself purposed to
redeem a people for Himself, for His own glory, for His own
praise. He chose a people. And He purposed how He would
redeem them. And whosoever the Lord has chosen,
they are redeemed and they will be called to understand their
redemption. They will be called to understand
their costly redemption, their precious redemption. And this comes by a spiritual
birth. You're not going to understand what I'm saying unless God the
Holy Spirit gives you new life. That's it. I'm not going to be
able to give it to you. I can't. I can't give it to my children.
I love them, but I can't save them. The only hope for them
is that God come down and reach his hand down from heaven and
touch their hearts. That's it. The spiritual life is of the
will of God, not of man. The Scripture says, it is not
of him that willeth, nor him that runneth. It is God that
shows mercy. You see, I don't need help. I don't need God to help me merit
something. I need mercy. absolute free mercy. And for men to boast in their
will is just as foolish to trust in wealth. To boast in what you've
done is just as foolish as the rich and powerful men of this
country boasting in their wealth to save them. Why? For the redemption of the
soul is costly. How costly is redemption? What did it cost to redeem one soul from hell? What did it cost? How much? How valuable is that? How precious
is that? How rare is this cost? I mean, we value something by
how rare it is, don't we? I mean, if everybody had a hope
diamond, there would be no value to it, right? I mean, if everybody
had one, there'd be no value. Why is there value to that? Because
there's one. There's one. And friends, there
is only one redemption. There's only one. It's rare. It's costly. And it's something
we could never afford to give. Never. How much does this redemption
of a soul cost? What does it require? What do
we need if it's so costly? What do we need? What do I need
to do so that God may reduce or may redeem, be redeemed from
God's justice? Well, first of all, you need
an offering. You need a peace offering because you and I have
sinned against God. He demands payment. An offering. Well, friends, this offering
that God demands is a spotless offering. If you don't have a
sinless offering, you cannot be redeemed. And number two, it must be a
blood offering. A blood offering. Sinless blood. Innocent blood. When Adam sinned, he was now
incapable of redeeming himself. He was incapable of knowing how
to please God. What did he do to try to please
God to cover his nakedness? He used fig leaves. Now, does
anybody think for one second that our clothes that we have
on cover our sins? Anybody? Really? You know it doesn't. That's how
we think. That's how the natural mind works.
If we just do enough, if I can just do enough, then God won't
notice my sins. God will somehow skip over them
or pass them under the rug and let me in. I can see. The world
says, I can see why He wouldn't let you in, but hey, I'm pretty
special. I'm special. I know that drives me crazy that
someone says that, but that's what our nation thinks of themselves.
They're special. Everybody's just so special. No. No. Adam lost everything to understand
how to please God. And when God appeared, there
was no hiding place for His sin, but God in mercy provided for
Him a redemption. He promised in His Word that
there would be a Redeemer coming. One who would come and pay for
sin. One who would come and crush
the head of the serpent, the originator of sin, Satan himself,
and underneath his foot he would crush him, and Satan would bruise
his heel. In other words, he promised the
death. of Christ. And then He took an
animal and He killed it right before them. He shed its blood. He ripped the skin off of that
animal and He gave it to them for clothes. Do you see what
He did? He showed a picture. He not only
told them the redemption was coming, He showed them a picture
of the redemption. A type of how they can be covered. How their sins can be covered. How? By an innocent offering. That animal did absolutely nothing
to deserve death. Who deserved death? Adam. Eve. They deserved death, not that. So God is telling us we must
have a sinless offering. Friends, God is holy and just
and He is the offended party. Man runs around thinking that
He's the offended party, that God should somehow please Him.
No, you and I have offended God by our sin and rebellion. And God says, I will demand it
of your soul. I will. God created all things well,
and man sinned. And death came by sin. And enslavement. Enslavement. Adam was a representative
man of all of us. All men. Every man that breathes. He was a representative of us.
And when he sinned, you sinned. I sinned. And I don't care how fair you
think that is or not. That's how God deals with man,
by representative. And He dealt with you and me
in Adam, and we sinned in Him. But if you want to blame Adam,
let me ask you this, how well are you doing? How well are you
doing against sin? We all have sinned and become
slaves to sin. The Scripture says that we come
forth from the womb speaking lies. Speaking lies. The Scripture says there is none
righteous. No, not one. There's none that understands
this. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. Well, if God requires a sinless
offering and there's nobody sinless, then where in the world is this
offering going to come from? It has to come from another. It cannot come from me. And friends, I know that it cannot
come from you. We all have seen. And this is clearly pictured
in the Passover. You remember the children of
Israel were in bondage. They were enslaved to the nation
of Egypt. And how did God redeem them out
of there? How did He get them out? By the offering of an innocent,
spotless lamb. Matter of fact, that was the
requirement. For the day of Passover, God says, take you a lamb from
among the sheep and the goats. And He must be spotless. And
I want you to look Him over for 14 days. Man, why is that? What was so important about that?
Why couldn't it just be any lamb? Because it had to picture the
Lamb, Jesus Christ. He is the only spotless Lamb
of God. He is. He's the only sinless
man. He's the only man that was born
without sin. That's why He came from a woman
and not a man. God said He'd come from the seed
of the woman, so that the line of death, the line of sin that
comes from the man will not pass to Him. But He was given a body. He was made a man. God was made
a man. And the God-man was the only
spotless man, the only perfect man, the only upright man that
ever existed in this world was Jesus Christ, Him alone. And He was put aside, He was
taken from among the sheep and the goats. How does Christ picture
the world at the end? He divides the what? The sheep
from the goats. In other words, Christ must be
taken from among man. It was man that sinned. It must
be man that redeems. And so Christ came from man.
And He was set aside for that 14 days. What does that mean?
He was looked over. He was tried, tested. Satan tested him. And what did
he say? He hath found nothing in me.
He was tested of God, and God said, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. Even Pilate, that wicked governor,
said, I find no fault in this man. I find no fault. There is
no fault. He is a sinless man. Behold,
the only offering for sin. is the sinless offering of Christ. He Himself is the offering. And not only must it be sinless,
not only must it be spotless, it must be a blood sacrifice. A blood sacrifice. I was reading this last week
about a man who The president of Oxford, just a brilliant man,
and he says, I cannot believe that God would require such a
brutal offering as a blood sacrifice of His Son. This was a man who professed
to be a Christian. Friends, if you do not have a
blood sacrifice, you are not a Christian. You are not a believer
in Christ and you are not redeemed. God requires blood. What does
the Scripture say? Without the shedding of blood. Blood. God requires death as
a payment. The soul that sinneth it shall
surely die. God requires the death of every
sinner. So in great love and mercy, the
spotless Lamb of God came down And the scripture says He made
His soul an offering for sin. Jesus Christ must have offered
His blood because His blood is the only sinless blood. Men die every day. and it accomplishes no redemption. This man died once and accomplished
redemption for every one of his people. He died once. Once. To redeem God's saints,
it must be by His blood. Therefore, behold, the costly
redemption is the Son of the living God. That's the cost. That's the cause. There's only
one who could do it. And there's only one who did
it. Jesus Christ the righteous. Justice cannot free us from the
cords of sin by righteousness alone, but it must redeem us
from guilt. I said this Wednesday, In fact,
if you commit a murder, and you're guilty, and the judge sentences
you to death, if it were possible, if it were possible, and I took
your place, and I went to death and paid what the government
required for your offense, you know this, you'd still be guilty.
You see, I can pay your fine, but I can't make you not guilty.
Only God can do that. That's a transaction that only
God can do. And because God is the offended
party, He made the rules. And friends, He has given His
Son the only redemption prize for sin. And when God, when Christ
was on the cross, The Scripture says he was marred more than
any man. I believe that every pore of his body poured blood. I believe that he was nothing
more than a mass of bloody flesh hanging on that tree. Why? I tell you, if I stub my toe
in the morning, I ask, why? Why me? Shoot, why not me? I'm a sinner. Why in the world would the sinless
Son of God need to die? The most precious being in all
the world. And He had to die. He had to die. Why? So that I might live. So that
He might redeem my soul from hell. And so God in that transaction,
He took my sins and He put them on Christ. He charged them to
Christ so much so that He took not only my sin and my punishment,
He took my guilt. He took my guilt. And God punished Him. The Scripture says that He bore
our sins in His own body on the tree. And justice was poured out. I
told you God must judge every sinner. God must punish every
sin. Well, for us who believe in Christ, He already has. He
already has paid the redemption price. It's just the madness of sinful
humanity to keep trying to pay for redemption when redemption
has already been paid. Why would you try to find another
redemption when God has offered the only one He accepts? And God proved He accepted this
redemption. How? He raised Him from the dead
and sat Him down on the throne of God. There's a man in heaven. I'm not worshiping just a mystical
floating... There's a man sitting in heaven
representing me. Interceding for me. How? His
hands and His feet and His side plead my case always. So that when I sin, there is
no justice against it because of the blood of Christ. He says, Father, see, I've paid. I've paid the debt. And you know
what? God can't even remember my sin. That's what the Scripture says.
God searches for my sins and He cannot find them. Why? They're gone. All of them. All my sins. All my guilt. Why? Because His redemption ceaseth
forever. That's what our text says. It
says, for the redemption of their souls is precious. It ceaseth
forever. When redemption is paid, it's
paid. God will not demand twice payment. Isn't that something? Isn't that
wonderful? It is if you're redeemed. It is if you have the redemption
price. God will never charge my sins
to Christ and then charge them to me. That's unjust. God won't
do it. It ceases forever. My redemption
is forever. Is your redemption accomplished? Do you have a finished redemption?
Has it been paid? It is if you rest your soul on
Christ alone. Hold on to Him by faith. as all God's salvation. And this promise is to you, you
shall be saved. Why? God's already offered what
He wanted. What do we offer? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's free. And the only way to ruin it is
to try to add something yourself. Freedom from bondage. Freedom
from sin. Behold, Jesus Christ, the costly,
precious redemption. I pray that God will bless this
to your hearts. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.