If you want to turn your Bibles
to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 17, I want to look at
a text of Scripture there with you in Matthew 17. I've entitled tonight's message,
Ransomed by My Sovereign Savior. Ransomed by My Sovereign Savior. It says in Matthew chapter 17,
beginning in verse 22, While they abode in Galilee, Jesus
said to them, The Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands
of men, and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be
raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.
And when they were come to Capernaum, They that received tribute money
came to Peter and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?
He said, Yes. And when he was come into the
house, Jesus prevented him. It means that Jesus anticipated
and before he spoke, Jesus spoke. Jesus prevented him saying, What
thinkest thou, Simon, of whom do the kings of the earth take
custom or tribute? Of their own children or strangers? Peter said to him, of strangers.
Jesus said to him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding,
lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast a hook,
and take up the fish that first cometh up. And when thou hast
opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money, that take
and give to them for me and for thee. I recently preached a message
and my granddaughter, who was two years old, made a comment
about the message the next day or during the week that followed
that, Sunday. And I was impressed by that.
Not because she heard me, but because she's two years old and
she got something out of that sermon. It reminded me to always
try to speak to children. And this is one of those texts
of scripture, I think, that does that quite well. There's at least
five lessons that are taught in this scripture. The first
one begins at verse 22. First thing here we see is that
the Lord Jesus spoke of his death. It was imminent. It was about
to occur. and he would soon accomplish
that death, and he would soon give himself into the hands of
wicked men. They would take him, and in his
humiliation he would suffer and he would die, but on the third
day he would rise again. Now, that's the first thing said
here, and that's the first thing I want to look at. But the second
thing is, is that here the Lord Jesus Christ told Peter, then
are the children free. in his question about the tribute
money he asked him who do the kings of the earth take tribute
and peter answered not their own children but of strangers
and jesus said in that part therefore because he's the son of god and
the king he's not obligated to pay the tribute And so that's
the second lesson I want to look at. And the third lesson I want
to look at here is that even though he is the king, even though
he is the lord of glory, nevertheless, he didn't try to get out of paying
this tribute, but he actually paid it. So he did that in order
to avoid offending them. So we want to consider that as
the third lesson. And then the fourth thing I want
to point out here is that the coin that Jesus provided by sending
Peter to the ocean or the sea and taking up the first fish
that he caught and pulling the coin out of that fish's mouth
it shows that the Lord Jesus Christ is the absolute sovereign
over the smallest things and he commands things as small as
fish to do his will and then fifth, and this is where I want
to spend most of the time in looking at this is that though
Christ is free as the sovereign king the king of kings, the Lord
of glory, yet he himself paid the ransom price that God required
to redeem his people. So those five lessons I see in
this text of scripture and it's a glorious thing. First thing
we see here is that the Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples
that he would soon accomplish the redemption for them by his
suffering and his death. And you can see this in these
words, while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the son of
man shall be betrayed into the hands of men. The title son of
man in scripture is another name for Christ. And so he's saying
that he refers to himself as the son of man. He shall be betrayed
into the hands of men. They shall kill him. The third
day he shall be raised again. And of course the disciples were
exceeding sorry. They understood he was talking
about himself. Now why did Matthew inspired
by God the Holy Spirit write this just before what we read
about the tribute money. Well the reason isn't random.
The reason is that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to give the overarching
introduction into what follows by telling his disciples that
he's about to go to Jerusalem to be condemned by the Pharisees
and the scribes, the rulers of the Jews, and that they would
turn him over, they would condemn him to death and turn him over
to the Gentiles who would then mock him and scourge him and
put him to death. but he would rise again the third
day. That's really a summary of all
that he would do. Brother Bob just read to us in
1 Peter chapter 1, it says that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of
Christ in the prophets of old spoke of the sufferings of Christ
and the glory that should follow. That's really all of the message
of scripture, the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that
should follow. It's no wonder we find these
words here, introducing us to the topic of what follows, which
is the tribute money. The Lord Jesus Christ, who directs,
he's the king, and who directs the smallest matters in this
world, to accomplish his will is the one who was taken and
was condemned and mocked and suffered and died and then rose
again the third day. And it was that suffering and
death that accomplished his will. Now why did the Lord Jesus Christ
tell his disciples that at this time? Well the first reason is
because He wanted them to know that the scripture must be fulfilled. The scripture must be fulfilled.
And secondly, he wanted them to know that when he spoke to
them, the scripture, and then fulfilled it, They would believe
on him when it was fulfilled. They would remember his words,
remember what he said, remember what he did in order to accomplish
what he said, and they would recognize that he was doing what
he said he would do before he did it. And that's quite amazing. And that is exactly what God
claims in Isaiah 46. He said, I'm the Lord. I tell
those things, declare the things from the beginning. I declare
the end from the beginning. In other words, from ancient
times, He tells the things that He Himself will do. I have spoken
it, He said. I will also bring it to pass.
I will do it. So the Lord Jesus Christ here
is underscoring to His disciples To believe on him, they need
to believe his words. And to believe his words, they
would be given this proof that his words would be fulfilled
in his sufferings and his death, which was the main message of
scripture. That is the message of all of
scripture. But then also, the reason that
he tells them this is very important. He wants them to understand that
he is not a victim. he isn't taken against his will
in fact what he's telling them here is to underscore that this
is the will of God his father so he says this in John chapter
8 I want to read this to you in John chapter 8 and verse 28
and he says Then said Jesus to them, when
you have lifted up the Son of Man, again this is talking about
himself, then shall you know that I am, and that I do nothing
of myself, but as my Father has taught me, I speak these things.
He that sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone,
for I do always those things that please Him. So from this
we understand that the Lord Jesus Christ tells his disciples about
his imminent death, his sufferings and his death at the hands of
sinners and that he would rise again not only as the introduction
to the material about the tribute money that would follow, to teach
them that he was going to fulfill that in what he was about to,
what he was telling them he would do in his sufferings and death,
but also so that they would understand the scriptures, that they would
believe him according to the scriptures and know that this
was God's will. This is why he was sent into
the world. When He came into the world,
He said, sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not, but a body
hast thou prepared Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God, yea, thy law is within My heart. So we see
then that He underscores that He is submitting. in obedience
to his father to accomplish all of his father's will and that
would be accomplished in his sufferings and death and in his
resurrection and that accomplishment of that will of God was why he
came into the world when he was in the temple at the age of 12
years old asking the doctors and the lawyers these questions
from scripture no doubt he was inquiring from the scriptures
what he must do according to the will his father had given
him so that he could fulfill that scripture so all of this
was present on his mind at all times when he went to the well
of Samaria when he must go to that well to save that woman
of Samaria or whatever he did he was always pursuing this will
and it was all contained in what he would suffer
and the glory that would follow. So that's the first thing we
see here is that the Lord Jesus Christ is giving his disciples
this information beforehand for their faith and they would understand
him, they would believe him from scripture this was God's will
that he had spoken and it shows that the Lord Jesus is himself
God that when he spoke these words, not only did he act as
a prophet, as the Lord Jesus Christ, but he spoke as the Son
of God. He spoke before it came to pass,
and then he himself did it. So that's the first thing. And
we're going to see how this unfolds to us in a moment here. But the
second thing is here. is that, I want you to see this
last point before we go on to the next one, is that in doing
this will of his father, in his submission to his father's will,
this was a positive obedience. And sometimes you hear theologians
talk about the passive obedience of Christ. I don't like that
term. I dislike it because this was
not passive. This was the most active kind
of obedience. This was obedience where he submitted
himself to do his father's will so much so that what he said
was that he set his face like a flint and he gave his back
to the smiters, to them that pluck off the hair, the beard,
And this was a positive obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
fact, it was an obedience that fulfilled the righteousness of
God. And this is verified to us, for
example, in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, where it says, God
has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. His obedience in
bearing our sins and fulfilling God's law under the load of our
sins both for obedience and for sufferings was a positive obedience
that fulfilled God's righteousness and that's the righteousness
that he worked out for us. So that's the first thing we
see here is that the Lord Jesus Christ tells his disciples because
he always tells his people what he did at Calvary. and then the
next part I want to look at here is how the Lord Jesus said then
are the children free I'll read that text of scripture again
he says when they were come to Capernaum so this is a different
time in a different place but notice how Matthew connects these
two things the apostle Matthew he was chosen by Christ to be
an apostle he was given by the Spirit of God to put this right
after the former what we just read in order to connect them
for us he says and when they were come to Capernaum they that
received tribute money came to Peter and said does not your
master pay tribute and he said yes obviously he must have observed
him doing this before and when he was coming to the house Jesus
anticipating his thoughts and what had happened before showing
himself again that he is God he knew his thoughts he said
what thinkest thou Simon of whom do the kings of the earth take
custom or tribute of their own children or of strangers and
Peter said to him of strangers Jesus said, then are the children
free. So here's the second lesson that's
taught in this text of scripture. The children are free. what this tax was or this tribute
money was that they're talking about here was actually spoken
of in the Old Testament and we'll get to that in a minute but notice
here that if the Lord Jesus Christ is God which he is if he is the
son of God which he is because the Son of God is God, he's equal
with God. And if he is Christ, then he
is, as scripture says, the heir of all things. God has given
everything to his Son. Everything in creation. In fact,
in Colossians 1, verse 16, it says, all things were made by
him. the Lord Jesus and without him was nothing made that was
made and all things were not only made by him but for him
for his glory, for his use, they were his and so we can see here
that the scripture is trying to show us through this conversation
here that the Lord Jesus Christ is obligated to no one others
bow, he doesn't bow, he is God over all Do you see that? But
then, what we see here is that not only is he as the son and
the king of all free, but his children are also free. And so he's showing us this in
order to, again, bring out the glorious gospel that's going
to follow here. But before we get to that, I
want you to see this. He's trying to build up to this.
He's the king. He's God over all. He's greater
than the temple and this tribute money was actually used in this
temple service. In fact in the book of Exodus
they would make the tabernacle there and each board of the tabernacle
had these sockets of silver and the tribute money was taken from
the people in the wilderness and it was used to make that
silver. The very amount of money that they took from the people
to pay this tribute was used to make those silver sockets
that held the boards of the tabernacle. So that his teaching is something
very rich and very deep here in this. And yet, he says, not
being under obligation to any man because he's the sovereign.
The sovereign doesn't serve. The sovereign doesn't bow down.
The sovereign is bowed down to. He doesn't have to provide anything
for any of his creatures. They are to serve him. And so
this is showing us that the Lord Jesus Christ has no obligation,
no debt to pay. He's free of all
debt, free of all obligation, and yet something wonderful is
going to happen here. And his children also are free
because they are the children of God. Now I want to take a
slight detour here and ask this question. What makes anyone a
child of God? How do we become children of
God? I remember one time thinking
about this and asking the Lord, Lord, how is it that I became
your son? And from scripture, well, there's
at least three ways. First of all, according to Ephesians
chapter one in verse four, four and five, we were chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world by God the Father. And
we were predestinated to the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to God the Father. I'll read that to you so that
you get it straight from the scriptures here. He says, in
Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 5, he says, this is what God
the Father did. Having predestinated us, that's
why He's called the Father. He's not only the Father of His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, And that's an eternal relationship.
As long as he was the father, he had a son. As long as the
son of God was the son of God, he had a father. So they are
co-eternal, co-equal. But he says here, having predestinated
us to the adoption of children. Now the word adopt means to put
among the children. Those who had no legal title
to being children of God. They were put among the children. And so here he says, in his predestination,
God the Father, he determined before what would happen, what
he would accomplish by the Lord Jesus Christ to make us his children. So the first thing we see is
that we are made children of God by adoption. He chose us
in Christ and by Christ predestinated how we would become his children. That's what this verse is saying.
according to the good pleasure of his will." Then verse 6 of
Ephesians 1, "...to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein
he hath made us accepted in the Beloved." Talking about Christ. The Beloved One is Christ. Remember
what God the Father spoke from heaven at the Mount of Transfiguration
and at the baptism of Christ? He said, this is my Beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. And so he made his people accepted
in Christ. And then in verse 7 of Ephesians
1 he says, In whom, in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have, notice
carefully, redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of his grace so the second way
we're made children here is the way that God the Father predestinated
that we should become children by adoption and this would be
through the Lord Jesus Christ and the way Christ would make
us children of God is by his redeeming blood and we have much
more to say about that in a minute But the first thing we understand
here is that it was required in order for us to be children
of God that we be purchased out of whatever bondage we were in
before. And that reminds us of the children
of Israel in Egypt, doesn't it? God redeemed Israel out of Egypt
by the blood of the Passover lamb and through the other plagues
as well and brought them out. And then he called them my sons,
my firstborn. Israel is my firstborn. And he
says, sons and daughters, he treated them as his sons. In
Romans 9 he talks about the adoption. So, Israel as a nation was a
picture of this, but the reality, the truth of it is that Christ
by his blood purchased his people, he paid with himself a ransom
price necessary to make us children of God according to what God
had predestinated beforehand. And then the third way that we're
made children of God is that having been redeemed by Christ,
the Lord Jesus, God the Father, sends the Spirit of His Son,
that's Christ. Who is the Son of God? The Lord
Jesus. And God the Father sends the
Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So that
we then know, we have an open recognition Christ now is the
one we see as our Redeemer. We're trusting in Him as our
Redeemer and in His shed blood. And this is the work of the Spirit
in our hearts. And then we know, according to
the teaching of Scripture and God's Word revealed to us in
Scripture, that therefore God is our Father. He predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. So
that in looking to Christ, then, according to the operation of
the Spirit of God, we're made to know God is our Father. Because we've heard His voice,
we've heard the voice of Christ. We've followed Him in faith.
And so He says, for example, in John 1, In verse 12 and 13,
as many as received him, to them gave he the authority from God
to be called the sons of God, even to those who believe on
his name, on Christ. who were born not of flesh, not
of blood, but of God, you see, not of the will of man, not of
the will of the flesh, but of God. So God the Father, by His
own will, has enabled us to believe on Christ, which is the giving
of His Spirit, the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, and
then we cry, Abba, Father. my father because of Christ's
redeeming blood. So we see then that as children
we're free. How are we free? Because we're
children, sons of the king, sons of God, and yet that freedom
came at a huge price, the purchase of blood, the ransom that Christ
gave. And so we see then not only does
the Spirit of God enable us to believe Christ, but this enabling
work of the Spirit of God in our hearts is actually being
born of the Spirit of God. He had to give us a new nature,
give us a spirit, enable us by Christ dwelling in us to live
upon Christ by faith. And so now that is the result
of this predestinating work of God the Father. It's the result
of Christ redeeming blood. And the fruit of that, the evidence
of that is this application of it to our hearts so that we see
Christ is my Redeemer. His blood and His blood alone
pay the ransom price for my liberty, therefore I'm free. I'm free
from all obligations to pay tribute to men in this fashion because
this was a money that was collected for the service of the temple
and Christ is greater than the temple. Okay, you see this? so now the third thing we see
here in this text of scripture is that even though the Lord
Jesus Christ is free he has no obligations yet notice the first
thing he says here he says in verse 27 notwithstanding lest
we should offend them so it didn't matter really it wasn't that
big of a deal it wasn't so much important whether or not they
paid or didn't pay this temple tax this tribute money it wasn't
that important because what God had commanded about this had
already elapsed and yet it was continued by the Jews by tradition
and in order to avoid offending the Jews the Lord Jesus Christ
paid the tax He was free. He was not obligated. Others
were to bow to him. And yet what did he do? In order
to avoid offending men, in order that when he preached the Gospel,
they would not be offended by this insignificant matter, he
himself paid. It's just like the Apostle Paul. He says, I'm free from all men
and yet I make myself a servant to all for the Gospel's sake.
And so he does this. He shows us in doing so that
he is meek and lowly of heart, doesn't it? He didn't demand
his rights. He shows his submission to the
will of God for the sake of men's souls. Now this is all building
up. he who had no obligations to
men as God and yet and he who is the king the appointed king
and the anointed king and the one who would overcome all enemies
of his people to the glory of God the rightful king of heaven
and earth yet notice what's going to happen next here he himself
who had no obligations yet he redeemed his people by the price
of his own blood and I want you to see this now how it's related
to this tribute money here if you look back at Exodus chapter
30 in the Old Testament in Exodus chapter 30 and I want to look
at this beginning at verse 12 He says in Exodus 30, the Lord
says to Moses, in verse 12 of Exodus 30, where thou takest
the sum of the children of Israel. Now, you know what a sum is?
When you're in school, they say, I want you to add these two numbers
together. This is the, I don't know what
they call them anymore, I've forgotten. Add in something or
other, and this is the sum. The sum is what you get when
you add things together, isn't it? or when you count. How many
people are in the room? Count them up. Okay, that's the
sum. And so he says here, when thou takest the sum, the number,
in other words, of the children of Israel, the count, after their
number, then shall they give every man, notice, a ransom for
his soul unto the Lord. All right, so what were they
obligated to do according to what God told Moses? Every person,
when they were counted, had to give a ransom to the Lord for
their soul. Notice, he goes on, when he numbers
them, that there be no plague. So this was necessary that they
give this ransom to the Lord for their soul so there would
be no plague. when thou number'st them and
this they shall give every one of them every one that passes
among them that are numbered this is how much half a shekel
after the shekel of the sanctuary in other words this was measured
by whatever weight If you know what scales are, if you've seen
those balances where you put something on this side, it's
a known weight. Let's say one gram or one pound,
whatever it is. And then you put something on
this side. If this side goes down and this one goes up, it
means that it's lighter. It's not as much. But if this
one goes down and this one goes up, it's too heavy. So they use
that in order to find out how much, and they would add known
weights to one side until it balanced out and say, that's
how much this side is. So what he's saying here is that
in order for them to avoid the plague in order for them to give
a ransom to the Lord for their soul they were to give one half
shekel that was a weight on this one side and the temple weight
was put on this side and their money was put on this side to
make sure that was a half shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary.
A shekel is 20 gira. This is just breaking down the
size of a shekel. A half shekel shall be for the
offering of the Lord. Notice it's an offering for their
ransom, for their souls to avoid the plague. And in verse 14 everyone
that passeth among them that are numbered from 20 years old
and above shall give an offering to the Lord the rich shall not
give more the poor shall not give less than half a shekel
when they give an offering to the Lord to make atonement for
your souls okay the next verse the last one 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 souls so if it's a memorial a memorial
means it's something you remember things by they give the half
shekel as a ransom for their souls, they give it to the Lord,
it's an offering, in giving it they avoid the plague and it
makes an atonement for their souls as a memorial. So this is telling us something
very significant here. And oh by the way, the rich give
no more than half a shekel and the poor give no less than half
a shekel. Now the Lord Jesus Christ said
in Matthew chapter 20 and verse 28, He says, The Son of Man,
talking about Himself, did not come to be ministered unto, but
Himself to minister. In other words, he didn't come,
even though he's not obligated to any. Though he's the king
of kings, the son of God, the sovereign who knows fish, where
they are in the sea, and all the details of things. Though
he's not obligated to pay this tax, yet, he did not come for
men to serve him. He came to serve. And he came
to serve in this way, according to Matthew 20, 28, to give his
life a ransom for many, a ransom for many. Not all, many. And who were the
many? Well, this account here in Exodus
chapter 30 teaches us who these are. The first thing we see here
is that we have to give a ransom to God for our souls. The ransom
is to buy our souls out of whatever debt we owe to God. But the problem
is, is that no matter how much money we have, no matter how
many good works we have, whatever we call riches, whatever people
call riches, if I have all of the riches in the world, whether
it be my own integrity, my own honesty, my uprightness before
people, or the wealth I have in the bank, lands, children,
beasts, it doesn't matter what I have, none of that is enough
to give to God a ransom for my soul and yet he talks about giving
a ransom for our soul here in Exodus 30 and this is the way
he says it in Psalm 49, he says in Psalm 49 and verse 7, none
of them can by any means, these men who have all this wealth,
he says in Psalm 49 they that trust in their wealth
and boast themselves in a multitude of their riches and it doesn't
just mean physical riches it means things I consider to be
riches my good works none of them can by any means redeem
his brother nor give to God a ransom for him so the ransom then has
to be given to God and no man has enough to pay the ransom
to God for his brother or for himself And then in verse 8 of
Psalm 49 he says, for the redemption, this ransom is given for a redemption,
the redemption of their soul is precious and ceases forever. It's too high a price. It can't
be paid by men. And yet this tribute, this temple
tax, this half shekel was required when God would number, when the
Lord instructed Moses to number the people, to count them. You
go out and count them. Everyone you count, this is what
the Lord is telling him, every person that you count, 20 years
old or older, When you count them, here's Bob, here's Mary,
well they didn't talk about the women, but it signifies all the
men in Israel. Here's Joe, here's George, every
one of these people. Did you count them? Yes. Did
you get a half a shekel? Yes. Unless you give me a half
a shekel, the plague is going to be on you. Okay. It's not
very much, but I have to give it. It's to the Lord. Yes. And
it's to make atonement for your soul. Yes. You see, the ransom
was paid in order to teach us that for our souls to be redeemed,
for us to be free from our debt, from the captivity we were in,
because we owed God for our sins, a ransom had to be paid. It was
a memorial then to be paid. It had to be paid for all who
were numbered in Israel. All the children of Israel who
were numbered had to pay this tax. Can you see here something about
the truth that God teaches of the redeeming work of the Lord
Jesus Christ? That the Lord Jesus Christ, according
to what we read in Ephesians 1.7, God made us accepted in
the Beloved, in Christ, by whom we have redemption through his
blood, even the forgiveness of sins. And Jesus said, I came
to give myself, my life, a ransom for many. So this half a shekel
represented the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ for
our souls. A price too high that anyone
could pay. and yet it was a price that God
required for the redemption of our souls so that no plague would
be upon us and the word plague here has to do with falling as
in eternal falling and so the ransom freed them from being
under this plague it made atonement for their souls and it also put
them in the number of the children of Israel Only the children of
Israel and the males 20 and older were required. But if they did
not pay that ransom, they were not part of the people, the children
of Israel. So there's a one-to-one correspondence
here. Now, back to these balances. On the one side, we have in the
temple a one-half shekel. But here in the gospel, what
do we have? We have the price of our souls,
which is according to Psalm 49, 7 and 8, it's exceedingly precious,
it ceases forever. How can then we put a price,
a ransom for our souls that will make this balance satisfied? Well, the balance represents
God's justice. And what the Lord Jesus Christ
did is He laid His life on the balance. The One who is God,
who is under obligation to no one. Yet He came to do the will
of His Father. In all things He pleased His
Father. So that when He spoke of His
going to Jerusalem, meaning condemned by the leaders of the Jews and
mocked and spit upon and suffering and dying at the hand of wicked
Gentiles. and even being forsaken in his
own soul by God he's placing that on the balance and the other
side is the redemption price required for our souls that ceases
forever only he could pay it and God himself had predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ and made us accepted
in him In his predestination God said the redemption of our
souls would be met in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
this is how we know that they were redeemed is that they were
counted. They were counted as the children
of Israel. If they were not counted If they
were not counted they were not part of Israel but they could
only be counted if they were redeemed by the ransom price. You see the scales had to be
given, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and a sum, the sum
of all the children of Israel and all of their souls was placed
on one side. and then the Lord Jesus Christ
and his blood was placed on the other and God was satisfied and
God redeemed them and so he says in Galatians chapter 4 in Galatians
chapter 4 let me read this to you he's talking about our sonship
and this price first in Galatians 3 notice in Galatians 3 Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse
for us For it is written, Cursed be everyone that hangeth on a
tree." The Lord Jesus Christ, how did he redeem us? Well, he
said, I'm going to give my life. I give myself a ransom for many. How did he give himself? At the
cross. What happened at the cross? How
did God extract that ransom price from him? He cursed him. He put
him under the law and he brought the curse of the law. Why did
he curse his son? Because he laid the sins of his
people on his son and he owned them. He became obligated for
their debt. We owed a debt we couldn't pay. Christ paid that debt. He didn't
know it, but He obligated Himself. He stepped under the burden of
our sin and lifted it from us. And He bore it as His own. And
then He paid the curse of God's law required. He satisfied the
justice of God, the balances of God's scale of eternal justice. And He not only paid that price
to liberate us from that curse, but notice in this same text
here, Galatians 3, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ in order that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. You see, what He's saying
here is that in order for us to be given the Spirit of God's
own Son, In order for us to call God our Father, to know our adoption,
Christ had to redeem us from the curse of the law. He had
to set us free, not only from our sin, not only from the curse
that God required, but He had to set us free as the children
of God. He had to make it so that we
had no obligations to anything. Because we were children, we
were free. And we were free because we were
made children of God. Look at Galatians 4. In Galatians
4, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman, made under the law. This is Christ as a
substitute. to redeem, to pay the ransom
price for the liberty of, to redeem them that were under the
law that we might receive the adoption of sons. We were predestinated
for this. We were predestinated in Christ,
chosen in Him for this. Christ fulfilled it when He shed
His own blood. He paid the price. God required
it. The ransom price having been paid, what happened? God freed
us. He adopted us. He sent his own
spirit that we might know our adoption. And this is so important. Notice back in Galatians chapter
3, he says here, And he's showing here that it's
not by the law that we're justified. The law condemns us unless we
keep it all. We're under the curse. Christ redeemed us from
that curse. But then he says in verse 19,
Wherefore then serveth the law. Why was the law even given then
if we didn't need it? Because of transgressions till
The seed should come to whom the promise was made. That's
Christ. The promise that God would give him all of his people,
all of the Gentiles would be redeemed by his blood. That promise
was fulfilled. When he came, and it was ordained
by the angels in the hand of a mediator, now a mediator is
not of one, but God is one, is the law then against the promises
of God? No, God forbid, for if there
had been a law which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But notice, the scripture has
concluded, all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus
Christ might be given to them that believe, before faith came,
we were kept under the law shut up like in a prison unto the
faith which should afterwards be revealed we were in prison
under the law we couldn't get out until when? until faith came
verse 24 wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us
or until Christ came you see we were predestinated as sons
we were predestinated to the adoption of sons but we didn't
know it God the Father hadn't made it, it hadn't been the appointed
time. And until that time came, we
were kept under the law. We were kept under the law like
a harsh schoolmaster, treating us no differently than slaves. We were treated just like those
poor children who had no father, like slaves. And we were beaten
and made to mind by the schoolmaster. That was the law. But when the
fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law, in order that he might redeem
us. So there was a time in history when it seemed good to the father
who had adopted us in his predestinated will to make known or actually
to accomplish what was necessary to make us his sons and he did
that by the redeeming blood of Christ but then in our lifetime
preaching the gospel, the Spirit of God takes the gospel of Christ's
redeeming work and He holds it up to us and He gives us life
in our souls and He causes Christ's redeeming work and Christ Himself
as our Redeemer to become the full object of our faith and
then that's the fullness of the time when the Father makes us
know our adoption as His sons when we see Christ and see Him
crucified, risen, reigning We're free! And then we understand
now that the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ was all
those counted. None were counted unless they
were redeemed and none were redeemed except those counted. You see,
it was for a particular, a definite. Not all, but for many. And so
we see this wonderful fulfillment of this tribute money. Christ
sends Peter as the omniscient God to the ocean to cast a hook,
it would seem, at a random, yet he directs this fish. long before
to pick up a piece of money and to swim over there to the edge
of the ocean or the Sea of Galilee whatever it was and Peter cast
his hook in and the first the first fish to get to that hook
is the one with the money in his mouth he takes the hook he's
got the coin and he's got the hook now Peter reels him in he
pulls the money out it's just enough to pay for him and the
master the tribute money so the Lord Jesus Christ as the sovereign
of the universe under no obligation knows the price the redemption
price of our souls and he directs all of history in order to accomplishment
and gives himself the ransom price for our souls what a redeemer
what a savior under no obligations and yet he makes himself a servant
of all and then the last question I want to ask here which perhaps
is the most important one to you, is how do I know that I
am one counted in Israel? How could I know that the Lord
Jesus Christ gave himself as a ransom price for me? Now, this
is a question I think that always comes up in our minds, doesn't
it? Here we are, living our lives
and suddenly we get the news, something's wrong with you. You
may be at risk of death soon. And what happens is we begin
to scurry our mind and grapple, well what am I going to do? I
read in scripture that everyone has to stand before the judgment
seat of Christ. How am I going to stand there?
And we look past death to judgment and past judgment to eternity
and these things become begin to press upon us, don't they,
in our conscience? And we ask in our heart and maybe
we express it to the Lord in prayer and say, Lord, how can
I know? How can I know that the Lord
Jesus Christ paid the ransom price of his own blood to redeem
my soul, to keep me from being plagued, to make an atonement
for me with God? How can I be counted among God's
predestined children by adoption? Now, I want you to hear this
verse of scripture in John chapter 6 and verse 40. He says, this
is the will, the Lord Jesus Christ says, this is the will of him
that sent me, that everyone notice which seeth the Son, and believeth
on Him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up
at the last day." To be raised up means to be free, free from
death, free from the grave, because you were redeemed, redeemed from
sin, from the curse, from Satan, from this present evil world
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. To have the blood of
Christ as the ransom price for your soul, means that God has
forgiven you all your sins. It means that He has justified
you by His blood, sanctified you by His blood. He's reconciled
you to God by the death of His Son. He's made remission for
all your sins. He's done everything by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But how can I know? He says here,
the way you know is that as the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd
and follow him, so those who, according to God's will, sending
Christ, see the Son and believe on Him, have everlasting life. Now, we often wonder, well, I
need to understand what am I thinking? Do I think this? Do I think that?
Have I done this? Have I done that? Do I feel this?
Do I feel that? Am I sincere enough? Have I met
enough of this devotion to God, of this commitment? That's not
seeing the sun. That's seeing myself. Anything
that draws us inward to make us begin to think, have I met
the criteria? is not seeing the sun. That's
not believing on the sun, is it? It's looking for something
else, some evidence that I have this blessing of God's electing,
predestinating grace in Christ's redeeming blood. but the work
of the Spirit of God is ever to direct us to the Redeemer
and to His blood so to see the Son and to believe the Son means
I don't believe anything concerning myself that God could accept
me in fact I find myself having a total absence of spiritual
value and yet I see all value in the ransom price of the Son
The one who was under no obligation gave himself for my sins. That's
the only hope we have. And he says, all who thus see
him and believe on him. You can see how it directs us
away from ourselves. We don't look for our prayers.
We don't look for our repentance. We don't look for even our faith.
We look at what God has said concerning His Son. We look at
Scripture. We see Christ there. The truth
is that true saving faith is the faith that holds to Christ
as everything. Not myself as anything. I'm not
looking for anything in myself. I'm looking to Christ for everything. Like Brother Mark likes to say,
Christ is all. That's the simplest way to put
it. Christ is all. Is He all? When I stand in judgment
now in my conscience, do I plead, Lord, answer for me. Lord God, receive the answer
of Christ Himself. Consider the scales of your justice
with Him on one side and me on the other. Look to the propitiation
of the Lord Jesus Christ and have mercy upon me. Is that the
way we look at it? Or do we begin to look here and
there? The preacher said I need to do
this. Am I doing that? Am I giving enough? Am I talking
enough? Am I acting the right way? Of course we better come up with
an empty satisfaction there. If we find satisfaction in what
we find in ourselves, then we'll never be satisfied. We don't
look to Christ. But looking to Christ, we have
everything. Everything by the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, peace with God, access into the presence
of God by the blood of Jesus. The sprinkling of blood, not
only in the presence of God made sanctification for us, cleansed
us and washed us from our sins, the blood is everything. Thou
has redeemed us by Thy blood. unto Him who loved us and gave
and washed us from our sins by His blood. You were not redeemed
with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ.
Yes, the redemption of your souls is precious. Yes, it ceases forever. But God, who knows the price,
gave the price, received it from Christ and set us free to know
Him as His sons in looking to Christ, away from ourselves,
Faith is looking to Christ away from everything else but Him.
I hope that you, by God's grace, I hope the Lord gives you this
rejoicing in your heart that if Christ died for a numbered,
redeemed people, that there's no redemption without the Redeemer,
without the ransom price, and without those redeemed by Him,
and God actually setting them free, that you see that it has
to be all done by God Himself in His Son. That was His will
from eternity, and that's what's going to be at the end of time.