Thank you all so much. Let's
go back to the book of Galatians tonight. Galatians chapter 3. My subject is Christ hath redeemed
us. Galatians 3. Let me read verses
13 and 14. It goes like this, Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
promise of the Spirit through faith. Are we able to identify
those that Christ redeemed? You know, the idea of redemption
is paying a ransom price. A captive, someone taken captive,
held for a ransom. That's what the law of God, it
held us for ransom, took us captive. Ransom had to be paid, and our
Lord Jesus paid it. That's redemption. He redeemed
us, to redeem is to buy back. We were the Lord's before we
ever fell in Adam. But we did fall, and we became
alienated from God due to our sinfulness. Our Lord Jesus came
and redeemed us though. He bought us back from the law. He bought us again. You might
say we're twice his. We're his by creation and we're
his by redemption. And the ones that he redeemed
are identified here in verse 13 as being us. He has redeemed
us. There is not a word here that
could ever be misunderstood as universal redemption. Who did
the Lord Jesus buy back? Who did he pay the ransom for? Us. Well, who are the us? That's all of the elect of God. It's all of the people of God.
It's all that God gave to Christ in covenant mercy and in covenant
love before the world ever began. Our Lord said in John chapter
10, I lay down my life. He didn't say for everybody.
He didn't say I lay down my life for the sheep and the goats.
He said, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. A little later in the 10th chapter
of John, there were those who bickered, would dare to bicker
with him and argue with him, people who hated him, people
who despised him, the religious leaders who ultimately would
be the the ringleaders of having him crucified, and they said,
if you'll just show us another miracle, you show us a sign,
we'll believe you. And our Lord Jesus, he said to
them, I've showed you many signs, but you don't believe me because
you're not of my sheep. Well, if they're not of his sheep,
What does that make them? Goats? Well, yeah. And earlier when he said, I'm
the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep,
what he was saying there would certainly sting those people
who crowded around him Who wouldn't believe Him? Who wouldn't bow
to Him? Who wouldn't trust their souls
to Him? Those to whom He said, you're
not of My sheep. If you were of My sheep, you
would believe Me. Who believes on the Lord Jesus
Christ? His sheep. Those that were purchased
by Him. according to his substitutionary
sacrifice in John, or rather in Acts chapter 20. We find Paul met with the Ephesian
elders, and he said to them what the Lord said. If you remember
the message this morning, it said to Zechariah, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. And he said, feed the sheep,
feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Who did Christ purchase? Who
did he buy back from divine justice? Well, Paul said, the church. Just as he said in Ephesians
chapter five, Christ loved the church. It doesn't say he loved
everybody in the world. It says he loved the church.
Well, what's the evidence that he loved the church? He gave
himself for it. He redeemed the church. He laid
down his life for the church. There's not a word in the book
of God that could ever be misunderstood its teaching, universal redemption. Our Lord redeemed His people.
Nothing about universal redemption, nothing about a perhaps redemption
or a maybe redemption dependent upon and conditioned upon the
reception of sinners or the will of sinners. Our Lord redeemed
some people. He actually bought some people.
You see, to redeem somebody is an actual redemption. He bought
His people from divine justice. After all, He came to save His
people. The heavenly messenger said to
Joseph, Thou shalt call His name Jesus. And here's the reason. He shall save His people from
their sins. Don't you love the shalls of
the Lord? He shall save his people. Well,
how did he do that? Well, it wasn't by performing
miracles. And it wasn't by living a good
moral life, though he performed miracles and he lived a good
moral life. It wasn't even by him living
a life of perfection, though he did that. How did he save
his people from their sins? By dying in their room, stead
in place. Because the law of God, the law
of God put a very severe penalty upon sin. God did. God said to Adam, in the day
you eat of the fruit that I forbid you to eat of, in the day you
eat thereof, thou shalt surely die. Didn't say get sick. Didn't
say lose your health. No. Here's the penalty for sin. Lose your life. You can't get
any more severe than that penalty. Death. And that's what the law of God
demands. Death for sin. Not just mere
punishment, as in being sick or being tortured for a little
while, but death. Death. That's all that will satisfy
divine justice, is death. When justice gets death, it's
satisfied. Once the law of God kills, It's
finished with you. Our Lord Jesus tasted death for
all of his people. Look over a page, just one page
in my Bible, Galatians chapter four. Look at Galatians chapter
four and verses three through five. Or four through six. But when
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, under the dominion of the
law, under the authority of the law. Well, why did God send forth
His Son? To redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Let me ask you a few questions.
Number one, why did Christ come into the world? What'd he come
for? Show us how to live a better
life? Did he come to teach us about
goodness and kindness and loving one another? I hear preachers
on television talk like that. Why did he come into the world?
To set a good example of how we ought to conduct ourselves.
How we ought to get along with our enemies. How to be at peace
with people. He wasn't at peace with people. And people weren't at peace with
him. He said, I didn't come to bring
peace. Wow. You didn't come to bring
peace. What did you come to bring? A
sword. That's what he said. And he sets families, he sets
a mother and a father at variance against one another, and a brother
and sister, and a son and daughter. What was the reason that Jesus
Christ came into this world? Why did God send Him? to save
his people from their sins. That's why God sent him, to save,
not to try, not to save everybody, but to save his people. He has
a people that he's responsible to save. He was given those people
in covenant love before the world began. They've always been God's
people. They've always been God's elect.
And Christ was sent into this world for a specific reason,
to save them, to redeem them, to justify them, to put their
sins away, to declare them righteous before God. And the them, the
his people, the them includes everybody who will ever believe
on him because the reason we'll be brought to believe on him
is because we are his people. We already belong to him. That's
why Christ came. When I heard, Lord, you remember
in Luke chapter 19, When our Lord dealt in mercy with Zacchaeus,
went to his house, he said, the Savior said, Luke 19 10, the
Son of Man is come. Okay, now I wanna hear what he's
got to say. The Son of Man is come to do
something. What's he gonna say? To seek
and to save. than what you're lost. You say,
but everybody's lost. No, ask people if they're lost. They're not lost. He was sent by the Father to
seek out and find the lost ones. Just like the shepherd in Luke
15 found the lost sheep. And the woman found the lost
coin. And the father welcomed home
the lost son. Christ came to seek and to save
that which was lost. He came to seek us out. In Ezekiel
he said, speaking of the shepherd who's gonna come, he will both
search out and find his sheep. It's our Lord Jesus. Our Lord
Jesus. So why did he come into this
world? Well, to pay a ransom price,
yeah. To redeem the captives, yes. To save the lost, yes. That's why he came. Second question
is, why did we have to be purchased from the law of God? Because
in Adam we broke God's law. and fell into sin. Certainly
we have to be saved from Satan, there's no question about that. But we're not saved from Satan
by redemption. He was not owed a price. Satan was owed nothing. He, I'll put it this way, he
hijacked us. And he's going to be overcome,
not by price, but by power. Omnipotent power. What would
it take? What did it take to liberate
us from the clutches of Satan? Well, it took a whole lot more
power than you've got in your puny free will. It took the power
of God, it took the power of Christ, and that did happen at
the cross, where he crushed the head of the serpent. And all
the while, our Lord's heel was crushed, wounded. But he defeated Satan by power
and all the principalities. This man, Christ Jesus, did that. But he came. He defeated the
enemy of our souls by triumphing over him on the cross of Calvary. But as far as the law of God's
concerned, because of our transgressions, God's law had taken us captive
and would not release us until our indebtedness had been paid,
and that which the law of God demanded, the penalty, I've already
said, was death. That's the only thing that would
satisfy divine justice, death for sin, death for sin. Hold your plates right here.
I'm gonna come back to this passage. Go to Matthew. Look at Matthew
chapter five, Matthew chapter five. Here's an illustration of this.
Matthew chapter five, we'll look at verses 25 and 26. Matthew chapter five, verses
25 and 26. Sire Lord's words in his famous
sermon on the mount, He says, agree with thine adversary
quickly. That is, whilst thou art in the
way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to
the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou
be cast into prison. Now listen to the Savior's words.
Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence
till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. That is, a man who's locked up, he's aggravated his adversary,
and the adversary puts him in prison. That man who's in prison,
that woman who's in prison will never be released until every
penny has been paid of their debt. Now think of the law of
God that has taken us captive. And I agree with the adversary. I'm a sinner and I'm guilty. And the law of God has, as it
were, put me in prison. And the law of God says, you're
never getting out till you pay every penny you owe me. Well, what do I owe you? Your
life. You'll be released upon your
death. And not until then, not till
your whole indebtedness has been canceled. You see, that's how
strict God's law is. And you can say, I'm sorry. I'm
sorry for breaking God's law. Lord, I apologize for my sins. And y'all do that. I repent of
my sins, but the jail door don't swing open on that. That's not
going to free you. The law has handed down a stiff
penalty, D-E-A-T-H, death. What's gonna satisfy offended
justice? Nothing short of death. Nothing
short of death. Understand something about the
law of God. It cannot save. It cannot give life. It cannot show mercy. It cannot show any leniency. It cannot give life. It cannot justify. It can't make
a sinner righteous. It can't sanctify. You think
by keeping God's law that the law of God will sanctify you? It can't sanctify you. It cannot
bless. The law of God is good and holy
and just, but it can, now get this, it can never produce anything
good in us, and it cannot produce anything
good for us. It's important to understand
that. You see, the law of God is the ministration of death
and condemnation. It exposes sin. It sets forth our guilt. It curses us. That's what the
law of God does. And it condemns the sinner and
it ministers death. It genders, in the words earlier
in the book of Galatians, it genders to bondage. Never liberty. It curses. It never blesses. When Adam sinned as our representative,
the law of God arrested us. It held us for ransom. And the
law of God in essence says, I'm never gonna let these go till
every farthing they owe me is paid. That's what the law of
God said. And you see, here's the foolishness
of the Jewish people. They were all the time running
to the law, running to the law of Moses. But the law can't save,
it damns. That's all it can do. So if we're to be saved, if we're
to be justified, if we're to be forgiven, if we're to be made
righteous, we must look in another direction. And the Jews wouldn't look in
the only direction where there was true help. They wouldn't
look to Christ. You see, the broken law of God,
it finds us lost sinners, and it'll leave us as lost sinners.
It doesn't find you as in rescuing you, but leaves you as it finds
you. And you know the passage in Romans
3, now we know that what thinks whoever the lost saith, It saith
to them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world may become guilty before God, therefore
by the deeds of the law. So I'm gonna do better. Well,
go ahead and try to do better, but by the deeds of the law,
there shall no flesh, no, you flesh, aren't you? I believe
you're flesh, aren't you? There shall no flesh be justified,
declared righteous in God's sight. Go ahead and turn over a new
leaf and make resolutions of improvement and all of these
things. Law of God says you're just as
guilty. And see, the Jews ran to that law thinking that by
obedience to the law, they could establish righteousness. That's a fatal mistake. Because I'll tell you what the
law of God will do. It'll kill you. It will flat kill you. But blessed
be the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. He bought us from the demands
of the law, from the claims of the law, by paying every last
farthing we owed. Say, but it says, till thou has
paid the last farthing. We paid in the death of Christ.
You read Romans chapter six. Let me tell you something, when
the head died, The body died. When the Savior died, we died. When the shepherd died,
the sheep were in him and we died too. And once the law of
God executes the sentence, the penalty of death, then the law
of God, the justice of God, is satisfied. It can't demand any
more. It demands a tremendous, very
strict price, death. But once the law of God gets
death, and it did in Christ Jesus, then those who died in Christ
Jesus, they're redeemed and redeemed and saved forever before the
law of God and the justice of God. You see, even now the justice
of God, the justice of God is with mercy and grace demanding,
demanding our salvation. Why is that? Justice is satisfied. I have quoted to you several
times the word of Brother Toplady, twice payment God will not demand. Justice is not going to demand
twice payment. First at my bleeding surety's
hand, and then again at mine. You see, people who believe what
we call universal redemption, that Christ died for everybody,
that He redeemed everybody, they just actually put the hammer
down on the justice of God. They say, yes, Christ died, A
lot of those for whom He died won't get the salvation that's
available to them even though He died for them. You mean to
tell me that a holy God has accepted the payment price of redemption
for everybody and Christ put away everybody's sins and God's
still sending people to hell? What kind of justice is that? Universal redemption is the most
ridiculous, the most stupid, the most foolish of heresies
that's come forth from the battles of the evil one. Universal redemption
that Christ redeemed everybody from the curse of the law. It's
foolish. It's contrary to the word of
God and furthermore, It's also contrary to human reasoning. You got better sense than to
believe that kind of tomfoolery. If the debt's paid, it's paid.
You say, well, but we've got to do our part. We've already
done our part. Our part's the sinning part.
Our part's the disobedient part. Our part is the nature of guilt
and transgression and iniquities and all of that. That's our part.
His part's saving us. And then he sends his spirit who quickens us and gives us
understanding, enables us to see the kingdom of God, to see
God's salvation. and to see that all of this salvation
business is totally of God. Christ hath redeemed us. And
in this passage of scripture back here in Galatians 4, it
was that we might receive the adoption of sons. That's what
it says, this passage I read to you in verse five of Galatians
four, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. Well, when was this all ordered
by God? Well, we were predestinated to
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself. That's Ephesians
chapter one. And then sin entered into the
picture. We're still the sons of God,
but something had to be done about our sins. Christ died for
our sins according to scriptures. God accepted the payment. I know
he did because he raised him from the dead and exalted him
to glory. And then the spirit of God births
us into the kingdom, into salvation. And then we have the privilege
of saying, I'm a child of God. You read John chapter one, verses
12 and 13. Verse 11 says that nobody received
him. Verse 12 says, but as many as
do receive him, to them gave he the power, the authority,
the right to say, I'm a son of God. See, you have no right,
you do not have any, you don't have God's permission, you don't
have any right whatsoever to say, I'm a child of God, unless
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, everybody's children of
God. Well, you're wrong about that too. You see, our Lord Jesus redeemed
us that we might receive the adoption of sons. We're sons of God, that's true,
predestinated to be sons of God. But we have no right to say,
I'm a child of the Lord. God is my father. Christ is my
older brother. The Holy Spirit is my comforter. I have no right to say that unless
I've been born of God and the evidence of that is faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're redeemed. And we can say we're children
of God. He bought us from the law of
the Lord. Well, I got more to say, but
I think I'm gonna quit. I got a headache. So I'm just
gonna, I'm gonna quit right here, and I'll save the rest up to
next week. I'll put it on the warming burner. And, but I'll probably, introduce
a new recipe for us to present it to you. But I think I'll just
quit right there. But you got it. He hath redeemed
us. The Lord's redeemed us. He redeemed
us by his blood. Oh, blessed son of God. We're
in bad shape. We're in good shape now. We've
been made aware that our price has been paid. We've been ransomed
from the prison of the law, and the law says it got nothing against
you. No sins, no sin. No transgressions,
no transgressions. No iniquities, no iniquities,
because God the Father says there's sins and iniquities. Well, I
remember no more, no more. Let's get our psalm books turned
to 53.