and thankful for the wonderful
providence of God that is directing all things in your life. I've selected for reading this
evening a most familiar passage in Ephesians 1, Ephesians chapter
1. And so if you have your Bible,
if you make your way to Ephesians 1, and I shall read a few verses
to you and then on behalf of all of us I'll seek God's mercies
upon us for this hour that we spend together. We do remember
those that our brother mentioned and ask if it be God's will that
he would strengthen these that mean so very much to us. And we're thankful that the Lord's
people are in his everlasting arms. And he always does what's
best for us. He directs each of our paths. And he is in his omnipotence,
and in his omniscience, and in his wisdom, he's directing all
things to a good end. And we're grateful for that as
well. Well, I felt read to read tonight
from Ephesians chapter one, I'm going to be talking about
blood redemption in just a little bit, and I couldn't help but
think of this passage of scripture. There are any number of scriptures
that I could have picked out to read to you, but this was
the one that seemed to weigh on my mind and on my heart. And so we'll read this, Ephesians
1 verse 3. Blessed, that is eulogized, be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. We've read this a number of times
and you've heard many messages on this and you know that the
thing that stands out in this first chapter of Ephesians is
that every good thing that God has for us is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And this is a truth that never
grows old. It is always fresh. It is always
delightful, it always blesses us, and it's always good for
us to be put in mind of these things, that we're blessed with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ. And verse
four, according to it, chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. That is, before the world ever
had a being, before it ever had any existence except in the mind
and purpose of God. And this is what God chose us
for, that we should be holy and without blame before him. How utterly amazing that those
of us who are by nature ungodly and enemies against him and thoroughly
sinful, God has set his grace on us. And he has ordained that
we would be before him absolutely holy and without blame in Christ
Jesus. And then the last two words of
verse four, I think would be better put with the verse five. And I think a lot of the other
translations will bear this out. So we would read it, in love,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ himself. And that, according to the good
pleasure of his will, according to his satisfaction and according
to his delight. In other words, it delighted
God to make us his children. And what's the reason for all
of this? Well, he gives it in verse six,
it's all to the praise of the glory of his grace. Wherein he
hath made us, or literally, he has graced us. in the beloved,
that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he has this to say about
our Savior. He says, in whom we have redemption,
we have it. You read over in Hebrews the
ninth chapter, it says that he obtained redemption by his blood,
he got it. He took hold of it for us, and
he did redeem us by his blood. And so he says here, in whom
we have redemption through his blood, not without his blood,
but through his blood, through his sacrifice. When you see,
you read of the blood of the Lord Jesus, keep in mind the
passage in Leviticus, such as Leviticus 17, 11, the life of
the flesh is in the blood. Our Lord Jesus, he shed his blood
to his death. And when you think of his blood,
you think of a violent sacrifice. The sacrifice that he offered
wasn't for those who are sensitive to blood,
those who don't want to talk about blood. Oh, no. He was the
sacrifice that God put to death. And he did so in
a violent way, because that's what our sins deserve. Violent wrath, and that's what
fell on the Lord Jesus. And that's the reason it's so
often set forth as his blood. In whom we have redemption through
his blood. Well, what does that result in?
The forgiveness of sins. and it's all according to the
riches of his grace. Many years ago, I came up with
a little outline on verse seven, and I actually wrote it in my
Bible, and I've had this Bible a long time. In fact, Stan has
rebound this Bible two or three times. It's just about ready,
Stan, to be rebound again. But I wrote it, I wrote these
six things based upon verse seven in my margin, and I'll give them
to you. Here's the purchaser of redemption. They're the words in whom. The objects of redemption, we. Here's the fact of redemption,
have. And here, of course, is the very
price of redemption through his blood. Well, what are the results
of redemption? The forgiveness of sins. And
what indeed is the very source of redemption according to the
riches of His grace? Thank God for redemption through
the bloody sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, before we
go further, let's indeed seek God's face and ask him for his
grace to be with us, for his spirit to bless both me and you
as you listen to the gospel and as I endeavor to set forth a
gospel who is Christ Jesus himself in his work of redemption. Let's
pray. Our great and holy God, we bow
in your presence this evening. We do so with reverence. And we come before you with godly
fear. We have a great respect for you,
oh God. We stand in awe of you as we
think about the your attributes and all of your perfections.
And we know, Father, that we're greatly limited in our knowledge
of you and in our estimation of your greatness. Our own polluted minds prevent
us from fully laying hold of your the thoroughness of your
identity, and yet, to some degree, we have a little bit of comprehension,
Lord, of who you are, and of how high your throne is, and
how very far we've fallen from you. We have a little idea of
the vast distance Oh God, that exists between us worms of the
dust and the holy and high throne
of God. How utterly amazing it is, oh
God, that you receive such worthless beggars of this earth in your
presence. through the doing and the dying
and the glorious person of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh God, surely all glory is due
to thee. We must magnify the God of all
grace, the God of all mercy, the God of our salvation, For
all that you have done, you are doing, and you shall yet do for
us in, through, and by the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Whenever we think of the great
salvation that is ours through Christ, we just stand amazed
at the depths of your mercy. the height of your grace, of the endless bounds of your
love for us. Oh God, when we think of you,
we just rejoice to know that you're
our God, and you're our Father, and you're not ashamed to call
us your children. And oh God, it is with great
thanksgiving that we call you our Father. Thank you for the privilege we
have to open up the book of all books, the Word of God. And thank
you for sending your Spirit to give us some understanding of
what this book is all about, who this book is, is all about
Christ and him crucified, buried, risen again, and exalted for
poor sinners. And it's a real joy to be brought
by your providence into the house of worship again tonight. I hope and pray that we never
take this opportunity for granted. There may come a day when this
house of worship shall no longer stand. It may come a day when the message
of grace will no longer go forth from this pulpit. So let us not
forget to be so very thankful for these times we have together.
And we know, Lord, that the existence of this local assembly is fully
dependent upon your preserving grace. I pray that you'll keep
us. Keep us close to the Savior. Keep us ever loving the truth. Keep us ever seeking to glorify
our God. Keep us ever faithful to the
Word of God in its purity. Keep us, O God, ever believing
this gospel of your free and sovereign grace to sinners through
Christ Jesus. Bless the sick. Lord, you know
who they are. You know the trials that afflict
them because in your wisdom, And according to your purpose,
you send these, what Peter calls fiery trials. And they do try
our faith. And I pray that the faith that
we have is indeed true faith, the faith that is the gift of
God. So bless our dear loved ones, our brothers and sisters
in the Lord Jesus who are suffering. I pray that you'll ease the pains
and heal the diseases if it pleases you. By all means, give grace
and give confidence in Christ to these that have some great
difficulties. And Lord, may your spirit assure
them that come what may, all is well. because that one who
redeemed them ever lives to make intercession and he governs this
entire world to fulfill your eternal purpose and work all
things out for the good of your dear children. Blessed tonight
as we consider a wonderful subject of the redeeming blood of the
Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God. who once was for sinners slaughtered
according to your purpose. So bless us tonight as we meet
these things we ask for Jesus' sake with thanksgiving. Amen. All right, if you would, go back
to the first book of 1 Peter tonight. I had some additional
things I wanted to to say to you about the subject of redemption
and its price. That's our subject, redemption
and its price. All of us have lots of responsibilities
in this world. We have many duties to which
we must attend. We have families that we're very
concerned about. We have loved ones. There are
just a multitude of things that daily occupy our minds and occupy
our attentions. But there is one issue, it is
above all others, the most important issue that you ought to be concerned
about and that I am concerned about. I can't speak for you
because I don't know your heart, but I'll speak for myself. This is something that always
weighs heavily upon my mind and upon my innermost being, and
that is my salvation. My salvation. I never take it
for granted. In fact, in his second epistle,
Peter says, to give diligence, give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. Make sure of it. You don't want
to be in doubt about this. And as we look once again in
1 Peter chapter 1, and taking the entire chapter and looking
it over and reading it over, and I trust that you have again.
Ron read it to us a couple of Sundays ago, not this past Sunday,
but the one before. And I hope that you've read this,
perhaps in your devotions you've read it again. It is very obvious
that Simon Peter is led of the Spirit of God to emphasize the
message of salvation, especially your salvation, my salvation,
and that which is called the salvation of our souls. He even mentions this in verse
9. And I would recommend you do highlight this verse, and
if not literally, then at least highlight it in your mind and
in your heart, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation
of your souls. The salvation of your souls. There's nothing more important
than this. You see, you are a living soul. In the book of Genesis, we read
that God breathed into Adam the breath of life, and he became
a living soul. You are a living soul. You have
a body. God's given you a tabernacle.
And within this tabernacle, there dwells your living, never dying
soul. One of these days, this tabernacle
will fall. It's destined to die. unless
the Lord Jesus comes back pretty soon. The body is going to die. This physical body is going to
continue to age and deteriorate. And at such a time as God has
already ordained, I'll reach the end of my days in this earthly
tabernacle. I will drop this tabernacle,
but the living soul, the real me goes on and he will go back
to God. That's what Solomon says in the
book of Ecclesiastes. God says, all souls, Ezekiel,
he says, all souls are mine. And when we die, we drop this
earthly tabernacle, and the soul goes back to God, and then God
either, he issues to it, to the angels, a command to, this soul
goes to hell. This living soul, this never-dying
soul must be separated from me forever, for this is a rotten
soul. It is an ungodly soul. It is a Christless soul. It is a graceless soul. He must
be removed from my sight, and angels will take the souls of
unbelievers, kicking and screaming, no doubt, and put them where
they won't do any more harm in God's great creation. Or, God
will welcome this living soul into His presence. Welcome. Welcome. I chose you. I redeemed you. I drew you with
cords of love. I have loved you with an everlasting
love. And My only begotten, dearly
begotten Son, He has redeemed you, He has bought you with His
own violent, bloody death. And My Spirit has quickened you.
He has taken the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and applied
it to you. and you will forevermore reap
the rewards and the benefits of my redeeming grace. Won't
that be wonderful to hear when he says, enter thou into the
joy of thy Lord. The soul, that's what we're talking
about, the soul. I know people say, well, you
know, this is me. This is the body. This is the body you see. This
is how you identify me. This is the body you hug and
greet. The body out of which I speak
to you. But the real me is unseen. I'm a soul. I have a body. My soul has a body. But it's
going to drop one day. I've got to shed the body. My
soul is going to fly away. Back to God. Back to glory. And that which I'm vitally interested
in, Peter names it right here, the salvation of your soul. The salvation of your soul. And I would ask you, how is it
with your soul? Is it well with your soul? We sometimes sing the song, it
is well. We sing, it is well with my soul. Is it? Might easy to sing those
words, but is it really well with my soul? Well, if your hope is built on
nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, it's well
with your soul. If he's your only hope, If he's
your only confidence of acceptance before God, it is well with you. I say give diligence about this
matter of the salvation of your soul. The apostle Peter, especially
in this first chapter, he deals with issues that are vital and
issues that have to do with salvation. He starts off by talking about
election, the second verse, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God. He talks about the obedience and the sprinkling of blood of
Jesus Christ. So he's talking about redemption
right from the get-go. He talks about it in verse three,
the death of our Lord Jesus and his resurrection. And then he
even jumps to the fact that we have a glorious inheritance that
awaits us. And so really in this passage
of scripture from the second verse to the fourth verse, He
goes from way back before the world was ever made to the foreknowledge
of God, the foreordination of God. He goes all the way back
there and then by the fourth verse, he's taking us all the
way into the future to our glorious inheritance. He's covered a lot
of ground in just a few verses there. From eternity past to
eternity future. Now this salvation that he talks
about, the salvation of your souls that he mentions in verse
nine, it had a beginning, it had an origin. And that's in
the mind and the heart and the purpose of God. And it's going
to have an end, it's going to have a goal. When we reap the
benefits of this great salvation, And we inherit this incorruptible
inheritance that is reserved for us. And listen, we're reserved
for the inheritance. It's ours. What is this inheritance? The Lord himself. In fact, we
read in the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah writes the book of Lamentations
and he says, the Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Jeremiah had an
understanding of the vital importance of the salvation of his soul.
He said, the Lord, the Lord, He's my portion, saith my soul. He's my inheritance. I want no
more than the Lord Jesus Christ. He's all I want. And the thing
of it is, if we have Him, we have everything God can give
a sinner. It used to be many years ago
when I didn't have good spiritual sense. I talk about rewards in
heaven and the more you do for God, the more He'll give to you.
And I thought that way and believed that way and talked about getting
to heaven and clicking my heels on the streets of gold and all
of that sort of thing. And then one day God opened my
mind and opened my heart and opened my understanding to that
which is really the truth. The Lord is our reward. The Lord
is the one we want. Brother Mahan came and preached
in the church. I was assistant pastor back in
1973, I think it was. In fact, he was there a couple
of times while we were there. But he preached on this. He preached
on yo-yos and tinker toys. He said these people that believe
you get rewards in heaven, he said, you can have your yo-yos
and your tinker toys. He said, I want Christ, that's
who I want. He is our inheritance. And you're
talking about an inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled. and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Christ is himself
that inheritance. Now, as Peter, as he gets deeper
into the subject of salvation, he does lay down for us some
Well, I'd call them rules of proper conduct. And these should
be noted. And I've noted these, not this
past Lord's Day, but the Lord's Day before that, where he says
in verse 13, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, be serious,
hope to the end, because of the grace that is to be brought unto
you at the revelation of Jesus Christ? Well, how are we to live
as obedient children? Not fashioning yourselves according
to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you
is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation in your
life and in your speech. Our speech is to be different
because we're different. No wonder we read in the book
of Colossians, let your speech be always seasoned with grace
like salt. You know, salt is beneficial.
It adds a tastiness to meat or to vegetables or whatever it
is you're eating. I like to salt things. Try not
to salt them too heavy, but salt, it does give flavor to it. And
he uses salt as an illustration or as a symbolic for grace. Let your speech be always seasoned
with grace. Watch the way you talk. Watch the words that you use.
Watch the words you write. Watch the words that you speak. He says, God says, be ye holy
for I'm holy. And then he says, and if you
call on the Father, and I think the word if would be better translated
as since. And since you call on the Father,
who without respect to persons judgeth according to every man's
work, he sees your heart. Well then pass the time of your
sojourning here in fear, in reverence of God. Always remembering you're
in his presence. And then he gets into verse 18.
For as much as you know, here's the reason. Here's the reason
we watch our conduct, we watch the words that we speak, and
all of us, we should make sure that our
words are seasoned with grace. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed, you weren't bought with corruptible things
as silver and gold. And these people to whom he wrote,
no doubt some of them had been in slavery, had been in servitude,
and they were bought, they were redeemed from that slavery with
the silver and gold or something of that nature. from your vain,
your useless, your futile conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but you were bought. You were redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ as the lamb without blemish and without spot, who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you. Now, first of
all, who redeemed us? Well, the Lamb of God. The Lamb
of God. And here's the question, how
long has he been the Lamb of God? We say, ever since he came,
because John the Baptist said, behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. That was the message of John
the Baptist, but he was the Lamb of God a long time before John
the Baptist preached him. Well, he said, I guess he was
the Lamb of God back when Abel killed the first sling of his
flock, a lamb that was ordained of God, a male of the first year
undoubtedly, without spot and without blemish, and that pictured
the Lord Jesus. So I guess he was the Lamb of
God. I guess that's the first time he set forth as the Lamb
of God. As the Lamb of God, he goes back
a whole lot further than that. Revelation 13 verse 8 says He's
the Lamb who was, He was slain before the foundation of the
world. He's always been God's Lamb. He's always been God's Lamb.
In God's mind, in God's eye, in God's purpose, there's always
been one Lamb. whom He appointed as the substitute
and the sacrifice of His chosen people in order to save them,
and that is His darling Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this
is an amazing thing. The Lord Jesus has the Lamb,
He was appointed to die as a remedy for a disease that had not yet
crept in. This is most unusual because
with us, somebody gets sick, there's a disease and they say,
we don't know what this is. And they investigate and they
find out this is a brand new disease. And then once they've
identified what kind of bacteria it is, what kind of virus it
is, what kind of germ it is or whatever, then they say, now
let's see if we can come up with something to take care of this. But that's not the way he became
the lamb of God. God coming up with a way to take
care of something that existed. No, the lamb was first. You see, God in his wisdom ordained
the lamb to be the remedy for a disease that he would also
ordain. Because if there had never been
sin, there wouldn't have been a need for a lamb. He's the remedy. He's always
been the remedy that God looked to. God never looked to man as
being the remedy for sin. God didn't give man the law to
set before him all of these precepts and, okay, if you keep these
laws, then this is the way you'll be saved, and then they didn't,
and then God said, well, I've got to come up with something
else. No, that's dispensationalism. That's that theory. No, He's
always been the Lamb. It says here in verse number
20, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the
world. God's Lamb. God's Lamb. That word foreordained. is the
verb form of a noun that's found in the second verse. Elect. Elect, according to the, here's
the noun, for knowledge of God the Father. That's the noun word. And over here in verse number
20, foredeigned is the verb of it. but they both mean the same
thing. This is something that happened
before God ever made the world. You see, our salvation, our justification,
our righteousness, it had to have and it does have an everlasting
aspect to it. Because just as surely as God
appointed Christ to be the Lamb who would die and who did die
in the mind and purpose and will of God, so He saved us in Christ Jesus
and He justified us in Him. And so we have what we call an
eternal justification. See, this is how men like Noah
were justified. The Bible says of Noah in Genesis
chapter six, he was a just man. What does that mean? He was a justified man. How could
he be justified when Christ hadn't died for him yet? In the mind
and purpose of God he had because God's always looked to him as
the land slain, slaughtered before the foundation of the world.
And in Genesis chapter seven, God said to Noah, come into the
ark, for you have I found righteous. That's what he said. God said
the man was righteous, but wait, the blood hadn't been shed yet.
It was as good as shed because God ordained it and he laid help
according to Psalm 89 on one who's mighty and one who would
fulfill his purpose. And so Abel, Noah, Abraham, Lot,
2 Peter 2 says, Lot was a just man. It doesn't mean he was just
a man. He was a just man, a justified
man, a righteous man. How so? Through Christ Jesus
and his obedience that he would render to God, the obedience
of his death, his sufferings and his death. All those Old Testament saints
were righteous through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Savior is, he's the Lamb
of God. You look in Exodus chapter 12,
when God gave to Moses instructions regarding the Passover lamb,
It's very interesting, in that chapter, he never speaks of lambs,
never plural. Lamb. It's all he ever uses is singular. Lamb. He starts off by saying,
take a lamb, and then he says, the lamb, and then finally, it's
your lamb. That's how he proceeds, but he
never says lambs. Because in the heart of God,
there's always been just one lamb, the lamb of God. And he's our message still, just
like it was with John the Baptist. Behold, the lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world. Well, who was redeemed? Who did
our Lord Jesus redeem? Well, look in verse 18, for as
much as you know, that ye were not redeemed. And he tells what
we weren't redeemed with. He presents it negatively, as
we've stated before, but with the precious blood of Christ,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. That's his
qualification. Who was redeemed? Ye. Well, who
are the ye? Go back to the second verse.
People who were elect according to the foreknowledge of God,
the foreordination of God the Father, through sanctification,
the setting apart of the spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. Who was redeemed ye? Ye. And in the case of the immediate
recipients, of this letter, he identifies them in the first
verse as being strangers. They're strangers. You know who
God's people are in this world? People to whom the gospel has
been revealed, who believe in salvation by free and sovereign
grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know a word that is good
to describe us? We're strangers. Because to this
religious world, we are truly strange. We're strange. Look over in 1 Peter 4. Look
at 1 Peter 4. Let me show you just a few verses
here. 1 Peter chapter 4. For as much then as Christ had
suffered for us in the flesh, 1 Peter 4 verse 1, arm yourselves
likewise with the same mind. For he that hath suffered in
the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he no longer should live
the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the
will of God. Don't live the rest of your life
to the lusts of men, the lusts of your flesh, but to the will
of God. For the time passed. Now, Peter takes him back, says,
this is the way it used to be. or the time past of our life
may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. When
we walked," and Peter is, he just, he lumps himself with these
folks. When we walked in lasciviousness,
that means unbridled cravings. Whatever we wanted, that's what
we went after. Unbridled. And then he said lusts. This
is what the flesh craves. Especially now he's getting into
sexual sinfulness, adultery, fornication, these sort of things.
And then he says excess of wine, drunkenness, revelings, that's
when you go to parties with a bunch of drinkers. It's kind of interesting. I don't
want to tell you where he lives. I want to tell you who he is.
But he told me he was invited to go to a men's meeting at his
church. And he went and he said, I took
my Bible. He said they had two or three
cases of wine bottles. And he said all the men were
sitting around drinking and getting tips and that sort of thing.
That's revelings. That's wrong. That's wrong. Don't drink to excess. Don't
drink to excess. It's wrong. The Bible says it's
wrong. Banqueting, that's eating too
much. Stepping on my own toes. But
that's too much love of food. Know when to say when. Lay that
fork down. But it's true, because it isn't
good for the body. And he says, abominable idolatries. Now watch this. Wherein they,
the crowd you used to go with, they think it strange. that you run not with them to
the same excess of right speaking evil of you. You used to go with
them, you used to go to the parties, you used to go to the bars, you
used to go out having a good time with them, but then God
did something for you and he gave you new love, he gave you
new motivation, he gave you a new desire to please him, he gave
you a desire to love the gospel and to be among people who love
the gospel. And the people you used to run
with, they say, Boy, you sure are strange anymore. You're strange. Yeah, because to them we have
a strange God. We have a strange God. Because
our God is not like their God. Their God will put up with anything.
Their God lets stuff go. Their God loves everybody, hates
nobody, and doesn't have any rules much, except just don't
commit adultery and don't kill anybody. About everything else,
I'll forgive you. You can get by with it. God of
the Bible, he's strict. He says every breakage of his
law has got to be punished. That's why Christ died. We have
a strange God to them. Isn't that what over in the book
of Acts chapter 17, the apostle Paul was in Athens, preached
at Mars Hill. You know what the philosopher
said? He seems to be a setter forth of strange gods. Strange gods. And Paul goes walking
along, sees all these religious idols and relics and statues
and so forth, and he comes to one and says, to the unknown God, just in case
they missed one. They had to try to have a statue
for all of them. In case we miss one to the unknown
God, he said, that's the one I preach to you. The God you don't know, the God
who's strange to you. To this religious world, to this
ungodly world, our God is strange. That's why the heathen said,
David, where's your God? We've got our gods. They're up
here on the mantle. We shine them up. We dust them
every once in a while. We put them up on our shoulders,
it says in Isaiah. We carry them wherever we want
to carry them. Then we set them down at a place they can't move
because they can't do anything unless we let them do it. But
your God sure is strange. Where is your God? David said,
our God's in the heaven. He'd done whatsoever he's pleased.
That's a strange God. It's a strange gospel we preach
too. Because it's a gospel of substitution
and satisfaction. It's a gospel of Christ Jesus.
And it's a gospel that says this, all of salvation is by God's
grace and God's grace alone. That's strange to the world.
Well, but I gotta do something. Tell me what I've gotta do. Hey,
listen, in this salvation business, in the Bible, it's all of God. Salvation's of the Lord. Well,
I've gotta let him save me. You don't let God do anything.
God does his will among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth and nobody can stay his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? And even faith to believe him,
that's his gift and he can give it to you or he can withhold
it, that's up to him. Salvation's of the Lord. So Peter says, you're a bunch
of strangers. And you know, our church in this
area, we're a strange church. We just, we don't fit the mold. We don't fit in. That's okay. That's okay. I don't want to
fit in with them. I don't want to be numbered among
them because they're going to perish. And but for the grace
of God, but for the teachings of the Holy Spirit, we'd be perishing
too. But he taught us the truth in
Christ Jesus. And he's maintained that truth
until this day. How much longer? I don't know,
that's God's business. But he's maintained it for a
lot of years, ever since it started. Ever since it started. And he says, you were redeemed. The precious blood of the Lamb
of God. And he says, you were redeemed
from your vain conversation received by tradition of your fathers. I'll tell you what I was redeemed
from. The traditions of my father's religious
traditions. That's what he saved me from.
What he saved you from. Because every man's an Arminian
by nature. Every man thinks he's got to
do something to please God. Every man thinks that God's looking
at him, waiting on him to make a decision. Oh boy. Salvation's all of God, isn't
it? And all of grace. He took us out of false religion. That's where he found you, trying
to work yourself into his favor. And he lifted you up out of that
natural false religion, and he put you among his people. He
said, now this is where you need to be. And this is a message
you need to hear. And here's my servant, you need
to listen to him. And you listen to him, and then
God removed him from the scene and then he brought another servant
and said now listen to him. And then God moved that servant
on and he's brought another servant and he says now listen to him.
And actually all three of us are saying the same thing. Preaching
the same gospel. Preaching the same Christ. We're
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Oh, the salvation
of your soul, don't take it lightly. Don't ever do that. Your soul's
too vital, too important. Well, let's sing closing song
205. Number 205, Once For All.