Good evening. As we sing in those
songs tonight, I appreciate the selection of songs as always,
Houston. You know, we've been, most of
us have been singing those same songs for decades. And I love
them more now than I, I think my love grows for those songs.
What a wonderful savior. Don't you just love to sing those
songs? That one we sang day by day,
there's a There's a part there that says, the protection of
His child and treasure is a charge that on Himself He laid. That
just thrills my heart every time I sing that. It's like the gospel. It's like our Savior. They grow
sweeter as the years go by. God's people grow sweeter. The
preaching of the gospel grows sweeter. The Word of God grows
sweeter. and especially Christ Himself.
Grows sweeter, doesn't He? Everything pertaining to Him,
just sweeter and sweeter, more blessed. Oh my, what a Savior,
what a Gospel. I want to continue tonight with
kind of the same theme I had this morning, talking about eternal
things, and I mentioned that it's wise for a believer
to fix his gaze upon eternal things, especially on the eternal
triumphs of our God. And I'd like you to turn with
me to the book of Hebrews chapter 9. And I want to talk to you
tonight about eternal redemption. We begin there in verse 11. Hebrews
9 beginning in verse 11. But Christ being come, and high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, But by His own blood
He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Oh, this portion of Scripture
is so rich and full, like Romans chapter 8. We're very familiar with these
scriptures, but it's truly worthy of our thought and our attention
tonight. And I stand in awe and wonder
as I studied this, as I looked at it, considered it, prayed
about it, and I pray that the Lord will once again thrill our
hearts this evening with His precious word and give us a glimpse
of our blessed Redeemer. And I desire that every believing
heart will leave this place tonight rejoicing in Him. And we often
do that here, don't we? We leave this place rejoicing
in Christ our Savior. I pray that happens tonight.
I pray that He'll come and be with us and speak peace to our
hearts and cause us to rejoice in His great salvation. And I
pray that if there's any of you here tonight that are yet to
believe, that God will tonight, even tonight, in this very hour,
give you a view of our Savior that will enable you to lay hold
on Him, to lay hold on eternal life, Christ Himself. And I have four points this evening. I want to talk about that title
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, our Redeemer. I want
to talk for a minute about His own blood. He entered in to that
place with His own blood. I want to say something about
that word once and then I want to finish up and talk about that
word eternal. Eternal redemption. You know
our Lord has many many titles that tells us of His character,
His attributes, the Good Shepherd, The Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. We could go on and on with our
Savior's titles, but Redeemer. That title of Redeemer is one
of my favorites. I love to hear of my blessed
Redeemer. It speaks of one who engages
himself to pay a price that was due. Pay a price that was due,
and he pays it on my behalf. That awful price, that dreadful
price, that price that I can never pay, the price of my redemption. And he put forth himself and
took my place and redeemed my soul by paying the penalty due
my sin. Blessed Redeemer, we sing that
song up Calvary's mountain, one dreadful morn, while Christ my
Savior, weary and worn, facing for sinners death on the cross,
that he might save them from endless loss. Blessed Redeemer,
precious Redeemer. And what an awful death it was.
Oh my, no man ever suffered like our Lord suffered. Can you see
Him hanging on that cross for you? I asked that question this
morning. Can you see Him dying for you?
Not just dying for some people, but for you, for me. Do you see Him receiving in His
body what was due your sin? What you deserve? You know, we
think we're pretty good folks. And we are not. We are not good
folks. We are sinners and we don't know
the half of it. I don't believe we know how bad
sin is. I don't believe. But see what God poured out on
His Son. When my sin, your sin, was laid
on Him. What an awful price. What an
awful price. We read in 1 John 4.10 that herein
is love, not that we love God, because we didn't, and we don't,
apart from His grace. Herein is love, but that He loved
us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And here's a great mystery. That
is a great mystery to me, that He loved us. And He knows us, yet loves us. He knows everything about us.
In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I wouldn't
want you to know everything about me, but I know my Lord knows
everything about me. And yet He loved me. He didn't
find any cause in me. He found it in himself. Isn't
that a mystery? How could God find love for a
sinner in himself? He's not like us. You know, we
love our wives and our children, our husbands. We see something
in them that causes us to love them. But God does not find any
cause in the objects of his love. He finds that cause in himself.
That's a great mystery. The cause for His love to us
He found in Himself. And what wondrous love it is
that led Him to die for us. And He could not be moved. He
could not be moved from that purpose. As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. Must speaks of His purpose. He
purposed to save us. He sent His Son in time to die
for us and He must be lifted up because He loves His people
and He must pay the price of their redemption. God's eternal
purpose was engaged in the accomplishment of our eternal redemption. He must be delivered into the
cruel hands of men. He must. He must. You know, I'm
reminded of the chief priest in that day as our Lord hung
on the cross as they mocked Him and looked at Him and spat upon
Him and railed upon Him. And they said to Him, He said,
He saved others. Himself He cannot save. If He
be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross
and we'll believe Him. And you know they were telling
the truth and they didn't even know it. Our Lord could not come
down from that cross. It was true if He saved Himself,
He couldn't save others. He must die. And He must die
if He loves His people and is to redeem His people. They spoke
the truth, yet they were mocking Him. And then we read in our text
about His own blood. His own blood. The blood of Christ. The blood of the perfect sinless
Savior. The blood of the God-man. That's
sinless blood. 1 John 1 and 7 says, The blood
of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. That's precious
blood. It's effectual blood. It's atoning
blood. effectual atoning blood. Look
there in verse 24 of Hebrews 9. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, not that earthly tabernacle,
which are the figures of the true, it's just a figure of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with the blood of others. And that high priest
had to offer blood for himself as well as the other people.
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world,
but now once Our Lord Jesus Christ, He entered in once in the end
of the world, hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself with His own blood. Oh, He's a perfect sacrifice.
We read His sinless blood which God has
respect to. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, we read over there in verse 14, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God." And Scott used to say, a perfect
sacrifice is the only thing that will quiet a screaming conscience.
That perfect sacrifice that God will accept It is Christ that
died. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? You read that tonight. It is
Christ that died. And this is our hope that Christ
offered himself as our substitute and because of who he is, the
offering that he offered himself, we are accepted of God. He carried
his blood not in a basin but in his veins and carried his
own blood Not the blood of goats and of calves, but his own blood. And by that blood, he entered
not into that place made with hands, but into heaven itself,
into the very presence of God the Father. He did it once. It was once and it cannot be
twice, because it was so effectual. You see this, and I tried to
emphasize this this morning, this is no act of temporary consequence
or temporary benefit. It's eternal redemption. He obtained
eternal redemption. Doesn't that bless your heart?
It's eternal. We can never lose it. If God's
obtained eternal redemption for us, we're eternally secure. When
we can rest, we can look into that grave and look beyond that
grave. That's not the end for us. We
shall live eternally. This man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sin, forever sat down. He sat down on the
right hand of God, for by one offering, his own blood, he hath
perfected forever, forever, them that are sanctified. I heard
this statement recently in a message. He said, there is no such thing
as a redeemer of unredeemed men. Now religion would have you believe
that Christ redeemed some men that won't be redeemed. And I've
heard Greg Elmquist say that's yay-nay preaching. All things in Christ are yea
and amen. It's Christ redeemed men, but
there's some that's not redeemed. That's talking out of both sides
of your mouth, and that's a lie. We ought to be contemptuous towards
that preaching. Oh my, how wonderful it is to
know Him who hath redeemed us. He hath redeemed his people.
And we must never allow the thought that Christ attempted to redeem
every man who lived. There's so much wrong with that
statement. It dishonors God. It cheapens
God's redemptive work. In fact, there's nothing right
in it. And it's blasphemous. It's nothing less than blasphemous.
And we must insist that that never be given any place in what
we preach, what we teach, what we believe, what we allow to
be said in our midst. Oh, that His redemption fell
short in any way. Oh, it's so demeaning. He obtained
eternal redemption for all His people, for all His sheep. Oh
my. We got to show contempt for anything
that takes glory from God. Oh my. We look at the things
which are not seen. We said that this morning. Eternal things. Things which
are seen are temporal. They're fading. They're fleeting. They're dissolving. They're decaying
and they're dying. We live in a world that's dying.
We do. We see it all around us. And then let me spend the last
few minutes here talking about that word eternal. Having obtained,
that is He paid for, He rightfully earned eternal redemption for
us. And that word eternal, it's a
strong, strong word. It's a long word. It's like that
word all, it just takes it all in. Eternity, eternal things. Our eternal God who inhabits
eternity and His decrees and purpose being eternal is not
bound by time. And the fact that He does not
change and He's declared from the end from the beginning, how
mighty must our God be, how big I couldn't come up with a better
word. How big must our God be? It cannot be described. From
everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. But as eternal relates
to our text this evening, eternal redemption, it speaks of permanence. Permanent. Not temporary. Permanent. It speaks of permanence. Not something that can ever be
lost. But even further than that, eternal
means just that, it means it always has been and it ever shall
be, just like God. That blesses my heart. And I
want you to look with me, I quoted this verse this morning, but
look with me in Ecclesiastes chapter 3. My hope is that this gives God's
people, those of us here that are believers, gives us some
rest. We can really rest. We can rest
in our Savior and what He's done for us. Because we're eternally
secure. But look there at verse 14 in
Ecclesiastes chapter 3. that whatsoever God doeth, it
shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor
anything taken from it, and God doeth it that man should fear
before him. And look there at verse 15, that
which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been. Now explain that to me if you
can. That's eternity. That's eternal things. Oh my. The eternal God is thy refuge. Can we find a place of rest here? A place of certainty? A place
of peace? A sure hope? And a sure expectation? We may rest contented, come what
may. How shall we ever be lost for
whom an eternal ransom has been paid, an eternal redemption has
been obtained? How can we ever be lost? Just think on this. If Christ
has redeemed us, we're eternally redeemed. For whatever God doeth,
if God's redeemed you, if God has saved you, based on the scripture,
it shall be forever. That does something for me. It
shall be forever, and only an eternal God can eternally redeem. Oh, how that ought to make our
hearts rejoice. I know it does you. It does me. Do we know what we have? We have
eternal redemption. I just can't get over that. Eternal
redemption. Our ransom has been fully paid.
The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Past sin, present sin, future
sin. All sin. in whom we have redemption
through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Oh my, when our Lord entered
into that holy place, He had by His sacrifice dealt with eternal
things. We can't. You know, sin has man
eternally bound. Sin has us eternally bound. And if God doesn't intervene,
if God doesn't redeem us, we'll die eternally and we'll have
to endure eternal separation from God. And the Scripture speaks
of eternal damnation. The Scripture speaks of eternal
fire. And I'll be honest with you,
I don't know much how to deal with that. I don't even like
to think about that and the possibility of anybody I know, or anyone
for that matter, going to a place like that. But it tells us, I
think it teaches us, what our Lord endured. As I said a little
bit ago, sin is, I think, far worse than we think it is. and
what it deserves, what sin deserves. But we are, oh my, we are to
admonish those we have the opportunity to tell, flee from the wrath
to come. Oh, it's awful what man will
have to endure if God doesn't intervene because of his sin.
But it gives us a glimpse of what our Our Lord suffered eternal
damnation and eternal fire of hell in His own body and He did
it eternally and He put our sin away of all of His elect. That tells us who this is. that
accomplished this great work of redemption. He has to be God. He has to be God. He has to be
man. And He's both. All man and all
God. Our Redeemer. That's who He is. But sin has
every man eternally bound by its power. It's working eternal
death and final eternal separation. Frightful, fearful things. And
no man has power to deliver himself. If God leaves us alone, that's
where we'll end up, without hope and without God eternally. But Christ Jesus, the God-man,
engaged himself to set the captives free. Psalm 107, 14, we read, He brought
them out of darkness and the shadow of death and break their
bands and sunder. He did that. He by His own will
and His own choice, He intervened. And then we read this a minute
ago too in Romans 8. And I'll turn over there. Since
you've already seen that, I'll read it to you. Romans 8.35 says, Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? And then down in verse 38, For
I am persuaded, Paul said, that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. He loved us. He gave himself
for us, and nothing shall be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Eternally secure, we're
eternally redeemed. Oh my, it's Christ that died. Eternal safety is found in Him. We live in a world that's temporary.
And that's why there's no place of rest, because it's fading
away, it's decaying. All flesh is grass. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth. But the Word of our God endures
forever. And this is why we must come
to where the eternal Word of God is read, where it's preached,
where it's studied. And may God give us an interest
in eternal things, lasting things, real things. things that benefit
our eternal soul. But the allurements and riches
of this world, they're deceiving to the natural man, to man's
heart, to our old man. It deceives us. And man's heart,
Scripture says, is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. And the corruption in the vanity
of all things in this world, the natural eye can't see, or
he puts it out of his mind and tries to pretend it doesn't exist,
the truth of that doesn't exist. May God draw our hearts, our
hearts, our real who we are, draw us to Him, being able to
lay hold on Him, to lay hold on eternal life. In our eternal God, He must eternally
purpose to eternally redeem us, or else we have no redemption,
and we have no peace, and there is no salvation. But bless God,
He has, and there is. O sinner, sinner, sinner, come
and rest, come and rest. Come and repose yourself under
the shadow of His wings. For He has eternally provided
for you. He's provided all we need for
time and eternity. Your warfare is accomplished,
your sin is pardoned, and you're free. Just come. Come and enter into
rest. Come unto me, all ye that labor,
and I'll give you rest. Come and be at peace. Come boldly,
come confidently, come as you are, come now, and come quickly. I read this some time ago from
one of the old writers and he said this, he said, when I look
at myself, I don't see any way I can be saved. But when I look
at Christ, I don't see there's any way I could ever be lost. Can you see Him? Oh, get a full
view of Him as best you can as God enables you to see Him. See
Him dying and redeeming your soul. There's no way we could
ever be lost. Those that believe in Him. Will
we ever be disappointed? Will we ever be found wanting?
Never. Never. Oh, look at Christ. Looking at Him, there's no way
we can be lost. Trusting Him, there's no way
we can ever be lost. And if that's not true, we don't
have a gospel. And we might as well just quit.
But that's true. They that trust in Him shall
not be confounded or put to shame. Fix your eyes upon Him. Don't
look to the right, don't look to the left. All I need, He's
already provided. There was a Savior before there
was ever a sinner. Isaiah 45 says this, but Israel
shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. He
shall not be ashamed nor confounded, world without end. Oh, there's
a lot of words there that just puts emphasis on that point,
isn't there? Israel shall be saved in the Lord. It doesn't
stop there. With an everlasting salvation.
It doesn't stop there. You shall not be ashamed nor
confounded. It doesn't stop there. World
without end. Oh my, what do we have in Christ? No wonder we say He's our all
in all. See salvation in Him, salvation
full, salvation complete. It is finished, our Lord said. This is the good news of the
gospel. Come and rest your eternal soul
in this eternal salvation. Did you know That nothing's required
of you? What can you and I add to what
Christ has done? We said that this morning. We're
creatures. We have a beginning. We have
an end. We have a day to die. What can
we affect that has an eternal consequence? We're creatures
of time. What can you contribute? What
can you add? God's salvation is free. But
men won't have it. I understand why they won't have
it. I was once that way. But it's an insane response to
the gospel. Men that don't believe Christ
are insane. They destroy their own souls.
But they would rather work for salvation than submit to God's
free salvation. Men by nature reject God's free
and full eternal salvation. They reason in their minds also
that it's not fair for God to elect a people. And I heard Bruce
Crabtree say this one time. He said that proud men criticize
and hate our God for not giving them something they don't want.
That's insanity. Isn't that right? That's insanity. As Scott said, only an insane
man would not believe God. And then there are those who
are fatalists and say that what will be shall be and they never
cry out themselves to God for mercy. But, oh dear people, do you see
God's eternal salvation through Christ the Lord as your only
hope? Have you heard the call of the gospel that Christ died
for the ungodly? Is that you? Does your sin deserve what He
endured? Come to Him as you are, with
a rope around your neck, and you'll hear Him say, Welcome. Thanks be to our God for his
eternal redemption that he himself eternally secured. And I wanted to read something
to you that kind of went along with
what I tried to say today. written by our dear brother Bruce
Crabtree. And you all have probably seen
this several weeks ago or months ago. I think it was on Facebook,
but I printed it out and I run across it in my notebook. And
I'd just kind of like to wind up today what Bruce said in this. It kind of fits what we've been
trying to say today. It's not very long, but bear
with me as I read it to you. I hope I can get through it.
You know, him and Joe's going through a very rough time. Her
brain cancer and all, but he said this. He said, we are looking
beyond death where there is no more death. A time and place
where there's no more sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. A time
and place where our Creator and Redeemer makes all things new."
And he said this, and I thought when I first read it, strange
language that you don't hear very often. He said, what a wise
instrument sickness is, brain cancer is. Well, that's strange
to a natural man, but I understand that, don't you? He said, what a wise instrument
sickness is, brain cancer is, the shadow of death is when God
uses these things to teach us. How can we trust in ourselves
while facing such devastating things? What is God teaching
us but that we dare not trust in ourselves? But in God who
raises the dead, The Holy Spirit strips us down to our very nakedness
to teach us we must be clothed in the garments of salvation. The robe of the Savior's own
righteousness, He proves to our conscience that we are guilty
before God, to show us that salvation is of the Lord, that we're justified freely by
His grace. He brings us to the dust of nothingness,
that we might find Jesus as our all in all. He weakens us only
to give us the strength of the grace of Christ. And he sends
these messengers to whisper in our ears that our time is short,
only that our souls may answer. Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him for the help of his countenance. O God, teach
us. Joe and I are not discouraged,
for we are hopeful. We can face this and whatever
else God has ordained for us. Not because our faith is strong,
but because our Lord is strong. Not because we've been so faithful.
God forgive us, we're unprofitable servants, but our God is faithful. Not one promise will fail or
fall. We are hopeful because Jesus,
the Son of God, who died for sinners' sake, is risen. is at
the right hand of God, and where he is we soon shall be. To our
great delight and comfort, to the one eternal God and the trinity
of his sacred person, God the everlasting Father, God the eternal
Son, and God the eternal Holy Spirit, be praise and glory forever,
world without end. I couldn't have said it better,
and we're all bound to come to that time, the end of our lives,
the end of the lives of our loved ones. Let's look to Him, our
eternal God, find our refuge in Him, look beyond the grave
to that city whose builder and maker is God, where we will dwell
eternally with Him, for He has eternally redeemed us. And there's
no way we can ever be lost. Amen. Come, Lisa, in a hymn,
Houston.