On Friday, we slay the Passover. And our Lord was crucified on
a Friday. They had a certain day of the
month. And the Jewish calendar, if I'm not mistaken, starts in
April. And that began the first month of their years, when the
first Passover was, when they come out of Egypt. That was the
beginning of their years. That was a new life to them,
the beginning of their life. God said this would be the beginning.
And that's the beginning for us. When our Lord was crucified,
when our Lord was buried, when He was risen again and rose and
ascended to glory and sits at the right hand of God. That's
when our life began. And God made that known to us.
That's a new beginning, right? New beginning. All right, look
with me here in Exodus, chapter 30. And I'm going to bring a message
this morning, and you're going to say it's unusual. And it is. The title of it, redemption money. Redemption money. You notice
what it says here. It says in verse 12, When Moses
taketh the sum of the children of Israel after their number,
then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the
Lord, when thou numberest them. And then he says down in verse
13, This they shall give every one that passes among them that
are numbered half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary. And half a shekel should be the
offering unto the Lord. Now, to talk about money and
redemption in the same breath don't hardly seem right, does
it? It seems like an anomaly. And to talk about that just doesn't
seem right. When the scripture says, For
as much as you know, you were not redeemed by such corruptible
things as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ
as the Lamb slain. without spot and blemish before
the foundation of the world. But here it is in black and white,
in black and white. It says there in verse 15, it
says, The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not
give less than half a shekel when they give an offering unto
the Lord to make an atonement for your souls. To make an atonement. Read it in God's Word. Atonement
money. Atonement money. Now that, that
just, you know, and the thing is that the children of Israel
were numbered. Every male child over twenty years old and up,
when they came to be numbered, when they came to be pulled,
every one of them had to pay half a shekel of redemption money. And they had to pay that. And
in bringing their atonement money, let me tell you something, in
bringing their atonement money, they confessed that they deserve
to die. Because everything that wasn't
redeemed, even the firstborn of the animals, if they weren't
redeemed, they broke their necks and they were killed. They were
slain. So when they brought their money, they confessed that we
deserve to die. We deserve to die. And not only
that, when they brought this atonement money, they owed that
they were in debt to God. That they were in debt to God. And in bringing this half-shelled,
they confessed that they were in need of redemption. We need to be redeemed. But this
atonement money was just typical, typical of the great redemption
price that would be paid for sinners that should come, sinners
like ourselves. And we're also taught this, the
blessed truth, that God's people are redeemed people. Psalm 107,
verse 2 says this, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. I've been
redeemed. I've been bought and paid for
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know this, that
if men reject the redemption, the payment price to bring you
from sin and the deserved death and the death that you owe God,
if men reject the redemption that God ordains, then it's evident
that they're not His people. These folks believed Him, and
they brought their redemption money. And people who reject
the redemption that God ordains, then they're not His people.
You can't reject that. Preacher told me last night that
he was preaching. And while he was preaching, and
he was preaching on God's purpose in Christ and salvation and eternal
purpose in Christ, and a fellow jumped up and closed his Bible
and said, if this everything is already fixed, why in the
world do we even have to worry about it? He said, just be quiet. He said, I'll get to that just
in a minute. Just be still. I'll get to that
in a minute. But men, when they hear about
God, and what God ordains, and what God sets forth, that this
is the way it's going to be done or else. They slam that book
and say, I don't believe that. I'm not going to accept that.
But the true believer, the true Christian, are those who have
been numbered. Our Lord had a people given to
Him. He says everyone twenty years old and upward must be
numbered. God's got a number. God's got a people. And they
were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And God's people have been numbered. And they've been redeemed from
sin by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of the
Lamb that John said, O the Lamb of God was taken away the sin
of the world. And I'll tell you this about
them. They have personally, personally accepted the ransom that the
Lord provides. God provided a lamb. Isaac said
to his father Abraham, when they started up the mountain, he said,
Father, we got the knife. Father, we got the wood. Father,
we got the fire. And we're going up here to worship.
But he said, where is the lamb? He said, my son, God will provide
himself a lamb. And beloved, what God provides,
we accept. Knowing that only God accepts
what He provides. If He provides you something,
then that's all He'll accept. And He provides everything that
we need, and we accept what He gives. And oh beloved, and I know this,
they've brought the redemption money in their hands. And what
I mean by that is, they take the Lord Jesus Christ to be theirs. And by faith they bring Him to
the Lord Jesus, bring Him to the Father. Father, in my hands
no price I bring, simply to the Lord Jesus Christ I cling. I
bring Christ, whom you provided. I bring Christ, whom you said
was your safe center spot. I bring Christ, who put away
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. I don't bring myself, I don't
bring my name, I don't bring my worth, I don't bring my merit,
I bring nothing! All in the world we've got to
offer God other than Jesus Christ is our sin. We've got nothing else. And oh
beloved, and the only ones numbered, listen to this now, the only
ones numbered were the redeemed. Men count heads, but God looks
on the heart. And he looks on the heart of
those that received his sign. Now let me give you several things
about this redemption money and see if we can't see the gospel
here and see our Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, look here with
me in verse 12. Exodus 30. When thou takest the
sum of the children of Israel after their number, now listen
to this, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul
unto the Lord." Every man, every man, a ransom for his soul unto
the Lord. This is personal and it's individual. Not a nation, not a family, But
every man, every man had to do this. Individually, personally. He didn't say bring your family.
He didn't say bring the nation. He said every man that comes,
every man that's numbered, every single one of them must bring
one by himself. And he had to do it every man
for his own self. And listen here, unto the Lord.
And it's not by his position, not by his birth, not by his
wealth, all our life before God. Now you hold Exodus 30, look
with me in Psalm 49 just a moment. Look with me over here in Psalm
49. Let me show you something here.
We'll look at this together. You see, not by man's position.
You're talking about He said, well, listen, I've got a high
position. Well, you've got to have a ransom for your soul.
He said, well, I've got a lot of wealth. You've got to give
a ransom for your soul. I was born to a real highfalutin
family. You've got to have a ransom for
your soul. Every man's a life before God.
Look what he said here in Psalm 49 in verse 6. They that trust in their wealth,
and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches. Now listen to
it. None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give
to God a ransom for him. You can't buy one man's other
man's soul. Now I know that there's religion,
and I know there's people that teach that you can buy people. that you can pay people, you
can give enough money to the church, and you know it'll keep
people out of purgatory and get them out serving. And the more
money you got, the less time they stay in purgatory. But that
is as foreign to the scriptures as light is from darkness. But
he says, here you don't care how much money you got. He says,
for the redemption of the soul is precious. And if it goes,
and all your money and that soul, when it's redeemed, it ceases.
And if it's not redeemed, he ceases. He's gone. And, oh beloved,
this is a personal redemption, back over in our text. This is
a personal redemption. This is individually. That's
why Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I
live, yet not I that live it, but it's Christ that liveth in
me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith
of the Son of God, now listen to it, who loved me and gave
himself for me, for me. Oh, listen now, beloved. There's
no such thing as a general redemption. The only people redeemed here
were those that were numbered. And every man that came up there
had to have it. There's no such thing as a universal
redemption. Christ didn't die to save every
man. There's not a universal redemption. There's not a general
redemption. There's no comfort in that. If
Christ died and redeemed those, and He shed His blood for every
soul, then what about all those souls that's in hell? What about
all the people that will die without Christ? that's never
heard His name? Did He die for people who never
heard of Him? Did He die for people and shed
His blood who will never believe on Him? Will He die and shed
His blood for men and women who stand with both fists in God's
face and say, I'm not happy this way. I want my sin. I want my independence. I want my life. After God put
His Son on a cross, and nailed Him there, and shed His blood,
you think for a moment that God will let you get by, and Christ
would die for somebody like that? No! His blood has no failure in it. It's affection. And let me tell
you something else about this ransom money. Look over here
in verse 13. Not only is it every man, back
over in our text in Exodus 30 and verse 13. Look what it says
down in verse 13. And this shall they give every
one that passes among them that are numbered, half a shekel at
the shekel of the sanctuary. Now what does that mean? That
means that God fixed the price. God fixed the price. God fixed
the amount that a man was to give. God fixed the price Himself. No more, no less. Man didn't
get up one day and say, well, I'm going to give God a million
dollars for my soul. Well, I'm not going to give,
I'm going to give God the best I can do for my soul. I'm going
to go join the church to pay God for my soul. I'm going to
go get on an altar to pay God for my soul. I'm going to resolve
in my heart that I'm going to start praying, and I'm going
to start fasting, and I'm going to start tithing, and I'm going
to start going to church more, and I'm going to be better to
my wife, I'm going to be good to my kids, I'm going to quit
my drinking, I'm going to quit my touching, I'm going to quit
my church, I'm going to do all these things and give to God
that for my soul. No you ain't. God set the price. Tang decided, you know what,
he's going to pay for his soul. He started him a watermelon patch,
started him some squash, raised him some beans. He had a garden
that nobody on this earth ever had before. Earth hadn't come as strong on
the earth as it is today, right after Adam fell. And they both
come to worship the Lord, Abel and Cain. Abel brought a lamb. He brought blood. And the scripture
said in Hebrews 11 that God had respect under Abel and his offering. And old Kane, he come waltzing
up there, you know, he had his big ol' fine yellow squash. If
they'd have took him to county fair, he'd have got first place.
Got the blue ribbon. Brought his big ol' watermelon,
brought his squash bar, big ol' bushel basket of beans, set them
up there and they was rounded up. Now I'm finishing one of
them. And you know what God said? Get away from me. Get away from
me. You're not coming into my presence
with that. If you don't bring blood, if
you don't bring what I set, then get away from me. Just get away. I don't want you in my presence. You can't come in my presence.
By the works of your hands, you can't come. I don't care how
hard you work. I don't care how much you sweat
it out. I don't care how much without blemish it is. If it's
not what I ordain for you to bring, don't come. Cain said, this is more than
I can bear. He said, Cain, sin lies at your
door. And he said, that what he said
is that there's a sacrifice, and you know what it takes for
you to be saved. The sin offering lies at your
door. You bring that, and you'll be accepted. And Cain, because
his works were evil, he slew his brother Abel, and God cursed
him. Now, beloved, every time you
reject Christ and His offering, and that's what I'm telling you,
man doesn't decide, and man doesn't pick the price of what he's going
to give to God for his redemption. God fixed that price. Ain't you
grateful that He did? And you bring what He said, and
you'll be accepted. Now, you keep that. Hold Exodus
30. Look with me in Job. Job, chapter
33. Let me show you something. Let's
look at this again. You'll enjoy this. Job 33, verse 24. Oh, God set the ransom price. God said, this is the atonement
price. God fixed it. A half a shekel. And it says
here, in verse 22 of Exodus 33, Yea, his soul draweth near unto
the grave, and his life to the destroyers. If there be a messenger
with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto
man his uprightness. And so there he is. He speaks
to go down to the grave. Who's going to bring him a message?
Who's going to tell him? Then look what it says in verse
24. Then he is gracious unto that man. Gracious unto this
fellow is going down to be destroyed. And said, Deliver him from going
down to the pit. I found a ransom. He's gracious to him. Save him. Don't let him go down there.
Reach and get him. Why? What did he find to put
in his place? Oh my. Did he find something
and said, Here, I'll give you my goodness. I'll give you my
works. No, no. God found the ransom. God sent the ransom and
He found it in His own Son. And our Lord Jesus Christ said
He said He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give
His life a ransom for many, for many. And oh, God found the ransom
in His own dear Son. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. It pleased the Lord to make His
soul an offering for sin. It pleased the Lord to pour His
soul out unto death. And God saw the travail of His
soul and said, He is satisfied. Bless His holy name. This is
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And let me tell
you something, the price was fixed before God ever laid the
foundation of this world. Christ was the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. God had the price fixed. Now
let me show you something else back over here in Exodus 30.
Talking about this ransom money. Told you see if we could find
the gospel here. Look again in verse 13. God sent the price,
this they shall give everyone that passes among them that are
numbered, half a shekel, and watch this now, after the shekel
of the sanctuary. Now what in the world does that
mean? That means that this shekel of the sanctuary is perfect weight, it's what God requires, it's
been put in the balance, the price is exactly perfect. Now, what does that mean? It's
a half a shekel after the sanctuary. It must be according to the shekel
that's laid up in the holy place. It must be according to God's
standard. A fellow reaches in his pocket
and says, here, I've got a shekel. But it's wore out. It's tarnished. It's passed through a thousand
hands. And it's going to have the same weight. God said, when
you bring it, it's got to be just exactly like the one laid
up in the shekel sanctuary. It's got to meet my standard.
I'll tell you, I was running the other day. I'll just give
you an illustration of what I'm talking about. And there was
a nickel. I went by and I seen a nickel
in the middle of the road. And it'd been run over several
times, and it was in the tar. It was run down into the road.
Well, you know, a nickel's a nickel. And just to see if I could do
it, I said, I'm going to see if I can get that thing out of
the road. And I did. I went and I said, buy an old
junkyard. And I went around and found something. I pried and
pried and got that thing up out of the roof. And I took it home.
Mary said, what in the world is that? I said, I just dug that
out of the roof. It had tar all over it. And she
said, know the thing it was? It wasn't worth cleaning up.
But listen, what I'm saying is that's the way to shekel. If
you tried to bring that, you say, no, that's not good. And
so that's what he's saying. It's not the shackled act of
the commerce. It's not the shackled act of the war. It's not war,
and it's not tarnished. It ain't been run over in the
road, and somebody has to dig it out and bring it. No, no. Our atonement must meet the requirements
of God while He has laid down, must meet His holiness, must
meet His law, must meet the standard that He Himself set. And where
in the world can we find the perfect weight after the weight
of sanctuary? Where can we find the weight
that God Himself sent? Where can we find the weight
that when it's put into balance, it'll be just exactly according
to God's holiness and God's law and God's righteousness? Where
are we going to find that? Well, I tell you the only place
you're going to find it, you're only going to find it in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Only in His blood. Only His righteousness. That's only what we can bring
to God Himself. And I tell you why, because His
ransom was perfect. God looked at Him and said, I'm
always pleased in Him. He paid the full price. of what
God's holiness and justice and broken law demand him. Now let
me show you something. You keep this and look in Isaiah
28 with me. I'll show you exactly what I'm
trying to say here this morning. About weight in the sanctuary,
weight in the balance. Can we meet the standard that
God set up in the sanctuary? Have we got that half a shekel?
Our Lord Jesus Christ would weigh in the balances of God's holy
law, would weigh in the balances of God's holiness, weigh in the
balance of God's justice. And guess what? There's a perfect
weight. Huh? Look what it says in Isaiah
28, verse 16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone. a stone,
a prized stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, he that believeth
shall not make haste, or shall not be confused, or shall not
be wasted before God, and stand there confused and confounded."
Now, notice here it said he was prized. And the sanctuary, the
shekel of the sanctuary, was weighed into balance, and it
had to meet God's standard. And He says, now you lay that
up in the holy place. And everybody that comes, when
they bring their shekel, it's got to meet that standard. And
that priest would look at that thing and say, oh, you've got
to go get another. That ain't good enough. That's
worn out. That's tarnished. That's been
all over everybody's hands. You've got to have it just like
it is. Well, God put His Son in the
balance and weighed Him in the balance of His holiness and His
righteousness and His law. And He was tried in every way
like the half a shekel that was laid up in the sanctuary. And
bless His holy name, He was accepted. And the Scripture says we're
accepted in the Galatians. First of all, it said He was
tried. He was tried by God's holy law. And the law says, I
find no fault in him. He's fulfilled me. He's obeyed
me. He has upheld me to the nth degree. He loved me. He loved his neighbor. He was perfect and sinless. And
he is the end of the law, the fulfillment of the law, for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. And it says that he was made
a curse. For those who didn't fulfill
the law to redeem them, pay for them who were under the curse.
And then, beloved, he was tried by name. From the day he was
born to the day he was crucified, man put him under the microscope. They put him under the microscope.
And he said to the Pharisees who had the law, they just lived
on, they thought they were the holiest people that ever lived
on the earth. And he said, which of you can
convince me of sin? Which of you ever saw a sin in
me? Who ever heard a bad word from
my mouth? Who ever saw a step that I took
that was the wrong way? Who ever saw my hands do something
they shouldn't do? Whoever saw me treating anybody
away, they shouldn't have been treated in holiness, and righteousness,
and love, and mercy, and compassion. And whoever caught me telling
something that I shouldn't have said to someone, I shouldn't
have said it to. If a Pharisee was a snake, I'd
call him a snake. If a sinner was a sinner, I'd
told him he was a sinner. If a leper was a leper, I'd told
him he was a leper. Oh, my. He's tried by man. You
know what they found out? Right before they crucified him,
Pilate walked out there and says, you do what you gotta do. I find no fault in this man whatsoever. Huh? And then Satan tried him. The devil tried him. Satan tried
him, and our Lord Jesus answered every accusation that he made
against him with, Thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord,
thus saith the Lord. And when he told his disciples,
The prince of this world comes, and he has no part in me. He
told Simon Peter, Satan has sought to sift you, as we. He can come
and sift us. tempt us, get in our brains,
get in our flesh, get in our lotus, get in our heart. I mean,
man, he got plenty to find, you know. But our Lord Jesus said,
He comes and He's got no part in me, has no part in me. There's
nothing He can do to me. He can't touch me. He can't tip
me. And then, beloved, He was tried
by His Father. His Holy Father watched Him.
Looked at him. And you know what he said before
that? He said, He doeth always please me. He said, I saw, I
saw the travail, the agony of his soul. And you know what I
did? I satisfied with him. You know what he said before
he ever come into this world? He said, He's my delight. Every day. And God don't consider
days, but He just uses language for us. He is daily my delight. And then I'll tell you what else
He was tried by the Father. He was tried by death. Death
come and laid hold on Him one morning. He was hanging on that
cross. Three o'clock in the afternoon,
He said, It's finished. And He gave up the ghost. Death
tried Him. And he said, except a corn of
wheat fall into the ground and die of the bite of the law. But
if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. And they took him down,
and they put him in a tomb, and they put a great big rock, a
great big stone over that tomb. Said, there ain't no way to get
out of there. Early on Sunday morning, first
day of the week, Mary went down there to look.
And there sat an angel sitting on top of that rock, and the
rock was away from that, and Grace said, Who are you looking
for? Jesus of Nazareth. He's not here!
He's risen! Death tried Him, and He arose! And He said, He goes before you
into Galilee like He told you, and you go tell Simon Peter,
and the rest of them I'll see in Galilee. He was trying. And believe me,
beloved, he came up to the shackle of the sanctuary. Oh, my, he's holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, higher than the heavens itself.
And, oh, beloved, that's the redemption we've got. That's
what we've got to bring to God, that perfect Lamb of God, our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look back over in our text
with us again. Let me show you this. Not only did God set the
price, not only did He have to meet the standard that He set,
but look what it says here in verse 15. The rich shall not give more,
and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when they
give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for their
souls. Now what does that mean? That means the ransom was a light
for everybody. You say, well, I'm rich. Half
a shekel. I'm poor. Half a shekel. The rich ain't going to give
more. The poor ain't going to give less. Well, I'm just too
poor to do anything. Listen, every man, what this
says, this says, that every man requires redemption. The rich
and the poor alike require redemption. It's the same for every soul
on this earth. The princes, and there were princes
in Israel. The leaders of the tribes had
to pay tribute. The priests had to do it. Everybody
had to. Princes as well as paupers. Philosophers
and the peasants came on the same ground. The preacher and
the prostitute all got to come on the same ground. All men,
no matter how high a position they hold. No men, no matter
how low a position they have. No men, no matter how rich they
are. No men, no matter how poor they
are. No men, no matter how learned they were, or how unlearned they
were. Everybody had to have exactly
the same. And you're talking about an offense
to the gospel. This is one of the greatest offenses
there are in the gospel. Because it makes everybody stand
on the same ground. You know who I am. Don't you
know your name? Next time somebody asks you that,
don't you know who I am, say, well, don't you know your own
name? You see, notice, you know, that's
what they're saying is, don't you know I'm somebody? That's
what they're saying. A friend of, you know, I won't
say his name, but a man I knew years and years and years ago, he passed away a little over
a week ago as a preacher. And he went and got him a doctor's
degree, and from then on he wanted to be known as Dr. So-and-so.
If you just called him by his first name, you know, he'd say,
well, I'm Dr. Dr. So-and-so. Go ahead and tell God, God, call
me doctor. Call me master of divinity. Call
me a doctor of letters. Bring your shackle. Bring your
half a shackle. Oh, come on. You just don't know
who I... You just don't know what I...
Listen. I know what God said. You rich? I don't want nothing
out of you, no more what I said. You poor? Got to bring the same
thing everybody else does. And that's one of the greatest
offenses of the gospel. All men need redemption. All
have sinned. I'd love, I would love, to be
able, and God, to go into the Senate, and have the, you know,
to have the State of the Union, that's just the Senate, and the
Supreme Court, and all the representatives, that's just all, that's just
both of our Congresses, our Houses, and the President, and everybody,
everybody that's anybody in this world. Guests, and honored guests,
I'd love to be able to stand there. and preach one time. And you
know how offensive those people would be, how offended they would
be. Can you imagine how offended they would be? Can you imagine how offended
the Speaker of the House would be? How offended the Vice President
would be? How offended the President would
be, and all them Senators, with all their accomplishments? with
all of their servants, with all of their degrees, and all their... Do you imagine Supreme Court
justice sitting there in their black robes and tell them, every
single one of them, look at every one of them and
say, you know that as far as God's concerned, you all are
reputed as nothing. He calls you worms, and he said
he nailed his son to the tree, and if you're going to be saved,
you're going to come as a dead dog, rotten, hell-deserving sinner,
and you're going to come through Jesus Christ, and you ain't coming
at all. And there would be 100 senators, a president and a vice
president, 435 houses of the representatives, And nine justices
of the peace and honored guests is fighting mad. They're getting
blood red, saying, who does he think he is? And what they're
saying is, who does God think he is? That's what they're saying. Who does God think he is? That's
what Pharaoh said. Who is the Lord that I should
obey? But that's what we're saying.
Every man's on the same ground. And let me tell you this quickly,
let me get back over here in our text again, let me show you
this. The ransom, this ransom was a
life for all. The rich shall not give more,
the poor shall not give less. But the ransom was the only ground
of acceptance. Here all men are on common ground.
Rich shall not give more, poor shall not give less. Everybody
stands on the common ground. No respective persons. no merit
in God's presence, no wealth or poverty in God's presence. Nothing is accepted but the half
a shekel laid up in the sanctuary. And the Scripture says in John
1.12, to as many as received Him, to them gave He the power
to become the sons of God, even to them which believed on His
name, which were born out of the will of which were born,
not of the will of flesh, which were born, not of blood, not
passed from one generation to the next, but were born of God. And when you're born of God,
then you receive Him, then you believe on Him. And let me ask
you this right now. Do you believe on Him right now? Do you know why you've done that? He gave you the power. the privilege
to believe on the name of the Son of God. He gave you that
power, gave you that privilege. Oh, you do not have to do that.
Oh, my. You must bring the redemption
price, the half a shekel. Salvation and acceptance is by
redemption. And our Lord Jesus Christ, our
Redeemer, is the only grounds of acceptance. And I do want
to show you one verse of Scripture in Revelation. I could quote
many to you. Revelation chapter 1 and verse 5. Look here what
I'm talking about. Oh, the only grounds of acceptance. It was common. Every man had
to stand on the same ground, the same foundation to be accepted. And oh, beloved, in the Christ
is our atonement. Christ is our redemption. And
the only grounds of our acceptance with God is the blood and righteousness
of our Lord. Look what it says here, Revelation
1.5. And from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and
the prince of the kings of the earth, now listen to this, unto
him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. You know, when you went into
the tabernacle, they had a laver in there, a big old laver that
had three feet on it. And the first thing they done,
them priests, when they went in there, is they washed their
hands and they washed their feet. And this is what this word, washed,
means. It means lavered. Just like when
you go in the holy place unto Him that loved us, and He's that
laver, and He washed us from our sins in what? His own blood. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Jesus Christ. And let me tell you something,
beloved. The price appointed by God did effectively redeem
them. When they brought the half a
shekel, they were paid for it. Their souls were paid for it.
And it was accepted by the Father. Now, let me tell you something.
When our Lord Jesus Christ entered into the holy place, into that
holy place, and He entered there not with the blood of goats and
calves, but with His own blood, He entered in once into the holy
place, and what did He do? He obtained How much redemption? Eternal redemption. He came back out of there with
redemption eternal for all for whom He went in there and put
that blood. How long am I redeemed? Eternally redeemed. And He came back out of there,
beloved, and He entered in there with His own blood. Oh, bless
His holy name. And let me tell you something
else, this redemption was only for Israel. There was no, no. Oh, I remember those numbered
among Israel. And they're not all of Israel
which are of Abraham, but the seed of our beloved Christ's
redemption. And I'll tell you what, the redemption
was only for Israel. And our Lord's redemption wasn't
for all our life, and if it was, no one would ever perish. You
imagine he shed his blood for Judas as much as he did for Simon
Peter? Huh? Did he shed it for Esau as much
as he did for Jacob? Did he shed it for the firstborn
of Israel and not for the firstborn in Egypt? Everybody who wasn't
under that blood died. Everybody under the blood died
too, but they died in the Lamb. He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. And let me look over here in
Exodus 38, and I'll wind this up. Exodus 38, verse 25. And
this redemption money, this silver act of the shekel of the
sanctuary went to form and make the foundation of the tabernacle.
In Exodus 38, this half a shekel that these men brought, those
that were numbered, that redemption money went to form the foundation
of the tabernacle. Now watch what it says here in
verse 25. And the silver Of them that were numbered of the congregation
was a hundred talents, and a thousand, seven hundred, and three score,
and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary. Back
up for every man that is half a shekel after the shekel of
the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered from
twenty years old and upward for six hundred thousand, three thousand,
five hundred and fifty men. Now listen, and of the hundred
talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and
the sockets of the veil, and hundred sockets of the hundred
talents, a talent for a socket." Now what does that mean? That
means that they took that shekel, and they formed it, and they
made silver balls out of it. And they were round balls, and
they formed them up, and they had a And they had those boards,
and they said under them boards, under two of them boards, they
set that board down, and there was that silver shekel. Set right
down on that board. That'd be two of them. And they
sat right down there like that. They'd make that shekel, and
they'd form that up, and that shekel would just sit there.
That board sat right on that shekel. That tabernacle set that
redemption, formed the foundation for that tabernacle. And you know what? No other foundation
can be laid than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.
Our foundation of our souls is Christ Himself. Oh, the tabernacle
literally stood upon the price of souls. And the church, the
house of God, the pillar and ground of truth, is built upon
the same foundation of redemption by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we're built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself. I just
read to you in Isaiah 28.16, for the Lord God laid Himself
for a foundation. A stone, a tridestone, a precious
cornerstone, listen to it, a sure foundation. And there was only one exception,
and that was the door into the holy place where that veil hung
over the holy place. That was set on sockets of brass.
And you know why it's set on sockets of brass? was because they did not walk
over silver, which was a token of redemption. You don't walk
over blood. And it was like in the Passover,
they put the blood on the side post and over the door. You know
why they done that? Because you don't walk over that
blood. That's what Paul meant. We count
not the blood of the covenant, an unholy thing. We don't count
it as common. And beloved, I tell you what,
you don't walk over blood. And when those priests would
go in behind that veil, they went there because those pillars
there were set on brass, showing the power, the strength, the
might of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it said on that, And, oh,
they didn't go in there, them priests, they wouldn't sit on
silver when they went behind that veil. You know why? Because
it has to step over the price of the soul, and men are going
to sit over the blood of Christ. It's kind of an unholy thing
coming. Oh, God help you to see that.
Christ is our redemption. God help you to believe that.