Them that were redeemed

Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayer for attention to Numbers. Numbers chapter 3 and reading for our text part of verse 51. I'll read the whole verse first. The Moses gave the money of them that were redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons according to the word of the Lord as the Lord commanded. motives. Numbers 3 verse 51 and specifically the words them that were redeemed. Them that were redeemed. Redemption, to be set free by the payment of a price.

And what is specifically upon my spirit is the doctrine of particular redemption or it could be set forth as a definite atonement or limited atonement. They're all terms that describe the same doctrine. that is opposed to the doctrine of a general atonement, a teaching that Christ died for the sins of every individual in the world, but the benefit and the blessing of his death is only made over to the sinner when they accept, when they believe, when they become a follower of the Lord. And many that have a great hatred to the Calvinistic doctrine, the doctrine of particular redemption, and they voice their hatred against it. But truly those that do so, I believe, do not know the depravity of the human heart, the greatness of the fall, and they do not know what a blessing is bound up with particular redemption. It is a solemn thing that there are those that would even be charging the Lord for dying for those or paying the price for those. who never ever are saved and never ever are brought to heaven.

And I want to look this evening at the teaching of the scriptures, the beautiful setting forth of this particular redemption, the redemption that is the redemption of the scriptures that which the Lord Jesus Christ did accomplish on Calvary's tree. And our text, them that were redeemed. So I want to look firstly at the doctrine, biblical teaching of particular redemption. And then secondly, the blessings of particular redemption. And then lastly, the response to particular redemption from us, how it should affect our lives. But firstly, the doctrine of it. Now I've read specifically the portion, we've read it together here, in numbers. There's been a passage that has been very precious to me, is regarding particular redemption.

If you remember, and you can see above the verses, we started reading at verse 40, and, well if you were to go back to the beginning of numbers, the children of Israel were to be numbered for war, but not the Levites. But in this passage, the Levites are to be numbered. From a month old and upward, and the reason why they are to be numbered is because they are going to be used to redeem the firstborn of the children of Israel. And so Moses was commanded to number the firstborn of the children of Israel and to number the Levites. And we're told of a discrepancy. We're told in this account that we have 22,273 of the firstborn of the children of Israel.

They were the ones that were having to be redeemed, so that they were not slain, so they were not killed, so that they were set free. It all goes back to how the Lord, in the Passover, passed over the houses, when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the firstborn were not slain. Their lives were given them, they were redeemed. A lamb was slain, in the place of the firstborn in those houses.

Here it is set forth that the Levites are to be the ones that redeem the firstborn. You might say there is a problem because the Levites, they only number 22,000. There is 273 short So, you could just say, why didn't the Lord just say, well, that's near enough. That's near enough, we'll just say that they redeemed them. No, that's not near enough. It needs to be exact. One for one. So what's going to be done for the other 273?

They needed to pay five shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary. and to be handed over to Aaron. So 1,365 shekels was given to Aaron. And the point of this passage is that every one of those first born had to be accounted for either by a corresponding number to a Levite or with the money paid for them. particular redemption, not general, but very specific.

Every one of the firstborn of the children of Israel, and by implication, every one of the firstborn sons of God, those are the people of God, have been personally redeemed. Even if it was only one that had to be saved, they needed the same redemption, they needed the same blood, they needed the same work of God. And God's prescription, how it would be, notice this in this passage. It's God decides how the firstborn are to be redeemed.

He prescribes it, it is to be by the Levites that had no part, no land at all, they served the Lord, they were in the temple, and it was number for number of them. So, that is the portion here, but what else? Where do we find elsewhere in the Scriptures of truth?

Well, one teaching that comes out again and again in different places is that concerning buying and selling. There were those that would, if they were to use today's measure, if they were selling, say, wheat, and you've got a set of scales and you put the wheat in one side and you put the weight in the other side, and the person wanted to buy a kilogram of wheat, the seller would bring out his weight and would say one kilogram on it, but actually it only weighed 800 grams. So he would cheat the person buying of 200 grams of wheat.

They thought they had got the right weight. And so it would work the other way, too. Not only when you're selling something, but when you're buying, then they'd have a, their kilogram weight would weigh 1.2 kilograms. So they'd get more value for what they were paying.

And the word of God is very clear. And it's set forth in Leviticus, in Proverbs, and also in Ezekiel, how the Lord would have a just weight, a just balance. He'd have right measures, right lengths. They weren't deceitful. They were being exactly what was worth that money. They weren't getting more, they weren't paying less, they were paying exactly what it was worth.

A false balance is abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. And when we think of our Lord Jesus Christ paying for his people, paying his people's debt, settling what they owed, making an atonement, redeeming them by paying the debt that they owed, It is exactly what they owned.

Nothing more, nothing less. The number of the people, not people that having redeemed them or paid that debt, then along comes the debt collector and says, I want that debt again. That cannot be. And this is not just one place. But again and again through the scriptures, you notice how often it comes. And this points again to that particular redemption, no wasted money paid, no wasted atonement, but one that knew exactly the debt, and paid exactly the debt, and knew exactly for whom he was standing. Another indicative through the Word of God is how the Word uses phrases like, he bear the sin of many, and he gave his life at ransom for many. You find this in Isaiah 53 and also in Matthew 20.

It's not saying for everyone, but for many. So, it's not putting this to a redemption, for a payment price for every single one. But then there is, and this is why we read John 10, there's descriptions of the people of God, and they are distinguishing titles that the Lord gives to his people.

In John, his people are called sheep. And of course, he is the shepherd. And the Lord says to those that were against him, I lay down my life for the sheep. Then he says to them, you are not of my sheep, because you believe not my word. He says of the shepherd that he knows his sheep, and the sheep that they know him. And at the very beginning of that parable, when he putteth forth his sheep, they're already his, and he puts them forth, then he goeth before them.

The terms always are as a number already known by God. You think of our Lord when He comes, the very title, His people, His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Not all people, not might save them or may save them or give a possibility that they might be saved, but to save His people from their sins. We think of another title, the Church, the Church of God. So He's not speaking of the whole world, but in the world there is the Church of every nation and kindred and tongue.

Then we have God's elect, those who are elect according to the full knowledge of God's Father, those that are chosen, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. And all of these phrases that they put as a distinct number, a number known unto God and known before the foundation of the world.

We think of the children of God. Again, it's very, we know it from our own families, don't we? You're either a child of one family or a child of another family, And when the Lord says that He has His children, and the mark of the children, how He chastens them, how He corrects them, how He knows them, how He's loved them, these very terms in Scripture, they are discriminating, separating values of a group of people given a name by God throughout the Word of God. In Revelation 14 as well, we have the people of God spoken of as being redeemed from among men. So we picture the picture of men, the whole of mankind, that God's children have been redeemed from among them. Not the whole, but those amongst them. Every nation, kindred, and tongue.

Let me think of that redemption that was obtained by the Lord Jesus Christ, especially set forth in Ephesians, as those that were chosen in him or given by the Father to redeem. We had that also in John 10. Thine they were and thou gavest them me. Gave us them for what purpose? To redeem. The hymn writer says, he saw me lost and ruined in the fall, loved me notwithstanding all. And so these terms, they set forth a very particular definite redemption of a definite people. Another reason why we point to it is from the beautiful type of assurity.

You remember when Jacob was so loath to send his son, his special son, Benjamin, into Egypt, that it was Judah that said, I will be surety for her. So when the cup was found in Benjamin's sack, then Judah arose up and he said, instead of Benjamin being taken and being kept by Joseph, he would go in his place. The very idea of assurity is that it is again a substitution, it is one taking the debt of another, standing in the place of another, when another has nothing to pay. The whole idea of assurity, even though Judah had agreed to do that, He cannot take that position until the one that he'd agreed to do it for cannot pay anything. And then he steps in and pays. So it is again a very particular office. It points to one for one as the Lord's standing surety for everyone of His people. We think also of the intercession of our Lord in heaven. He ascended up into heaven, there He appears in the presence for us to make intercession for us.

To make intercession for whom? Just for those that have been made manifest? just for those that have believed, received of their own free will? Are they the only ones that get to benefit with intercession? On earth, when the Lord prayed that beautiful prayer in John 17, He is praying for His people. Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. But those who are people before the foundation of the world, and that intercession doesn't just start at belief.

The provision of an intercessor is right before ever we know the Lord. There is a voice that speaks for us in heaven's high court for good. He is the mediator of the new covenant. He is the executor of His own will. He is bringing to pass what has been done at Calvary. He's making sure that those for whom He died, for those whom He redeemed, really are redeemed. And His intercession is to that end.

What a humbling thought that that is, to realise that before ever we knew or sought the Lord, the Lord made intercession for us. Many of us that are parents or grandparents, we pray for our children, our grandchildren, before they ever know the Lord, before they ever seek the Lord. Our intercession, we can only pray that the Lord would have mercy upon them, that the Lord would bless them. We can only ask.

But the Lord, He can point to His own atoning sacrifice and demand it. He can ensure it is so. But it's a wonderful thing to think, when a child is first brought to be called by grace, they have been prayed for by many years, that the Lord would hear and answer those prayers. We don't just start praying when we see them taken interest or concerned, but praying before. The Lord's intercession is before. And some of us, I hope, some of you here, I certainly can.

I can look back to before I ever had any concern of things of God. And there's things that the Lord brought about in Providence that profoundly affected the whole rest of my life. Preserving cares, adjustments in time, Things that, looking back, I never asked for, I never gave thanks for, wasn't mindful of the Lord until I was called. Then I looked back, and then I saw His care, His intervening, His overruling for my good, and He confirms this precious truth that He knew me before I knew Him, and He redeemed my soul. before ever I was born.

These are precious things that the scripture sets forth of our Lord's redemption, the payment of a price, His substitutory offering beautifully set forth by Abraham and Isaac then, Genesis 22. Isaac taken off the altar the ram put in his place, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced at it. He saw what it was, tis Jesus in the sinner's place. These are the doctrines, the teaching of particular redemption and atonement which was limited to a people foreknown and foreloved by God, a redemption that is a certain redemption. And I want to look then at the blessings of particular redemption, if we believe the doctrine of it, to look at what is sweet and precious to us in that doctrine. The first one is a word that was blessed to me years ago at Ever Precious in Jeremiah 31 verse 3.

Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Everlasting love. While we were lost and ruined in the fall, before ever the world was, before He suffered, bled and died, to put away sin and made a way that He could then show that love. God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died. for us. And the first we know of it is when that love is evidenced in His calling, in His quickening. And we realise it is a personal love. Not, I love Thee with a general love as to all, but a personal, particular love.

That makes it very special, doesn't it? Our children, they like to know that each one of them individually are loved. They each have a part upon our heart. They each are our children. And this is the blessing with particular redemption. Every one of his children have that love of the Lord upon them. We love Him because He first loved us. What a blessing that that is. How different if it was just a general redemption, a general love.

The Lord also knew our sins. He bared the sin of many. groaned and bled upon Calvary's tree. But He knew those sins before we ever committed them. He knew them, He knew what it was to bear them, what it was to bear the wrath of God for them, and that surely again instead of the Lord just dying for sin in general, you think, there's so much love here, that he took my guilt, my sin, my evil sins, those things that pain me, those things that I struggle with, those sins that I feel so miserable under, the Lord groaned and bled to set me free.

There's another beautiful implication too, that once we have been called, once we have been saved, we are forever saved. I love that portion in Romans 8, where we have a beautiful chain, a chain of which the middle link is called. But it starts, for whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate, to be conformed unto his image. Whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. And when we know that middle link, believing in particular redemption, believing in that which is joining before, those called have been ordained to that position, they have been predestined to it, they have been chosen in Christ, and they are also justified, counted free from all condemnation and guilt, and also shall be glorified.

It's a beautiful portion that links the past to the future. We know our calling, know our election by our calling. It was like the Lord's Supper in one sense in this way that is said when our Lord commissioned it. You do show forth the Lord's death, that is in the past, and we're showing it forth now, until he come, which is in the future.

So again, calling is in time, the ordinance of the Lord's Supper is in time, and for us in the time of the church, looking back and looking forward, those that are joined around that table, they have again that link and joining to the everlasting, eternal love of God, and the particular love of God to them. And that chain then, that cannot be broken. You cannot have that broken. It's a precious truth. Another thing is the assurance of being in God's covenant.

David, he said that, below my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, This is all my salvation and all my desire, though he make it not to grow. And it was that covenant which David had a beautiful time making with Jonathan, promising to Jonathan that he would keep alive one of his children or his children. Mephibosheth was the beneficiary of it, and the covenant agreement made forever that he was born. Covenant.

Naturally, we are under the covenant of works, do and live. But right the way through the Word of God, right from the Garden of Eden, the covenant of grace is revealed and shown one step after another. Grace, grace, grace, all the time. Sinners rebelling, sinners doing evil things, but God's showing a covenant. God preserving Noah, God bringing him safely to the site, God making a covenant, putting a bow in the cloud. What do men do? They rebel. They disobey. They build the Tower of Babel. What does God do? He gives covenants again and again, promises that are not dependent upon works but upon grace. And that is based then upon everlasting love. and upon the redemption blessings that flow forth from His precious blood.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how vital in growing grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Another blessing to specifically bear in mind, that our Lord's redemption actually saves. Right what the Lord did at Calvary did not just make a possibility of being saved, it actually saved. And every part what is needed in that salvation is assured of it. The bringing into the world of his people, the calling of his people, the keeping of his people, the bringing of them to glory, all was found done. in that redemption, it actually redeemed, not made just a possibility of being redeemed. And so again, the effectual calling, of course this comes in with the Calvinistic teaching as well, effectual calling flows out from particular redemption.

Otherwise, well, if it's relying on man's response, it may rightly follow. None might be so. None would be so. If it wasn't for election, if it wasn't for particular redemption, none would be so. They're the blessings of an effectual call. They are bound up. with particular redemption. We mentioned before about Isaac, so we have a definite substitution.

Every poor soul that is brought to believe, to trust, to look to Christ as their Saviour and to see Him suffering in their place, they know that He did endure in their place the wrath of God. God cannot demand two payments for one debt. He cannot have the wrath of God on His beloved Son and then on His people as well. In one sense this is the reason why the Apostle in Acts 17 says that God hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. Assurance of what?

Assurance of the judgment, that we must come before the judgment seat of Christ. And the reason why, if you think about it, for those for whom Christ has redeemed and the wrath of God fallen upon Him, Part of the debt of the human race has already been settled and paid, but what about the rest? The wrath of God has fallen on the Lord Jesus Christ for some, for many of the human race, but what of the others? That's why the judgment. Because the judgment shall say, here are these guilty sinners that Christ has paid their debt.

He has settled their debt. Here are these others that would not have anything of me, that rejected me, that didn't want to hear anything of the things of God, that persecuted the people of God. What about their debt? Who's going to pay that? And so the wrath of God falls on them. They have no substitute. They have no redeemer. But God's justice must demand that there be a payment. He cannot say, well I have suffered, I have met and died for this people, but don't worry about the others. No, that's not justice.

The particular redemption also shows there will be a judgment and it will be clearly seen at the end that though all are sinners, yet the Lord has for His people convicted them of their sin and brought to see the wrath of God fall on Him instead of them. and they have loved Him, claimed to Him, needed Him, worshipped Him by grace here and then in glory.

He gives grace and glory, no good thing shall He withhold from them that walk uprightly. And God's dear people, those sinners, they walk uprightly in this, their whole hope is in Christ and Christ alone. But another great blessing of particular redemption is that there is no weak link. If you put any of human effort or work or merit or deed in, you've got a weak link immediately. Salvation, Jonah says from the whale's belly, is of God. And our Lord upon Calvary said, it is finished. would God introduce in His great, wonderful salvation a link that was dependent upon already fallen sinners?

The salvation of God is sure, it is certain, it is accomplished, it is done by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that surely is for the encouragement and strength of the people of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a Redeemer that really did redeem His people and that is worked out and all that is done is to the honour and glory of God.

Paul emphasises this when he writes to the Corinthians that no flesh might glory in His presence that it hath pleased God, that by wisdom man should not know God, that it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God has given wonderful wisdom to man in medical, in science, in taking people to the moon and everything, but when it comes to spiritual things, there's a veil over his heart, He cannot know these things until they be revealed. And the Lord says, I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes.

These are the blessings of particular redemption. Well, in our third place, What is our response to this? How would we accurately know all this truth? The first thing is to believe it. It's a precious thing to not only know a doctrine, but believe it, really receive it and believe it. And to preach it. Not be ashamed to preach it and to want to hear it preached. to delight to hear it set forth, not to be ashamed of it. There's nothing to be ashamed in the doctrine of particular redemption.

We are to preach also Christ crucified and believing that God will draw his people to his word. We do not know for whom Christ died. We do not know who are his elect. We do know that the Lord said, I, if I be lifted up above the earth, will draw all men unto me, and all his people will be drawn. All men, every individual one or not, we know that.

Even in the days of the apostles, some believed the word spoken, some believed not. As many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. There again, we have the separating under the preaching of the word. But when the word then is preached, We have people of God drawn to Christ. Those two are the way to Emmaus. How the Lord opened in all the scriptures the things concerning himself, their heart burned within them. They were drawn.

It's why we would attempt, desire to set forth a precious Christ. Because instead of us Perhaps examining ourselves, have you got this? Have you got that? Do you feel this? Have you this token or that token? Sometimes we can get so inward looking, but when Christ is set before us and in all his glory and all his beauty, and perhaps even without really knowing them consciously, we are drawn, we love to hear that, and we see in Christ all our soul longs for, and we love those truths.

And this is what the two on the way to Emmaus did not our heart burn within us. That's a blessed token when that effect is under the preaching of the cross. One of the hardest things, you know, as a natural man, and when we're in a bad condition ourselves, the hardest thing is to preach Christ, and the hardest thing is to sit and hear a sermon where Christ is lifted up. Oh yes, we can tell lots of things of providence and lots of other things, When it focuses on the Lord Jesus Christ, then we need that spiritual appetite and desire. And when the Lord gives that drawing, there's something that the world doesn't have, doesn't love, but the Lord's people do. What is Christ to you? What is He to me? And are we drawn to Him? But also we'll have the response of this as well, Paul when he writes to the Colossians, he says, warning every man. And to receive the warning.

I was going to say one of the great dangers perhaps of the doctrine, particular redemption, is fatalism. It's not really a danger, not if we really know the scriptures. But sadly, I think there are many that will sit under the doctrine of particular redemption. If I'm saved, I'll be saved. If I'm one of the lords, he'll call me.

They have no idea of their sin, no idea of what it will be to be left out. The doctrines of the gospel never will lead one to be careless, indifferent, prayerless and have a fatalistic spirit. They always were warned for diligence, for seeking the Lord while he is to be found, call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, thou shalt glorify me. Let the wicked forsake his way, the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return unto the Lord. There is not any room for a fatalistic spirit. And it's a very, very sad sign if that is a spirit.

We should seek the Lord and have great care and desire that we have the blessings and know the blessings of redemption in our souls. It is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure, but we are exhorted to seek to ask, to seek, to knock. Those are the exhortations and we set before you the word of God, see in the different facets of it and know these things all they fit together, they work together. Also we are to be encouraged in evangelism.

I remember I heard a conversation, it was actually through three FIEC members and they obviously hadn't known each other before and they were talking about evangelism in London and they came to the conclusion that today you couldn't just have a leaflet like in the past with God on one side, a chasm in between, a man on the other and a cross bridging it He goes, people didn't know God, they didn't know their sin at all, and they felt that what was more appropriate today is to warn people of the wrath to come and have been under condemnation, the need of a saviour, the holiness of God.

And then it came out in the conversations that one of them was a Calvinist. And the other two, they said, looked at him. They said, how can you evangelise when you're a Calvinist? That was thought. Well, my response would be, how can you evangelize if you're not a Calvinist?

Because if I thought it was only relying on man's response, I'd give up today. Many of us, we distribute many copies of the Word of God, we speak to people, we send out leaflets, and often with no seeming response or fruit from it. But it's not wasted because we know God's word won't return unto him void.

He knows what he is doing. I would give up if I didn't believe in particular redemption. And I'm so encouraged by it. God will use these means. I don't need to know about it. I don't need to see the results. Sometimes the Lord is very kind and he does show us some results and we're thankful for that. But he knows the pride of our hearts. And if we know the truth of God, that's our incentive. I will work, says the Lord, and who shall let him? Who shall hinder him? The Lord doesn't need us.

I've heard some people, and they say, oh, if we don't evangelize, if we don't go out, people will be saved. They'll be lost. They'll be damned. We need to go out. No, they won't be damned. They won't be lost. Just because you don't evangelize, they won't be.

The Lord doesn't need you and I. but He chooses to use us, and what an honour and a blessing if we obey His Word, and we do send forth His Word, and the Lord does use it. But never think that the great God, the Eternal God, who has redeemed His dear people, that His whole work is for them to be frustrated because this little person in His Kingdom is not doing His will. No, that's not so. The certainty of the Lord's work is assured, and it's a great privilege to obey the commission.

Go out, spread the word, often like it with the Thessalonian church, you know. It was said of them, that they received the word, not as the word of man, but as the word of God, in truth, it came with power. And then they said, the word sounded out from you, into all the regions of Achaia, and Macedonia roundabout. That's what we want in our churches. Through the Bible, through the Word, that the Word sounds out. That's why the candlestick as a church is put as a candlestick to show light roundabout, not just to be within its four walks, and to pray also for the Lord's blessing upon it.

The response of particular redemption, we said about not fatalistic, concerning ourselves, but not fatalistic concerning others as well. To send forth the word according as the Lord has bid us to do. And what a precious doctrine, what a precious teaching it is. And maybe if you haven't considered before this chapter in Numbers, particular redemption, them that were redeemed. And may we be numbered amongst them that were redeemed, that are redeemed, and shall be with the Lord in heaven.

Them that were redeemed

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Them that were redeemed

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About Rowland Wheatley

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