Let's take our Bibles this morning,
turn to Luke chapter two. I wanna concentrate this morning
on one verse of scripture here in Luke chapter two and verse
38. The verse here is talking about Anna,
the prophetess. It says, and she coming in that
instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spoke of Him
to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Now the title of
the lesson this morning is Looking for Redemption. God has always had a people looking
for redemption. Last week I spent most of our
time talking about Anna the Prophetess and this week I want us to focus
on those who heard her and heard Simeon and heard what they said
and the scripture only gives us one description of those hearers
they looked for redemption. That's all he had to say about
them. He didn't say they were black or white or yellow or red
or ignorant or learned or He didn't go through all of those
things that we use to describe hearers. He said they look for
redemption. And since the day of Adam, and
the day of his calling and Eve's calling in the garden, and God's
promise to them of salvation in the woman's seed, there has
continually been a people looking for redemption. Mankind, since
the fall of Adam, Owe to God a debt. It's a debt that they
cannot pay. You're here this morning and
you don't know the Lord. You don't know your situation.
You're not upset. You're not anxious toward these
things of God. Know this. You owe a debt to
God, a debt which He will collect. And it's a debt that you cannot
pay. If mankind or even the angels, it's if we're made a little lower
than the angels. Even the angels suffering for
all eternity cannot satisfy that debt. That's why hell is forever. Now that tells us not only something
about the terror of the Lord, hell does, but hell tells us
something of the justice of God and the righteousness of God
which we can't satisfy. Mankind's been told by deceived
religionists, and still is. He can pay his debt. You can
pay your debt. How? Well, most tell him to keep
the law. I used to go over to Cleveland,
Mississippi, a little place out there called Marigold, and preach
to the people out there. And on the way over, there was
a sign that had a, it was shaped like a scroll, and it had the
Ten Commandments on it, and there was a little thing down at the
bottom that said the Ten Commandments are enough for us. Well, they're
too much for me. Keep the law, that's what they
tell them to do. Keep the Sabbath. Honor your
father and mother. Love God. You remember the Lord
said to the rich young ruler, he came, he said, what must I
do to inherit everlasting life? He said, good master. And so
the Lord said, why callest thou me good? Using that word a little
flippant. There's nothing good but God.
Are you saying I'm God? There's nothing good but God. Well, he's a good old guy. No,
he ain't. There's nothing good but God. He might be a nice old fellow.
He might be a charming old fellow, but he ain't good. They done
good by God. And he said, well, here's what
you can do. You can keep my commandments.
Oh, he said, all of these have I done from my youth up. See,
that's what people think they can do. If they go to church
on Sunday, that's keeping the Sabbath. Well, the Sabbath ain't
Sunday, number one. It's Saturday. And number two,
that ain't keeping the Sabbath. Only way you can keep the Sabbath,
the Sabbath is a picture of Christ. The only way to keep the Sabbath
is to believe on Him, to rest in Him. He's our rest. He's been told by these men,
keep the law, keep the law. And this is how the whole Human
race things, you know. They do a little something, give
a little something, attend a little bit, you know, just pay kind
of homage to the things of God. And my own mother told me one time,
she said, they're more hypocrites down there than they are Christians.
And she said, I'm as good as any one of them. And I said,
well, you may be better than any one of them. But you ain't
good as God. You're not righteous as God.
And our standing, our debt that we owe has nothing to do with
me and you. It has to do between me and God.
David said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight. I'm answering to you. But this is how the whole world
thinks, because they've been told this from their youth up.
And you're told that in school, and you're told that by your
friends, and you're told that by people who don't even go to
church. They'll tell you how to be saved. This man had no conception of
good or evil, and he showed that when the Lord said, well, if
you kept all these from your youth up, you won't have no problem
with this. Sell everything you have. Give it to the poor and
take up your cross and follow me. But he walked away with his
tail tucked between his legs. Oh, why callest thou me good? You know, men call pastors reverend. I've been called that by people.
They'll call me. Is this Reverend Pruitt? I don't
know how to answer that. I know they're looking for me,
but I'm not Reverend. Holy and Reverend is his name. Do you know that word only appears
in the Bible one time? In Psalm 111 verse nine, it said
Holy and Reverend is his name. Man as a race is condemned of
God. We go astray, David said, as
soon as we be born, speaking lies. None righteous, no, not
one. None good, no, not one. None that understandeth, none
that seeketh after God. We all fell when Adam fell, and
therefore death passed upon all men. How do I know that? Because all have sinned. But it goes further than that.
It's not Adam's sin for which you shall suffer everlasting
damnation. It's your own sin. It's your
sin. You know, I was talking to my
cousin on telephone, and actually we were texting. She said something to me about
Christians and being good and doing good and all of this stuff. And I said, well, we're sinners
is what we are. I said, I'm a sinner saved by
grace. And she said, yes, but Christ died for Adam's sin. Oh, I beg your pardon. I beg
your pardon. He bore, now listen, he bore
our sins. Not Adams, he bore our sins in
his own body on the tree. Ain't that what that says? He
was delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification. Now Adam as an individual, did
he die for his sins? He sure did. And he proved that
when he reconciled him in the garden. He didn't die for sin in general.
He died for the sins of his elect. The good shepherd giveth himself
for the sheep. And man, or men if you will,
owe a sin debt to God, and it's a debt that demands the satisfaction
of God. God has to be satisfied. Now
I guarantee you, if you're out here drinking, carousing around,
and making a fool out of yourself, and doing drugs, and following
people that you shouldn't be following, and doing all these
things, I guarantee you, your parents are going to be well
pleased if you stop doing that. But it ain't going to affect
God one bit. You see what I'm saying? God has to be satisfied,
Russell. It don't matter if you're satisfied.
It matters if He's satisfied. You know, I'm thinking about
my standing with God and we run around down here trying to do
things so we'll be satisfied. That ain't it. God has to be
satisfied. He has to be satisfied. And the
only way you know how He's satisfied is in this book. In this book. It's not what pleases you or
the world, but what pleases Him. He's the offended party and he
demands satisfaction. And it's obvious that pain and
suffering by us can never satisfy God. Otherwise, hell wouldn't
be forever. You'd suffer so long and then
be released if it were possible for you to satisfy God. But that's not how it is. In
all of this world, both men and angels, all suffering for eternity
cannot satisfy the justice and righteousness of God. Man owes
a debt he cannot pay. He belongs to a race condemned
of God, children of wrath even as others, ignorant, blind, walking
according to the course of this world. He owes a sin debt. And then secondly, man is deceived. He's deceived. He thinks he's
saved. How many friends do you have,
Larry, that when they talk to you, they tell you they're saved?
Generally, they say, well, I got saved back there. I got saved
10 years ago, five years ago, 30 years ago. Man's deceived. How's he deceived? Well, wherever you see that word
Satan in the scriptures or the devil, It's always in the context
of false religion. Always. It's the work of Satan in this
world to deceive men into believing something contrary to God and
contrary to the scriptures. And this is why, without the
Spirit of the living God, we're powerless against unbelieving
men and women. We're powerless. We can't convince
them of anything. I can't convince you they're
sitting in here this morning. But here he goes again. He's
on that sin thing again. It ain't penetrated that far,
Jesse. But if the Spirit of God moves and takes those same words,
man, it'll go into the heart. It'll go into the heart. Satan, the scripture said, transforms
his ministers into ministers of righteousness, self-righteousness,
a righteousness obtained by them through their good works and
obedience, tithing and Sabbath-keeping and reading and prayer and fasting
and self-sacrifice and service and all those things. And while
all these things have an importance to the world, and have an impact
on the world, they cannot satisfy God. All the disciples thought the rich young ruler
was the perfect candidate for salvation, every last one of
them. And when they saw him walk away,
they turned to each other and they said, who then can be saved?
If this man can't be saved, Who then can be saved? You know what
the Lord told them? With man, it's impossible. Impossible. Let that sink in.
Well, I'll get saved one of these days. No, it's impossible. It
takes an act of God. Another thing Satan promotes
through false religion He tells you that if you just do the best
you can, God will be satisfied. How many times have you heard
that? He's not satisfied. He said man
at his best state, at his best state, the best man who ever
lived, whoever he is, that man who lived the most moral life
of any man on the face of the earth, man at his best state
is altogether vanity. Huh? God's not satisfied with the
best you can do. He's satisfied with the best
he can do. He's satisfied with his son.
He's satisfied with his sufferings. He's satisfied with his death.
He's satisfied with his person and his obedience. Satan has so deceived our generation
that they wholly believe that a man can reconcile himself to
God. But men who know something about
their sin before God, who know something about God's hatred
of evil and His absolute abhorring of sin and sinners, these are
the elect of God. God has let them in. He's let
them understand who they are. Who they are. and he's made provision
for him in eternity. Before God ever made the world,
he put a man in it to dress it. When he created the world and
everything was in place, and the sun, and the stars, and the
fish in the ocean, and the birds in the air, and all these things,
animals running around on the earth, what's the next thing
he did? He created man, put him in it
to dress it. Do you know before He ever created
this world, He chose a people? He chose them to salvation. He chose a people in His Son. And His election of the saints
was to bless them. Bless them for His own honor
and glory. And He blessed them with all
spiritual blessings. He held nothing back. And He
did it according as He had chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. You believe in eternal security? I used to get accused of that
all the time. He preaches once in grace, always in grace. Well,
if you understood grace, you'd know why that's so. Those that God has determined
to show his grace, you think that grace is gonna fail? That
grace will never fail. God cannot fail. He tells us we're sanctified,
set apart by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ and
called. And every means ordained of God
to bring His eternal purpose of grace to pass was set in motion
before every star was hung in the heavens. Nothing is left to chance. Everything
required to reconcile you chosen sinners was immutably ordained
and determined by God before the world was. But the greatest of all these
things is the redemption of our souls. That's why people look
for it. If you're looking for a Calvinistic
church, you can find them. They're everywhere. Oh, there
just ain't no Calvinist. Why, there have been Calvinistic
churches in this world for who knows how long. Most Reformed
churches are Calvinistic. Did you know that? Some Presbyterian
churches are Calvinistic. There's Calvinistic churches
everywhere. You can find them. We're not looking for Calvinistic
churches, I'm looking for redemption. That's what I gotta have, redemption. God has not only purposed to
save, but has provided what he purposed. And one of the most
joyful things I ever experienced is learning that everything God requires
of the sinner He's provided and accomplished in his son. He requires perfect righteousness,
but he's the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believeth. He requires perfect satisfaction. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Huh? He's satisfied with his
son. raised again for our justification. Turn with me to Galatians 4.
We're talking about those who look for redemption. We're talking
about what redemption is and how it comes to pass. In Galatians
chapter 4 and verse 4. Now listen to this. But when
the fullness of the time was come, What time is he talking
about? Talking about that time when
redemption should be accomplished. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law, made from that tiny seed the Holy Spirit put in Mary's
womb, fashioned as a man, exactly as we are, made under the law,
As a man, he was subject to the law, required to keep it, required
to honor it, required to exalt it. Why? Why must God send his
own son into the world through the womb of the woman and become
subject to the law? Because he's a representative
man sent here to accomplish the redemption of God's elect. He made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. What's he want to redeem us for?
What's he want to redeem this particular people for? That they
might receive the adoption of sons. Those who look for redemption,
are you listening? Those who look for redemption
look for the Redeemer, because that's the only way you can have
it. Redemption's in Him. Because you're sons, God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. We look for the Redeemer. He
came to provide us with a righteousness acceptable to God. He came to
accomplish our redemption. Did He do what He came to do?
That's the question. He came to redeem. Did He redeem?
To redeem His people, He must pay everything they owe to God. The debt must be settled, God
must be satisfied, justice must be honored, and righteousness
established. Did you know that a saved sinner,
if you're gonna talk about salvation, you need to know this. A saved
sinner is one whose salvation leaves him sinless before God. Not just sinless, unreprovable. God himself looking on him, can't
find anything wrong with him. And he's fully justified by God. In Romans 3, 24, Paul said, being
justified freely by his grace. Now listen, through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth as a propitiation
through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sins, that he might be just and the justifier
of he that believeth in Jesus. Faith in his blood is faith that
sees the death of Christ satisfying God and our redemption. Now what
about us? What are we looking for? We gather
here this morning, what are we looking for? We're looking for redemption.
I don't wanna miss it, do you? That's why I'm looking for redemption.
And I've come to know by the spirit of the living God and
by the word of God that to find redemption, I must find the redeemer. I must not only find him, I must
have him. I must have him. I got to come
to him. I have to embrace him. I have
to submit to him. You're not going to come to Christ
all proud and popping gum and come down the aisle, shake somebody's
hand and say, well, I'm fixed up. No. No, you're going to come
bowing down before the king. You're going to submit to him.
You're going to submit to him. You're going to believe on him. You're going to trust in him.
So much so that when you leave this world, you can leave here
rejoicing. You can leave here without worrying.
You can leave here without shaking in your boots. You can leave
here in expectation of that place by Him in glory. That's what
it means to have Him, have the Lord. You believe in God? He said, believe also in me.
Huh? Can we do it? May the Lord use these things
for your good and for His glory. Thank you.