If you have a copy of the Word
of God with you this morning, turn with me to the Book of Acts.
The Book of Acts, chapter 17. I want us to begin our message
here this morning by reading three or four verses here, making
a few comments, and then going on to another passage. The Book of Acts, chapter 17.
We'll begin our reading with verse 18. And I think we'll read down through
verse 21. Then certain philosophers of
the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him, and some said,
what will this babbler say? Others some, he seemeth to be
a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them
Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought
him unto Erepicus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine
whereof thou speakest is? For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what
these things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers
which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either
to tell or to hear some new thing. Now as we have turned and read
out of Acts chapter 17, the Apostle Paul has been preaching, and
we take notice here that there were certain philosophers of
the Epicureans and of the Stoics that encountered him, and some
said, what will this babbler say? What will this babbler say? and they took him and brought
him into Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine
whereof thou speakest is? For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what
these things mean. The apostle Paul was looked upon
by these philosophers and by the Stoics as being a babbler. being a babbler. Now a babbler
was someone that was considered to be a very ignorant man, one
who was We will illustrate it by saying he was like a man in
olden times that would follow loaded carts around the streets,
and when anything fell off, he'd pick it up. And so they considered
Paul was a religious babbler. He was one who listened to the
religious philosophers of his day and preachers of his day,
and he would pick up a little something, glean a little something
here and there, And then he would go out and attempt to preach
that. He would make that part of his
message and proclaim that. And so he was considered to be
an ignorant plagiarist, one who picked up from others and just
simply told it out as best he could thread it together and
put it together. He was someone outside the circle
of intelligent people He was somebody that was outside of
the people that really know the facts you see of religion. They
said he's a babbler. Now what will this babbler have
to say? Well, this is very important
for us to consider this morning because I don't think there's
very much that has changed in our day and time because we're
looked upon as those who are babblers if we preach the Word
of God and His truth. If we preach the Word of God
in sincerity, I mean if we are serious about our relationship
with God, if we're serious about the Word of God and the truth
of God, then we're considered to be babblers ourselves. Now those who despise the gospel
of God's free grace in Christ, wishing to make room for themselves
in the kingdom of God, They denounce those that preach free grace
because they are worshipping a different God. They are worshipping
the God of free will, the God of good works, and they bow joyfully
every day. and they deride as a babbling
idiot those who preach the free grace of God in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now we're smiled upon with condescending
sneers as ignorant people who do not understand the real issues
of what the Word of God teaches and what men need to hear in
our day because we believe that salvation is all of the grace
of God from beginning to end, that Christ is all our righteousness
for both justification and sanctification, and that every false way really
is a false way, we are denounced as hyper-Calvinists or antinomians. We are considered extremists,
are we not? In this day and time when religion
is so shallow, very few people, very few preachers that you can
listen to from the first day of January to the last day of
December that you're going to learn anything from. They're
so shallow. They have nothing to say that
really is important. But we are considered to be extremists. And those of you that have had
mud slung at you, you might listen carefully to what I have to say
here. I think you should wear it as a badge of honor. Let us
be extremists for Christ in this day when most religionists are
extremists against him in our time. Was he not an extremist
for us? I'm talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. What could be more extreme than
His everlasting, free, unchanging love for our souls? He said,
I've loved you with an everlasting love, and I bestow this love
freely upon you. What greater extreme could He
have gone for us than that he has gone. Remember 2 Corinthians
8 and 9, it says, For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and though he was rich, yet he became poor, that we through
his poverty might be rich. You call that being extreme?
I say it is extreme. And you know our Lord Jesus took
upon himself the form of a servant, And you know He became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. And so therefore God
hath highly exalted Him, giving Him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things
in earth and things in heaven. I believe our Lord Jesus went
to the extremes for us. And I believe that we ought to
be willing to be called babblers. We ought to be willing to be
called those who really are somehow or other not connected with the
religions of our day. We must be willing to go without
the camp. and to suffer whatever we're
called upon to suffer. Our extremism for Him is the
only thing that could possibly make any sense to me. Romans
12, verse 1 and 2 says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that you present your body a holy sacrifice, a
sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. And be not conformed to this
world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove that which is the good and acceptable will
of God. And so, beloved, let us be willing
to be extremists for our Lord Jesus Christ, who was an extremist
for us. But these Stoics and Epicureans
philosophers, they said, well, may we know, may we know this
new doctrine. We would know, they said, therefore,
what these things mean. We'd like to be in the know.
Ben's Paul, that you've got some new doctrine here, you're preaching
Jesus and the resurrection, we would like to be in the know.
Now, beloved, I do not feel they were sincere, do you? I don't
think they were sincere. I think they said that in a very
sneering way and in a condescending way to the Apostle Paul. We would
know, may we know. Well, I want you to turn with
me to the book of 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, I want us to consider
verses 18 down through verse 21 this morning. And I believe
that the people of God are in the know. I do not believe that
the people of God, the true people of God, are ignorant. The Bible
says that it is declared in the prophets that they shall all
be taught of God. God's true living family are
taught of God. We read in 1 John that we received
an unction from the Holy One and that we know all things.
We need not that any man should teach us as such as a man himself. He has nothing to add. As a man,
outside of his understanding of the Word of God, he has nothing
to add to that knowledge that comes through the unction of
the Holy Spirit. I believe that God's people are
in the know. They do know something. And let
the world, as we said, let them say what they want to, call us
anything they choose to call us. God's people are in the know. And there's four things here
that the Lord's people know. Let me read this text here to
you and then attempt, by the grace of God, to give you these
four things. For as much, Peter says, as ye
know, that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you who by him do believe in God that raised him up from
the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be
in God." Now, believers then are men and women who have been
taught of God. And Peter says, for as much as
you know. For as much as you know, we know
some things, we are in the know. And I want us to talk about these
things here this morning. Now others have opinions, others
have theories, others have speculations and conjectures, but believers,
they know some things for sure. And so you would do well if you
would give your ear this morning as we talk about the four things
that Peter says for as much as you know. So let's listen carefully. We know, first of all, that we
were not redeemed with corruptible things, Peter says. Now the people
of God, they are redeemed people. They had been bought back from
the slave market of sin. Silver and gold, he said, he
says, we know we've not been purchased or we know we're not
been redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. Silver and gold refers to anything
that we can do, anything that we can give, anything that we
can produce. Now, in Titus 3, verses 5 and
6, it says, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the
renewal brought about by the Holy Spirit. And verse 7 says,
Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord. And in 1 Timothy 1.9 it says,
"...who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." And
so, beloved, when we're talking about being redeemed with corruptible
things, we're talking about what you can do. You're not redeemed
if you're a child of God by what you've done. You're not redeemed
by what any other man has done. We're redeemed by the spotless
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the precious blood of Christ.
And any fool except one blinded by the papal doctrine of indulgences
know that money cannot buy the grace of God. If money could
buy the grace of God, the rich would live and the poor would
die. But we know that money, you cannot buy your way into
the kingdom of God. Yet most people foolishly imagine
that it can be bought by human merit or by human work. The price
of our redemption, beloved, is much higher than anything that
you and I can offer unto God. And true believers know this.
They know that they don't have anything to settle the debt they
owe God. They know they're in debt, and
they know that they cannot pay the debt. And they know the price
on a sinner's head is blood and death, and they're not able to
meet the price. They cannot, they cannot in any
way, shape, or form so live that they can cancel out the sin debt
they owe unto God. And God's law must be honored.
It must be honored. And the Bible says if you offend
in one point of the law, you're guilty of all of it. And as we
stand or sit here this morning, I tell you, we're here being
lawbreakers. We are all transgressors of God's
holy law. And if we be redeemed, it's not
with corruptible things, but it's with the precious blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the first thing we
know. We know that we've not been redeemed with corruptible
things. The second thing we know is that
we were redeemed. Thank God we were redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians
6, 20, "...Ye are bought with a price." Therefore, glorify
God in your body and in your spirit, which are His." The Bible
says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission
of sin. We've been saved, we've been
redeemed by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Bible,
wherever you find forgiveness, you find blood. We read in Ephesians
1 and 7, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sin according to the riches of his grace. Wherever you find
atonement, and the word atonement means atonement, wherever you
find in the Bible where God has reconciled his people unto himself,
It is through blood. You find that it was through
the blood of the Lord Jesus. Whenever you find mercy, you
find the blood. Wherever you find the sons of
Adam worshiping the Holy Lord God, you find blood. God said
in Exodus 12 and 13, when the children of Israel were in Egypt,
and God was about to deliver them out, And he told them to
slay the lamb and put the blood on the doorpost and on the lintel
of the door. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. And the only way that God is
ever going to pass over a sinner, and the only way a sinner can
go through the judgment and be delivered out on the other side
and live forever with the Lord and live in the fellowship and
the presence of God for all eternity, is for him to have had the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ shed on his behalf and to have it
applied to his sinful soul. Now we know the blood of bulls
and goats can never take away sin, but the blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ, through his blood, he has obtained eternal redemption
for us. Now then, number three, we know
that our redemption by Christ Look at it here in verse 20.
We know that our redemption by Christ was arranged and purposed
by God's sovereign decree and his eternal ordination. Listen to what it says here.
Who verily, speaking of Christ, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you. Now then, beloved, this gets
into an area where there's so few people that are in agreement
with what the Word of God really teaches. And I want us to listen
carefully now as we try to deal with what God's true living family,
the covenant people, those who have been delivered from their
sin by the true grace of God, what it is that they have been
taught and what they believe. We know that our redemption by
Christ was arranged and purposed by God's sovereign decree and
eternal for ordination. The blood of Jesus, His sin-atoning
death, His substitutionary sacrifice was not and afterthought with
God. The death of Christ was in the
mind and heart of God from everlasting, Revelation 13.8. He is spoken
of as being the lamb that was slain from the foundation of
the world. We believe that there was always
a cross in the heart of our God. We believe that in old eternity,
the Lord Jesus Christ was in the mind of God, that lamb that
was to be slain for the sins of his people. And contrary to
popular heretical opinion, the Son of God did not, as many have
depicted him, did not die as the helpless victim of circumstances
because the Jews would not let him be their king. He did not
die because the Jews said, we're not going to allow you to be
king over us. His death was not a secondary
plan that God had on reserve and adopted because the Jews
had rejected Christ. It is true that they rejected
him. The Bible says in John 1 that he came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But his death is not a plan,
and he did not die because the Jews had rejected him. Their rejection of him was part
of the plan, beloved. And this is what the 11th chapter
of the book of Romans is all about. The Lord Jesus Christ
died by the hand of God, according to the will of God, to satisfy
the justice of God for the elect of God, to the glory of God. Can you agree with that statement?
We recognize that our Redeemer was crucified by the hands of
wicked men, but He was delivered to their hands by the determinate
will of our God. Acts 2 and verse 23 says, Him
being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. And those wicked men did nothing
but that which God Himself had purposed and determined before
to be done. Acts chapter 4. If you have your
Bible and you would turn there with me, Acts chapter 4, I'd
like to read here just a few verses. Verse 27 and verse 28. for of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together. Listen to verse 28. For to do
whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. I'm telling you what the Lord's
people know. They know that those wicked men that crucified our
Lord Jesus Christ, that They crucified him, they were responsible
for their act, but that he was delivered up by God. This was
God's work in order to save his people. It pleased the Lord to
bruise him. Now then, the eye of faith must
look beyond the malice of the Jews and the weakness of Pilate,
and the Roman cross, and trace the death of Christ to its original
source, to the heart of God himself. Romans 5 and verse 8 says, but
God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. The Lord Jesus Christ died according
to the purpose, decree, and the will of God, and we dare not
and we do not impute to God the sin and guilt of the crime of
His death. Wicked men did exactly what they
wanted to do. God did not force them to act
as they did. Yet He did absolutely, God did
absolutely govern and control their actions and use them to
accomplish His own purpose of grace toward His elect. Now you
settle it forever in your mind, my friend. Not a single action,
not a circumstance or pain that was involved in the Savior's
death came to pass except by the decree of God. The Lord Jesus
Christ as he hung on that cross as he suffered that awful death
on Calvary that was by the will of God and that was by the decree
of God. And God, as it were, stepped
back and let the wicked will of man have its way with Christ. But they were only acting in
harmony with the perfect plan of God and the will of God, and
God overruled it to the glory of himself and to the salvation
of his elect. Now, beloved, this is a foundation
truth of the Word of God. See that you get a good grip
on it. God Almighty has written a book of sovereign and absolute
predestination. Revelation 5 and 1 speaks of
John the Revelator. He said, I saw a book in the
hand of him that sat on the throne. It was written within and on
the back side. And as he sat there on the throne
holding that book, that is the book of sovereign and absolute
predestination. And in that book is all the fate
of men, with every angel's form and size drawn as the poet said,
by the eternal pen. Nothing escapes the will and
purpose and the decree of the power of God. Everything that
comes to pass in time was ordained by God in eternity. Now you may
be sure that God Almighty who feeds the sparrows and clothes
the lilies of the field and numbers the very hairs of our head, left
nothing to chance or circumstance regarding the life and the death
of his own dear son. You see what I'm talking about?
And you see what Peter was talking about here? Who verily was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was manifested. in
these last times for you. Now, the death of Christ, I believe,
is the very core of predestination. It is the center and the mainspring
upon which God fashions all of his other purposes. It is the
foundation upon which the structure of God's decrees was built. Jesus
Christ is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world because
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He was manifest in these
last times for us. Now listen to me carefully. Long
before there was a sinner, God had provided a Savior. Can you
say amen to that? Do you believe that? Long before
there was a sinner, God had provided a Savior. Before the sheep went
astray, God had already appointed His Son. over us to be our shepherd. Before we fell in the first Adam,
we already before God in the eternal councils of God had a
standing in the last Adam, the Lord from heaven. Do you believe
that? These are the things we know if we're children of God
and if we've been taught by the Spirit of God. Before we ever
broke God's law, there was a ransom already planned by God. You know
what that ransom was? We were going to have to be bought
back. We must be redeemed. And the Lord Jesus was the ransom. Before we ever broke the law
of God, there had been a ransom supply. And that's what Peter
is talking about here in this verse. Long before we incurred
the debt of sin, Christ our surety to pay our debt. He stood already as our surety. You see, God had made provision
on the behalf of his people, on behalf of his elect. Before
we died in sin, Christ was already our resurrection and our life. This is because of God's plan. Now this doctrine sounds strange
and it sounds new to a generation of lost religionists who have
never heard from God in all of their lifetime. But beloved,
it's no new doctrine at all. This doctrine has been in the
Word of God ever since God was pleased to give us this revelation
from which we speak this morning. This has been in the Word of
God. We quoted to you Acts 2 and 23,
how that the Lord Jesus was delivered up by the determined counsel
of God, and He was slain by the hands of wicked men. This has
been in the Bible ever since the early church. when the book
of Acts was given, the Acts of the Holy Spirit in the early
church. And in Hebrews 13, 20, it speaks
of our Lord Jesus Christ being raised from the dead and how
that his blood was the blood of the everlasting covenant.
It speaks of how that the Lord Jesus Christ was known of all
time by God and that he became our surety before the foundation
of the world in the plan and purpose and program of God. This
is no new doctrine. This is no new doctrine. So if
you say, I never heard anything like this. I never heard any
preacher get up and speak about the Lord Jesus Christ and his
death being planned of God the Father and that God did it on
purpose in order to save his people. Well, beloved, this,
as we said, is no new doctrine. Now then, we pass on to the fourth
thing. And I believe we have time to
get this in. I want to pick it up right here
in the last part of verse 20. But was manifest in these last
times for you. That's talking about Christ and
that He came into the world. That's what the Bible says in
these last times. The Apostle Peter figured that
he was in the last days himself back 2,000 years ago when our
Lord was in the world. He figured that this was the
last time. And he says he was manifest.
Christ came into the world being born of the Virgin Mary. And
as we have been trying to show you this morning, It was the
purpose of God that He wind up on that gory tree outside of
the city of Jerusalem with our sins laid upon Him. He'd ended
up there to die in order to save us from eternal judgment, eternal
wrath. But He was manifest in these
last times for you, for you. In verse 21, who by Him, who
by him do believe in God." Now I want you to tie that together.
He was manifest in these last times for you, Peter says, and
then he goes on to say, who by him do believe in God. Well, what does this tell us?
Well, it tells me that we know that redemption in Christ was
purposed, purchased, and provided, listen to me, for a particular
people. Now that's what it means. That's
exactly what it means. It was purposed, purchased, provided
for a particular people, for you who by Him do believe in
God. Now, beloved, if you know what
the Word of God teaches, you know that the Scripture says,
for by grace are we saved through faith. That not of yourselves. That not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God. In the covenant mercies of our
God toward His elect family, you see that choice gift of faith. That God, in the death of Jesus,
He's purchased faith for His living family. Now, infidels
and free willers may be ignorant of this truth, but God's true
people know that the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ was not
shed in vain. He died for someone in particular. Now listen to me. The one thing
that characterizes every false teacher and preacher is a denial
of the efficacy of Christ's atonement. The one point of doctrine upon
which they all agree is this. They all deny that every soul
for whom Christ died shall be saved. Every last one of them.
Every last one of them. You meet them and you talk to
them, and they'll say, well, there's people in hell for whom
Christ died. They'll say, well, Christ is
trying to, he tried to save everybody when he died on the cross, but
not everybody's gonna be saved by him, because the will of man,
the fickle will of man will not be joined to the will of God.
Therefore, the will of God is impotent, and God cannot save,
because man's will is contrary to God's will. Therefore, sinners
for whom he died and paid that awful price goes to hell. Now, beloved, this church does
not believe any such doctrine as that. Now, preachers may give
lip service to Bible doctrine, Bible terms, but they deny the
very foundation of the gospel, which is substitution. Now, I
want you to understand what I'm saying. If a basketball team
is on the court and a player fouls out, then they put in a
substitute. They bring in a substitute. Our beloved, we're sinners. All
of us are sinners. And all of us owe God a debt
we cannot pay. And God has been pleased in His
infinite wisdom to provide a substitute to stand in for us. And the Lord
Jesus is that substitute. He came into the world and God,
the Bible says, laid our sin upon Him. He charged our sin
unto our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, and our substitute
died the death. do a sinner and paid the awful
price of our redemption and therefore justice has been satisfied and
we as the people of God go free being forgiven of our sin through
the Lord Jesus. We believe that the sins of God's
elect were imputed to Christ and that he died for those sins
and that all for whom he died they must receive salvation and
life through his death. He's the substitute. Now the
modern day prophet of Baal preaches a redemption that redeems nobody. They say he died on the cross,
but unless your will is to agree that He saved you, that His redemption,
that His death, it means nothing. It means nothing. It's your will
that determines whether you're saved or not, they tell you.
But I'm telling you that there's a will that cannot be thwarted,
and that will is the sovereign will of Almighty God. And I'm
here to tell you today that we preach a redemption that redeems.
We believe that when He died, when He was manifested, it was
for you. It was for you who believe, who
He enables to believe, who by Him do believe. That's what Peter
tells us here in verse 21. Now then, we preach salvation
that saves, and the preachers of our day and time are saying
there's salvation, there's salvation to be had, but they say that
God's salvation is of no good to any man unless a man will
add his two cents, unless a man will cooperate with Jesus, unless
a man will come and side with Jesus, unless a man will come
and say, I will, I'll do it, I'll do my part. Well, my friend,
I'm here to tell you that until you see that Christ is the all-sufficient
Savior, and He's the only one that can save your hell-bound
soul, you'll not be saved. You cannot add anything. You
cannot add. You will never take away. My
glory, He says, is wrapped up in my salvation, and I'll have
all the glory if I save you and keep you out of the devil's hell.
I'll have all the glory for it, and you won't get any of it.
And my friend, we'll not give you one inch, one inch of ground
upon which to glory. Salvation is of the substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now men preach a possibility
of redemption, a possibility of atonement, and possibility
of grace, possibility of salvation. We preach no such doctrine. We
preach salvation accomplished. through He, Christ, that was
manifested in these last times for you who do believe by Him. That's what we preach. The Word
of God teaches that every sinner for whom Christ died shall upon
the grounds of justice satisfied be saved. Well, the question
then is asked, well, for whom did he die? for whom did he die? If it's for a particular people,
if it's for a special people, if it's for a people that are
known to God, how can we identify them? How can we know who it
was that he died for? If all for whom he died must
be spared eternal judgment and wrath, then how can we know who
he died for? Well, in verse 21, who by him
do believe in God. Acts 13 and 48 says, and when
the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word
of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life did
what? They believed, didn't they? They
believed. They heard the gospel, and they believed it. Now, friend,
this is the most important question maybe you'll ever be asked in
your life. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? Do you believe this morning? God help you to believe that
Jesus Christ was sent into this world to be our substitute, to
stand between us and our thrice holy God, and to suffer the judgment
that was due us. Oh, my friend, may God help you
to believe, because if you ever believe, it'll be because God
helped you to do it. If a man believes, he believes
because God blessed him to believe. And it's not a little head thing.
You say, I agree with Mama about Jesus. That's not it. It's whether
or not down deep in your soul you really believe that he died
for you to the point where that you now will no longer live for
yourself but into him who died and rose again. He'll be the
Lord of your life. He'll be the Lord of your life.
If he saves you, he'll be your Lord and you'll serve him. You'll
serve him all the days of your life. Well, That's what the Word
of God says. It says that as many as were
ordained to eternal life, they believed. Who by Him do believe
in God. Isn't that plain? By Him do believe
in God. You see, we're not trying to
slip you into the kingdom of God with a shoespoon. We're not
trying to get somebody into the kingdom of God that, you know,
that somebody says slip up on the blind side of a sinner and
talk him into it before he realizes what's happening and get him
to agree with the proposition. That's not what we're about.
That's not what we're about. We believe that God can come
to your soul, that he can arrest your soul, that he can make you
conscious of your sinnerhood, that he can make you understand
who you are and what you are and what you're destined to experience
apart from his saving grace, and that this is a God, the God
we worship, that can give you the gift of faith, and you'll
be able to embrace his son and have everlasting life. He that believeth is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. John 3 and verse 18. Then, so
we take note then that those for whom he died are those that
believe savingly on him. They have the gift of faith.
They've received like precious faith. They got faith and they
believe. And next, he died, the Bible
says in John 10 and 15, he died for his sheep. He said, I lay
down my life for the sheep. Now the objects of redemption,
those for whom Christ died, those for whom he laid down his life,
a ransom price, notice carefully, are described as sheep. They're the sheep of Christ.
They're his special property. He's the good shepherd and as
such they were given to him by the Father from eternity. Now
the sheep are represented as being everlastingly distinct
from others who are not his sheep. Now the whole human race, listen
to me, is divided into two groups. by God, not by this preacher,
but by God Almighty and by the Word of God. I'm telling you
the whole human race is divided into two groups, sheep and goats. Sheep, hear this now, never by
some biological miracle become goats, and goats never by some
biological miracle become sheep. Do you hear that? Now that's
tough, but I'm telling you the truth. We are designated from
eternity to be either sheep or goats, and that's hard for the
carnal mind to take. the natural heart. Nevertheless,
it's the truth. All of us are one or the other.
We the sheep or the goats. And Jesus said, I laid down my
life for the sheep. I died for the sheep. Some of
the sheep are saved, some are yet lost, but all are safe. All are safe. They're his sheep. Now some are folded and some
are still straying, but all are redeemed. They're his sheep. Isn't that marvelous? In John
10 and 26, Jesus said to those Pharisees, he said, you believe
not on me because you're not of my sheep. Now, what would
anybody that had just a surface understanding of the Word of
God conclude from that statement? He had just said, I laid down
my life for the sheep, and then he looked at these religious
people and he said, why you believe not, because you're not of my
sheep. Now, what would you take from
that? If you had any spiritual understanding, you would say
immediately, well, apparently he did not die for these people.
They're religious, but he didn't die for them. He died for the
sheep. He died for these sheep. Now,
this is very important that we see this. Next is he died for
his church. He died for those that believe.
He died for his sheep. And he died for his church. Now
we want to make a statement directly about all this group because
they're all the one and the same people. They're all one and the
same people. But he died for his church. It
is the Church which he loved and for which he gave himself
as a sacrifice to redeem. This is the Church, even the
General Assembly, the Church of the Firstborn, that is assembling
in heaven one by one as the Lord's people die. and are taken up
to heaven. These are those whose names are
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. This is the church that
is made up of all God's elect people. Ephesians chapter 5 and
verse 25 says, Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also
loved the church and gave himself for it. Acts 20 and verse 28
says, Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock,
over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the
church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. So he's purchased it. Now this
church, this church is the church of which Christ is the head.
in which Christ is the husband. Thy maker is thine husband, and
thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, Isaiah 54 verse 5 says,
Now this cannot be said of any denomination, or of all the bodies
of men that profess to be the churches of Christ. The grey
whore of Babylon is not the spouse of Jesus Christ. Those who are
drunk with the intoxicating wine of Babylon, which is Arminian
freewill works religion, do not belong to and have no part with
this church, which is the bride of Jesus Christ. The church coming
from Babel, our Redeemer said, he called her a whore. The church,
which is his bride, he calls a chaste virgin. Though there
may be threescore queens and fourscore concubines of Babylon's
sort, yet says Christ in Song of Solomon chapter 6 and verse
9, my dove, my undefiled, is but one. but one. All the Lord's people, all the
living family of God are in this one church. One church of our
Lord Jesus Christ, of which this and other local church are expressions. There's one church made up of
all of the redeemed of God. And this, this is for whom he
died. We read it clearly in the Word
of God. Next, I want to say they're called
his people in the Bible. And we're about to close here.
The time is gone. Isaiah 53 in verse 8 says, for the transgression
of my people was he stricken. Now, you remember that when John
the Baptist, before he was conceived, that the Lord appeared to Zachariah
and Elizabeth and revealed to them that this boy, they were
going to have a son. They were old. well stricken
in years, and Zacharias, the angel of God, knew that he didn't
believe what he was telling. And so he said, you're not going
to say a word until this happens. You strike your dumb, you're
not going to be able to speak a word until this happens. And
so Elizabeth conceived and she brought forth John the Baptist.
And they took him to the temple and somebody said his name will
be Zacharias. Lisbeth said, no, his name will
be John. And they asked, Zacharias, what
about this? Or words to that effect. And
he shook his head, wrote it down, it'd be John. And immediately
his tongue was loosed. And do you know what he said
when his tongue was loosed? Let me read it to you. It's in
Luke 1 and 68. The father of John the Baptist
now, his tongue has been loosed. He hasn't been able to talk all
the time that his wife's been carrying this baby. And here's
what he said. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
for he hath visited and redeemed his people. That's what he said. The Lord
has visited and he's redeemed his people. Now, those who are
redeemed by Christ are redeemed out of every people. The redeemed people of God are
from every tongue, nation, kindred of people, but the redeemed out
of, don't you see? And so they're His people. They
shall be my people, He said, and I will be their God. I will
be their God. We are His portion. His inheritance,
a people near and dear to Him, a people given to Christ to be
redeemed and saved by Him, of whom it is said, thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. Redemption, we want to
impress it upon you, is not universal. It is by the effectual redemption
of our God has been obtained for God's people. Jesus said,
I'm going to save my people from their sin. His name will be called
Jesus. I'll save my people from their
sin. His people. God said of the rest. God said of the rest in Isaiah
27 and 11. Listen to this word. He that
made them will not have mercy on them. And he that formed them
will show them no favor. That's what he said. That's speaking
of the rest. Hosea 1 and 9 says, You're not
my people, and I will not be your God. The Bible says in Romans
11 and 7, The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. That's what it says. That's exactly
what it says. And then the Bible says, For
all men have not faith. So I'll tell you for whom Christ
died. He died for those that believe
on Him. He died for His sheep. He died for His church. He died
for His people. And they're all one and the same.
Do you fit in any place there? Any place there? Do you fit? Are you a believer? You one of
His sheep? Sheep hear His voice and they
follow Him. He gives them eternal life. And they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of his hand. Father greater than all, no man plucked them
out of his hand. Are you a member of his church?
Does the Spirit of God dwell in your heart? If you've been
regenerated, you are. We've been baptized by one Spirit
into one body. The Holy Spirit coming into our
souls. We belong to him. We've been sealed by the Spirit,
the earnest of the Spirit. Are you one of his children?
You say, Preacher, I don't know whether I am or not. I don't
know whether I am. Well, I believe this is a time
when we all should get very, very serious in our hearts and
begin to dwell and think and meditate upon what you've heard
today. I'll tell you, you'll never miss
the judgment unless you're in Christ. You must be in Christ. You must be in Christ. Don't die outside the Lord Jesus
Christ. The richest man in America one
day will only possess a piece of ground six foot long by two
and a half foot wide. That's all he's going to have.
That's every bit he's going to have. You better get concerned
now. You ain't taking nothing out
of this world. And you better get concerned as to whether or
not you have a relationship with the Lord or not. And whether
or not you're in Christ. Whether your sins are under the
blood. Whether you belong savingly to the Son of God. You better
begin to get serious about this. Where do you stand? Let's have
a word of prayer. Father, in the name of Jesus,
bless these words and seal them to the hearts of the hearers
this morning, and may Christ be glorified in and through all
of our lives. In whose name we pray, amen.