Now my message tonight I have
entitled, Redemption, the Cause of Joy. And you can be turning
if you want to my text in Isaiah chapter 44. But before you read the text
with me, let's try if we can to use our minds for just a moment
and imagine what I know we can never really imagine. Try, if
you dare, to imagine what I hope none of you will ever experience. I want us to think for a minute of what the torments of the damned
in hell must be. I pause because I don't like
to think about it. And I know that I cannot adequately
describe it. But in my mind's eye, I see a
man in hell. Just one man. Just one man. Tormented in the fire that can
never be quenched, in that pit of darkness where there is no
light, he weeps and wails and gnashes his teeth. Terror, terror, indescribable. Shocking terror constantly seizes
his mind and his soul. He curses God. He curses the day of his birth.
He curses his mother and his father. He curses himself. He's lost. Oh, what a word, lost. forever lost, without hope, without
hope of mercy, without hope of grace, without hope of relief,
he's lost. Without hope of annihilation,
he lost. And he knows now, He never knew
before, but he knows now that his lost and ruined condition,
his miserable, wretched, endless estate of torment is his own
fault. He's in hell because he despises
the Son of God. He's in hell because he refused
to believe on Jesus Christ, God's dear son. He's in hell because
he refused to submit to the rule of Jesus Christ, and he knows
that's his fault. There is a place called hell.
There really is. It is a place of torment into which we all
deserve to be cast. It is a place of torment into
which you will be cast, should you continue in your obstinate
unbelief. Now you can mark it down. The
religious world argues a whole lot about hell. Some folks want to argue whether
hell is a real place or not. Well, it's that. But it's a place
altogether uncomparable to any state or condition or place on
this earth. Hell is a place, but it's more
than a place, it's a condition. It's a condition of torment.
Hell is a place, but it's more than that, it's a state. It's
a state of endless, endless, endless separation from God and
all that's good. I'll tell you what hell is. Hell
is giving you what you want right now. What you say you want. You will not believe on Christ.
You will not trust God's son. You will not submit to the rule
of Jesus Christ? All right, God's going to give
it to you. He's going to put you in a place where you're totally,
forever separated from Christ. Forever separated from Christ. Separated from grace. Separated
from all good. Separated from the life, the
joy, the bliss of God's saints in heaven. I don't know how,
but by some means, according to our Lord's parable, when the
rich man was in hell, he saw Lazarus in heaven. And he saw everything he had
missed. He saw everything that Lazarus
enjoyed. He saw everything that God had
given Lazarus. And he was made to understand
it was impossible for him to ever participate in it, separated
from God. Separated from God, from good,
from grace, from heaven, from life, separated from these things,
but fully aware, fully aware of all that he's separated from. Oh no, that's torment. What is
hell? Hell is fire, but it's much more.
Hell is lust. All the lust of the human heart
unfulfilled. That's what it is. You have an
example of it. The rich man was thirsty. Thirsty. You talk about lust? For man to thirst for water and
have water sit right in front of him and not be able to drink
it. That's a picture of it. In hell
you're going to have all the lust you've got on this earth.
All your lust for peace and pleasure. All your lust for your comfort
and satisfaction. All your lust for the gusto of
life. You'll have all your lust but
no satisfaction. Hell is desire unsatisfied. Hell is guilt, unrelenting, unrelenting
guilt. The Word of God speaks of a worm
that never dies, a fire that's never quenched. The guilt and
the torment of a conscience fully awake. Fully awake! Fully awake! Oh, no word can describe such
agony. Hell is a place of torment unimaginable. Now try to suppose what will
never be. After that man has suffered the
torments of hell for many, many years, After he has suffered
the wrath of God for a long, long time, after he's endured
the fires of hell, whatever they are, for a long, long time, he
looks up to heaven and he sees a door opened in heaven. And he hears the Lord Jesus speak
to him. And the Lord Jesus says, return
unto me, for I have redeemed thee. But in his obstinate hardness
of heart, he yet refuses to repent because the fires of hell will
not change his heart. But the Lord Jesus, the son of
God, pours out his spirit upon that hard-hearted rebel in hell
and gives him life and gives him faith. And by his almighty
grace, he snatches his soul up from the pit of darkness into
the glorious liberty of the sons of God. And he sets him down
at the throne of God, washed in the blood of Christ, robed
in perfect righteousness, accepted forever with God, and makes him
to be one of God's sons. Oh, can you imagine the relief?
Can you imagine the joy that would flood that man's soul?
Can you imagine how grateful that man must be? Can you imagine
how he must sing the praises of him who loved him and redeemed
him and set him down in heaven's glory? How that man's heart would
overflow with joy. What praise and adoration he
would give to his savior unceasingly. I suspect he would never stop
singing, don't you? I suspect he would never forget
the pit from which he had been dug. I suspect he would never,
never, never cease to praise the Savior who bought him, don't
you? Well, the man of whom I speak
is me. He brought me out of an horrible
pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock,
and established my goings, and hath put a new song in my mouth,
even praise to our God. I cried by reason of mine affliction
unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell, cried
I, and thou heardest my voice. Thou hast brought up my life
from corruption, O Lord my God." Now many of you A good many of you have experienced
the same thing. Have you not? Oh no, we were
not literally in hell. No, we deserve to be. And we thought we surely would
be. But we were not literally in hell. But you hear me, we
have been, and we are literally redeemed from hell. The Lord
Jesus redeemed us from the pit of corruption. Let us then sing
and shout for joy forever. Now read my text, Isaiah 44,
23. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord
hath done it. Shout, ye lower parts of the
earth, break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every
tree therein, for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and hath glorified
himself in Israel. Now in this chapter, the prophet
Isaiah has been surveying the wondrous work of redemption,
which the Lord God promised to fulfill and perform for Israel. When Israel was brought into
Babylonian captivity, the Lord God told them both that they
would be brought into captivity, and that he would deliver them,
and he told them how he would do it. 200 years before Cyrus
was ever born, In this chapter, the Lord told the children of
Israel that Cyrus would deliver them, 200 years before he was
born. He told them that Cyrus, a pagan Gentile, would be raised
up from among the Gentiles to deliver his people, and that
he would deliver them in a specific way. He said the way he will
deliver you is he will alter the course of the Euphrates River
and enter in through the gates of Bath and bring Israel out
again and establish them. And when they're established,
this man Cyrus will command the Jews to rebuild their city and
to rebuild their temple. And that was 200 years before
Cyrus was ever born. Josephus and his antiquities
of the Jewish religion. It tells us, whether it's so
or not, I don't know, but tradition was passed along. Josephus says
that Cyrus, after he was given power and dominion, was reading
one day from the book of the Jews, from Isaiah chapter 44,
and he read this last verse of this chapter. That, saith of Cyrus, he is my
shepherd. and shall perform all thy pleasure,
saying to Jerusalem thou shalt be built, and to the temple thy
foundation shall be laid. Now Josephus says he read that
and said that's what God sent me here for and he went to the
work. Now that's a marvelous prophecy of redemption. But as
wondrous and extraordinary as the deliverance of Israel out
of Babylon by the hand of Cyrus was, it was only a shadow of
the infinitely more glorious redemption of God's elect by
the Lord Jesus Christ. As Isaiah contemplated the redemption,
the great work of redemption, not only of the Jews out of Babylon,
but of himself out of the pit of corruption by the hand of
God, his heart burst forth with joy. And he calls for every ransomed
sinner to join him in unceasing joy, telling us of redemption
and telling us that our redemption is the cause of our joy. If you are redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ, you have abundant reason to rejoice in the Lord
God and seeing of his praise continually. Now, there are several
things in this verse of scripture that I want to call your attention
to before I get into the body of my message itself. In this
text, Isaiah tells us four things about redemption that must never
be forgotten. Never forget them. Whenever you
think about redemption, if you think about redemption in biblical
terms, if you think about redemption in a biblical framework, that
is, if you think of redemption as it's revealed and taught in
the scriptures, these four things must be looked upon by you as
characteristic of redemption. First, it is a work of the Lord
God alone. You see it in the text? The Lord
hath done it. The Lord hath done it. Redemption
is not a work in which God does his part and leaves something
for you to do. Redemption is not a work which God offers to
men for men to complete. Redemption is a work which the
Lord God alone has done. Secondly, redemption is an accomplished
work. It is right now, complete and
perfect and effectual, having been accomplished by Jesus Christ
alone. Look what he says, the Lord hath
done it. It's already done. Redemption
by Christ Jesus is the accomplished work of delivering our souls
from the curse of the law by the sacrifice of himself. And
thirdly, redemption is the purchase of a particular people. The Lord
hath redeemed Jacob. The Lord hath redeemed Jacob. Now I tell you one more time,
and honesty would compel any preacher to open the scriptures
and look at them as dealing with the subject of redemption, to
deal with redemption only in those passages where redemption
is taught. And everywhere in the Word of
God that redemption is taught, redemption is described as a
work of God Almighty for a particular people, by which he has delivered
a particular people from all possibility of condemnation. The Lord hath redeemed Jacob. Jacob is his elect. Jacob is
his church. Jacob are those who are made
by his grace to believe on him. The Lord hath redeemed Jacob. And to talk of redemption in
terms that make redemption to include all men is to declare
one of two things. It is either to declare that
all men are redeemed and saved by God's grace and there's no
possibility of anyone perishing, which we know is contrary to
the scriptures, or it is to declare that Jesus Christ is a failure
and he is not God, which also is contrary to the scriptures.
Universal redemption is a blasphemous doctrine that cannot be tolerated
by God's people in this world, for it robs Christ of his glory. Redemption is the redemption
of a particular people. And fourthly, redemption. This great work of redemption
is a work, not a work, but the work. The work in which God glorifies
himself. Look at this last line, and glorified
himself in Israel. So whenever you think about redemption,
you start talking about redemption, and you hear some preacher talk
about redemption, or you read something about redemption, and
you see something that somehow sort of detracts from God's greatness. detracts from his justice, detracts
from his power, detracts from the efficacy of his love and
his grace, detracts from the glory of his name, the honor
of his son, and the power of his spirit. Anything that detracts
from God's glory is not according to this book. You understand
that? Redemption is the work of God. It's an accomplished
work. It is a work of God for a particular
people, and it is the work in which God glorifies himself. Now tonight, I want us to very
briefly survey redemption, this God's most glorious work, the
redemption of our souls by Christ Jesus. And I want to show you
how that we are redeemed in a fourfold sense. First, We are redeemed
by purpose. Redemption is by the purpose
of God Almighty. I want everyone here to understand
that we were redeemed according to the purpose of God and that
we were redeemed in the purpose of God. That is to say, in God's
everlasting purpose before the world began, our redemption was
planned and purposed, secured, guaranteed, and looked upon by
God as having been accomplished back in eternity. And when our
redemption was actually accomplished by Jesus Christ upon the cursed
tree at Calvary, it was accomplished according to God's purpose from
eternity. The scriptures are very plain.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation
of the world. Now I want you to look with me
at several scriptures as we go along. In Revelation 13 and in
verse 8, The Apostle John is giving us his description of
the vision which the Lord had given him. And he tells us that
all that dwell upon the earth shall worship the beast. That
is, everybody is going to be engulfed in that strong delusion. God will send them a lie, a strong
delusion that they might be damned who believe not the truth. And
everybody in the world is going to be deceived by it. Everybody
in the world is going to worship the beast except those whose
names were written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from
the foundation of the world. Do you see that? They all shall
worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life
of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. When the apostle
Paul considered the day of apostasy of which John here speaks, he
spoke of that strong delusion and he said, he said, the whole
world's gonna be engulfed in it. But we're bound to give thanks
to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God, from
the beginning, had chosen you. The reason you're not engulfed
in it, the reason you're not worshipping the beast, the reason
you're not involved in papacy, free willism, Pentecostalism,
or Buddhism, is because God chose you. and Christ redeemed you
before the world was. That's what he's saying here.
The Lord Jesus Christ in the mind and purpose of God was slain
before the world began. He is the Lamb set up by God,
slain for us through whom we are accepted. The blood of Christ
is the blood of the everlasting covenant. Turn to Hebrews 13.
Hebrews 13 in verse 20. The apostle Paul is here speaking.
And he's giving this benediction, this great inspired benediction. He says, the God of peace. The
God of peace that brought again from the dead that great, the
Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. Oh, bless God, there was a covenant. I'm not even gonna try to describe
what the covenant was. But before the world was, God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, not only
had chosen a people, and Christ had agreed to redeem those people,
and God Almighty looked upon them as redeemed, but in that
covenant of grace, the Lord Jesus, as our surety, received on the
basis of his obedience to God, every blessing of grace in our
name and in our stead. and our salvation was secured
right then and there. That's the covenant. Now, all
the blessings of God's grace, all of them, hinge on one thing,
one thing. Not your obedience are mine,
not even your faith are mine, not even how much you believe
or I believe, certainly not our good works. Well, what then do
the blessings of God promised in grace before the world began
depend upon? The blood of the covenant, that's
all. If Jesus Christ redeemed you,
the blessings of God are yours. His blood's the blood of the
covenant. The blood by which the covenant is ratified and
sealed and made certain on your behalf. When our Lord Jesus Christ
actually died upon the cursed tree, he died according to God's
purpose. Look at three scriptures in the
book of Acts. Let's just look at 2 of them,
Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. I showed you this morning God's
overruling purpose, His providence. Understand this, children of
God. Everything in this world was predestinated by God the
Father before the world began. Everything that comes to pass.
And it is brought to pass exactly as it comes to pass, according
to God's sovereign purpose. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. Doesn't he? Doesn't he? That's
what the book says, everything. But what is his will? It's the
will by which we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. Everything that God has done,
is doing, or shall yet do in the history of this world is
according to his purpose of redemption. Now, that ought to give us peace.
That will flood our hearts with joy. Whatever God brings to pass,
He brought to pass according to His purpose. And the whole
purpose of God in creating this world in the first place was
that Jesus Christ might die at the fullness of time in due time
at Jerusalem according to God's purpose and bring a people with
Him to everlasting glory. Now let's see if it's fulfilled.
Acts chapter 2 and verse 23. Peter is preaching. Peter's preaching. Pentecostals, Love Acts chapter
2. I'd sure love to hear one preaching verse 23 sometime. Him being delivered. How? By the free will of man? How? By the practice and power
of Satan? How? By the subtlety of Judas? How was he delivered? Him being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, that is, by God's everlasting predestination and God's sovereign
foreordination, He was delivered that way. Delivered up to die,
and you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Turn to Acts chapter 4. Acts
chapter 4. 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."
Look at the mob. Herod and Pilate, the Jews, the
Gentiles, religious folks and whoremongers, religious folks
and drunkards, everybody gathered together. for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. Everything that took place that
day when Jesus Christ was crucified took place according to God's
purpose. Everything. We were redeemed
by the purpose of God. Secondly, we've been redeemed
by Christ. O children of God, hear me. You're not your own. You're not
your own. I stand here before you as one
of you and as God's messenger to you, and I do not hesitate
to lay every claim of God upon you. I do not hesitate to speak
to you every word of God and expect obedience with joy and
gladness. I do not hesitate to declare
all the truth of God and expect you to believe it and rejoice
in it. I do not hesitate to declare to you every responsibility God's
given you, whatever it is, whether you're a husband or a wife, a
son or a daughter, an employee or an employer, every responsibility
is spoken plainly. How does a man dare talk to people
like that? Because you're not your own. You're not your own. You are
not your own. Do you understand that? Nothing
you are, nothing you possess is yours, nothing. You bought
with a price. You've been bought, bought with
the precious blood of God's darling son. Oh, my soul, what a price. Great as the price was, because
of his great love for us, Our Savior did not hesitate to pay
the price. He purchased us with his own
blood. God commends his love toward
you, and that while you were yet sinners, Christ died for
you. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us. here in his love. Not that we
loved him. Not just for you and me, but
for his people everywhere throughout all the world. His son's propitiation,
a justice satisfying sacrifice for sin. Our Lord Jesus purposed in eternity
to come and redeem us. Will he actually do it? Will
he actually do it? Listen to him as he speaks, coming
into the virgin's womb. He says, Lo, I go to do thy will,
O my God. Listen to him as he speaks to
his parents. When he was just a boy, don't you know I must
do my father's will? Don't you know that? Listen to
it as he goes to Gethsemane, and there he prays. Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Now let me not speak quickly about something I understand
a little of, because nobody understands what went on in the heart of
God's Son when he was in Gethsemane. But I'm sure the cup he's talking
about is the cup of God's wrath. I'm sure of it. I'm sure of it. I think what he was saying was
this. If there's any way for a holy
God to save fallen sinners, but this, any other way, let this
cup pass from me. But he knew there's no other
way. And for this cause he'd come into this hour. He said,
now is my soul exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. What shall I
say? Father, save me from this hour.
But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy
name. If it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, thy
will be done. He betrayed with a kiss of Judas.
the drug off to Gabbatha, the judgment hall. And there he's
beaten and mocked. Pilate delivers him over to be
scourged and bring him back. Pilate brings him out and says,
behold the man. There he is, a man brought down
in humiliation. And they take him out to a place
outside the city A place called Golgotha, the place of the skull. They stretch out his body, and with delight and malice, they drive his hands to the cross
with a nail in his feet. They pick it up, shove it into
its socket so that all his bones are pulled out of joint And there
they watch him die in this little party. But listen to him. As he finishes his work, he says,
it is finished. All that I came here to do, Father,
I've done it. The price has been paid. Justice
is satisfied. The law of God has been honored.
And now, Father, into thy hands, I commended my spirit, and he
gave up the ghost. The Lord God received him up
into heaven, where he entered in as our great high priest and
our forerunner. And the scripture tells us that
he, with his own blood, entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. What was the price? His
life. His life. Oh, thanks be unto God for his
unspeakable gift. The law of God now cannot condemn
me for it condemned my substitute. Satan cannot bring me into captivity
for my Redeemer has taken him into captivity. And sin can never be charged
to me, for my sin was charged to Him, and He put it away. Oh, thank God for Christ. Thank God for the blood of Christ. I've been bought, Wes. I've been
bought. That means I belong to Him. I
belong to Him. And thirdly, The scripture speaks of redemption
by power. That is the regeneration of our
souls. The new birth, regeneration,
is the work of God the Holy Spirit applying the blood of Christ
effectually to the hearts of chosen redeemed sinners and bringing
them out from under the tyranny of Satan. the curse and tyranny
of the law and bringing them out from under the dominion and
the bondage of sin. That's what it is. The new birth
is the work of God alone. I'm talking now about something
that only God can do. Redemption by power. Folks talk
about giving you things to do to be born again. The new birth
is a resurrection from the dead. That's what it is. Now preachers
will never deal with sinners honestly or deal with them rightly
until they understand that the conversion of sinners can't be
manipulated. It's accomplished by God's sovereign
power. Can't be. Can't be. Your mothers and daddies may
wonder, I suspect some of you may have in time past and some
of you will in time to come. Your kids have a little difficulty
or they have a little trouble or they get a little concerned
about things. Lord, Brother Don, why don't you come over here
and seize this opportunity to get my son or to get my daughter
to make a profession of faith and become a Christian. Because
I'm not interested in manipulating anybody into religion. Not interested
in it. Not interested in it. Not with
yours or mine. Not interested in it. I am interested
in God Almighty according to his sovereign will and his sovereign
power for the glory of his dear son coming to the hearts of dead
sinners and raising them from the dead, bringing them to Christ. I am interested in that. I'm
prepared to wait. I'm prepared to wait. I may preach to you next weekend
out of Ezekiel 37. I've been studying it lately. The Lord brought Ezekiel up into
a high mountain to look over a valley of dry bones. And he
said, son of man, can these bones live? Ezekiel said, well, Lord,
you know. He said, that's up to you. And
the Lord said, prophesy to these bones. Preachers tell me and
ridicule to me when I leave some places, folks will say, well,
if I believe the sinners were dead, sinners didn't have their
free will and sinners couldn't do anything, I wouldn't preach
to sinners. That's because you don't believe
God. Because you don't believe God. God said to Ezekiel, prophesy
to the bones. What? Preach to bones? Dead, dry, parched bones, what
can they do? God said, preach to them. That's
what I'm doing now. Spirits, I'm preaching to folks
who are dead and dry, parched bones spiritually. Dead in trespasses
and sins. And the winds blew. And the Spirit
of God came upon the bones. And they stood up in life. Even
so, the Spirit of God comes where He will. And He speaks to the
hearts of dead sinners and the dead live. by the power of God
as the Gospels preached. That's how it works. When God
saves a sinner, three great works are performed by the Holy Spirit,
a work of sovereign regeneration. He comes to the dead just like
God breathed into Adam's nostrils and he became a living soul,
the spirit of God. breathes life into a man's soul
and he lives. So explain that. Who on earth
is going to explain that? That's the mysterious power of
God's spirit. It's the spirit that quickeneth
the flesh prophet of nothing. And when the spirit breathes
life into a dead soul, that same Holy Spirit makes a special revelation
in you. He makes a revelation in you,
in you, in you. Not just to you, but in you.
When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His Spirit to reveal His Son in me, Jesus Christ is
revealed in you, in you. So that you see Him. You see
who He is and what He did. You see Him and see Him. God the Holy Spirit issues a
call that cannot and will not be resisted for every sinner
who's made to see the Son of God comes to him. You come to
him. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Oh, blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. And once more, We
are redeemed according to God's purpose, redeemed by the price
of the blood of God's dear son, redeemed by the power of God's
sovereign spirit. And one of these days we shall
be redeemed in perfection. Turn to Ephesians chapter one,
Ephesians the first chapter. I won't hold you for just a minute
longer. But I want you to see this. The apostle is extolling the
grace of God in this chapter. He's told us of God the Father
in his electing love and divine predestination. He's told us
about that adoption that took place before the world began.
And having made us accepted in Christ, And then he tells us
about the redemptive work of God the Son, who through his
blood has obtained for us the forgiveness of sins. And then
in verse 13, he speaks of God the Holy Spirit. He tells us
that we trusted in Christ, after that you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also After that ye believed,
ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Now he is
not saying that first you believed and then there was some time
later on that you came and got a second work of grace called
the sealing of the Spirit. That's not what he's talking
about at all. He's talking about when you believed, you were sealed. Sealed to what? The Holy Spirit
who sealed us is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption. of the purchased possession unto
the praise of his glory. What's he talking about? Well,
he's talking about a purchased possession. And that purchased possession
is these bodies. These bodies. God bought the
dust of your body, Bobby. Christ bought all of you. All
of you. And he's going to have all of
you. All of you. There's a day coming when Jesus
Christ, the son of God, shall come again to redeem his purchased
possession, to gather from the dust of the earth, to deliver
from the bondage of death all of those whom he purchased back
yonder at Calvary 2000 years ago. He's going to raise us up,
gather us out of the earth, and unite us body, soul, and spirit,
and bring us into his heavenly kingdom, and present us before
the throne of God, holy, without blame, without spot, without
blemish. Holy, holy, holy. What is that redemption? In that great day, In that great day, we shall be
completely delivered from sin. You read about Daniel's buddies
coming through the fiery furnace and their clothes didn't even
smell, did it? If they had on English leather, they still smelled
like English leather. There was no smell of smoke on them. And
when you stand before God, my brother, robed in the righteousness
of Christ, there can be any smell of sin on you. No smell of sin. No consequence
of sin. No penalty for sin. No punishment
for sin. No loss of reward for sin. No remembrance of sin by God
your Savior. Completely delivered from sin. and completely conformed to the
image of Jesus Christ. When we'll see him, we'll be
like him. We'll see him as he is. What's
he like? Well, I'll tell you what he's
like. He's holy. He knows no sins. He loves God perfectly. He is manhood in perfection,
what he is. And Hubert, when he gets done
with us, that's what we'll be. That's redemption. Redemption
according to God's purpose. Redemption by the price of Christ's
precious blood. Redemption by the power of God's
Holy Spirit. And redemption in the perfection
of the accomplishment of God's purpose in resurrection glory. That's redemption. Some of you I fear have not yet experienced
the blessedness of that redemption. I call on you now. Come to Christ. Believe on Christ. Look to him. So, Preacher, I can't do that
unless he redeemed me. I know that. I know that. But
if you look to him, Lindsay, he redeemed you. If you trust
him, he redeemed you. That's the proof of it. You see,
faith, faith is not the cause of redemption. Faith is the fruit
of redemption. Faith is what He purchased for
you. If you believe Him, if you believe Him, He redeemed you.
And believing Him is the proof of your redemption. Oh, come
to it then. And you who are redeemed, who
have been snatched by the hand of grace, by the power of God's
spirit, by the precious blood of Christ from the pit of corruption.
Sing unto the Lord. Oh, rejoice in Him. Rejoice in
Him. Got plenty of reason to rejoice.
Oh, but preacher, I've got such bad things going on in my life. No, you don't. No, you don't. Not if you belong to God. Not
if you belong to Christ. If he redeemed you, Bob, he's
not going to spare any good thing from you. He don't keep any good
thing from you. He could do you good all the
days of your life. So rejoice. Rejoice in his redemption. Rejoice in him. Rejoice in his
providence. Rejoice in his promise. Rejoice
in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Glorify
Him for His great work of redemption. And now let's celebrate redemption
in picture. We're going to eat the bread and drink the wine. We do this every Sunday, and
I'm always fearful that we just go through the ceremony.
I'm always fearful when I preach the word, we just sit and listen
and don't hear anything. Don't ever do that with the word
of God. Don't ever do that with this blessed ordinance. This
bread is the body of Jesus Christ crushed under the wrath of God
for you. Not literally, in picture. That
wine is the blood of God's dear son. poured out for the remission of your sins,
according to the purpose of God, because he loved you with everlasting
love. This blood was shed for you.
Eat the bread, drink the wine, and celebrate redemption, anticipating
the day when redemption will be finished with the resurrection
of our bodies. Amen.