I want to start this evening
from 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 8. While you're finding that,
I'm preaching the title of my message this evening is Eternal
Redemption. I want to say at the outset that
it's obvious that I hope that God will give us some good instruction
through this lesson. One thing is for sure about that,
though, it will not be by any of us mastering the subject of
eternity. Eternity is beyond our limits.
We cannot understand it. I don't. I don't admit that I've
got no real understanding of any of the Bible's teachings
about eternal redemption, but I'm in full agreement with every
one of. And that's the best I can be. I only hope that through
these passages that we look at and a few thoughts that the Lord
has given me, he might give you the same comfort that I get from
this thought. It is absolutely essential. The gospel cannot
be the gospel apart from the element of eternity in our redemption. And I pray the Lord might make
that relationship between what God does in eternity and what
he works out in time. It might become so evident to
us that it might let us leave here with great peace. and great
confidence and great sense of rest that all is well exactly
as it should be, and it will continue to be so. 2 Peter 3.8 Beloved Peter writes,
Be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord
as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Believe it
or not, this is one of the clearest, simplest, most direct verses
of scripture for teaching the essential truth of who our God
is in terms of his being eternal. He brings to light three very
outstanding elements in that verse. First of all, he says,
don't be ignorant of this. This is not secondary doctrine.
I went through five years of Bible college and 36 years of
false religion, and people treated this as secondary information.
This is something that, you know, if you can learn a little bit
about it, it's OK, but you don't really have to understand this. Peter
writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he said,
you need to know this. This is essential gospel teaching. Don't
be don't be ignorant. Literally, that means don't let
it be hidden from you. I'm afraid if this truth is hidden
from you, you don't understand the gospel. Secondly, he says
that what we're talking about this evening is not with us,
but it's with the Lord this way. We're locked in this situation,
the circumstance of time. We cannot escape it. It is the
way we think. It's the way we feel. It's the
way we anticipate. It's the way we look back, the
way we look forward. We're locked into this. We can't think any
other way than the context of time. But with the Lord, it's
not that way. We want to talk a few minutes
about how it is with the Lord. It's a statement of redemption
as it is in the Lord's presence. And then the little words, as
is quite often in the scriptures, this way that the little words
carry The entire weight of the verse, and that's certainly true
here, the little word as occurs twice. And it's with the sense
of just as, even as, the same as. One day is with the Lord
as, the same as, a thousand years, and a thousand years just as
one day. With God, there is no difference.
You know, we can say this so easily, but it's hard to get
your mind around, isn't it? With the Lord, there's no difference
between a day and a thousand years. With Him in eternity,
one is the same as another. That's how great our God is.
I can think of at least three aspects of time in my experience
that must be absent with God in order for this to be true.
The first one is God is obviously not subject to the passage of
time. God is timeless. not limited to that stream of
life that we experience, the passing of time. Isaiah 57, 15,
you don't have to turn there, but Isaiah 57, 15, well-known
verse points out clearly that this is so. He is not subject
to the passage of time, and that's so because he does not dwell
in time. He created time. He interacts wonderfully with
time, but he does not dwell in time. As he says of himself,
for thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity. He dwells in eternity as opposed
to dwelling in time. He does not live in our space.
He lives in a completely different one. Past, present, future, these
are all constraints imposed by the passage of time. God is eternal,
and as such, and our limited ability to conceptualize that
whole thing of eternity, we might say that he knows only one temporal
dimension, and that would be now. Everything is now to him,
and I think that's borne out for us in his words to Moses
in Exodus 3, 13 and 14. You remember when the Lord was
sending him to the children of Israel, and Moses said unto God,
Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, And shall
say unto them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you,
and they shall say unto me, what's his name? What shall I say unto
them? And God said unto Moses, I am. Just tell him I am. I am that
I am. And he said, this is what you'll
say to the children of Israel. I am. Has sent me unto you. And what a complete and wonderful
expression of God's being as eternal. Everything is now to
him. Everything is constantly present.
Eternity, then, isn't simply a dimension in which God exists. It's the infinite reality that's
generated by his infinite being. It is that way because of who
he is. Eternity is just the ever so inadequate word we use to
refer to the fact that God simply is. From everlasting to everlasting. Therefore, since His eternal
being has no beginning, knows no end, knows no passage of time,
He simply exists, He dwells in, He occupies all of eternity,
all of the time. And I'm aware that that's a contradiction
of terms, but that's the best I can do in my dimension. Secondly,
God is not only not subject to the passage of time, He's not
subject to the succession of events that occurs in time. One
day, if you will know, is a period of time that we mark by a succession
of events. In the morning, the sun rises,
we say, then gradually gets higher and higher in the sky until it
reaches its highest point about noon, at which point it starts
to decline until it reaches a time when we say the sun sets. And
that's followed by a period of several hours of darkness, a
day we define by a series of events. Our text teaches us that
with God. The time it takes for the events
of a single day to pass. Is no different than that needed
for the affairs of 1000 years. To come and go. It's the same
with him. In God's eternity, there is never
neither too little time for him to accomplish all his purpose.
Nor so much time that he grows anxious or bored waiting for
his will to come to pass. It's just not that way. He does
interact with us through a time-bound succession of events that he
has well prophesied and well mapped out and well executed
in our very lives. Yet he himself knows all the
events of all his creation for all time simply as present now. This is the clear teaching of
Ecclesiastes 3 and I'd like for you to look at these verses with
me in verses 14 and 15. This shows clearly that God is not
subject to the succession of events. Ecclesiastes 3 verses 14 and
15. I know that whatever God does. It shall be forever, and that
word forever there, as you can tell by the very word, is a word
that's often translated in Hebrew, eternal. Let's read it that way. I know that whatever God does,
it will be eternal. Nothing can be put to it, nor
anything taken from it. Nothing that man does in time
can alter what God does in eternity. He goes on to say, and God does
it that men should fear before him. He said it's this way. God
in his eternal now has decreed all things to be according as
his mind has set them. And yet it's a flowing out a
step at a time for us. And God has made it that way.
But we can't tell what he's going to do. And but we know that it's
already set before it happens. And he's made it that way for
a reason that men should fear before him. This knowledge of
God's immutable. Eternal purpose is what brings
elect sinners to their knees. Do we not share that experience
in common? Maybe not in exactly the same
way, but did we not all find some place where we came face
to face with the gospel and looked up toward heaven and said, Lord,
I know that you either did or you didn't choose me. And I know
that nothing I do now in time can change that reality in eternity
past. And I know that only those whom
you chose were the ones that Christ died for. And that's almost
2,000 years ago. That's 2,000 years ago, roughly.
And I know that nothing I do now can change the fact of whether
or not on that day my sins were in Him, in His body on the tree.
And Lord, I know that if it's not been eternally purposed by
You, if it's not paid for in full by Your Son, and if that's
not true, then the Holy Spirit will never come to me. And we
find ourselves against all time-based reason, crying out to God and
saying, but Lord, I don't know if He chose me or
not. I don't know if Christ died for me or not, but have mercy
on this sinner. The Lord makes it that way. Now, those who are
goats, they'll walk away from that and shake their head in
anger. Have nothing to do with a God like that. A God that's
just going to choose some and not all. A Christ who will only
die for some and not everyone. I don't want anything to do with
that. But God's children are altogether different. We're strange
in this world. We say, that's right. That's
the way God is. That's the way Christ's death
actually happened. That's the real effect of it.
Oh Lord, don't let me be left out of that. Oh my. God does
this on purpose. Let's read on. That which has
been is now. That is, present events to us
have been present with God since forever. and will continue to
be present with him when they are passed to us. And that which
is to be, the writer says, has already been, already real with
God before it ever comes to pass with us. And God requires that
which is past, what God requires of His people in this course
of life, He has long since executed every last item of in eternity. He's not subject to the succession
of events like we are. Neither is he, finally, neither
is he subject to change over time. It's an easily observable
fact that in this dimension of time, everyone and everything
is in a continuous process of change. From the moment that
we're conceived, we begin a process of physical growth that continues
to about midlife when it starts to decline. And eventually, through
a series of things like this and white hair and other problems,
we end up reaching our last days. It's a change, this thing of
time. It brings constant change. In the academic and scientific
domains, we live in a day when knowledge continues to increase
at staggering rates and technology keeps pace with new innovations
every day while yesterday's history is forgotten and inventions are
recycled. Trees do continue to grow. We
watch them change over time, and the things that we build
with them, we watch them decay over time. All around us is constant
change. It's that way. But God is not
so, and I'm glad He's not, for He is eternal, not subject to
time, and therefore not affected by the change over the course
of time, even though We, as time-bound creatures limited by our perspective
of things, can't think of eternity as anything but an indefinite
period of time. That's a contradiction of terms,
I know, but we can't think of it other than that. An indefinite
period of time marked by a succession of events and the changes that
they bring. And yet, even in our flawed thinking
and our foolish attempts at speaking what eternity is, we do understand
this, that at every point, Every point in the ages of eternity,
God always is and is always the same. The ancient of days knows
no aging, and the eternal God has never learned anything new,
and he has never so much as altered even one of his least feelings
for his children. For he says of himself, I am
the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consented." We change continually. I get up every day
thinking, today I'm going to do what I ought to do. If I make
it to noon, I'm doing good. Usually by the time I get out
of the house into the truck, I've already messed that up.
I change from the moment I drink my coffee to the time I turn
the key in the switch. Changing all day long. Saying,
Lord, I shouldn't have said that, shouldn't have thought that,
shouldn't have done this, changing all day long. And he never changes.
He's never not loved me. There are people who actually
believe that when elect or not elect, that when we're born into
this world, we're all born under the wrath of God. How can that
be? How can God both love me with an unchanging love and hate
me with an infinite hatred? Never has. In his eternal presence,
he has always loved us. has always loved his people.
Now I want to look at about three or four passages briefly with
you that bring these thoughts out and show the wonder of how
God redeems his people from eternity through time. Look at Romans
chapter eight verses twenty-nine through thirty with me just for
a few moments. Romans 8 29. For whom he did
foreknow, let's. Let's let's say that this way
in the simple tense that it's written in, it's just as good
to say for whom he foreknew. He also predestinated. Conformed to the image of his
son. That he be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestinated,
then he called. He also called. And whom he called,
them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. Most folks who read these verses
are absolutely baffled. I've heard so many different
things offered as to why they're all in that past tense. Why are
they written in the past tense? Especially glorified. Glorified
is yet to happen to us. item in the succession of events
that leads to our ultimate salvation hasn't happened yet. We obviously
that can't be that can't be real. It's in the past tense. Why is
it that way? Well, the these all three all of these verbs
in these two verses are written in the same tense, and they share
three things in common. I don't want to bore you with
grammar, but these are very important. The first thing is, is they're
all in the Aorist tense, and in this original language, that
was their best way of just saying that something is. Aorist just
means that it happened and it just is. It's the tense where
actions are complete with no reference to the process of time. It's not to complete them, it's
just they just are. They just are. The second thing
that's true of all of these is the fact that they're a simple,
active voice. God did them. That's all it says. They're done and he did it. They
just are. And the final thing is, is they're
simply, they're simple declarations. These actions each are real.
They are certain and they are fully complete before we ever
even take knowledge of them. They just are. It's a wonderful
thing. They had ways of saying things
in their language that we don't in ours. And that's exactly what
it means. In short, these are precisely
formed words in such a way as to demand the conclusion that
all our salvation, as we live it out, is a present reality
with God and eternity before it ever unfolds in our lives.
What's it say that he did? He says he foreknew. Let's dwell
on these just for a moment. He foreknew his people. What
does it mean to be foreknown? Look on over in Romans chapter
11. Here's an excellent illustration of that word in another context. Look at verse 2. God hath not
cast away his people, which he foreknew, watching not what the
scriptures say of Elijah, how he maketh intercession to God
against Israel, saying, Lord, they've killed thy prophets and
dig down thine altars, and I'm left alone. I'm the only one
left, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? I want to read it the way it's
written, because it's written in the same verb tense as all the verbs
we just read back in Romans 8. He said, not so. I reserved,
I reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to
the image of Baal. When did he reserve them? When
were they ever not reserved? It was done in his eternal councils
of eternity past that on that day there'd be seven thousand
left and he handpicked every one of them. That's what it means
to be foreknown. Why are you here? Why am I here? Why do we? Answer me that. Why do we believe this gospel?
Why would God choose us? Why would Christ die for you?
Why would he die for me? I wouldn't die for me. Why would
that happen? Because he has reserved for himself
from among mankind, he's reserved some of us. What a wonderful
thing. That's what it is to be foreknown.
He has set his love. And he has set his affection
on his people before they ever existed. Whom he foreknew, it
says he predestined. I like Ephesians chapter 1, verse
11 on that one. in whom, that is, in Christ,
also we have obtained an inheritance. How do we come by this? Being
predestined according to the purpose of him who worketh all
things, and we can say who worketh all things in time in this sequence
of events, after the counsel of his own will that he has had
forever and eternity. That's what it is to predestine.
Not only did he set his affection on his people before they ever
came to be, but he predestined everything in our lives to bring
us right to where we needed to be. I like to think about that. The last time I went to Africa,
I had no intention but to continue on the foolish endeavor that
I was working on. I was going to be great. I know,
don't laugh. I was. I was trying to be great.
I wanted to be somebody. I had no intention of going for
any other reason. And yet I found myself in Africa,
where God ordained a series of events that led to my being confronted
with the gospel in such a way that it got me fired, sent me
home, and I wound up over on American Avenue. Now, I didn't
anticipate or plan for a single bit of that, but it's already
been so. Long before I ever lived it out,
it was already so in the eternal councils of God. That's predestination. He ordains all the events and
knows he foreknew and predestined. He called. Tom, you read that
one shortly. Go back to 2 Timothy chapter
1. Nestled right in the middle of that passage was this thing
of eternal calling. 2 Timothy 1.9. God who hath saved us. and called
us with a holy calling. And now he's going to describe
that calling. He says, first of all, it's not according to
our works. He didn't call us for anything
we did, but here's what it is about. It's a calling according
to his own purpose and grace. And when did that begin? Which
he gave, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. We were called before we were
called. We've always been called in God's presence. That's why
whom he called, he justified. And friend, I do believe in eternal
justification. I was justified before I was
ever born. Let's look at that in Romans
chapter 3. It works for us the same way
it worked for those before Christ. Romans chapter 3 verse 24. Being justified freely by his
grace. through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth a propitiation through
faith in his blood to declare his righteousness. Now, whose
righteousness is being declared? God's righteousness is being
declared because there was a question about it. In the minds of those
who don't understand eternal redemption, there was a question
about it. God set forth his Son, which declared his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past. He's talking about
all of those saints of God who preceded in time the coming of
Christ and the offering of the blood, the eternal blood of Christ,
the blood of the eternal Lamb. There was some question evidently
in some people's minds, what about them? Did God just let
it slide? Did He just let their sins go? Did He just say, well, you know,
I'll talk to Abraham, he's my friend, what can I say? No, it's
not like that. He presented Christ in time in
such a manner that it was very evident that all of those who
were saints before he came, as well as all of those who are
God's elect after he came, are saved by the same work of Christ
on the cross that God has always seen as an eternal now with him
in glory. I've heard teachers, my professors
in Bible college used to say, well, those Old Testament saints
were saved on credit. They know nothing about the fact
that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
You know what that literally means? That verse literally says
the Lamb having already been slain before the world ever was
started. Why is that? How is that? Was
it done twice? Was it done in eternity and then
done again on Golgotha? No, the same act on Golgotha
that we see as a point in a succession of events is the same eternal
now with God. It's the same act. But he just
sees it, not in our time bound way. Whom he foreknew, he predestined,
he called and justified, and finally he glorified. Obviously,
Colossians chapter three. Obviously, we are not there yet.
That is not our experience. And in chapter three, verses
one through four, it's evident that in God's perspective, it's
already done. Colossians 3 verse 1, if you
then be risen with Christ, if you perceive the life of Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right
hand of God. Not things down here, he says.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
Set your affection on things where it's eternal, not on things
where it's bound in time. For you died, and your life Everything
about my salvation, the parts I've lived through and the parts
I've not yet lived through, all of my life is hid with Christ
in God. And all I need to know is that
when Christ, our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with
him in glory. To us, we can say it's as good
as done. To God, he sees it as already. He is eternal. Now, let me share
with you, in closing, three eternal things that are precious to me.
First of all, Hebrews chapter nine, verses eleven and twelve,
speaks of eternal redemption. But Christ being come, a high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle. This was not done in that Tabernacle
of badger skins in the wilderness. This was not done in that temple
that Solomon built. This was built. This was done
in a tabernacle that you and I have not yet seen. By a greater
and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say,
not of this building, not of this world. Neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once
into that holy place. Now, you and I saw it. If we
had been there, we would have seen it as a dying man on a cross,
we would have seen it clearly as a succession of events that
occurred on a given day at a specific point in human history. God had
already seen that before, but on that day, on that particular
day, in the very courts of heaven, there was an offering made that
God had seen before and saw after. And that's not even saying it
right, because it's always just now to Him. The same act for
us in time that we see as a point that is past now. God sees us
right before His face. You know why God doesn't wipe
us off the face of this earth? It's because it's eternally now
with Him. He sees the blood of His Son
every day. What am I talking about every
day? It's eternal now with Him. It never changes. Christ is my
intercessor before God all the time. It never changes. Second,
not only is there eternal redemption, but there's eternal salvation.
Look over in Hebrews five. As he sayeth also in another
place. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,
who in the days of his flesh is talking about Christ. When
he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying
and tears unto him that was able to save him from death. And was
heard in that he feared he feared more not not doing what God had
ordained. Though he were a son. And this
I don't understand, I just know it so. Though he were the eternal
son of God. Perfect holy. The exact replica
of the father. Yet he learned. Christ is as
eternal as God the Father is. God the Father has never learned
anything. He's eternal. He never changed his mind. He
never worked out an idea. All of his ideas are so perfect
that they're eternal. And yet Christ, equal with God
on this day, learned obedience by the things which he suffered.
In terms of his that shows just to the extent how much Christ
actually became a part of time. He lived in time. His body changed
over time as he grew up. He experienced the changes in
the passage of time in terms of its time to eat. He was hungry
and tired at the well waiting for that Samaritan woman. He
knew what it was to have to wait for one thing to happen before
another one could. He lived in time. And in that
space that we live in called time, he humbled himself that
even though he had already for eternity with his father, before
he ever entered this world, this was a reality and yet he lived
that reality in time. Oh my, what a wonder. Though
he were an eternal son, yet he learned obedience by the things
which he suffered and being made perfect, he became the author
of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Our salvation
didn't start. Didn't start with the cross.
It didn't start when we heard the gospel. It didn't start when
I came to faith. It started. It never started. It's always been true with God.
Ours is an eternal salvation. And finally, the third eternal
thing I value highly is eternal life. In 1 John 5, 11 through
13, John writes so clearly about just what it is to have eternal
life. And this is the record. God hath
given to us eternal life. I'm sorry, verse 11. This is
the record. God hath given to us eternal
life. And this life is in or in union
with his son. That he who has the son has life. And he who has not the son of
God has not life. These things have I written unto
you, who believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may
know that you have, present tense, right now in this world, eternal
life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Let me ask you to look at one last reference that explains
this so well. Look in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 one last time. Ecclesiastes 3.11. Solomon is writing about God
in this verse. And he explains very clearly
what eternal life is. God has made everything beautiful. In his time, is that not so? As we live and. For many of us,
this year has not been a good year. Been a hard year. And as
we live through these hard times and we see dark days and we see
times when we just don't know how things are going to work
out. And yet I see things that I thought were going to go wrong
and all he has made every one of them beautiful in his time.
They'll all be that way for God's people. Oh, then you may be burned
at the stake for all I know, but it'll be made beautiful in
his time. God has made everything beautiful in his time. Also,
he has set the world In their heart. That word world is the
same Hebrew word we saw earlier down in verses 13 and 14 translated
forever. It's the word eternity. He has
set. Eternity in their hearts. Now,
how do they do that? What is that for God to set eternity
in someone's heart? Christ is the eternal son of
God. I don't know how to explain that,
except to say I do know this, that somehow His very being is
now one with mine. I have the mind of Christ, the
Bible says. I have a new heart, and it's the heart of Christ.
I have received a new spirit, it's the spirit of Christ. I
am one with Him, so much one with Him, that when He died,
I can say I died, because we are one. What He accomplished,
I accomplished in Him. And He says that He hath set
eternity in their heart, and that if the eternal one dwells
in me, I have eternity in my heart. I'm still so time bound
that I can't understand it. I can't separate myself from
successions of events and from changes over time and the passage
of time. I can't get my mind out of that
realm enough to really understand it. But you know what else is
true? I have no problem with eternity. I can't explain it,
can't fully understand it, but I just know it's got to be that
way. I know that what I'll do this evening and tomorrow and
the day after and ever how long God intends me to be on this
earth. He's already. He's already ordained. I'll be
living out God's mind. And yet he has done it in such
a way that I don't want to miss a single thing. He's already
ordained for me. And I pray every day, Lord, don't
let me make a wrong decision. Don't let me miss the things
that you've ordained. Not that I can, but I don't want
to. And we're all and God's people
are all diligent. We have eternity in our heart.
That's why we don't struggle with that. He says he has said
eternity in their heart. So that or without which is the
idea without which no man can find out the work that God makes
from the beginning to the end. You can't understand. Unless
you have an understanding of God's eternal redemption. Born
in the ages of eternity and worked out in time. If you don't understand
that. You cannot understand what God's doing in this world. Why
are there so many wars? Why are there so many bad things
happening? Why are things going downhill like they are? All according
to plan. For the glory of God and the
good of His people and the effective accomplishment of everything
that He has already done in eternity. If we don't have eternity in
our hearts, we will not receive Him who obtained eternal redemption
for His people. If we don't have eternal life
in Christ, as John wrote, we won't bow to the author of eternal
salvation. The gospel is a mystery for this
very reason. Our redemption is eternal. Any
gospel that can be defined merely as a sequence of events in time
that makes some kind of a change in a person's behavior has ceased
to be a mystery. I put in my nickel, I get salvation.
I decide to believe I'm good to go. There's no mystery in
that. That's because there's nothing
to it. It ceased to be a mystery because it's no longer eternal.
God is working out what he has always intended to work out and
what is already real in his sight. Oh, may we be humbled by that
and may we rest in these troublesome times. God's right on schedule. Everything's working out exactly
as he planned. For those of you who have those of us who have
lost. Their salvation is as secure
as God's election electing. Well, I don't know if he chose
him or not. You didn't know if he chose you
or not, either. He will accomplish all his purpose. Let's pray. Father, how we. Now we bow before
you in utter