power depends entirely on the reconciling blood. According to this text,
in order that He might redeem and purify, He first gave Himself for us;
or, in other words, in order that He might deliver, He first made
satisfaction for sin by bearing its burden Himself. We may, therefore,
be perfectly sure of this, that we shall never know His power as a
deliverer unless we first know the power of His atonement. Not one
amongst us could ever have been delivered if the curse of God had not
first been removed, and that curse of God could never have been removed
except by the fact that the Son of God became a curse for us. Till that
was done there was no hope of deliverance, and till that is applied or
appropriated there is no hope of personal holiness. Before the special,
or peculiar, people could be purified unto Himself, they must be set free
from the curse, and redeemed through the power of His blood. Not one of
that people has the curse of God still resting on his soul, for so long
as the curse remains it is perfectly impossible that any one of us should
be one of the people. While, therefore, you trust in a Saviour living to
deliver, be sure you keep well in view that same Saviour having died to
atone. His life will be nothing to you unless you first know His death.
You will never experience the power of His work in you until you realise
His most gracious work completed for you on the cross. That blotting out
of sin through the precious blood of the Lamb must lie at the foundation
of all true holiness. It is the rock on which we stand, and unless there
be a sure standing ground there is not the slightest hope of progress.
If, therefore, you wish to press onward, and earnestly desire to be heart
and soul holy to the Lord, and I am sure I am speaking to many that do,
be sure you keep close to the great old foundation truths. Trust your
living Lord as your living Deliverer. Accept His promises of the Holy
Spirit’s power in all their fulness and throw yourself on Him for their
complete fulfilment; but while you do so remember that the one power
which in the purpose of God could remove the curse was the atoning blood,
and the one hope of your being partaker of the deliverance rests
altogether on the one fact that the great God our Saviour in boundless
mercy gave Himself for you.
XIII. RESTORATION.
‘And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift
up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.’—LUKE, xxi. 28.
IT is perfectly clear that the redemption alluded to in these words is
something still future. It is the bright hope which is to cheer the
little flock through the storms of the latter days. When the world is
full of perplexity, and men’s hearts are failing them for fear, the
Lord’s people are to look up in calm, happy, peaceful, trusting hope in
the full assurance of their approaching redemption. ‘When these things
begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your
redemption draweth nigh.’ It is perfectly clear, therefore, that our
Lord was not speaking of the great redeeming act which took place
eighteen hundred years ago on Calvary, but of the final deliverance, the
completion of His redeeming work, when He will come in His kingdom and
set His people free. This final deliverance must be our subject in this
lecture. May the Lord bless it to our souls, and grant that, when the
time comes, we may be amongst those who rejoice in the blessing!
* * * * *
I. The redemption here spoken of is the deliverance of Jerusalem. We
must not isolate the passage from its context, or forget that the words
were spoken to Jewish believers. Thus up to the end of the 24th verse
our Lord foretold the destruction of Jerusalem with the terrible
afflictions that were to precede it, concluding with the words,
‘Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled.’ Then follows the description of the latter days,
and all the perils preceding the advent, concluding with the words, ‘Look
up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.’ Surely,
then, there is a connexion between the 24th and 28th verses. The one
describes the desolation, and the other the recovery: the one the
bondage, the other the freedom; the one the captivity, the other the
deliverance; the one the iron yoke on the neck of the captive, and the
other the glorious restoration when the Deliverer shall appear in Zion.
* * * * *
II. But though the passage refers to the restoration of Jerusalem, it
clearly does not stop there, but includes the redemption or deliverance
of the Church. When I speak of the Church I am not speaking of those who
have nothing more than outward Christianity: but of the Church of the
first-born, that Church described in the words, Eph. v. 25, ‘Christ also
loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.’ This Church is
described in Eph. i. 14, as His ‘purchased possession,’ and all the
members of it are now His own. They are His own by virtue of the ransom
of the eternal covenant, and it is therefore called, Acts, xx. 28, ‘The
Church of God which he purchased with his own blood.’ And they are His
own by the call of the Holy Ghost, gathering them out from a wicked
world, and by His divine power incorporating them into Christ. Thus in
one sense they have been redeemed already, for the ransom has been given
for their life, and they have found forgiveness through His precious
blood. They may say, every one of them, as St. Paul did in the 7th verse
of that same chapter in the Ephesians, ‘In whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.’ But yet, according to the
13th verse, they are still waiting for redemption, and during the waiting
time are solemnly sealed unto God, and assured of what is to come by the
present earnest of the Spirit. ‘In whom also, after that ye believed, ye
were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise;’ and so, in chap. iv. 30,
they are told not to grieve the Holy Spirit, by whom they are ‘sealed
unto the day of redemption.’ There is, therefore, hereafter to be a
redemption of the purchased possession, a redemption of that which has
already been redeemed, or, in other words, a final deliverance of the
ransomed Church. The ransom is paid, but the time is not yet come for
the ransomed Bride to be finally free, and presented to her Lord in
glory.
It is delightful to look forward to this coming restoration when we think
of the present position of the Church of God surrounded as it is by a
wicked world outside, and, what is far more painful, harassed by
division, false doctrine, inconsistency, and formalism within. I am not
surprised that St. Paul compares this present waiting time to the night,
for there is a great deal all around us exceedingly dark, but we must
never forget the approaching morning. We may be greatly distressed by
witnessing such defects and difficulties as we do witness in the Church
of Christ, but according to this passage we need not be disheartened, for
our redemption draweth nigh. The Deliverer will soon come to Zion, and
there will be no difficulties then. The Redeemer Himself will soon set
all things straight. There will be complete light when the Sun of
Righteousness arises with healing in His wings. We are not, therefore,
going to be downcast by difficulties, or to doubt His truth because we
see His prophecies fulfilled; but, whatever happens, whether persecution
from without, or false teaching within, we will remember His own most
assuring words, and act on them, ‘When these things begin to come to
pass, then look up and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth
nigh.’
* * * * *
III. It will be a redemption of the body. I need not stop to prove that
the body is not yet free from the bondage of the curse. Though the soul
is free in Christ Jesus the poor body is still subject as much as ever to
the strong hand of death. So we read, Rom. viii. 10, ‘If Christ be in
you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of
righteousness.’ So that, even when Christ is in us, and the Spirit is
life, the body still remains dead, subject to death, and actually dying
as we all well know. The brightest and holiest living believers are not
exempt from the trials of a death-stricken body.
But if this is the case with the living Church, how much more is it with
the vast multitude of those who are now asleep in Jesus! Think of the
noble line of the saints of God who were once, as we are, serving God on
earth in the flesh, but who are now in the condition, to us quite
inexplicable, of disembodied spirits, with the soul resting before God
while the poor body in utter weakness lies prostrate in the grave. I
cannot imagine a more marvellous contrast than that which now exists
between the present condition of the two parts of man while awaiting the
resurrection of the dead. It is impossible to imagine any thing more
utter, more complete, more hopeless, than the bondage and subjection of
the body; or more blessed, more peaceful, more joyous, than the present
rest of the soul in the presence of the Lord Himself. But when the
redemption takes place, as predicted in this verse, the body itself will
be set free. You will see this in a moment if you connect two verses in
Rom. viii. From ver. 10 we have already found that, even when the Spirit
is life because of righteousness, the body is still dead because of sin;
and the result is, as you read ver. 23, that even those who have the
first-fruits of the Spirit groan within themselves. They share in
respect of death the groaning of a death-stricken world. But in the
midst of it all they can rise above it in triumphant hope, for they are
waiting, and looking out for deliverance, as you read in the latter part
of that verse, ‘Waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the
body.’ The body therefore shall be redeemed and rise again. They that
are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; and the
very sea shall give up the dead that are in it. I know that men say it
is impossible, and I know that there are difficulties connected with the
subject which to the eye of man appear to prove its impossibility; but
there is no such thing as impossibility with God. He who created can
restore. He who said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light, He can
say ‘Let there be life,’ and there will be life. So that, although to us
death is quite irresistible; though no wealth can ward it off, and no
physician’s skill can baffle it; and although, when once it has taken
place, all human hope is gone for ever; yet, when the Redeemer comes to
Zion, death itself will be powerless: those dear ones who now sleep in
the grave will come forth in risen bodies at the bidding of their blessed
Saviour; and He, the gentle, and loving, and tender Lord Jesus, will
fulfil His grand prophecy as given by the prophet Hosea (xiii. 14), ‘I
will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from
death. O death, I will be thy plagues! O grave, I will be thy
destruction; repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.’
* * * * *
IV. There will be a redemption of the soul, _i.e._ a completion of that
sacred work now being carried on in the soul through the power of the
Holy Ghost. There is clearly a wide difference between the sacred work
of deliverance as carried on in the body and the soul; for the
deliverance of the body is not yet begun, but will be accomplished in one
sudden act when the Lord shall appear. But it is not so with the soul;
for in it the deliverance has been long since begun, and is day by day
being carried out by the power of the Holy Ghost. Our blessed Lord has
already delivered us, if we be in Him, both from the curse and dominion
of sin: from the curse, for ‘we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins;’ and from the dominion, for ‘sin shall not have
dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace.’ Rom.
vi. 14. If, therefore, we are in Christ Jesus, and under grace, our soul
is delivered from the dominion of sin, though our body is not yet
delivered from the dominion of death. You may ask, then, how it is that
the soul still wants deliverance? Look at the 12th verse of the sixth of
Romans, only two verses before the one just quoted, and you read, ‘Let
not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, that ye should fulfil it
in the lusts thereof.’ It is, therefore, there, though it must not
reign. It has life in it, and it is prepared to reign, but it must be
put down. It has its lusts and desires, but they must be mortified, and
not fulfilled. The power of sin is not extinct or quiescent, but in full
vigour still. The old original corruption is not destroyed, but remains
in full activity. The grace of God triumphs over it, but it is there;
and there, not in a state of death, but of life and vigour. If you think
you have done with sin you will find it will soon crop up, if in no other
form, in pride of heart, and blindness to its power. We can therefore
perfectly understand the complete harmony of the two verses in Rom. vii.,
that are sometimes thought contradictory: verse 6, in which he says, ‘Now
we are delivered from the law,’ and verse 24, ‘Who shall deliver me from
the body of this death?’ From the law, as involving the curse, we are
already free; from the infection of a ruined nature we are still waiting
to be delivered. And think for a moment what a deliverance that will be.
Ye that have been deeply humbled at the discovery of your own utter
unworthiness, ye that would describe yourselves as St. Paul did as ‘the
chief of sinners,’ and ‘less than the least of all saints,’ think what it
would be to be set at once absolutely free from indwelling sin. Picture
to yourselves the day of His coming. Think of yourself on your knees in
the morning, confessing sin, and praying for pardon and for help, for
mercy and for grace. And then think of yourself at night, having in the
course of the day beheld Christ as He is, and having been so transformed
by the sight that you have become altogether like Him, without a single
temptation or difficulty left, and with every stain and tendency to sin
rooted out, and gone for ever. But this is what we are led to expect in
these words of St. John: ‘Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it
doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall
appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’ No wonder,
then, that with such a hope in view our Lord directs us, even in the
midst of the fears and perplexities of the latter days, to look up, and
lift up our head, for our redemption draweth nigh.
But one thing we must remember. We shall never rejoice in the redemption
or deliverance that is to come, till we can rest in the redemption or
atonement that is complete. There are many amongst us, I sadly fear, who
find no pleasure in the thought of the Lord’s return, and in many cases
there can be no doubt about the reason. They have found no peace through
His cross. I believe that no one ever cares for the Lord Jesus Christ as
a Deliverer from either death or sin till He knows Him as the Redeemer
from the curse. No man can look up and lift up his head if he expects to
rise again to the resurrection of damnation, and to be cast forth for
ever with all the guilt of all His sin on his miserable head. Therefore
it is that, till you know the atonement by blood, you will never care for
the deliverance by power. Till you know the sufficiency of the ransom
you are sure to dread the coming of the Deliverer, as, I fear, too many
do. Look backwards, then, as well as forwards, I most earnestly entreat
you. Accept the assurance of the coming deliverance in all its fulness.
Accept it in all its joy. Rejoice in the blessed hope. But take care;
and while you look forward in the hope that your redemption draweth nigh,
remember also to look back on that finished atonement, and never rest
till you can appropriate these words to the Ephesians, ‘In whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.’
One word before we close respecting the sacred feast of the Lord’s
supper, in which it is our sacred privilege as believers to gather round
the table of our Lord. It is a connecting link between the two parts of
redemption, the atonement and the deliverance, the cross and the advent.
In it we look backwards and forwards, as we are taught 1 Cor. xi. 26:
backwards, for we show the Lord’s death; and forwards, for we do so ‘till
He come.’ When He does so, we shall sit down with Him at the marriage
supper of the Lamb, and our symbolic service will cease in the
realisation of the fulness of His blessing. Oh! how I pity those who are
moved neither by memory or hope, by the recollection of what He has done,
or the hope of what He is about to do; who never show the Lord’s death
according to His own appointment, and never act as if they were waiting
for His coming!
XIV. HEAVEN.
‘And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book,
and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people,
and nation.’—REV. v. 9.
IN the preceding lectures it has been my privilege to direct attention to
the important subject of redemption, and I think we cannot do better in
closing the series than examine in this lecture what they think of it in
heaven. They know there more than we do here, for they have passed
within the veil, and they know by experience those great and most blessed
results which we can only anticipate in faith. In their case sight has
taken the place of hope, and through redeeming grace they are in actual
enjoyment of the visible presence of God. Of course, therefore, they are
better able than we can be to form a just estimate of what the Lord Jesus
has done for their salvation. Let us then devote this morning to the
study of what they think of redeeming love.
We all know very well what a natural craving there is to look in beyond
the veil, and to see what is passing amongst those who have already
entered. What would we give for one half-hour’s intercourse, or for even
a telescopic view of that happy assembly now gathered before the throne?
What would it be to us if for one short minute we could see the heavens
opened? But something of this kind was permitted to St. John, as we
read, chap. iv. 1, ‘A door was opened in heaven,’ and a voice said, ‘Come
up hither.’ Immediately he was in the Spirit, and having entered he saw
some of those very things which we long to see, but which no other living
man has ever been able to see, and to report. St. Paul may have seen
them when he was caught up to the third heaven, but if he did, he was not
permitted to tell us what he saw. But St. John was expressly employed to
do so. He was distinctly commanded to write the things which he had
seen, and this book is the result.
What, then, did he see? He saw in the first place a throne, and on the
throne one sitting. Round about the throne were twenty-four seats, and
‘upon the seats four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment;
and they had on their heads crowns of gold.’ But besides the elders
there was a marvellous manifestation of spiritual life, inexplicable to
us who have no experience of the life of a spirit without the body: for
in chap. iv. 6, we read, that ‘in the midst of the throne,’ and round
about the throne, were four living ones. These living ones were clearly
in the most intimate relationship with the throne and with Him who sat on
it. They were as near to it and to Him as was possible, for they were in
the midst of it, and round about it, while in an outer circle stood a
vast host of angels. From chap. v. 11, we see clearly that these angels
were in an outer circle, not so near the throne as the living ones, for
there we read: ‘I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round
about the throne, and the living ones, and the elders, and the number of
them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.’
In this description the only real difficulty is with reference to the
elders and living ones, for we are not distinctly informed who they were.
According to the reading of ver. 9 and ver. 10, as given us in our dear
old English Bible, it appears perfectly plain that together they formed
the company of those whose ransomed souls are now resting before the
throne, for they said in their hymn, ‘Thou hast redeemed _us_ by thy
blood . . . And hast made _us_ unto our God kings and priests.’ But
there seems to be a doubt about that ‘_us_,’ and, therefore, we must not
rely too much on it. But on the whole there is reason to believe that
the vast multitude of happy spirits now before God awaiting the
resurrection, are represented by this inner circle of elders and living
ones already brought as near as possible to the throne, and surrounded by
the vast company of angels, who, having been sent forth to minister unto
them during their pilgrimage, can rejoice without jealousy in their
blessedness, even though they are placed in a position of greater honour
than themselves.
But our business in this lecture is not to discuss the persons seen in
heaven, but rather to examine what they think of redemption, to learn how
far their account of it agrees with our own, and to find in what
estimation they hold the redeeming work.
* * * * *
I. Their account, or description of it. Does the account which they
give in their hymn agree with the account which we have gathered from the
rest of Scripture? I think it does exactly, and I would ask you to
notice four points.
(1.) They speak of redemption as a deliverance. We have found
throughout the Word of God that to redeem is not merely to make
atonement, but to deliver by means of a ransom. In all the passages that
we have examined it has included the idea of actual deliverance. It has
never been applied to the act of propitiation alone. Now turn to this
hymn of the elders and living ones before the throne, and there you see
precisely the same idea: ‘Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out
of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.’ There was an act
of outgathering and ingathering. They were gathered out as a separate
people from all nations of the earth, and gathered in to be a peculiar
people unto God. The passage reminds us of those words in John, xi. 52,
which teach us that the great object of the death of the Lord Jesus was,
‘that he should gather together in one the children of God that were
scattered abroad.’ So this heavenly hymn describes them as being thus
gathered in one before the throne.
(2.) It is a redemption through the most precious blood of the Lamb.
The deliverance, or the gathering, is not simply an exercise of power,
but is the result of atonement by blood. It is not merely the act of the
Holy Ghost calling the sinner, but the act of God making atonement, or
giving Christ to die for him. Before one soul could be drawn out from
the ruin of the world, and gathered in to God, the barrier of the curse
must be taken out of the way, and the law satisfied by its complete
fulfilment in the Person of our Redeeming Head. Till the ransom was paid
not one soul could be set free, and therefore the hymn says, ‘Thou hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood.’
(3.) They are raised to a position far above a mere pardon. We learned
when we studied the case of Ruth that the redeemed are not merely
delivered from ruin, but brought to a position of the highest possible
honour, for the ransomed Church becomes the Bride of the Redeemer, and is
identified with Christ Himself. So here you observe that the redeemed
are not merely forgiven, but they are raised to new honours, new powers,
new service, and new glory. ‘Thou hast made us unto our God kings and
priests, and we shall reign on the earth.’ I have not time to dwell on
the sacred blessedness of that royal priesthood. It combines the honours
of the king and the service of the priest. It is a kind of reflection of
the double office of the Lord Himself, of whom it is said, ‘He shall sit
and rule upon his throne, and shall be a priest upon his throne.’ The
redeemed are made kings under Him to govern, and priests in Him, and
through Him, to present a holy service unto God. Do not be satisfied,
therefore, to let your mind dwell exclusively on the first elementary
subject of forgiveness. I know the importance of it, and know well that
there can be no such thing as peace until you can trust for a pardon.
But I am speaking to those who can trust for forgiveness, who have
learned the power of redeeming blood, and who are now resting in the
assurance of the blotting out of sin. To them I say, Go forward, and
accept your new position, acknowledge your high calling, carry out your
royal priesthood, and never forget that you are anointed, and set apart
as kings and priests unto God.
(4.) This leads me to the fourth point, that we are redeemed unto God.