GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH of DANVILLE
August 22, 2010

We should never be too quick or dogmatic in asserting what a believer will not do or what doctrinal error he cannot embrace. David committed adultery and murder to cover it. Solomon worshipped idols to pacify his wives. Peter denied the Lord Jesus and forsook him. The disciples on the Emmaus Road thought the Redeemer had failed. Paul took a legal Jewish vow. He and Barnabas had a dispute over John Mark that was never mended while they lived on earth. God’s saints today are no greater or stronger than those remarkable men, — not even you or me!

See, My Soul, Salvation Flowing — Don Fortner
(Tune: #145 — Hail! Thou Once Despised Jesus! — 87.87.87)

1. See, my soul, salvation flowing from Jehovah’s cov’nant love;
Pardon, peace and life bestowing, in abundance from above.
Guilty sinners, guilty sinners, here His promis’d mercies prove.

2. Jesus Christ has undertaken to redeem the chosen race;
And His love could not be shaken, when He suffer’d in our place!
He is faithful, He is faithful to the objects of His grace.

3. While we celebrate His dying, we rejoice to know He lives! —
Lives to hear poor sinners crying for the grace He freely gives!
His atonement, His atonement every ransomed soul revives!

4. His rich blood the Spirit sprinkles on the sin-polluted soul,
Leaving neither spot nor wrinkle; making wretched sinners whole!
Jesus suffer’d, Jesus suffer’d; and His suff’rings make us whole!

5. He’s no more a victim bleeding, but exalted on His throne;
Ever living, interceding, waiting to receive His own.
All He ransomed, All He ransomed, shall be jewels in his crown!

“Plenteous Redemption”
Psalm 130:7

The only hope for fallen, sinful men is redemption, a redemption which includes atonement for sin, satisfaction for justice and effectual deliverance from the guilt, power, dominion and consequences of sin. Such redemption could be accomplished by only one Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Savior. Not only could he alone do it, he has done it; and he has done it alone. He declares, — “I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me” (Isaiah 63:5).

Most Important

Redemption by the precious blood of Christ is the most important of all gospel truths. In our day men more quickly attack the doctrine of the cross than any other. They more vehemently deny the glorious efficacy of Christ’s sin-atoning blood than any other doctrine. Multitudes who sing the words of Cowper’s hymn…

“Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
‘Til all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more…”

Assert, with absolute dogmatism, that there is no real saving power and efficacy in Christ’s blood; for they declare that multitudes are in hell today for whom Christ died. Thus demonstrating that they know nothing of that Savior revealed in Holy Scripture of whom the hymn was written.

Because the doctrine of redemption by the precious blood of Christ is so very important, I urge you study the Scriptures for yourself, comparing scripture with scripture, asking God the Holy Spirit to give you a clear understanding in the teachings of Holy Scripture about redemption.

Old Testament Pictures

The Holy Spirit declares in Hebrews 10:1, — “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” According to those words of inspiration, the law in the Old Testament Scriptures had a shadow of good things to come. That is to say, God, in the Old Testament, under the types and shadows of the law, gave many pictures and prophecies of what he would do for and give to his people through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Obvious Facts

The sacrifices offered to God in the Old Testament could never take away one sin. However, the law did have many instructive pictures, types and shadows of our redemption by the precious blood of Christ. In each of those types, pictures and prophecies setting forth the redemptive work of Christ several things are obvious. Here are three very obvious facts revealed in the Word of God about our redemption by Christ. These three revealed facts teach us much about the subject.

1. The redemption portrayed and promised in the Old Testament was revealed only to a chosen people. Only the nation of Israel had the passover sacrifice and the promise of a redeemer, because only the Israel of God, God’s elect, are the people for whom Christ the true Passover was sacrificed.

2. The redemption sacrifice was made by the command of God, offered to God and accepted by God for a specifically chosen people, named by God himself. Even so, our Lord Jesus Christ died for those people given to him by the Father in the covenant of grace before the world began. He said, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” The good Shepherd died for his sheep, not for the goats of the world.

3. The redemption portrayed the effectual deliverance of all those for whom it was accomplished. Every soul for whom the passover lamb was slain walked out of Egypt by the power of God. Even so, every sinner for whom the Son of God made atonement by his substitutionary death at Calvary shall be delivered from the curse of God’s holy law and saved from sin, death and hell by the merit and power of his precious blood. Not one of those for whom Christ died under the wrath of God shall perish in hell. They all must and shall be saved because Christ, the Son of God, died to save them; and “he shall not fail!”

Stick with the King James Version

I am often asked, “Which translation of the Bible do you recommend?” My response is always the same, “Stick with the King James Version. God has given us his Word in our language; and you will not find a better English translation than the King James.”

Isn’t it strange that people are always seeking a “more readable,” “more understandable,” “more modern” translation of the Bible? I have no idea how many translations have been published in the last forty years, each claiming to be an “improvement.” Yet, not one has been easier to read, more understandable, or offered an improvement.

The problem is not that people do not understand the language of the Bible. The problem is that they do; and they don’t like it. So preachers and religious leaders have done their best to come up with a translation of the Bible that makes God look weak and man look good, a translation that makes redemption accomplished look like redemption attempted, and makes God’s operations of grace appear to be God’s offers of grace. Sinners do not need a new translation. They need the new birth.