Redemption Accomplished

Well, good evening. I'm particularly excited about our theme this year, this question of redemption, redemption accomplished and applied. Oftentimes people talk about when we heard earlier, Well, they're both are talking about the doctrines of grace, and we may not know that terminology. I remember the first time somebody said that to me, you know, they they again, Remember, I didn't. Grow up in church. I didn't grow up in a Christian home or around Christian people, even uh my mother was a practicing Buddhist. I never heard the Gospel till I was in university. So here I was. I I was a Christian and people are using these different terminologies. And somebody asked me about the doctrines of grace and and I think my response was which ones. I I had no idea that that was like a sp a specific thing. You know, I had to go and look it up. And maybe you're here and that's you. You know, you hear about the doctrines of grace, or you hear about Calvinism or Minionism and things like this, and it just flies right over your head. But this question of the accomplishment and application of redemption communicates to us, regardless of where we are because the question is this, did Jesus actually achieve redemption or did he merely make it possible? What did Jesus mean when he said to tell us, did it is finished? Paid in full? What did he mean? And for most of us, unless you come from a long line of reformed thinking doctrines of grace preaching people, most of us have been on the side of understanding what Christ did. Basically like this, Jesus came and lived a perfect life, and he died a sacrificial, substitutionary atoning death, and then he ascended to the right hand of the Father, crossed his fingers and hoped really hard that as many people as possible would say yes to what he did. That's what most of us believe, most of us when we start doing evangelism, that's how we do evangelism. God has done all he can do. Now it's up to you. Jesus tried his best, and now he's just waiting. There are many songs that we sing that just make it seem like the Lord is just They're just waiting and pleading and just saying, oh, plead, just somebody, won't somebody. That's the way that most of us were taught. But what we're talking about here this week is Jesus not doing his best and then leaving the rest to you and to me, But of redemption that has actually been accomplished and will definitely be applied. That when Jesus said it is finished, he meant it is finished. In other words, think about it this way. When you go off to the market, right, there's a couple of ways that you can go off to the market. You can go off to the market. Pull out all the money that you have in your pocket, putting your money down, and hope that people give you groceries. That's the way most people think about what Jesus did on the Cross. He put his money down, and then he just began to hope and hope and hope. I would say pray, but then that becomes even problematic because what's he praying? Huh? What is he praying? If Jesus just really tried to redeem sinners and then he has no power, he's in heaven, what is he in heaven praying? Oh my you, would you please? What is he praying? Is he praying? Father, would you please? It seems like if the father could, then the father would and he wouldn't have to, ah, what does he praying? But that's the way we think about it. He went to the store, he laid down his money, and he just hoped that some groceries would come or is Daddy gave him a list, and he went and purchased exactly what was on the list. And he is going to bring home everything on the list without fail. That is redemption accomplished and applied. And that's what we're here to talk about tonight. For some of us, is going to make us uncomfortable, because for some of us, no matter how long we've been around the doctrines of brinks, way down deep on the inside, in that place that you don't talk about around your Calvinist friends, you really believe in the sovereignty of man and that ultimately it's up to him. You really do in evangelism. You really believe that our job is to be as persuasive and manipulative as possible so that we can get the job done, not as clear as possible, so that the Gospel can get the job done. We have to force the will of man to move, because the will of man is the deciding factor. Because Jesus laid down all the money he had, and he's just hoping that some groceries come home at the end of the day. That is not the gospel. As offensive as it is to the autonomy of man, that is not the gospel. Redemption has been accomplished and will be applied. In order for us to see this, I want us to look in John chapter seventeen. In John chapter seventeen, the Lord's prayer. And I know what you're thinking, man, the Lord's prayer is not in John chapter seventeen. Actually, it is that prayer you're thinking about our father who are in heaven. That's the disciples prayer. Huh. They wanted to learn how to pray Jesus. Okay, when you pray, this is how you pray. In John chapter seventeen, he's not teaching us how to pray. He's praying, Amen. This is the Lord's prayer, his prayer to his Father, his high priestly prayer. And in this prayer we get the clearest picture of what is called the Covenant of redemption. The Covenant of redemption. Covenant of Redemption is unlike the other covenants that we talk about in scripture. For example, when we talk about the Adamic Covenant or the covenant of works. When we talk about the Noaic Covenant or the Mosaic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant. The dividict covenant. Right, we talk about these covenants, and we understand even the names of these covenants sort of point to the idea that it's a covenant between God and some one or some group of people. But the Covenant of Redemption is a covenant made within the Godhead in eternity. Pat This is a covenant that God made with God. And Jesus refers to this covenant here in John chapter seventeen. Let's just read the first paragraph here. We'll look at this whole chapter, but for the sake of time, we'll just read this first paragraph. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all who who you have given him. And this is eternal life that they know you the only true God. And Jesus Christ, whom you have sinn, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished having accomplished, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence, with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. You know what, God is perfect, and he doesn't lie. I am not God. I'm going to keep reading. I know, I said first paragraph. I can't stop reading this verse six. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you, for I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours, all mine are yours, or yours are mine. And I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you, Holy Father, Keep them in your name which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one. Of them has been lost, except the Son of Destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you in the scripture, I'm sorry. I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that. You take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world, and for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only. But also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me the glory that you have given me. I have given to them that they may be one, even as we are one. In them. I a them and you and me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved me, even as you sent me, and love them. Sorry, even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they, also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world, Oh Righteous Father. Even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be. In them and I in them. Amen. The Covenant of Redemption. This is, first of all, an eternal covenant between the Godhead and eternal covenant between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Now we cannot be afraid to talk about the Godhead, the Triune God, and oftentimes we are afraid to talk about the Triune God. Now we don't say that we're afraid to talk about the Triune God. We just say something to this effect. Ah, you know, the Trinity that doctrine is too high for us. In other words, I don't understand it. I don't want to explain it. I certainly don't want you to ask me questions about it. So just accept the fact that it is too high for us. It is too much for us. But if this doctrine is too much for us, then the doctrine of the Covenant of Redemption will be too much for us, because we have to understand the Triune God. In order to understand the Covenant of Redemption, we have to understand, for example, that the Father is God, and that he is not the Son, and he is not the Spirit. He loves the Son, and he loves the Spirit. The Son is God. The Son, however, is not the Father, and he is not the Spirit. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father and co eternal with the Father the Son, since fourth his Spirit, who by the way, is God, but not the Father and not the Son. He eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son, and is. Eternal God and. Very God of very God, all three persons, and yet all three the one true and Living God. Nor is this anything new, nor is this a doctrine. For example, of Westerners a doctrine that is somehow foreign to those in other parts of the world. Let me read for you, for example, an African creed. Don't look at me like that. It's the Athenationian creed. Athenasius, the African church Father. Hello, somebody. The Gospel was in Africa before it was in Europe. Not written by Athenasius, but attributed to him because of his great work on this particular issue, dealing with a particular heresy that is still around today. Whoever will be saved before all things, it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith. Now, when he says Catholic faith, he means universal faith. That Catholic word means universal. Don't be afraid which faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled without doubt. He shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in trinity and Trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory, equal the Majesty co eternal, such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated, The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet there are not three eternals, but one eternal. As also not three uncreated, nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible. So likewise, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty. And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. And yet they are not three gods but one God. So likewise, the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord. And yet not three lords but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic religion. Don't get scared. Universal the one true profession to say there be three gods or three lords. The Father is made by none, neither created nor forgotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made or created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. So there's one Father, not three fathers, one son not three sons, one spirit not three spirits. Isn't it interesting? Ah, the Trinity, we just received it by faith. We can't understand it. And yet that was only half of the ethnation creed, and every bit of this plucked right from scripture from what the God of the Bible says about himself. Was that too hard? Again? I am not saying that we have a full orbed comprehensive view and understanding of the triune God of the universe, will spend all of eternity and never exhaust that. But there's a difference between God being incomprehensible and us not being able to apprehend the truth that He says about himself clearly in his word. This doctrine is essential because without it we cannot understand the doctrine that we are addressing here tonight, this Covenant of Redemption, Because in the Covenant of Redemption, this one God who exists in three persons and has existed throughout all eternity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in perfect unity and perfect harmony and perfect love within the Godhead, the Father loving the Son and the Spirit, and the Son loving the Spirit and the Father and the Spirit being the very personification of the love between the Father and the Son, exists through all eternity in need of absolutely nothing because he's God. But this God, who needs nothing, determined to create the world out of the nothing that he needs, and he makes the world for his own glory. And in making the world, what God decides to do is to allow this love in the Godhead that is incomprehensible to spill over into his creation. And the Father, out of love for the Son, gives him a love gift of a people, and the Son, out of his love for the Father, dies to redeem the gift that the Father gave him an eternity past, and the Holy Spirit, who is the personification of the love between the Father and the Son, manifests that love through applying the redemption that the Son achieved so that he could receive the gift that the Father gave. So that any eternity a people can receive this incomprehensible love that for all eternity existed in the Godhead and will be expanded to. Include the redeemed. That is the covenant of redemption. It's all here. In our text, a triune salvation. The Father gave a people to the Son. Where do we get this from? Well, look at verse two, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. Look at verse six. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Look at verse eleven, and then again at verse twelve. You find there which you have given me. Look at verse twenty four. I desire that they, also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am. The Father gave a people to the Son. The son did not come just to somehow throw around the currency of his precious shed blood and hope that somebody would be redeemed. The Father, in eternity past gave him a people. And when he came, he came in order to redeem the people whom the Father had given him. This is the Covenant of redemption. By the way, this is good news, people, This is good news. It's also humbling news. Huh, it's humbling news because think about it. If Jesus just came and just threw out the possibility of redemption, shed his blood, and he's just hoping, then I come, guess what I just did. I just did him a favor. He was hoping, He was hoping. He had no way of knowing, and then I showed up. Oh, you just have no idea. I didn't think anybody was gonna give you. Huh, who do you think you are? When you came? Jesus wasn't there going just want just almost no when you came? He went another one. Yep about that one. Mm hm, yep about the one. He's not surprised. He is in control again, not only humbling, but encouraging, encouraging. Do you know what this means to the evangelist? Huh, our success is not dependent upon me, but upon God. Jesus has already purchased redemption for the people whom the Father gave him. Hey, listen, if that's somebody whom the Father gave to the son, the gospel is going to be effectual when it is preached. You can even come and not want to preach. And God saved people forty days. City's gonna be destroyed. Forty days. God's gonna kill all of you. Forty days, city's gonna be this. I don't even want to be here. I don't like you people. Forty days, city's gonna be destroyed. Then go sit up on the hill somewhere, cross your arms. Watch the people repent and come to faith. After you preach the gospel that you hoped they wouldn't respond to. Men, you get mad at God. Jonah while you're mad because I knew you were gonna do that. This is what happened with Jonah. Do you think Jonah was passionate and pleading and he said no, went into the belly of a fish trying to go in the other direction, ends up on the prow. Okay, what are you here for? Forty days? Man, that's all you got. Forty days is gonna wipe you out. Forty days. A beiggrudging gospel. And God saved Ninevah. Because, as I often say, God is not running for God. Huh. He was the only one around when the votes were cast. And there's never going to be a recount. He's God. And so we see our triune salvation, the Father giving to the son. The son then dies to redeem the people given to him by the Father, and the Spirit applies that redemption to those for whom the son dies. This is a God glorifying salvation. All the glory belongs to God. The Father glorifies the son in this process, and the son glorifies the Father. Look at first one other. The hour has come. Glorify your son, that the son may glorify you. Verse four. I glorified you on earth. How having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. What was that redeeming the people whom you gave me to redeem? This glorifies God. He doesn't share his glory in this way. Look at verse five. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence, with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. Notice this, this glory is not a glory that is foreign to God. In other words, Jesus doesn't come save us because there's a glory deficit in heaven. He says, glorify me by the way, with the same glory that I've always had throughout all eternity. This is just another manifestation of it to another corner of the earth. But it's not new glory. By definition, God cannot receive new glory because all glory already belongs to God. That's like when your children, you know, hey, you ever had one of your children do this. They're walking around and looking to see cushion, and they find some money, and they come to you and they give you it. Here, Daddy, here all thank you, Baby, it was yours already. It did not add to the money that you already had. Amen. That's what this is. God already owns all glory. He is just manifesting this glory in a new and different way. They're redeemed. Also glorify the Sun Verse ten. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. We bring glory to the Son in and through our redemption, not glory to ourselves, because our redemption is accomplished and applied by Jesus Christ. So the glory that my redemption brings is not to myself. I wasn't smarter than other people, are more spiritual than other people. Amen. I am here because the Father gave me to the Son. The Son redeemed me for the Father, and the Spirit applied that redemption to me. And when I come, it magnifies the glory of Christ, not the glory of me. Watch this, the Son shares his glory with the redeem verse twenty two. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one. We'll explain that more later. But all of this goes to glorify the God who saves his people. God did not leave this the chance. In Ephesians chapter two, verses four through seven, we get a glimpse at this. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Why so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us. In Christ Jesus, God displays, manifests, shows off the richest of his grace in the heavenly places. Through your redemption that is purchased by Christ and applied by the Spirit. It is to the glory God. Secondly, not only is this an eternal covenant within the Godhead, but it's also an eternal covenant between the Redeemer and his redeemed given to those who believed and those who would believe. Beleave Verse twenty. I do not ask for those for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word. This is the prerogative of God alone. Notice that he did not say for those who might believe, but for those who will believe, Because these are the ones to whom He's revealed himself. These are the ones to whom he's given the Gospel, And these are the ones whom he's going to give the great commission to go and preach the gospel. These are the ones who are going to preach the gospel that will bear fruit, fruit that will glorify God. And he knows this because this was not by chance. He can say this here before he even lays down his life and dies, because it's a foregone conclusion. For the God who created the world, he's a covenant that he makes with us, covenant that he makes with the people whom he redeems. This is good news, Saints. This is good news not only for those of us who are redeemed, Amen, but this is good news for those of us who are concerned about people who are not yet redeemed. God's not done yet. There are those whom he says will believe through us. God's not done yet. There are places where people have not yet heard the Gospel. The Gospel needs to go there, because God's not done yet. The glory of Christ has not been fully manifested. Yet. He does not yet have the fullness of the reward for which he died. So we are not done. When I finished. When I finished, there will be more. There will be more. And so we preach. This is given to those that they may be one with the Godhead. Look at verse twenty one, that they may be one with the Godheads. Go down verse twenty in and twenty one. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father are in me and I in you. So not only does it glorify God that we are united to Him through Christ, but it glorifies God, that we are united to one another through Christ again, that may may be one with the Godhead in verse twenty one. And we may be one to one another verse twenty two, And that we may be one with Christ in verse twenty three. Look at our union with Christ. I in them and they in me. And so we have this union and communion with Christ. But ultimately, what is all of this union and communion? I've alluded to it earlier, and I said I would explain it. Look with me beginning at verse twenty three, or beginning of verse twenty two. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them that and they may be one even as we are one. So there's that idea of being one. It's happened multiple times already through the text. I in them and you and me. He's explaining how this oneness occurs. We are in Christ, and Christ is in the Father. Well, where's the Holy Spirit? Remember I said this was triune, right, where's the Holy Spirit. He's the one who does the uniting. Huh. He's the one who does the uniting. And we're united to the Godhead. I am, and you ad me that they may become perfectly one. How do we become perfectly one? See, you and I are not perfectly one in the here and the now. We are one in Christ. Amen, But our oneness in Christ is not perfect. Sometimes our brothers and sisters do us wrong. Amen. Actually, it's probably more accurate to say sometimes our brothers and sisters do us right. You can't say amen, you want to. Say ouch right. Our unity is not a perfect unity. However, the unity between the Father and the Son and the Spirit is perfect. So if we are brought into that unity, then our unity becomes perfect because it's their unity. Now, it's already been achieved and accomplished, but it's going to be realized in the age to come. So when we have opportunities like this, we get a foretaste of that perfect unity that is yet to come. However, we know that it's yet to come. Number one because we've been told about it. And number two because we've been united to the god Head, where perfect unity exists. And we will not go to be with God for eternity and mess up God's eternal perfect unity. Amen. Let's continue so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Now, all of a sudden, there's another dimension here. Remember what I said. The Father loves the son and gave a love gift. The son loves the Father and redeems. The love gift. The Spirit not only loves the Father and the son, but he's the personification of the love between the Father and the Son. Now, all of a sudden, this love that is and always has been perfect throughout all eternity has spilled over and expanded to the Redeemed, so that not only do you and I get saved from our sin, but we get pulled into the only perfect love that there has ever been. Listen to me, Saints, listen to me. It is not only true that God loves you, believer, but God loves you with a perfect love. It is not only true that God loves you and that God loves you with a perfect love. It is true that God loves you with a perfect love, which is the very same love that the Father, Son and Spirit have shared perfectly. Throughout all eternity. Hear me, God could not love you more. Somebody needs to believe that tonight. God could not love you more. Ah, Pastor, but you don't understand what I've done. But the one who died to redeem you does and he died not only to redeem you, but so that you might be in Him as he is in the Father, so that the perfect love that the Father has for him would be the perfect love that the Father has for you. God could not love you more. The only way for God to love you more is for the love that the Father's Son and the Spirit have had for all eternity to somehow have been imperfect and need improvement. If you say that I'm wrong, then you're saying that God's love in eternity past was imperfect. Well, no passion, I don't want to say that. But still you don't know what I I don't have to know what you've done. Your redemption has been accomplished. Not only has it been accomplished, it's been accomplished by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, loved by the Father perfectly before the world began. That was the price that was paid to redeem you. God could not love you, Lord. And in case you didn't get it, Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world, Oh Righteous Father. Even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known. Amen, I made known to them. I will continue to make it known. I will continue to make it known. He's not through with you, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them. What love, that perfect eternal love of the Godhead. That's the love that redeemed you. That's the love that keeps you. That's the love that will see you all the way through. That's the love in which you will commune with God throughout all eternity. That's the love that will wash over you when the sun shines no more. That's the love. That's the love. There is no greater love. And that is the love. The love that the Father has always had for the Son is the love that he has for you. The love that the Son has always had for the Father is the love that he has for you. The love that is personified in the person of the Holy Spirit. That is the love that God has for you. God could not love you more. And That is why you can rest in. The fact that your redemption has been accomplished and replied to tell us, did it is finished? Hear me? You who came here tonight because you've got a checklist of things that you feel like you need to do for God to love You. Understand the covenant of redemption that is not the love of God. Understand the love that the Father has for the son, the love that the son has for the Father. Understand the love the spirit of God. Understand that when that's your attitude, you're coming to God with nickels and dimes in gway that you've picked up from off the floor that was already here saying here, here, here's more for you. No, it's not. No, it's not. If your redemption was contingent upon you earning it, there would be none of us redeemed. Yeah, yeah, pastor birth. Well you know what about holiness? What about sanctification? Amen? All of that flows from the redemption that is accomplished and applied. So yes, you'll get that too. You are able to walk in that holiness without which no man will see God because of your redemption that is accomplished and applied. So ask yourself this. Are you walking in the reality of your redemption that is accomplished and applied, or are you living your life in hopes that you can finish what Jesus started. One of those has you constantly amazed and overwhelmed at the love of God as you pursue righteousness. The other one has. You constantly afraid and in doubt as you try to be righteous in your flesh. Has your redemption been accomplished and applied, or are you seeking a redemption that is no redemption at all? Beloved, flee to Christ. Run from self reliance, run from the lie that has you trying to achieve a love that is less than the love. That God has for his. And run into the everlasting arms of the one who paid it all. Jesus paid it all all to him. I oh Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white a snow. Let's pray, Father, as we bow, we bow in humility and gratitude and thanksgiving. We are humbled by your amazing love, by the love, the perfect love of the Godhead that has redeemed us. And we are grateful for that love, thankful for that love. May our lives continue to pour out in that gratitude and thanksgiving, And may we never. Cease to praise the God. Who has redeemed us, the Father who gave us to his son, the son who accomplished our redemption because of his love for the Father and the Spirit, who applies that redemption to all. For whom the Son has died. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. A man