THOUGHT OF BEING ABLE TO FELLOWSHIP WITH YOU AND WITH EACH OTHER IN YOUR WORD. SO WE PRAY THAT YOU WOULD BLESS US WITH YOUR PRESENCE AND WITH ENLIGHTENMENT CONCERNING WHAT IT MEANS FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. AMEN. ALRIGHT, LET'S TURN TO ISAIAH 35, AND I'M GOING TO READ ISAIAH 35 AND DO MY DEAD LEVEL BEST TO GET THROUGH IT THIS EVENING SO WE CAN START ON CHAPTERS 36 THROUGH 39, BUT WE MAY NOT. THE WILDERNESS AND THE DESERT WILL BE GLAD, AND THE ARABAH WILL REJOICE AND BLOSSOM LIKE THE It will blossom profusely and rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Encourage the exhausted and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance. The recompense of God will come, but he will save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the Ereba, and the scorched land will become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water. In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, grass becomes reeds and rushes, and a highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the highway of holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way, and fools will not wander on it. No lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go up on it. These will not be found there, but the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion. with everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." Now, this is a magnificent passage of Scripture, as we've seen now for several weeks, in contrast to the gloomy chapter of Judgment in Isaiah 34. And let's just review a little bit. In verses 1 and 2, you see this tremendous figure of the desert blossoming as a rose. DESCRIBING THE EFFECTS OF THE REIGN OF CHRIST UPON THIS WHOLE PLANET IN WHICH WE LIVE. THAT CHRIST CAME NOT JUST TO SAVE THE SOULS OF A FEW INDIVIDUALS HERE AND THERE, BUT HE CAME TO TRANSFORM LIFE ON THIS PLANET. BY THE WAY, 429 IS WHERE WE'RE GOING TO PROBABLY GET STARTED. AND SO, THIS WORLD IS VIEWED AS A DESERT, DRIED AND PARCHED BY HUMAN SIN AND REBELLION, BUT IT'S ALSO IN THE MIDST OF TRANSFORMATION. because ever since Jesus came 2,000 years ago, He's been in the process of redeeming this entire creation. And so in verses 3 and 4, after having drawn this wonderful picture of the transformation of the earth into a luxurious garden, bursting with life and bursting with joy, you have Isaiah's word of exhortation to the feeble-hearted, to those who are scared, to those who are weary, exhausted, about to give up. He encourages them by telling them to stand fast, don't fear because God is coming with vengeance and He will save you. And that the fact that God is coming to destroy His enemies and ours is not something to be sad about because it's our salvation. God saves us by destroying sin and death and Satan and all those others that would oppress us and seek to drag us away from Him. AND SO THE COMING OF GOD IS OUR SALVATION. AND YOU REMEMBER WE SPENT PROBABLY A WHOLE EVENING TALKING ABOUT THE MEANING OF SALVATION. THE WORD SALVATION IN HEBREW COMES FROM A WORD THAT MEANS TO MAKE ROOM, TO BROADEN AS OVER AGAINST TO LIVE IN THE RESTRICTION OF BONDAGE. YOU HAVE MORE ROOM TO MOVE ABOUT BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN DELIVERED FROM THAT WHICH RESTRICTS YOU BY VICTORY OVER YOUR ENEMIES. SO THE WORD SALVATION MEANS Victory, it means deliverance, it means the restoration of peace that comes after deliverance. It's a great big word that means a lot more than personal salvation from sin. It's a comprehensive word that not only means deliverance from everything that would keep us unhealthy, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, but it means the restoration of total health that comes with the destruction of the enemy. And you see in that very word the whole message of the gospel. Then, beginning with verses 5 and 6, you see the evidences of the restoration that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to bring. What happens? Now, obviously, from Isaiah's vantage point, it's in the future, but from our vantage point, it's in the past. From Isaiah's vantage point, what will happen when the Messiah comes? When the glory of God is revealed in the coming of the Messiah and this great transformation begins, how will you know it's here? How will you know the Messiah is here restoring things? And the answer in verse 5 and 6 is, Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy. Now here is the evidence, here's the proof, here's what's going to happen when the Messiah comes upon the scene. Blind people are going to be able to see, deaf people are going to be able to hear, crippled people are going to be able to leap and jump like a deer, and people who are dumb, incapable of speaking will be able to shout for joy. That you're going to see not only the transformation of life at large, but you're going to see the restoration of individual life to normalcy. And all those things that make us abnormal because of sin, spiritual blindness and the like are going to be healed when the Messiah comes. Now, it's important to keep that in mind. Keep your finger there and turn to Luke 7 and see how Jesus uses Isaiah 35 in answering John the Baptist's question. Now, at this point in time, John the Baptist is in prison. AND HE IS ABOUT TO FACE EXECUTION, REMEMBER, BECAUSE HE JUMPS ON HEROD FOR COMMITTING INCEST. BUT NOW I WANT YOU TO NOTICE THE SITUATION. TURN TO LUKE 7, AND LET'S START READING WITH VERSE 18. AND THE DISCIPLES OF JOHN REPORTED TO HIM ABOUT ALL THESE THINGS, AND SUMMONING TWO OF HIS DISCIPLES, JOHN SENT THEM TO THE LORD, SAYING, ARE YOU THE EXPECTED ONE, ARE YOU THE PROMISED MESSIAH, OR DO WE LOOK FOR SOMEONE ELSE? And when the men had come to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, Are you the expected one, the coming one, or would you look for someone else? At that very time, he cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits. He granted sight to many who were blind. And he answered and said to them, Go and report to John what you've seen and heard. The blind receive sight. You see, he's referring to this passage. The lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to him. And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over me." And, well, we'll stop there. But now, as you see the picture, John's in prison, and he sends one final word to Jesus, are you the expected one? Now, by the way, you notice the footnote on page, verse 19. The footnote number two is it's literally the coming one. You see, are you the coming one? Well, now, that's a reference back there to Isaiah 35, 4. Your God will come. You see, Isaiah and these faithful believers of Jesus' day understood that the Messiah was God coming to earth. And so it wasn't quite the expected one. He was saying, are you the coming one? Are you the one that the Bible says would come and deliver us from our enemies or should we look for somebody else? Are you the divine Messiah? And notice what Jesus does. He doesn't say, yes. He doesn't say, I am the Messiah. Rather, he says, look at all these miraculous things that I'm doing. Blind people are being healed. Lame people, deaf people, dumb people are being healed. Now, why did he say that to John the Baptist? Why didn't he say, yes, John, I am the Messiah, don't worry about it. There's not any other one but me. Well, in essence, he did say that, but he said it in such a brilliant way, because in saying, yes, John, you look around you, are the blind, the lame, the dumb, the crippled being healed? In other words, he drove John the Baptist back to the Bible, because that's the only place this man in prison could find comfort. He drove him back to his memory of the Word of God. And he said, in essence, John, what does the Old Testament prophesy will happen when the Messiah comes? It prophesies that the tongue of the dumb will shout, the lame will leap like a deer, the ears of the deaf will be opened, the eyes of the blind will be stopped. I've been doing these things, John. You see? He's saying, don't look for another Messiah. Everything the Old Testament prophesied would take place when the Messiah came is taking place. Don't look beyond me. Don't fear in the midst of death. I am that promised Messiah. And, John, furthermore, if you're seeing me doing these works of grace and mercy, then be absolutely confident that I'm also going to do the works of cursing and judgment, the Bible says, Isaiah 35 says the Messiah will do. You notice back in Isaiah 35, it's not only will the, and 34 and 35, not only will the Messiah heal, but the Messiah will also destroy his enemies. And so he's saying, John, be patient, trust me. You can see by what I'm doing that I am the promised Messiah. Put your faith in me. Don't look for any others to come. I'll do these works of grace. And if I do these works of grace and mercy, I'll also do works of judgment. So don't worry about it at all. All right, now go back to Isaiah 35. And notice in the last part of verse 6 and verse 7, he goes back to this wonderful figure, the transformation of thirsty ground into springs of water. Last part of verse 6 and verse 7, for waters will break forth in the wilderness and the streams in the Arabah, that's a specific desert area, and the scorched land will become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water. In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, grass, And here we're back to the central figure of this entire chapter that we're brought back to time and again, and that is from Isaiah's vantage point. When God comes in Christ to save his people, he will bring a complete, comprehensive, radical, cosmic transformation and reformation of the entire creation and as well as of his chosen people. He not only will come to heal the lame, deaf, blind, and dumb. He will come to turn the context, which is a parched land scorched by human apostasy, into a rich flower garden full of pools of water. So you see the important thing that the Reformed faith has always emphasized as over against individualistic views of Christianity, and that is Jesus didn't come to save simply the souls of solitary individuals scattered here and there. Jesus came to save and transform individuals, right? But he came also to turn this parched earth into a land full of water. He came to transform not only individuals, but comprehensively all of life on this planet. And that's what we do work for. That's the vision. That's God's goal. God does this through his word. So why do we get involved in all these various issues of life and stand for Christ and abortion and all these other things. And why do we practice evangelism and at the same time get involved in politics? Because we know that salvation is that big, and that God's going to use the instrument of His Word in the hands of His people, not only to save individuals, not only to make the lame walk, but also He's going to use the faithfulness of His people to turn this parched desert into a land full of springs and streams. That is, the transformation of civilization is the point. You know, when the Bible speaks of the kingdom of God, think civilization, because that's the idea, that the kingdom of God is at work on this earth to create a Christian civilization on this globe. And, you know, when I give a lot of counseling, and particularly to young couples or whatever, I say, you know, you need to do this or that, because it's just civilized to do it. It's civilized to do it. And what I mean by that is Christ came not just to save people from hell, but to create a whole new civilization, a distinctly Christian civilization, so that the blind will see and the desert will become a flower garden. And the Bible puts it in this way, it says that Jesus came to create a new heavens and a new earth. For instance, turn to Isaiah 65, not just to create solitary individuals in this old earth, HEAVEN AND EARTH. VERSE 17 OF ISAIAH 65, WHEREBEHOLD I CREATE A NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH. SO YOU SEE IT'S NOT JUST INDIVIDUALS THAT ARE GOING TO FEEL THE EFFECTS OF THE SAVING POWER OF THE GOSPEL, IT'S ALSO GOING TO BE THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE IS GOING TO BE REVEALED OF THE SCORCHING EFFECTS OF MAN'S SIN. NOW TURN BACK TO ISAIAH 35, VERSES 8 AND 9, YOU HAVE ANOTHER fascinating and very practical and encouraging figure of this civilization that Christ has come to build in terms of a highway. And he says in verses 8 and 9, and a highway will be there in this renewed earth, in this flower garden that's no longer a thirsty ground, and a highway will be there, a roadway, and it'll be called the highway of holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way, and fools will not wander on it. No lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go upon it. These will not be found there, but the redeemed will walk there, and the ransom of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion with everlasting joy upon their heads. They'll find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." So now here you have a picture, a figure again, of a clean, safe highway called the Highway of Holiness. Now let's look at the various parts of this image. First of all, it describes the travelers who are on this highway. It describes them very simply in verse 8 as those who are not unclean. You see? It'll be called the highway of holiness and the unclean will not travel on it. So here you have a magnificent highway called the highway of holiness and no unclean person will be on it. THAT IS OBVIOUSLY NOBODY THAT'S SEPARATED FROM GOD, NOBODY THAT'S LIVING IN REBELLION AGAINST GOD. THIS HIGHWAY IS ONLY FOR CLEAN PEOPLE, FOR PEOPLE WHOSE HEARTS HAVE BEEN CLEANSED AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN. NOW, WHY IS THIS A HIGHWAY? WHAT'S THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FIGURE OF A HIGHWAY? WELL, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HAVE HIGHWAYS AS OVER AGAINST GRAVEL ROADS? WHEN YOU HAVE HIGHWAYS, WHAT DO YOU HAVE? YOU HAVE TRAVEL, COMMERCE, CONTACT, COMMUNICATION, So when you have a system of highways, what do you have? You have a civilization. And that's the picture here. Here's the picture of an earth with a system of highways, that is a civilization, and in that civilization there'll be no one unclean. In fact, the highway itself is called the Highway of Holiness. You know, we name highways. You know, you got the Zell Miller Highway that gets you from here up through LJ, et cetera. You got the Larry McDonald Highway, which is 75 that goes through Cobb County. You got the Martha Berry Highway that goes up through Rome. You got the scenic, you know, you got all these highways. Well, this is the highway of holiness. And what does the word holiness mean? For many people today, holiness is a negative term. You know, you got somebody that's holy is just somebody that's so, you know, heavenly minded is no earthly good. You know, growing up, I had a picture of a holy person. The holy person was sad. And if it was a woman, she didn't wear makeup and her hair was stringy and she had this stringy old dress and she was like this all the time. I mean, you know, she made Grandma Moses look good. I mean, that's how I viewed a holy person, somebody that just had absolutely no interest and emotional involvement in the things of this life. I mean, they were married, but, you know, you got to sleep with your husband and have children, but that's it. I mean, it was just, you know, just total joyless life. Well, here's what the word holiness means. The word holiness has two ideas in it. It is the idea, first of all, of being separated from this world by God for His purposes. And the word sanctified is connected with it. So that a holy person is not somebody who's perfect. He's somebody whom God, by His grace, has separated from this world for Himself. He separated this person from the condemnation of the world. He has separated this person from the lifestyle of the world, from the evil corruptions of the world, from the sadness and death of this world. And he's put him in this new flower garden that bursts with joy and bursts with life. So he separates this person from the world to God's purposes so that having been separated from the world, this Christian now lives in terms of God's pleasure, in terms of God's will. He's the holy one. He's the saints. You know, the Roman Catholic Church has saint so and so and saint this and saint that. And right now, Italy's in the lead in terms of the number of saints that it has. Do you know in the Bible the word saint is never used in singular? Nobody in the Bible, you know, if you're gonna talk about St. Augustine, we gotta talk about St. Calvin, et cetera. But the word saint as a singular word is not used in the New Testament or anywhere. But the word saints is used many times. The word saints means the holy ones, the holy ones. That is all Christians, all Christians are saints. A saint's not a perfect person, a saint's a separated person. who's been separated by God's grace from the rest of the world. And the second idea is total consecration to God. So God has separated him from the world, from the world's condemnation, the world's sin, the world's lifestyle unto himself, that that person might totally consecrate himself to do God's will the rest of his life and to do it from his heart because he loves to, because he wants to please God. He's grateful to God for saving him. And he's not a he's not a person of sadness. He's a person of great joy. As you can see, the people that walk on this road are shouting and singing in joyful, shouting the praises of the Lord. So you show me somebody that for whom the Christian life is a draft, dull, dead, empty thing. And I'll show you somebody don't know what holiness is. You know, somebody who's holy is somebody who shouts for joy that God is separating from this world. And so motivated by gratitude, he totally consecrates himself to the Lord's purposes. And so this highway is only for those only for those who are totally dedicated to the Lord. In other words, and how do you manifest this total dedication? What is the consecrated of the Lord? It means that from the heart you seek to live the entirety of your life, obeying biblical law for Jesus sake, loving and obeying biblical law, because you love and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The motivating power of your life is not some legalistic desire, I gotta do more, I gotta make more laws, obey more laws so that I can be more blessed or make more points with God. No, we give our lives, totally consecrate our lives to love and obey biblical law because from our hearts we love and have total faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's why it's called a highway of holiness. Now notice something else. says it will be for him who walks that way, and fools will not wander in it. And the point is that it's going to be clearly marked, easy to follow, that when a person gets on that road, there's absolutely no reason for him ever to step off again or to get lost. So that if a Christian ever wanders off and gets confused and backslides, There's absolutely no excuse for it, because the highway's clearly marked by warnings and directions and promises, and there's absolutely no way we can ever step off that highway unless we just shut our eyes to all these signs that are shining in our faces. No excuse for any kind of spiritual declension. No excuse for getting sidetracked. No excuse for backsliding. Then notice something else about this highway. It's perfectly safe. Verse 9, no lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go upon it. These will not be found there." Now that's quite a contrast to Isaiah's day because one of the points Isaiah has made is that it's not safe to travel on the highways of Israel in his day because of the thieves and the murderers and vagrant people and all that kind of stuff. But this new highway When the Lord Jesus Christ comes, God himself is going to travel with his people, and he's going to lead his people, protect his people, and shield them from every hostile attack. And so as they walk down this highway of life toward the eternal city, they're going to walk in perfect safety. You know, it's interesting to drive. You know, you hear in South Africa, you hear about all the violence, you know, and carjacking and all that. and how unsafe some of the places are to travel, well, that's only the half of it. The other half is, is you'll be driving down some roads, as I have done, and 20 baboons jump on top of your car, and on your hood, and then you just gotta sit there while they pick fleas off of each other until they leave. I was driving down another road, and we had to hightail it out of there because we were about to be attacked by a rhinoceros that was snorting around, about to come at us, mad at us. You know, there's all kinds of threats in this life, but, In this highway that the Christian is on that leads to heaven, there is total and perfect safety. Do you realize, now listen carefully, whereas when you get to heaven, you'll be a lot happier than you are now. You'll be no safer. You're as safe now as you will be 10 billion years from now in heaven. Ten billion years from now, nobody can touch a hair on your head without the will of our Father in Heaven. Ten billion years from now, no one will be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and those things are true for you right this moment. So, in Heaven, you'll be a lot happier, but you'll be no safer. You're in perfect safety. Nobody can snatch you from your Father's hand. He travels with you. There's no lions or baboons on this highway. There's nothing there to distract us. Now, notice the destination. Where's this highway going to? Well, we got to go all the way over to verse 10 to see. And the ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion. This is a highway that's going to Zion. What is that hymn? Something about from we that love the Lord. We're traveling to Zion, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Okay, anyway, so that Zion is seen as the destination of this highway. Now, Zion is a rich symbol. Zion, as we've said before, was the name of the hill in Jerusalem where the temple sat. And the Mount Zion came to have all kinds of symbolic significance, standing for the entirety of the people of God, fellowship with God, reconciliation with God, communion with God. So when it says that this highway has as its destination Zion, the point is the eternal city of God. a reconciled God, fellowship with God, uninterrupted throughout all eternity. That's the thrust. We're in Zion now. The church is Zion. But in even a fuller and more complete sense, at the end of this highway is Zion the perfection of everything we enjoy now partially. And therefore, it's symbolic of the eternal city of God, the blessed and the happiness that we have with God in heaven. Now, I want you to notice something about Now the highway is going to Zion, and I want you to notice the certainty that this passage gives us, that everybody that's on the highway to Zion will reach there. The certainty that everybody that's on the highway of Zion will reach Zion. Notice what it says in Isaiah 35, verse 9, No lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go up to it. These will not be found there, but the redeemed will walk there. The ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion. They will return, and there should be a will in front of come, and will come with joyful shouting to Zion with everlasting joy upon their head. They will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will fly away. Now you see, flee away. Now underline all those wills. Look at all of them. The redeemed will walk there. The ransomed will return. They will come with joyful shouting to Zion. They will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. There's no doubt about these things. There's nothing contingent about it. It is a fact. All of those who are redeemed by Christ will do two things. Now this is distinctive Reformed faith. Nobody believes this but those who believe the Reformed faith. There's two things that are absolutely certain that every person redeemed by Christ will do. One, the last line of verse nine, they will walk on the highway of holiness. They will walk there. The redeemed will walk there. Now that's important. Because the point is that everybody whom Christ has redeemed by his own blood will, without doubt, with absolute certainty, walk on the highway of holiness. And what's the highway of holiness? It is the highway of total self-consecration to the living God. So that everybody who is washed in the blood of the Lamb will totally consecrate himself to God. Now, what are we told today? In one of the last Presbyterian meetings I ever attended, the PCA, there was a man being examined who gave his testimony. And he said when he was 12 or 13 or so like that, he received Jesus as his Savior. But it wasn't until he was about 20-something that he received Jesus as his Lord and consecrated his life to the Lord. So I stood up and I said, Sir, are you telling me that salvation comes in two stages? Are you telling me that somebody can be redeemed by Christ and receive him as his Savior and not consecrate himself to Christ as his Lord? He said, Sure. That was my own experience. I said, Well, I don't think you know how to tell people how to be saved. And I think you ought not to be in the ministry then if you don't know how to tell people to be saved. Because the Bible says, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. AND THAT NOBODY HAS RECEIVED HIM AS SAVIOR UNLESS THEY HAVE BOWED BEFORE HIM AS LORD OF THEIR LIVES. EVERYBODY WHO'S BEEN REDEEMED OF THE LORD IS WALKING ON THE HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS. You see? So if you have somebody out here living, let me give you another example. For years, I used to preach in a rescue mission. I used to cut my teeth on preaching in a rescue mission. And a rescue mission is where people, drunks and bums, I mean, you know, today you call them homeless people, back then they're drunks and bums, and no matter what you call them, they're still drunks and bums. So you got these drunks and bums who were homeless people, and they would come to get a free bowl of beans and cornbread and onions and a place to sleep and a shower, and all they had to do was attend an evangelistic meeting. And so they liked me. I'd go down and eat with them, you know, and I'd preach to them. I'd eat the beans and cornbread, and I was big as they were, you know. So we had a good time. They liked to hear me preach. And so I'd go down there almost every night, and I'd preach. And one time I was preaching there, and there was a man out in the audience who was just crying like a baby throughout the whole sermon. I mean, just sobbing. So after I finished preaching, I went down to the pulpit, After the service was over, and I went up to this man, put my arm around him, and I said, sir, it's obvious to me that you're under conviction of sin and that you need to become a Christian. And he said, oh, I received Jesus as my savior 20 years ago. He said, since then, I've left my wife and slept around and embezzled money and beat up people and been involved in drugs and alcohol, and the FBI's looking for me, but I received Jesus as my savior 20 years ago. My problem is I never surrendered to him as my Lord. And you know, what do you do after that to a guy like that? And the point is, everybody who's been redeemed to the Lord is walking on the highway of holiness. If you're not walking on the highway of holiness, you've never been redeemed to the Lord. It's not a two-stage process, you know? You know, like old Spurgeon said, you don't get to heaven on the installment plan. That when you receive, like, what's the great Baptist guy? Now Martin said, no one can enjoy the benefits of Christ's cross without bowing before the claims of Christ's crown. Well, that gets it, you know, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And what did Jesus say to be saved? You got to go through the straight gate and walk down the narrow way that leads to life. How do you know you've gone through the gate? You're on the narrow way. If you're not on the narrow way, it's obvious you haven't been through the gate because it's going through the gate and walking down the narrow way that leads to life. who has been redeemed to the Lord is on the highway of holiness. If you are not on the highway of holiness you are just fooling yourself about being redeemed to the Lord. That is the first thing we learn here is that all of those whom Christ redeemed will walk on the highway of holiness. Now there is a second thing to bear in mind that is everybody whom God has redeemed will reach Zion, you see. the ransom will return, they will come to Zion, they will find gladness, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. That everybody who is on the highway of holiness, that is all that is redeemed of the Lord, will reach the eternal city of God at last, not one of them will drop out along the way. And this is where we get our great twin doctrines of eternal security and the perseverance of the saints. That when God redeems you, you can't get unredeemed. THAT WHEN GOD PUTS YOU ON THE HIGHWAY THAT LEADS TO ZION, YOU WILL REACH HEAVEN. YOU WILL REACH THE ETERNAL CITY OF GOD. YOU CANNOT BE LOST AFTER YOU HAVE BEEN GENUINELY SAVED. YOU MAY WANDER AROUND A LITTLE BIT, BUT YOU CANNOT BE LOST AFTER YOU'VE BEEN SAVED. ONCE GOD HAS REDEEMED YOU, YOU CANNOT GET UNREDEEMED. ONCE HE'S REGENERATED YOU, YOU CAN'T GET UNREGENERATED. ONCE THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES INTO YOUR HEART AND GIVES YOU A NEW HEART, HE'S NOT GOING TO LEAVE. AND ALL OF THOSE WHO ARE ON THE HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS, HAVING BEEN REDEEMED BY CHRIST, WILL FIND JOY AND GLADNESS IN ZION, THE ETERNAL CITY, AND THEY WILL PERSEVERE TO THE END. SO WE TALK ABOUT ETERNAL SECURITY. WE SAY THAT CHRISTIANS ARE ETERNALLY SECURE. WE HAVE ETERNAL SECURITY IN CHRIST THAT WE CANNOT BE LOST AFTER WE'VE BEEN SAVED. NOW, THIS, IT'S THIS DOCTRINE THAT IS THE REASON WHY A LOT OF BAPTISTS CALL THEMSELVES CALVINISTIC, WHY THEY THINK THEY'RE REFORMED. some of them, because they believe in eternal security. I mean, you talk to the average Southern Baptist today, and he'll tell you, as over against the Methodist or the Pentecostal, he'll tell you, I believe in eternal security. I believe that people are eternally secure, and once saved, always saved. But when you start prying into what they understand by that, it is really a deformed view of what we believe. Because when you separate eternal security from the perseverance of the saints, you leave the wrong impression of people. And I'm going to explain what I mean in a minute. So that now the average person will say, well, eternal security means that once saved, always saved, no matter what you do. And you see, it's that no matter what you do. For instance, when a person, when a typical evangelical, non-reformed, leads somebody to assurance of salvation, what does he do? He says, all right, have you received Christ your Savior? Yes. The Bible says, he that has a son has life. So if you've received Christ your Savior, you have the Son, you have eternal life. Don't ever doubt that, no matter what you do. And you've got all these people assured that they're Christians because they've had some emotional experience. And when they die, they're going to get the shock of their lives. CONFIDENT THEY'RE CHRISTIANS BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE IN ETERNAL SECURITY. WELL, YOU SEE, THE BIBLE NOT ONLY TEACHES US THAT WE'RE ETERNALLY SECURE, THAT IS, THAT ONCE GOD REDEEMS US WE CAN NEVER BE UNREDEEMED, BUT IT ALSO TEACHES US THAT WHEN YOU'RE ON THAT HIGH, THAT YOU'RE GOING TO STAY ON THE HIGH WAY OF HOLINESS, THAT IS, YOU'RE GOING TO PERSEVERE IN WELL-DOING UNTIL THE VERY END. SO, YOU SEE, WHEN SOMEBODY COMES UP TO YOU AND SAYS, WELL, YOU PRESBYTERIANS BELIEVE ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED, NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, YOU SAY, YOU ARE CRAZY, BUDDY. YOU'RE CRAZY IF YOU THINK WE BELIEVE THAT. We believe once saved, always saved, but we also believe in the perseverance of the saints. We believe that if God has saved you, you're going to persevere as a Christian in faithfulness to the last. You may wander off for a while, but you'll come back before you breathe your last breath. You will reach Zion. You will not leave the highway of holiness, you see. So there's both of these things. It's not enough just to talk about eternal security because that squelches any motivation. Hey, well, okay, if I'm saved and I can never be lost, it really doesn't matter what I do, right? I mean, you know, being good may be nice, but it's really not a big deal. Whereas a Christian, whereas a reformed Christian says that not only do you have eternal security, but if you're really eternally secure, you're going to persevere in faithfulness down the highway of holiness. And if you desert that and go back in sin, thinking you've been on that highway, professing to be it, but you've never lived for Christ, there's nothing secure about you at all. So you see, when people come up to you and say, well, you Presbyterians believe that a person can't be lost after he's been saved. What about all these people that were Christians for several months or years, and then they just, you don't see them anymore. They've just gone back into sin and live like the devil. And the answer is one of two things. One, they were never converted in the first place. Or number two, they were converted, but for some inexcusable reason, they've backslidden. And the difference is, if a real Christian has backslidden and wandered off track, it's not going to be for a long period of time, and he's going to come back before he dies, and he hates himself until he gets back. Whereas somebody who pretended to be a Christian and falls away is happier not having the pressure and the stress of trying to live a certain kind of life, and he'll die in that condition. So, the point is, the certainty of this thing. that those whom Christ redeemed will walk on the highway of holiness, and all those who are walking on the highway of holiness will reach the eternal city. We are eternally secure, and we will persevere in holiness. Now notice another thing about these people. Notice in the middle part of verse 10. let's just start with all of verse 10. And the ransom of the Lord will return, and come with joyful shouting to Zion, with everlasting joy upon their heads. They'll find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sorrow will flee away. You notice the word joy and joyful occur three times. Joyful shouting, everlasting joy, gladness and joy. And notice how the chapter began. Look over at verse 2. It will blossom profusely and rejoice with rejoicing and a shout of joy. One of the things that describes life lived under the reign of Christ is real deep joy. Not just happiness. Happiness is wonderful. But joy, that is, a deep calmness of spirit and a deep happiness that comes from knowing that your sin has been forgiven, you're reconciled with God, you're not a part of the wasteland anymore, nobody can separate you from God, and it moves you to praise God and to sing his praises in his worship. And that idea of a sense, a deep sense of joy that can be experienced even in the midst of tragedy is something that only Christians can experience. And the Christian life is marked by joy, so that if your life is marked by depression, despair, hopelessness, there's something terribly wrong in your life. Because the Christian life is life that bursts with joy. Now, interestingly enough, you know that the concept of joy is not found in any culture that has not been influenced by Christianity. You can look at these other cultures and you can find the idea of happiness, but the idea of joy is a word and an idea that is foreign to cultures that have not come into contact with Christianity, because only Christianity brings joy. Now, let's spend the rest of our time looking at this additional description of those who are on the highway of holiness. They're not only consecrated to God, they're not only clean, BUT NOTICE WHAT IT SAYS ABOUT THEM IN THE LAST SENTENCE OF VERSE 9 AND THE FIRST SENTENCE OF VERSE 10. BUT THE REDEEMED WILL WALK THERE AND THE RANSOMED OF THE LORD WILL RETURN. AND THERE YOU HAVE TWO OF THE FUNDAMENTAL WORDS AND IDEAS OF THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL. THE IDEA OF BEING REDEEMED OR REDEMPTION AND OF BEING RANSOMED. NOW THIS IS A GREAT STUDY AND TURN TO PAGE 435. because it's worth looking at this with sort of a close scrutiny. Those who are redeemed are obviously those whom God has delivered from their sins and from the bondage of Satan and from death in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the word redeemed itself has a tremendous history and meaning. The primary word meaning of the root word for redeem means to carry out the responsibilities of a kinsman redeemer. Now I get to know that word because that's a wonderful word, kinsman redeemer. Somebody who is redeemed is somebody who redeems somebody else in the Old Testament since the word is someone who carries out the responsibility of the kinsman redeemer. And this idea of a kinsman redeemer, which is the dominant theme of the book of Ruth, comes out throughout the scriptures. You know, there was a in in the Old Testament law, there were a series of laws that required a kinsman redeemer to rescue any of his relatives that were in trouble or in danger. And this kinsman redeemer was the closest relative, whoever was the closest relative to the person in trouble or in danger. had the responsibility to rescue that person from danger in all kinds of practical ways. For instance, if there was a family member that had to sell his property because of some desperate need in his life, it was the kinsman redeemer, his closest relative's responsibility to buy that property back and put it back in the family. Or if there was a family member who, because of tremendous indebtedness, had to sell himself or his children into slavery, It was the kinsman redeemer, the family member's closest relative, who had the responsibility to buy that family member back out of slavery. Or if there was a family member that was murdered, it was the kinsman redeemer's responsibility. And he's given another title here, the avenger of blood. It was his responsibility to kill the murderer of the family so that he would no longer be a threat to that family. So now bear in mind, this was an important part of Hebrew society. A kinsman redeemer was the closest relative of a person in trouble and he had the responsibility to rescue that person. If he had to sell his property, the kinsman redeemer's responsibility was to buy it back. If he sold himself into slavery, it was the kinsman redeemer to get him out of slavery. And if a family member was killed, it was the, it was the, uh, kinsman redeemer's responsibility as the avenger of blood to avenge the death of that family member and to end the threat on that family by killing the murderer. Time and again, throughout the old Testament, the Lord is called Israel's kinsman redeemer. And what this human kinsman redeemer did in Hebrew society was similar to what the Lord did for his people as Israel's kinsman redeemer. What did the Lord do for his people? He bought them out of slavery in Egypt. He protected their inheritance. He vindicated them. He delivered them from their enemies. He saved them from their sins. PARTICULARLY IN ISAIAH 40-66, THE WORD KINSMAN REDEEMER OR REDEEMER WITH REFERENCE TO THE LORD OCCURS SOME 13 TIMES. LET ME SHOW YOU SOME OF THE PLACES IN THE BIBLE WHERE THE LORD IS GIVEN THIS, SPOKEN OF AS THE KINSMAN REDEEMER OF HIS PEOPLE. TURN, FOR INSTANCE, TO EXODUS CHAPTER 6, AND WE'LL JUST FLIP AROUND AT SOME OF THESE PLACES. THAT'S BECAUSE WHAT WE'RE DOING NOW IS STUDYING THE MEANING OF THE WORD REDEEMED. A REDEEMER IS A KINSMAN REDEEMER. CLOSE RELATIVE WHO HAD THE RESPONSIBILITY OF RESCUING A PARTY IN TROUBLE FROM WHATEVER TROUBLE IT WAS. EXODUS 6, NOTICE HOW GOD DESCRIBES RESCUING ISRAEL OUT OF EGYPT. HE SAYS IN VERSE 5 OF CHAPTER 6, AND FURTHERMORE, I'VE HEARD THE GROANING OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BECAUSE THE EGYPTIANS ARE HOLDING THEM IN BONDAGE AND I'VE REMEMBERED MY COVENANT. Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you, act as a kinsman redeemer with an outstretched arm." In other words they sold themselves into slavery and now the Lord acted as their best friend, closest relative, and He was their closest relative by means of a covenant. and he came to their rescue and bought them out of slavery. Turn to Psalm 78. This is really worthy of memorization, this one. Psalm 78 and verse 35. And they remembered that God was their rock and the Most High God their kinsman redeemer. That's what it literally says, their kinsman redeemer, their closest relative, who had the responsibility to save them from any trouble or from any bondage. Notice Isaiah 43, just to give you one of the 13 times that God's spoken of as redeemer here of his people. And in this passage, God promises to redeem his sons, to whom he's closely related by this covenant, from a bondage that's worse than any kind of civil slavery. And notice what he says in Isaiah 43, 1, 2, and 3, But now thus says the LORD your Creator, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel, Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by my name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. Through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I am your Savior by acting as your kinsman, Redeemer. and rescuing you from a bondage worse than civil slavery. But one of the most precious verses to me in the Bible that speaks of the Lord as our closest relative, our kinsman redeemer who buys us out of slavery, who makes sure that we get our inheritance even though we forfeited it, and who protects us from all threats is in Job chapter 19. And Job comes right before Psalms, Job 19. But notice Job's situation before we read these words. Job was a godly man, and God had caused him to prosper. At this point in time, Job was bankrupt. All his children had been killed. He had some kind of fatal terminal skin disease, and his wife was a nagger. I mean, his life was miserable. Everything that Job once had now just is crumbling all around him. Now, the average man today, if he became bankrupt and all this stuff happened to him, he'd probably shoot himself because life would come to an end for him. But I want you to notice Job's attitude as his whole physical world is just in shambles all around him. He says in Job 19, starting with verse 23, Oh, that my words were written, Oh, that they were inscribed in a book, that with an iron stylus and lead they were engraved in the rock forever. And as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. He had in their proper priority because those weren't the things his life was built on, and even when everything about him, financially, family-wise, everything was taken from him, health, he was still able to speak with such confidence by saying, I know that my Redeemer lives. Now, notice you see you have a footnote, and you see what the word Redeemer means. It means Vindicator, Defender, Kinsman, Redeemer. I know that my kinsman, Redeemer, lives, and at the last he'll take his stand on the earth, and even after my skin is destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God." Now, I want you to notice three or four things about this. Look at verses 25 and 26. Notice, first of all, that there is a Redeemer provided for fallen man, and that Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ. We do have a kinsman, Redeemer. We do have somebody that will rescue us from our troubles and our dangers in this life. Number two, this Redeemer is a living Redeemer. He's been raised from the dead. I know that my Redeemer lives. You see, Job's probably the oldest book of the Bible, and here you have Job thinking in terms of the resurrection of Christ. He was our Redeemer by dying in our place on the cross, but he didn't stay dead. This Redeemer, this kinsman Redeemer, continues to live. Third, By grace through faith, believers share in the redemption of this Redeemer, and upon good grounds can claim that that Redeemer is theirs. He says, I know that not the Redeemer lives, you see. He doesn't say, I know that the Redeemer lives. He says, I know that my Redeemer lives. So that by grace through faith, a person can be certain that Christ is his Redeemer. Fourth, Our share in this Redeemer can be known for certain. And when we have a certainty that Christ is our own personal Redeemer, then we can triumph through all our griefs. Now, you know, here he was grieving over his children's loss, his loss of his farms, and yet in the midst of all that grief, he was able to triumph because of his absolute certainty that not only the Redeemer lived, but that that Redeemer was his Redeemer. And notice, fifthly, he says that someday our Redeemer will stand physically on the earth and raise all dead people physically from their graves. It says, verse 25, And as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand upon the earth. And so here you have a picture of the Redeemer, the physical Redeemer, standing on the earth again someday. And lastly, in verse 26, Even though literally worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. So here you have a man saying that because of his share in his Redeemer, someday he's going to be raised from the dead and he's going to see Christ face to face. Yet in my flesh shall I see God. Now we've not seen. Who's the God here? It's the Redeemer. So Christ is seen as God. The Redeemer is God incarnate. And he says, someday I'm going to see God. Well, we've never seen him with our eyes. We only know him by faith. But someday these eyes that you can touch right here, these eyes will see your Redeemer. Because someday, even after worms destroy your body, yet that body will be raised when Jesus stands on the earth again, and in your flesh you shall see God incarnate. Now, notice the second word there in Isaiah 35. The first is redeemed, our kinsman redeemer. The second is the word ransomed. And ransom meant then what it means now. You know, you read, I hope, The Ransom of Red Chief. But originally, the word ransom mean to achieve the transfer of ownership from one person to another through the payment of a price. to bring about the transfer of ownership from one person to another through the payment of a price. That's what the word to ransom originally meant. It was a commercial term. It had to do with the slave market. That if you ransomed a slave, then that meant you paid a specific price to transfer the ownership of that slave from its previous owner to yourself. You ransomed that slave. So that a ransom is the price paid to deliver somebody from bondage. Turn to Exodus 4.23, you know, when God redeemed Israel from bondage in Egypt, it was only at a great price. ISRAEL WAS RANSOMED FROM EGYPT, THERE WAS A TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT TO JEHOVAH BY THE PAYMENT OF A GREAT PRICE, AND REMEMBER WHAT THAT PRICE WAS IN EXODUS 4, 23, SO I SAID TO YOU, LET MY SON GO, MEANING ISRAEL, THAT HE MAY SERVE ME, BUT YOU REFUSED TO LET HIM GO, BEHOLD, I'LL KILL YOUR SON, YOUR FIRSTBORN. SO THE PRICE, THE RANSOM PRICE TO ACHIEVE THE TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT TO THE LORD WAS THE DEATH OF EVERY FIRSTBORN CHILD IN ALL OF EGYPT. SO YOU SEE THE RANSOM PRICE IS A VERY VALUABLE THING. TURN TO DEUTERONOMY 15, 15, THIS IDEA OF ISRAEL BEING RANSOMED BY GOD AND THEREFORE OWNED BY GOD IS A THING THAT OCCURS TIME AND AGAIN. DEUTERONOMY 15 AND VERSE 15, and you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord redeemed you or ransomed you therefore I command you now what's the basis of God saying I command you because there was a transfer of ownership you were a slave in Egypt I paid the ransom price now you're my slave do what I tell you you belong to me you don't belong to Egypt anymore or look at Isaiah 52 Isaiah 52, and verse 3, and then verse 9. Look at Isaiah 52, 3. For thus says the Lord, you, Israel, were sold for nothing, and you will be redeemed without money. Verse 9. Break forth, shout joyfully together. You waste places of Jerusalem. The Lord has comforted His people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. Now this same idea of God redeeming his people by the paying of a ransom price, transferring the ownership of this people from the world to himself, becomes a major theme in the New Testament. What does Mark 10.45 say? Mark 10.45, now this is some good ways of showing you can't understand the New Testament without the Old. Because in Mark 10.45, Jesus said, the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. So the Lord Jesus Christ came to pay whatever price was necessary to rescue His people and to transfer the ownership of His people from Satan to God. Turn to Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2, Christ is a ransom and to redeem. Now you see, if anybody asks you what the word redeem means, it simply means to set free by the payment of a ransom price. To redeem means to set free by the payment of a ransom price. The Lord Jesus Christ set us free from sin's bondage by the payment of a ransom price, and the ransom price was His own death. Well, look at Titus chapter 2 and verse 14, breaking into the middle of a sentence, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us, that He might ransom us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. TITUS, HEBREWS, JAMES, I PETER. CHAPTER 1, BREAKING IN AGAIN IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTENCE, VERSES 18 AND 19, KNOWING THAT YOU WERE NOT REDEEMED WITH PERISHABLE THINGS LIKE SILVER AND GOLD FROM YOUR FUTILE WAY OF LIFE, INHERITED FROM YOUR FOREFATHERS, BUT YOU WERE REDEEMED WITH A PRECIOUS BLOOD, THAT THE RANSOM PRICE THAT SET YOU FREE FROM BONDAGE WAS THE BLOOD OF JESUS. LOOK AT I CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 6, I CORINTHIANS 6, 19 and 20. Or you do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God that you're not your own for you've been bought with a price. See the whole idea of ransoms here. You were enslaved, Christ paid the price that was appropriate to deliver the ownership of your life from Satan to God, where you've been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body because your body doesn't belong to you anymore because Jesus paid the price. Now turn to chapter 7, I think, maybe, let's see, chapter 7, yeah, and verses 22 and 23. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's free man. Likewise, he who is called while free is Christ's slave. You were bought with a price. Don't become slaves to men anymore. Why? Because you don't belong to men, you belong to God. Turn to Revelation chapter 5. Revelation chapter 5 and verses 9 and 10. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book, and to break its seals. For thou wast slain, and it is purchased for God with thy blood. Men from every tribe, tongue, people, and language are made to be a king and a priest. So that by the blood of Jesus these people were purchased, they were bought. The price to buy them? His own blood. And then one more turned to Hebrews chapter 9. And you see, there's passages in the Bible you can't interpret and understand unless you understand this thing of redemption as being set free by the payment of a ransom price. And this is one of those verses. All right, look at Hebrews 9, 11, and 12. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood. He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption." So here it says, Christ obtained eternal redemption through His own blood. And of course, the idea here, the price for our redemption was the ransom of His own blood. Now, let me summarize. Here are three things to bear in mind that these, we've studied now the meaning of the word redemption, we've studied the meaning of the word ransom, and now notice these three ideas that come out from the study of these words. First of all, the state of sin out of which a person is redeemed is like a slavery, a captivity from which that man cannot free himself. All right? First of all, that that state of sin out of which a man is redeemed is likened to a slavery, a captivity from which that man cannot free himself. He has to be freed by the intervention of another person. So you have the whole gospel wrapped up in these words. A person has to be redeemed by somebody else because he can't redeem himself. Second, the price that is paid is an infinitely valuable price. It's the blood of Jesus. And third, The result of the payment of that price is slavery to God. That we're set free from slavery to sin and death. And now the transfer of our lives is to the ownership of the living God. So you see, all these ideas are wrapped up in the word of redemption. God didn't redeem you. God didn't set you free from bondage by the payment of the ransom of Christ's death so that you could live however you please. Say, hey, what's the song? There's a play on the song. I am sinking deep in sin. Whee! I mean, you know, that God didn't save you from sin so that you can live however you want to live. Or to put it another way, God did not save you in sin. He saved you from sin. God saved you. God redeemed you. And redeemed means By the ransom price that Jesus paid, there was a transfer of ownership of your life from Satan to God. And you see, that's a great message you can tell your unsaved friends. They've never belonged to themselves. They've never owned themselves. You know, a woman who has an abortion says, I have a right to use my own body the way I, it's never been her body. She's always either been a slave to sin and the impulses of her heart and Satan, Or she's set free by Christ to become a slave of God, but she has never been her own woman. She's never owned herself. She's never been in control of herself. She's always been owned by somebody. Everybody is somebody's slave. And Christ redeemed us and paid the ransom price to transfer the ownership of our lives and redeem us from slavery. so that instead of being enslaved to Satan, we will be enslaved to God, which is true freedom. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for the blessings and the teaching of this wonderful chapter that reminding us of just how rich and great the salvation we have in Christ is. And thank you, Lord, in Christ, for being our kinsman, redeemer, and the avenger of blood. For Christ's sake, amen.