Date: Sunday Evening – September 27, 1992

I want us all to try to imagine for a moment what I know we can never really imagine while living in this world. I want you to try to imagine now what I hope you will never experience. Think for a minute what the torments of the damned in hell must be.

In my mind’s eye I see a man in hell! Tormented in that fire that can never be quenched, in that pit of darkness where there is no light, he weeps, wails, gnashes his teeth, and terror constantly fills his soul. He curses God, curses the day of his birth, curses his father and mother, curses every memory of life, and curses himself. He is lost without hope, tormented without hope of mercy, damned without hope of grace, and he knows that his lost, ruined, miserable condition is his own fault. He is in hell because he despises the Son of God, because he refused to acknowledge his sin and trust Christ while he lived upon the earth. In hell he is forever…

• Separated from God!
• Separated from Good!
• Separated from Grace!
• Separated from the Life, Joy and Bliss of God’s Saints in Heaven.
• Separated, but fully aware of all that he is separated from!

Hell is fire, but much, much more. Hell is…

• Lust Unfulfilled.
• Desire Unsatisfied.
• Guilt Unrelenting.
• Torment Unimaginable.

Now, try to suppose what will never be. After that man has suffered the torments of the damned for many, many years, suppose as he lifted his eyes upward in anguish he saw a door opened in heaven. Suppose that tormented soul heard the Lord Jesus declare, "Return unto me; for I have redeemed thee." But the obstinate wretch still refuses to repent! So, the Son of God pours out his Spirit upon the hard heart, snatches him from the pit of corruption, and brings him up to dwell forever among the sons of God! What grace! What mercy! How that man’s heart would overflow with joy! What gratitude, praise and adoration he would have for his Savior! I suspect he would never stop singing the praise of his Redeemer.

The man of whom I speak is me. "He brought me up out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God" (Ps. 40:2-3). "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me: out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice…thou hast brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God" (Jonah 2:2, 6).

Many of you have had the same experience. Have you not? No, we were not literally in hell, though we deserved to be, but we were and are literally redeemed from hell. Let us then sing and shout for joy forever. "Sing, O ye heavens: for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel!"

In this chapter, the prophet of God has been surveying the great redemption, which the Lord God would perform for Israel by delivering them from their Babylonian captivity. Two hundred years before he was born, Cyrus was named as the deliverer. God even showed his prophet how Cyrus would take the city of Babylon (by altering the course of the Euphrates River) and how that he would, after liberating the Jews, order them to rebuild their city and their temple. But this extraordinary event, great as it was, was only a shadow of the infinitely more glorious redemption of God’s elect by the Lord Jesus Christ. As Isaiah contemplated God’s great work of redemption, his heart burst with joy, and he calls for every ransomed sinner to join him in unceasing joy.

Proposition: The cause of joy is redemption – If you are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, you have abundant reason to rejoice in the Lord and sing his praise from your heart.

Divisions: Tonight, I want us to survey God’s most glorious work, the redemption of our souls by Christ. I hope that the Spirit of God will, in the contemplation of redemption, inspire our hearts with joy. I want us to look at our redemption from four points of view. Here is our fourfold redemption.

1. Redemption by Purpose.
2. Redemption by Price.
3. Redemption by Power.
4. Redemption in Perfection.

Note: In this text Isaiah tells us four things about redemption that must never be forgotten. Redemption, if it is thought of in biblical terms always has these four characteristics.

1. It is the work of the Lord God alone – "The Lord hath done it!"
2. It is an accomplished work – Completed and Effectual!
3. It is the purchase of a particular people – Jacob!
4. It is the work in which God glorifies himself!

"The Lord hath redeemed Jacob!" Follow me now, as we take a fourfold view of redemption.

1. Redemption by Purpose.

I want everyone here to understand that we were redeemed according to the purpose of God and that we were redeemed in the purpose of God. Is this, or is it not, the very language of Holy Scripture? Though our text was written long before redemption was performed by Christ at Calvary, it speaks in the past tense. It tells us that redemption was already accomplished for us in the mind and purpose of God.

• Christ is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8).
• The blood of redemption is the blood of the everlasting covenant (Heb. 13:20).
• Christ stood as our Surety from eternity as the Surety of a better covenant (Heb. 7:22).
• When the Lord Jesus actually died upon the cross, he died according to the purpose of God (Acts 2:23; 4:27-28; I Pet. 1:18-20).

1. Redemption by Price.

"Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price!" The price of our ransom is the life’s blood of God’s darling Son – (Heb. 9:12). Great as this price was, because of his great love for us, our Savior did not hesitate to pay it. He purchased us with his own blood! (Rom. 5:8; I John 3:16; 4:9-10; John 3:16).

• His Incarnation.
• His Obedience for Righteousness.
• Gethsemane!
• Gabbatha!
• Golgotha! (II Cor. 5:21; I Pet. 2:24).
• His Resurrection!
• His Exaltation!

The law cannot condemn us (Rom. 8:34). Satan cannot destroy us. Sin shall not be charged to us (Rom. 5:8). We have been redeemed by a price of infinite value!

1. Redemption by Power

I am talking now about the actual deliverance of God’s elect from the bondage of sin, the tyranny of satan, and the death of nature by God the Holy Spirit. Redemption by power is regeneration.

Illus.: Dry Bones (Ez. 37).

• Regeneration is a Resurrection from the Dead (Eph. 2:1-4).
• Regeneration is Accomplished by the Spirit of God (John 6:63; 3:8).
• The regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit is infinite and irresistible.

When God saves a sinner three great works of the Holy Spirit are required, which only he can perform.

1. Sovereign Regeneration – The New Birth.
2. Special Revelation – Christ in you (II Cor. 4:6; Gal. 1:15).
3. Irresistible Call – (Ps. 65:4; 110:3).

1. Redemption in Perfection (Eph. 1:14; Rom. 8: 23).

• Christ is Coming!
• He will yet redeem our bodies from corruption in the resurrection.
• Oh, what a day that will be! We shall be perfectly and completely-

1. Sinner, look to Christ. If you now trust him, your faith is proof that he has redeemed you!
2. Children of God, let us now adore our God and Savior as we celebrate redemption in picture (I Cor. 11).
3. Are we redeemed? How we aught to rejoice (Phil. 4:4).

• In His Person!
• In His Pardon!
• In His Providence!
• In His Provision! ( Rom. 8:32)
• In His Promises!