Pastor Dana Kidder preaching from II Thessalonians 1 at Redemption Bible Church in Bellefontaine, Ohio.
Redemption Bible Church
God's Plan of Redemption
Turn if you would to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. We are just barely going to dip our toes into this book today. And I want to warn you right off the bat this morning that we are going to be doing some marathon page turning today. So don't worry too much about trying to keep up, at least with the flipping. But I want to read, begin by reading 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, let's read this chapter. Paul, Sylvanas, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering, since indeed God considers it just, to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you and Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Father, what we need today, I pray that you would give us. I pray that you would feed us from your word today, that we might be hold wondrous things about who you are and what you have done, about your plan of redemption, your plan of salvation, Father, we trust in you and I pray that we would see that Jesus Christ is most glorious. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. So catechesis, that word catechesis, that's the practice of teaching the Christian faith and usually a catechism is a document that uses a series of questions and answers in order to instruct. So it's a specific document, usually a catechism. Certainly there's about 100 or so questions and answers. Many churches and denominations have their own catechisms in order to help disciple new believers into the doctrinal distinctives of their particular church. Well, of course, one of the most well known is the Westminster shorter catechism. The purpose of the shorter catechism, according to a preface written a couple hundred years ago, or maybe 400 years ago by the Church of Scotland, the purpose was to educate children and others of weaker capacity. That's us, or at least me, in the Reformed faith. It's based on the larger catechism, which was intended for use by ministers as they taught the faith to their congregations in preaching. It's largely a Presbyterian document, and so as not Presbyterians, we would disagree with some points, but for the most part, we can give a hearty amen to the teaching that it contains. And it's the first question that's the most familiar, the first question of the Westminster shorter catechisms, probably one that you've heard before. What is the chief end of man? His chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. We see that that theme of glorifying and enjoying God for eternity. We see that theme clearly here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, and as we continue our study of this book in the coming weeks and months, we're going to see it all through this letter. And really, we actually can see it all through the Bible as a whole. One kind's entire purpose in life and in eternity is to glorify God. That's why we were created. Yet we also know that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And yet despite our sin, God has intervened. And Ephesians chapter 1 says of his chosen people, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. God's plan of salvation was established before creation. The theologians sometimes call this the covenant of redemption. Ligonier Ministries gives a fairly simple definition of the covenant of redemption. It says the covenant of redemption is the agreement made between the members of the Trinity in order to bring us to salvation. Under this covenant, the Father plans redemption and sends the Son in order to save his people. The Son agrees to be sent and to do the work necessary to save the elect and the spirit agrees to apply the work of Christ to us by sealing us unto salvation. Now we could go on and on this morning about the work of each member of the Trinity in our salvation. But my point here today is that we were saved. We were redeemed in order to glorify God for eternity, to worship and enjoy him forever. The second letter here to the Thessalonians Church is another sort of link in the chain of redemption that runs throughout the Bible. Of course, we could actually say that about every book of the Bible. It's another link in the chain of redemption. But the reason I want to start with redemption today as we start to consider the book of second Thessalonians is because of where we're going over the next year or so as we study first this letter and then the book of Revelation later this year. So to borrow a phrase, there is a scarlet thread of redemption woven throughout the Bible and it connects the beginning to the end. So this morning, we're going to walk through the entire Bible following this thread of redemption. And my purpose for doing that today is to remind you of three vitally important truths for us. Three statements that we ought to keep in mind. Really, whenever we study God's Word, the first is this, all Scripture is historical. These are real events with real people. Scripture is the accounting of actual historical happenings. So Adam was real, Moses was real, Jonah was real, David was real, the Thessalonians was a real church, Jesus really died and rose again and so forth. This is a historical document, it accounts for us things that really happened. Now that doesn't mean that there's not some imagery and poetry and illusions and even a bit of allegory in the Bible. It means that the Bible is true and it's trustworthy. Second, the Bible is historical but second, the Bible hasn't an end, an eschaton, I think eschatology, eschatology is the study of the end. And what I mean by that is that all Scripture has a purpose or a fulfillment. Now I once was speaking in a chapel locally and I asked the students there, what is the chief end of man? And they were clearly not familiar with that question and someone responded with death? Now logically that action actually makes sense to an oddly worded question, right? The end is death. But when the catechism asks what is the chief end of man, it's referring to man's purpose or his fulfillment and that's what eschatology is. It's not simply a study of things to come. It's not simply a study of the end of days although clearly that's involved. But rather it is the fulfillment of all things for the glory of God. And so we need to remember that the end helps us understand the beginning. When we understand the fulfillment, the purpose that God has done everything, it helps us understand why he started everything, why he created everything. Along those lines we have passages like Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians 1-20 which helps us to understand and interpret all of Scripture. Paul says for all the promises of God find their yes in him, that is in Christ. That is why through him we are able to utter our amen to God for his glory. All the promises of God find their yes in him. That brings us to the third truth and that is that all Scripture points to the Christ, to the Messiah, to the Savior. Now this does not mean that we should force Jesus into every verse or phrase. It means that all of Scripture is progressively revealing God's plan of redemption, his plan of salvation through Jesus Christ to the praise of his glory. And so my goal today is to give you a glimpse of that this morning. Now I said a moment ago that we're going to walk through the entire Bible, obviously not every chapter, not every verse. We won't even be talking about every book, in fact we're going to skip whole sections. But we will be looking at some of the major unmistakable passages that reveal God's plan of redeeming for himself, a people for his own possession. So I've given you a little bit of insight into where we are headed and so you might have some idea of the answer to this question. What is the purpose of the Bible? What's the purpose of the Bible? The book of Hebrews starts off like this. The preacher of Hebrews says long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And then the rest of the book of Hebrews is an explanation of how Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament. He is the true and better prophet, priest and king. He's the one through whom we are redeemed. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. As we read the whole of the Bible we know that we don't use the Bible as a textbook necessarily. So in other words God didn't communicate his purposes and his doctrines sort of systematically. So if you want to learn about heaven or hell you don't go to the end and look up what page is heaven listed on and I want a definition of heaven or a definition of hell or a definition of angels or demons or whatever. He didn't communicate that way. He communicated instead through story. He spoke to us through people. He spoke to us through the lives of people. He spoke to us through the record of events in time as to tell the story, their story and how it connects to God's big story. So the Bible is one big story pointing us at Jesus Christ. So as we read and study the Bible we actually have to keep a couple of hermeneutical principles in mind. In other words certain interpretive principles. So not only do we need to keep in mind that all scripture is historical, that it has an end or a purpose, that it all points to Jesus, but that we study specific passages and work to apply them to our lives and as we do that we need to keep these principles in mind as well and the first is this. The first is the intended meaning of the author. So for example what did King David mean when he wrote in Psalm 51 he said against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. If you're familiar with that passage and the story behind it you understand that that's about his sin against Uriah and Bathsheba but he was talking to God against you God and you only have I sinned. I can tell you that he didn't mean that he did not sin against Uriah and Bathsheba. See it's important for us to understand what the author means. I'm not going to explain that one. I'm just going to leave it hanging. You'll have to figure it out on your own. The second, so the intent of the author, the second is the grammar of the original language. So in other words is it an imperative or an indicative? Are we being told to do something imperative you must do this or just that something happened? Just that is an indication that something happened. This is often where we confuse the law and the gospel. Well let's keep on going here because the third interpretive principle need to understand the intent of the author, the grammar behind it. What is actually being said and the third interpretive principle is to remember the historical setting in which the author lived and wrote. So Paul for example here in writing 2 Thessalonians. He wrote after the time of Christ, the minor prophets, Hosea and Haggai and Malachi. They wrote when Israel was either deep in their complacency toward their own sin or in some cases they were in captivity and in exile. The prophets are writing either when the people are headed into captivity or they're already been captured. So we have to keep these principles in their proper place and this is important because we have a tendency to read ourselves into the text. Let me give you an example. I often see the meme, something like an American flag or maybe an eagle and it's emblazoned with 2 Chronicles 7-14 which says this. If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. The problem with that promise is it's not a promise directed to the United States. Now there's certainly application for us. There's application in that promise for the church. There's application in that promise for the people of God living in the United States or any land for that matter. But every book of the Bible has an historical setting and the immediate setting there is Solomon is actually dedicating the temple to the Lord and God is warning them that they will sin and they will fall away from him. But when they repent he will reestablish them. So you can see that there is application but we need to be careful about it. But there's another principle of interpretation that we really need to remember that will help us keep the point of the scripture at the forefront as we read and study. And namely it is this. How does this point us to Christ? How does this relate to that which is Paul says of first importance? The redemption that comes through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. How does this fit into God's plan of redemption? So as we read, study and seek to apply the scriptures to our own lives we do so with our eyes on Christ's redemption of his people. And this redemption overall it points us to the end to the fulfillment. Revelation chapter 21. Let's read the end of the book first. Revelation 21, I'm just going to read 2 to 7. Think about the purpose of all things. Why did God create? Revelation 21, starting verse 2 says, "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. And he was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' And he said, 'Write this down for these words are trustworthy and true.' And he said to me, 'It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment, to the one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.'" So when we talk about the end, when we talk about the fulfillment of God's plan of redemption, we're talking about eschatology, the end, and most of the time when people talk about this, they think merely about what happens at the end of the world, but eschatology is not simply concerned, as I said, with what happens at the end, but also with why God created it in the first place. So when the Catechism asks, 'What is the chief end of man?' It's asking what our primary purpose or goal of mankind is, and so it is with eschatology. So if that's the end, if that's the fulfillment there in Revelation 21, and there's so much more to it than that, just a taste. If that's the fulfillment, let's tie it together from the beginning, really beginning to end. And remember, my goal here today is for us to see that God's plan of redemption threads through the Scriptures from the garden to the eschaton, to the end, to the fulfillment of all things, aspects of which Paul addresses here in his second letter to the Thessalonians. But we must start in the garden. So go to the beginning of the book now, Revelation chapter 3, sorry, Genesis chapter 3, whichever one's at the beginning. Genesis chapter 3, listen to verses 8 to 15. So this is immediately after they sinned, admin you've sinned. Keep in mind what we just read in Revelation 21, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called to the man and said to him, 'Where are you?' And he said, 'I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.' He said, 'Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?' And the man said, 'The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate.' Then the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is it you have done?' The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me and I ate.' And the Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, curse it are you above all livestock, above all the beasts of the field, on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.'" Verse 15 there, that final verse that I read, that is what is known as the proto-evangelion. Think evangelism. It's the first gospel. Consider, again, those verses and what's happening there in light of what I read in Revelation 21. Listen again to just verses 3 and 4 of Revelation 21, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, or crying, or pain any more, for the former things have passed away. Before man sinned, God saw everything that he had made, and Genesis chapters 1 and 2 tells us, "Behold, it was very good." God created mankind. He put them in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it, but man sinned and distorted his relationship with God, but the promise is, the promise of Genesis 3 is that he's going to fix it. He's going to send an offspring, a son, who will bruise or crush the head of the serpent. God is going to fix it. Romans chapter 5 puts it like this, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned, and then just a few verses later in Romans 5, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men. So one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous." Paul is comparing Adam and Jesus. Adam broke it, Jesus Christ has come to fix it. What's the connection? Genesis 3.15 again, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." The promised offspring, the promised seed of the woman, the promised son. This is the front end of the thread of redemption. This is the initial promise that will ultimately find its yes and amen in Jesus Christ. Turn over just a page to chapter 4, Genesis 4, and listen to verses 1 to 7. Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived, and bore Cain, saying, "I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord," and again she bore his brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain was a worker of the ground. In the course of time, Cain brought the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions, and the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his face fell, and the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it." So at the beginning there, in verse 1, Eve sees her firstborn son, Cain, "I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord, the offspring has come." The problem is he crushed the wrong head. The problem is he killed his brother instead of killing the deceiver. The problem is he was not the right son, but we need to stop here and just ask ourselves something about this story. Why didn't God accept his offering from the fruit of the ground? The answer has to do with the nature of redemption itself. Really, it has to do with something that God did back in the garden that I skipped. See, Hebrews chapter 9, verse 22, explains redemption by saying, "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins." Why? Because the wages of sin is death. So without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins. Before God removed Adam and Eve from the garden, he did one other thing, that is, he did a few other things, but one other thing that is so important, it's chapter 3, verse 21. Just look back there. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin and clothed them. Blood had been shed. God himself had covered the sins of Adam and Eve. He had covered them with the skin of an animal. And so when Cain, who was dead in his sins and needed a redemptive covering, when he brought an offering of produce, it was completely insufficient. It was completely unacceptable because the wages of sin is death. Well, as I said, beginning with Eve, humanity has been awaiting a son, an offspring, who will defeat the enemy once and for all. It's clearly not going to be Cain. She actually was hoping it would be Seth after he was born, it was not Seth. There's an important side note here. This is why the genealogies are so important in the Bible, whether it's here in Genesis where they're listed out several times, or then when they make themselves known again in Matthew and in Luke. They trace the line of the offspring from Adam to Jesus. And importantly, they pass through a man by the name of Abram, who will later be known as Abraham. So listen to the promise that God makes to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. First three verses, he says this. The Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred to your father's house and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Now, there's three promises there, land, seed or great nation or an offspring and blessing. I want to keep those promises in mind because we're going to refer back to them later. But first I want to point out that mankind needs more than just a son, right? Eve needed more than just a son, lowercase s. They needed more than just a child to carry on the family name. As do we, we need what God had provided Adam and Eve before they left the garden. As sinners, we need a redemption, we need a sacrifice that will cover our sin. We begin to catch a glimpse of where God is going with this when we get to Genesis 22. We flip up to there and look at just the first couple of verses, Abraham has been promised to be the father of a great nation and he has one son. Is this the promised son? Is this the one who will crush the head of the serpent? Genesis 22 says this, the first couple of verses says, "After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, 'Abraham,' and he said, 'Here I am,' and he said, 'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.'" Jump down to verse 7, they get to the mountain and Isaac said to his father, 'Abraham, my father,' and he said, 'Here I am, my son,' he said, 'Behold the fire in the wood, but where's the lamb for a burnt offering?' Abraham said, 'God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son,' and they went both of them together. And they came to the place of which God had told him, 'Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in the altar and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.' And Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son, but the angel of the Lord called him from heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham,' and he said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.' And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, 'The Lord will provide.' As it is said to this day, 'On the mount of the Lord it has been provided.' Now consider this, could there be a bigger sign for us as we think about Jesus, the only begotten son, a father willing to sacrifice his only son? And yet Isaac, Isaac would not have been the perfect sacrifice. Isaac, too, had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. This was a test of Abraham's faith. Hebrews, chapter 11, verses 17 to 19, hopefully explains this when the preacher says, 'By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises, was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it is said, 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.' He considered that God was able even to raise him back from the dead, from which figuratively speaking he did receive him back. See, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham was saved by faith. He believed that if Isaac was the promised offspring, then God was able even to raise him from the dead, that God is a faithful God who will fulfill his promises. Can you see the theme of redemption being woven through the Scriptures here? In fact, it remains that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins, and so God provided the ram. On the mountain it will be provided from this one child family, Abraham, his wife Sarah, and their only son Isaac. We eventually come to a great nation, and yet in slavery in Egypt. We come to a family in need of redemption. I realize I'm skipping over some very big and important parts of the story, but a few generations later, this growing family went to Egypt to find some relief for a drought. And we read in Exodus chapter 1, so now turn over there. Exodus chapter 1, this Abraham and Isaac and the sons that come, they grow into a very large family that is now a people group. And they're in slavery in Egypt. In Exodus chapter 1, verse 8 says this, "Now there arose a new king over Egypt, and he did not know Joseph, and he said to his people, 'Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let's deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply, and if war breaks out they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh's store cities, Pitham and Ramses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves." Now jump down to the end of chapter 2. This chapter 2, really the last paragraph, verse 23, "During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God, and God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel, and God knew. He knew the promise that he had made of a Savior who would crush the head of the enemy. He knew the promise that he had made to Abraham of a land and seed or offspring, that he would be the father of a great nation, and that they would be a blessing. He knew that not only did his people need to be redeemed from their slavery, but they needed to be redeemed from their sin. He knew, and all the promises of God find their yes in Christ, and so we're given a glimpse of their redemption by the blood of the land. They are redeemed by the blood of the land, Exodus 12, verse 5. God gives this instruction for Passover. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it on the 14th day of this month when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight, and they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat, and then just jump down to verse 13. The blood shall be assigned for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. See, not only do the people of Israel need to be redeemed from their slavery, they need to be redeemed, they need to be saved from the wrath of God. And so God used the blood of the lamb to mark and redeem his people, and his prophet Moses led them into the wilderness to the mountain of God at Mount Sinai, the mountain where he would provide. The problem is, at this point, while they had been redeemed from their slavery to Egypt, their sin still remains. And so he provides them with essentially a microscope that will reveal their sin. He provides them with the law. And in Exodus chapter 19 verses 5 and 6, God makes this promise. This is the promise of the Mosaic covenant. God makes this promise, Exodus 19 verses 5 and 6, "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be, to me, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." He calls them two obedience, and also to make a provision for them, the law makes a provision for them, when they disobey. Later in the law, he will give this instruction, for example, to the high priest in Exodus chapter 30 verse 10. He says, "Eren shall make an atonement. The high priest shall make an atonement on its horns once a year. With the blood of the offering of atonement, he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout all your generations. It is most holy to the Lord." This is what is known as the day of atonement. The blood sacrifice on the day of atonement, specifically in Leviticus chapter 16 verses 9 and 10, he instructs them with very detailed instructions. We went through all of this in our study of Leviticus. But just verses 9 and 10 says this, "And Eren shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord, and use it as a sin offering." So it's to be butchered and offered to the Lord on the altar. "The goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make an atonement over it that it may be sent away into the wilderness of Azazel." That's the idea of a scapegoat. And so for a time, their sins are both covered and removed. Blood has been shed. One goat is butchered and burnt on the altar, and the other has the sin confessed over it, and it is sent out into the wilderness never to be seen again. Psalm 103 verse 12 says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgression from us." That's what's happening with the scapegoat. He is removing their transgression. But the day of atonement, the problem with that is it's an annual thing. Something is lacking. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 3 and 4 says this, "But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." It's temporary. It's temporary, the people of Israel, they still need a son, an offspring, who will finally and fully redeem them once and for all. The day of atonement was simply a shadow. It was a type of the better sacrifice to come. And so this scarlet thread of redemption continues to weave its way through the Bible. We see it here. We see it even as the people begin to finally conquer the promised land. The book of Joshua recounts for us the conquest of the land, and right near the beginning of the book of Joshua, they made a Gentile who would be saved because she would be saved because this is Rahab's own words, turn to Joshua 2. Joshua 2 verse 8, this is why Rahab is saved, just listen to this. Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, "Here's what she says, 'I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. But we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt. And what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath." Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all that belong to them and deliver our lives from death." And they respond in verse 18, "Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house, your father and your mother, your brothers and all your father's household." Rahab heard of the mighty deeds of God and believed for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven's above and on the earth beneath, Rahab heard and believed and was saved. And now we ought to be, we ought to be starting to grow in our understanding of the people of God because she's a Gentile, she's a prostitute actually, a sinner is saved here, and we could say this, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. But this scarlet cord here, it's more than just simply a sign for the Israelites, right? It's more than just simply a little marker for them, a secret signal. This woman is directly connected to the promised offspring, to the redeemer, even through, and the ladies are going to have to dig into this on Tuesday and Wednesday, even through the kinsman redeemer as they study Ruth, listen to part of the genealogy that I mentioned in Matthew, ram the father of Aminadab, Aminadab the father of Naishan, Naishan the father of Salman, Salman the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father Jesse and Jesse the father of David the king. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 31 says, "By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies, because she had believed in the Lord, and it was credited to her his righteousness. And God in his grace and mercy gives a Gentile prostitute a position of honor in Jesus' own family tree." This is what it means when we read that the righteous shall live by faith. Abraham believed God, it was credited to him as righteousness. The same is with Rahab here. And so we see with the conquest of the land that the Lord was true to his promises. But if they were to be a great nation with God ordained governing authorities, they were going to need the right king, right? Spoiler alert, the right king is the one who will be the king of kings. But until then, the Lord will graciously give them a king who was a man after God's own heart. Again, now we're skipping way ahead here. But this is King David, and King David is a type, he's a foreshadow of the king to come. And as such, David will poetically prophesy about the coming redeemer king. So Psalm 22 that David writes, he says this, "They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. And we know from the gospel account that those things happen to Jesus Christ on the cross. And it's no coincidence. It's no coincidence that this Psalm is the Psalm that Jesus was quoting when he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That's Psalm 22 1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" But probably, probably the most well-known prophecy of the redemption of Christ is the sacrifice of the spotless Lamb of God. We've already caught some glimpses of this, but there is Isaiah chapter 53, very explicit prophecy, Isaiah 53, who is believed when he's heard from us. And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed for? He grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. I could continue, time constrains us from plucking at all the strands of the threaded redemption throughout the Scriptures, throughout the Bible, but in the depths of the prophets. And the deepest waters of the Old Testament is the promise of a new covenant, Jeremiah chapter 31. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord. When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, Exodus 19, though I was their husband declares the Lord, where this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord. I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, "No, the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more." This is a promise, and all the promises of God find their yes, their end, their fulfillment in Jesus Christ as John the Baptist said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Hebrews chapter 10, verse 11 says, "Every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins, but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he was perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them. After those days declares the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds. Then he adds, "I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more." And where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. It is finished. It is finished. We must read the Bible with Jesus Christ at the center. We must read the scriptures eschatologically with the end, the fulfillment of all of his promises in view. In this we will find hope so that, as Paul writes here, we're dipping our toe back in 1 Thessalonians 1, as he writes at the very end of this chapter, "The name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." It is all about Jesus. Let's pray, Father, this is some of these things can be hard to understand and I pray that you would cause us to contemplate on these things, search the scriptures and so glorify the Savior, to lift high the name of Jesus Christ. And so, Father, as we come to the Supper now, as we see the redemption that you have promised, the plan that you have enacted before the beginning of time, we come with hearts of thankfulness, that Christ Jesus died to save sinners, that all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. We come proclaiming his death until he returns and we pray with John the Apostle, come quickly Lord. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]