Well, this is the last in these addresses, sermons that I've been giving, which are a potted version of the material that I gave conference in Zambia, where I was speaking over the Easter period. In truth, the subject redemption accomplished and applied would not really fit in four, seven addresses, but hundreds of addresses. We're barely touching the surface of these great truths as they pertain particularly to our Lord Jesus Christ. We've been in eternity. We've tried to fathom that which is beyond fathoming, the best that the human understanding, theologians, the Bible's open, can afford us. We've seen and perhaps sung in our hearts our great Redeemer's praise. We've noted the vital part our union with Christ plays in the work of redemption, both as it is accomplished and as it is applied. with liberation being such a large part of what redemption is. We then saw just how positive being redeemed is. While Christ as Redeemer has rightly been central in our thinking, we've also seen how in the great plan of God, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is vital in taking these things and making them effective in our soul by the initial work of the new birth. They've been complex, but rich spiritual realities, following on from redemption accomplished, which are part of the application of the fruits of Christ's obedience and death, as it contributes to the deep truths related to our sanctification. Truly, we have had to say it again and again, that there is virtually no doctrine that we do not touch upon as we consider redemption, as it links up with the work the Holy Spirit to change us inwardly and powerfully at that. So in this final sermon, perhaps appropriately, we're going to see where this all concludes. Redemption completed, if you like. Though in some ways it is never completed, but we regard our considerations as done for our purposes here when we've arrived in heaven. complete with our new resurrection body. For this is an important stage in redemption the Bible recognizes. We will see how redemption is applied to enable us to pass through this world into the next, intact, spiritually, spiritually still alive, so that we're then finally full citizens of heaven with redeemed bodies. Redemption is not restricted to this world and only to the benefits for the soul. The transformation of the body was always in view. Redemption, as it was conceived in the mind of God, carried out through the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus, and brought to life in us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, always, always had heaven in view. God knew the end from the beginning. Our union with Christ included all the steps from our birth until our death. Everything was provided for in the redemption accomplished at the cross. First heading, redemption of the body in view. In many ways, since we were brought to repentance and faith, we've been getting busy, getting ready for the big day. That's not to disparage what we are to be doing here on earth, but we're actually readying ourselves the day when we are called home. And if it is not the actual day of Christ's return, then the time when we are clothed with our new immortal body. Our best life is not now, it is to come. The scripture is clear on this. We are passing through this world, not saying put, or viewing ourselves as living here forever. The passage we read a moment ago from Ephesians 1, in that great sweep of God's purposes toward us as they're set out, how does that passage, Ephesians 1 to 14 finish? Well, verses 13 and 14 say this. In him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In him also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of his glory. There is the word again, rendered in English, redemption. Except this has taken us beyond our present experience to a further liberation to come. The purchased possession is us, but it is us in our entirety. We're alive at the moment, but we still have this body of death. It disappoints us, fails to cooperate with us, contracts illnesses, decays and robs us of the energy and strength to do all that we would wish to do for the Lord. When we were saved, while the making alive related firstly to our spiritual new birth, the kindling into life of our soul, there was always something more in view. The Lord was, unless he returns before our death, not intending to deliver us from the bondage of the present body to decay, if indeed we make it to old age in the first place, many do not. We have to live with this body in this present age, but not forever. The fact that we are spiritually alive through the Holy Spirit indwelling us is a guarantee that the Lord will also give us new bodies. The giving to us of the Holy Spirit, the language of scripture, is an arabon, a down payment, which will be fully paid when our new bodies are given to us. That is the complete redemption in view. This is the ultimate, and for our purposes this evening, complete liberation from all that sin had left us with. It is the removal of the last element of the death sentence the Lord imposed on the human race. By the new birth, it is as if the Lord has left a notice on us saying, intend to fully purchase soon. It is his promise. The Holy Spirit is the evidence of his intention to make good the promise. The liberation price paid at Calvary included our liberation from the slavery imposed on us by our fallen bodies with all their fallen and weak powers and desires. Our possessing new life now is sufficient evidence that the Lord will give our bodies liberation as well. That is the redemption in view in Ephesians 1 verse 14. The seal that we have now upon us through the possession of the Holy Spirit in the soul is evidence of the ownership the Lord now asserts over His people. They're released from bondage to sin and the devil. They're now owned by the Lord. They are His people by purchase through His Son's own blood. The regenerating power and now indwelling presence of the Spirit means that the Lord will also complete the redemption by renewing our bodies as well. Complete redemption. 2 Corinthians chapter five, verses one to five. The apostle writes. For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven. If indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked, For we who are in this tent grown, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, their mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now he who prepared this very thing for us is God, who also has given unto us the Spirit as a guarantee. Well, we recognize the same thoughts that we found in Ephesians 1. Paul is sharing the experience of Christians who know where they are going and what the Lord has prepared for them in glory. The temporary nature of the body is referenced in the illustration of the tent. It's old and wearing out. It makes us groan because we have spiritual desires that cannot be accomplished in this flawed and broken body. It makes us groan with longing to receive the proper clothing that will mark our completion. Many commentators think that the habitation which is from heaven is heaven itself. others that it is our resurrection body, whichever way. The tent is the present body, and we are waiting for what God has prepared for us. How do we know that we're not waiting in vain? The answer in 2 Corinthians 5 is the same as Ephesians 1 verse 14. He has given us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee. New life in the soul through the work of the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of new life for the body one day. All of this is included in the liberating effect of redemption. We're now under God's dominion, not sin's dominion or the devil's. The outcomes are a lot more positive. Here is the Apostle Paul, now in Romans 8, verses 23 to 25, he says this. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Well, this is speaking to us about more than we can entitle to expect when we die, but before the Lord returns. We call it the intermediate state. We are clothed with something, but it's not the final resurrection body. Romans 8, verses 23 to 25, looks onto the resurrection of the dead. There it is, the final union of the body and the soul. That is our new body, to live in the new heavens and the new earth. Notice again in Romans 8, the proximity of the reference about the Holy Spirit as being the first fruits. His presence in us is a token of the full harvest to come, the redemption of our body, setting us finally free from all the effects of sin. We will have more to say about this in a moment, but we also need to see the provision made for us through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus to enable us to persevere. This was in the reference in Romans 8, us eagerly waiting with perseverance for our final inheritance. Redemption, to apply the intention of God for our final and total liberation, must also include the means, the wherewithal, to keep going and to reach our heavenly home. Next heading, power to keep going. We often tell each other, at least as pastors and preachers, to keep pressing on. It's a kind exhortation to each other, yet the Lord has made provision to ensure that this is precisely what we will do. Those who have union with Christ in life, death, resurrection, and glory must have within the provision made over to us in the Redeemer's blood, particularly in our death to the power of sin and reception of the newness of life we now share with Christ, all that is needed to persevere until the last. It would be to defeat the eternal purpose of a covenant made in heaven, agreeing that the Son should have a people whom he would redeem, if he should then lose any that he had redeemed. For if they do not achieve the final goal of total redemption on the day of Christ's return, then they do not have redemption after all. They were not redeemed by Christ. Either his power has failed, or the person was never truly the Lord's in the first place. Look how it's framed in Romans 8, verses 28 to 30. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified. And whom he justified, these he also glorified. It's often pointed out, oh, you must point it out again, between those whom he justified and those who he also glorified, is the entirety of our Christian pilgrimage. It's vanished from view, at least as Paul lays out the great theme of how loved we are and what that love will accomplish for us. It will ensure our glorification takes place. The rest, our earthly pilgrimage, is left unmentioned in these verses, seen as good as done. That is all resting on the will of God and His purposes mean that it simply cannot fail. All of our trials and tribulations are subsumed somewhere in the notion of us being conformed into the image of His Son. There is a certainty, divine inevitability about the outcome. It is a plan that admits of no failure. The certainty of success means that we can omit, for Paul's purposes here, all the pathway of sanctification and everything we might comprise under the heading of the perseverance of the saints. It is so certain that it can, in an inspired way, be completely omitted and overlooked. certainty of the progress from justification to glorification is so certain and so secure that it need not even be mentioned. So it is as if perseverance is so secure that it is assumed by the apostle as obvious. Quite remarkable. That should give us in and of itself great hope and confidence as we pass through this veil of tears. But we know that perhaps some of us at least have a comparatively long way to go. There is much perseverance to do. There is a lot of work still to be done. There are maybe yet many years ahead that the Lord has given to us that will require our toil and our effort before we pass from this world to the next. What is more, there is so much uncertainty surrounding those years. What will those years hold for us? What unexpected events may come across our path? How will we cope with those things? We should take heart from the promise that all things, mentioned in Romans 8 verse 28, are working together for our good. What kind of things are included in all things? Later on in the same chapter, we're told this, Romans 8, reading from verse 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now we begin to understand what the all things that a working for our good might look like. They include the list of all things that here stand against us or might be thought to have such power that will completely undermine us and throw us off our pilgrimage. This is not exhaustive, but it does cover a whole range of possibilities. This is what perseverance has to battle through and prevail against. We're told that God will be with his people through all these things, tribulation, persecution, distress, famine, need, or violence. None of them have the capacity to stop us and defeat us. Paul concludes this treatment by further listing all the heavenly host that fights against us. Anything we might meet in this life, why not even death itself, will overcome us. In fact, we are more than conquerors. How so? because of the love of God. It is through him who loved us. It is the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord, from which we are never separated. We might think of some feeling of being loved that brings us through, may happen, yet it's really best thought of as something fundamental in the soul, a persuasion, such as Paul writes of, that holds to Christ come what may. That power of persuasion, That willingness to believe in the teeth of the most negative of providence is imaginable, is more than a feeling, it's really a fact, founded in the love of God. For that love is the grace that was purchased for our sakes at Calvary, and which works in the present time to bring us through all these trials safely. It's a union with us that helps us to live for him, come what may. It is love that supplies arguments, reasonings, persuasions, encouragements, truths, doctrines, hopes, Christ himself that we by faith lay hold of. These are deep spiritual realities that are beheld by the eye of faith and which have a holding and keeping power. The union that the Lord has with his people is an actual communion, a life in the spirit that never ends, which functions in this capacity until life here on earth ends. This is the final perseverance of the saints. It is the grace implanted in the soul through regeneration that can be never extinguished or removed. This is the real operation of a love that upholds us until the end. because love is determined that we will appear with the Lord in heaven at the last. We may be facing different trials and difficulties. If we're not, we might well be tomorrow. This is the fallen world we inhabit. Here are words from John Newton's fine hymn, Begone Unbelief. Why should I complain, he writes, of want or distress, temptation or pain? He told me no less. The heirs of salvation I know from his word. Through much tribulation must follow their Lord. Thank you, John Newton. We are as ever indebted to him. He has put something there for us to sing that captures well the pruneness within us to succumb. to unbelief and to lose heart. One of the clearest signs we're losing heart is that we give way to complaining. We bemoan our lot. We think we're the only people in the world with this particular set of burdens, worries or concerns. We think that no one else feels like we do. In a way, we who are pastors, physicians of soul, carry extra burdens by the very nature of the calling. We're burdened by lack of prayer, holiness, love for God, love for other people that we find in the churches. We read the Bible and we're grieved at what we see. We're grieved at the sin we find in wider society. There is much here, isn't there, in the UK at the time that is deeply offensive to the Christian conscience and national institutions and public bodies being shown up through public inquiries and the poverty of decision making and decision makers being cruelly exposed, whether it is the COVID-19 inquiry or the inquiry into the scandal at the post office, how These scandalise us, these serious miscarriages of justice. Our national public broadcaster, the BBC, is failing utterly in so many ways to accurately report the news. It is guilty of suppressing vital angles and shows, for example, a distressingly marked inclination to trotting out anti-Semitic attitudes and reporting. And that's before we've even looked at the corruptions of our own hearts, our failures to serve the Lord or the people that we have to care for. We are grieved at what we are and can easily lose heart. Yet none of these things is a reason to give up. As Newton's hymn read a moment ago reminds us, his word told us nothing less. We are to expect these things and look to God to use these things for the furtherance of his cause and for our progress in sanctification. These are the all things that are actually working for our good if we stop to consider the wider purposes of God and pray all the more for wisdom and grace. Redemption accomplished includes all the resources for us to come to the state where we might say that redemption is completed All we need to persevere through the distresses, the nakedness, the famine and the sword were obtained for us at Calvary and are available to us in the Word of God through the power of the Holy Spirit and especially to be accessed through prayer. Our union with Christ in all the achievements of his redemption can be expressed slightly differently within the language of Paul's memorable expressions in Romans 8, 35, and 39. It can be described as not being separated from the love of God, or put in that way, from all of his love. We're never apart. Indeed, we've never been apart since before the foundation of the world. We were not separated from him. but united to Christ in his life, his death, his resurrection, his risen life, intercession and his return. Today, we are united with him. He still communes with us through the word. through preaching, through conferences, through our hymns, and despite our sins and our infirmities. Redemption applied means that we're actually being made free as we journey along. We're being liberated from this world, from hoping too much in it, from hoping to get so much from it, from expecting so much from our holidays, our leisure, our rest even. who are being set free from unrealistic expectations. For example, we might secretly hope we'll be fortunate to escape with only a light brush with persecutions or trials. We like to try to write ourselves a script where we'll be successful, not suffer loss, have a sufficiency of money, have peace and tranquility of mind, never suffer betrayal by friends, never have someone lie against us. We'd like to feel that we're making progress, that is clear to us, that we can see exactly what the Lord is doing and what the next steps will be. But it's not so. It never has been for any true saint. It never will be for any true saint. And the Lord has spoken many times in his word about those things. So now my next and nearly final heading, redemption completed. So, Having thought of that term, redemption completed, well, I was pleased to find I had support in the language of John Bowie himself, who wrote this very helpful book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied. He makes the point that glorification and the redemption of the body is not the pre-resurrection state of the saints in what we've called the intermediate state with Christ, but is not, as yet, not fully clothed. No, it's the final state, the soul and body reunited at Christ's return that the scripture has in view. So I quote John Murray, quite lengthy quotation, stay with it, he says this, The redemption which Christ has secured for his people is redemption, not only from sin, but also from all its consequences. Death is the wages of sin, and the death of believers does not deliver them from death. The last enemy, death, has not yet been destroyed. It has not been swallowed up in victory. Hence, glorification has in view the destruction of death itself. goes on. It is the complete and final redemption of the whole person, when in the integrity of body and spirit, the people of God will be conformed to the image of the risen, exalted, and glorified Redeemer, when the very body of their humiliation will be conformed to the body of Christ's glory. Philippians 3 verse 21. God, he says, is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And therefore nothing short of resurrection to the full enjoyment of God can constitute the glory to which the living God will lead his redeemed. Christ is the first begotten from the dead. The firstfruits of them that have fallen asleep. He is the firstborn among many brethren. This is what the Lord has in mind for his people. This is all planned out. in eternity that his people should be freed from death and this body of death and enter into glory itself. So the final heading then is this, cosmic redemption. Cosmic redemption. For there is still more. For redemption of those who are in Christ Jesus is also redemption for all of creation. Christ's work on the cross and the shedding of his blood has also brought something new and hopeful for all creation. The new heavens and the new earth are not to be devoid of animal and plant kind. The consequences of Adam's sin have impacted the whole cosmos. There is a fallenness in all creation. There are dying stars. There are decaying energies. There is loss through dissipation by heat. Our genetic code suffers from coding errors leading to disabilities and afflictions. There is violence and cruelty in the world of nature. There are microbes and diseases capable of inflicting great damage on plant and animal life. Climate inevitably changes through all kinds of phenomena. Changes in the sun, changes in the atmosphere. They're out of control heavenly bodies, careering around in space. Nature has been hugely affected by the fall. But it too has a bright future. There is in the redemption accomplished at the cross, something for all of creation. Christ has not died for other creatures to save them from their sin, but he has died to save nature from the effects of our sin. Nature's future is bound up with the future of humanity as it was decisively impacted 2,000 years ago outside Jerusalem at the place of the skull. Men and women will marvel in the new heavens and the new earth, at nature perfectly restored in Christ. Our Lord is our Saviour. It is also more than being just redeemed mankind's Saviour. Hear what's written in Colossians 1 and verses 15 to 17. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for by him All things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. It's more than just about us. He is the firstborn over all creation. This speaks of a supremacy of position. His lordship is not confined to the affairs of men, most especially the church. It extends over all creation. He is given the title of creator over all things in heaven and all things on earth. All things were created through him, but not only that, they were created for him. He has an especial interest in the whole of creation. Not only that, he also has an interest in the recreating of all things at the time of his return. A lot else besides our bodies is going to be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. The new heavens and the new earth will be precisely that. There will be some continuity with what we are familiar with. There will also be non-continuity. as gone will be all the influences, effects, and traces of the fall. Christ died to obtain a new home for his people and advance on the present arrangements. It's still having the kinds and species that we've been familiar with in the world of nature. Paul has further things to say on this matter. Once again, in that central chapter eight in his letter to the Romans. While he's looking at very ultimate things, giving reasons for hope amidst trials, he also, by revelation, looks on to how all of creation is going to fare when redeemed man is glorified. These are but a few verses, but they're full of instruction. It's Romans 8, verses 18 to 22. He writes, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. the creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs until now. There's so much here that catches our eye. We can see whatever else, but the future of creation is bound up with us, the day that we gain our glorified state. Notice, too, the language that so clearly and closely coordinates with redemption, words like liberty and deliverance. The whole of creation is in a state of slavery. It is in bondage to corruption. It is nature reared in tooth and claw, death and decay, beautiful animals being hunted and eaten by other equally beautiful animals. The creation has been subject, as we see here, to corruption and death, despite our death having a spiritual dimension that the natural order lacks. In both cases, it is subjection by the will of God. He is the he who subjected creation in hope. Our being subjected as human beings contains the more penal aspects. After all, it was not giraffes or zebras or lions that disobeyed God. They were caught up in our rebellion, and have borne the consequences ever since the fall. Creation groans and labors, reaching for something better, having the latent potential of unspoilt beauty and wonder, but without death. Creation's liberation waits our complete redemption, our complete liberation and deliverance from all the effects of sin, the last enemy, the defeated being death itself. The very fact that the second person of the Trinity became man is a validation by God of creation, all of creation. Theologian Robert Letham observes, I quote him, the incarnation is nothing other than an affirmation by God of the value and validity of his creation and thus of space-time. Consequently, the resurrection itself is the affirmation of Christ's renewing, restorative work in and upon the creation. Redemption becomes a bigger and bigger theme as it looks forward to the completed church of the redeemed and the creation redeemed or set free as well. we do not have one without the other. All was intended when the Lord was lifted up on the cross and drew all men to himself. He was announcing also that creation too would have the penalty inflicted on it for our sin lifted. so that it would be liberated to become what it never could attain in its present state and in this present age. As we draw to close, let's give John Murray an opportunity to speak to us again. I quote from his book. He says, when we think of glorification, then it is no narrow perspective that we entertain. It is a renewed cosmos, new heavens, new earth, that we must think of as the context of the believer's glory. A cosmos delivered from all the consequences of sin, in which there will be no more curse, but in which righteousness will have complete possession and undisturbed habitation. So we finish. keep this mighty subject of redemption ever, ever before you. Because it will also mean that you are holding Christ before you. Redeemed people in a redeemed universe will amount to little unless the Redeemer himself holds centre stage there. He does. And just as he's been at the centre of everything in the plan and purposes of God from all eternity, so he will continue to be for all eternity. Amen.