Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1581
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, January 30, 1881
“And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, When you take the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when you number them; that there be no plague among them, when you number them. This they shall give, everyone that passes among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs): an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. Everyone that passes among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for their souls. And you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the Tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for their souls.” Exodus 30:11-16.
“A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men. And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the veil; an hundred sockets ofthe hundred talents, a talent for a socket.”
Exodus38:26-27.
WILL you kindly open your Bibles to Exodus 30, for I must commence my discourse by expounding that passage. When the account was taken of the number of the children of Israel, the Lord commanded that every male over 20 years of age should pay half a shekel as Redemption money, confessing that he deserved to die, acknowledging that he was in debt to God and bringing the sum demanded as a type of a great Redemption which would, by-and-by, be paid for the souls of the sons of men. The truth was thus taught that God’s people are a redeemed people—they are elsewhere called, “the redeemed of the Lord.” If men reject the Redemption which He ordains, then they are not His people, for of all His chosen it may be said—“The Lord has redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than
he.”
Whenever we attempt to number the people of God, it is absolutely necessary that we count only those who at least profess to have brought the Redemption price in their hands and so have taken part in the Atonement of Christ Jesus. David, when he numbered the people, did not gather from them the Redemption money and, therefore, a plague broke out among them. He had failed in obedience to the Lord’s ordinance and counted his subjects, not as redeemed people, but merely as so many heads. Let us always beware of estimating the number of Christians by the number of the population of the countries called Christian, for the only true Christians in the world are those who are redeemed from iniquity by the blood of the Lamb and have personally accepted the ransom which the Lord has provided—personally brought their Redemption money in their hands by taking Christ to be theirs and presenting Him, by an act of faith, to the great Father.
God has upon earth as many people as believe in Jesus Christ and we dare not count any others to be His but those who can say, “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” We must not count heads which know about Christ, but hands which have received the Redemption money and are presenting it to God. We must not
count persons who are called Christians by courtesy, but souls that are Christly in very fact because they have accepted the atoning Sacrifice and live before God as “redeemed from among men.” Observe that this Redemption, without which no man might rightly be numbered among the children of Israel, lest a plague should break out among them, must be personal and individual. There was not a lump sum to be paid for the nation, or 12 amounts for the 12 tribes—each man must bring his own half shekel for himself.
So there is no Redemption that will be of any use to any of you unless it is personally accepted and brought before God by faith. You must, each one, be able to say for yourself concerning the Lord Jesus, “He loved me and gave Himself for me.” The doctrine of general redemption, which teaches men to say, “Oh, yes, we are all sinners, you know. Christ died for us, for He died for us all,” lays a very poor foundation for comfort. We need not so much a general as a personal redemption—a Redemption which actually redeems and redeems us as individuals! The great Sacrifice for the sin of man must become to us a personal Atonement, for only so can we realize its efficacy. You must, each one, bring Christ to the Father, taking Him into your hands by simple faith. No other price must be there and that price must be brought by every individual, or else there is no acceptable coming to God.