Do Business with God

[0:00] Welcome again, God bless you today. We're going to go to the Word of God for an exhortation. And we're glad for visitors today as well. There's certainly a couple of faces I don't recall or haven't met before.

[0:18] So just feel welcome today with us in fellowship. God bless you today. I'd like to put to you today how every soul has to do business with God.

[0:34] Do business with God. Now I don't want to make this a crass kind of comparison, but there's many parallels between our connection with God.

[0:45] And you could put like a business transaction. Again, please don't take it that I'm making this very, a crass comparison, but it's a telling thought.

[0:57] I know some of you might have been involved in business or in some kind of transactional job where someone pays you for work done. The Word of God tells us how we can do business with God.

[1:13] It's as if salvation is kind of a transaction. There's a transaction that happens. And we can enter into a business transaction with God, I put to you today. So let me try to explain what I mean.

[1:25] And when you enter a business transaction, there's often a consultation. It starts with a consultation. You start to see where are you at and what your need is.

[1:36] And the Bible says this. The Lord Jesus, our God, our King, He says, Come now, Isaiah 1, verse 18. He says, Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord.

[1:49] Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as wool. They shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

[2:00] God's calling us to reason together with Him. In other words, to have that personal conference with Him. To personally confer with Him.

[2:11] He says, Come now and let us reason together. There's a sense where every man, every woman has to come before God Almighty and have that personal consultation.

[2:22] That personal conference with Him. And the word reason, it speaks of like a trial. Of a trial in a court. Of a legal confrontation. There's a legal aspect here.

[2:35] Friends, I believe it's putting to us this kind of, the solemn aspect that we all have to answer. We all have to face God and do business with God.

[2:46] Every man, every soul, every woman, every child has an encounter with God. And He says, Come and let us reason together.

[2:58] So there's a consultation. And there's no fee for that. Don't you like that? There's no fee for that consultation. It's a free consultation. And again, I'm not meaning to make light of this, but if you reflect on the parallels here, on the comparisons here, there's a consultation.

[3:16] It's offered for everyone. He says, Come, let us reason. Another aspect about this transaction, this doing business with God, is there is a cost.

[3:28] There is a cost. There is a cost. It's free to win the trust, but it is at a cost. It's a cost to the owner. There's a change of possession, a change of ownership.

[3:41] It's a transaction that happens when you trust Christ. The Bible says that we are bought. There's an actual payment made. There is a purchase price.

[3:52] There is a transaction that happens. Friends, there's a tremendous price that was paid for your saving. For every soul, a purchase is made possible because of a tremendous price that was paid.

[4:08] Again, we could put it in picturesque language. There's no deposit. There's no interest. And there's no repayments. All the costs have been paid once and for all paid.

[4:23] The payment was made once and once and for all. All the costs have been paid in full by the giver. Think of that. What a transaction we are offered.

[4:35] Truly. Of this transaction, for you, it can be truly said there is nothing to pay. You see that when people advertise things, don't you?

[4:46] There's nothing to pay. Just don't read the small print. You're actually going to pay multiple times over and you'll be paying debt on top of debt until you finally pay the last cent.

[4:59] But no, this transaction, there is nothing to pay. Nothing. Nothing. And there's no repayment for eternity. Think of that.

[5:10] I mean, really, it is true. This is true. The blood changes who you belong to. You're under new management.

[5:20] It says this, the church of God, Acts 20, verse 28, that he's purchased the church of God with his very own blood. With his own blood.

[5:32] He's purchased it with his own blood. Friends, this church is paid for. It's bought and paid for. Amen. This church, as in the people of God, it's bought, it's paid for, it's purchased with his own blood.

[5:45] the one who is the redeemer of the church, has purchased his church with his own blood. And this word purchased, it means bought, obtained, acquired.

[5:57] It means paid for at a price. The price was the cost of his own blood. Think of blood, of bloodshed.

[6:08] It's a telling picture. Friends, during the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell sentenced a soldier to be shot for his crimes. You know, the ruler of the land, Oliver Cromwell, he said, this man is to be shot, he's committed a crime.

[6:25] And the girl to whom he was engaged, pled with Cromwell. She said, please have mercy, grant pardon. But he was resistant to her pleadings, to her request.

[6:37] And this man, Cromwell, he said, look at the evening curfew bell. When they strike the bell, they're going to shoot this man.

[6:49] He was going to be executed at the sound of the evening bell. And so, arrangements were made. But when the bell ringer pulled the rope, in the, you know, as they, they would pull this rope to ding the bell in the, in the belfry, the tower, the bell ringer pulled, and pulled, but no sound.

[7:13] The bell didn't ring to signal the execution. What had happened is the soldier's fiancée had climbed into the belfry and wrapped herself around the clapper of the bell.

[7:26] And as it was swinging, she was holding it, and it could not strike the bell. The clapper, the little thing that's inside the bell, she was holding it tight.

[7:37] And while she was holding it tight, she stopped the sound, but in the time that it was happening, her body was smashed and bruised. But she did not let go until the clapper stopped swinging.

[7:51] Then she managed to climb down, and Cromwell was there, and she showed Cromwell her bruised and bleeding hands. And Cromwell's heart was touched, and he freed the man.

[8:01] There was a cost, there was a price paid, there was bloodshed, there was bleeding hands that brought his freedom because of love, because of love.

[8:12] And it's the same for you and me today, friends. The bleeding hands and feet of our precious Lord are the purchased price, and the cost is free to you.

[8:25] But it cost him everything. Friends, we read likewise of Revelation 5, verse 9, as they sang a new song, the gathered throng.

[8:35] It says, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou art slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.

[8:46] Now we've got numbers of people from every kindred and tongue and people and nation here. One day we'll all be in the gathered throng, and we can say, thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.

[9:00] That was the purchased price, by his blood. Now we were once slaves, now we're redeemed, purchased. We can't think of these terms so much in modern times, but not that many years ago, some of us could have been slaves, and we would have gone to a market, to a slave market, and we would have been marketed as commodities to buy and sell for someone to purchase, to buy us.

[9:29] And so the picture there is for us of this great love, this great lover of our soul, that he would purchase us out of the slave market and then set us free.

[9:42] And 1 Corinthians 6 verse 20, it says, you are bought with a price. Wow, what a price. The one who loves you so has bought you. He's got the right of possession.

[9:54] He has bought us. Consider the price, the cost of this payment. Think of this cost, friends. What it cost.

[10:05] Salvation. The cost of salvation. There's a story told of a lawyer's wife who was away from her husband. She was in Europe and she was considering buying a tapestry, a lovely tapestry, as some folk like to do, as some wives like to do.

[10:24] They see something nice and they contacted, she contacted her husband. In those days it was by cable, so a message in printed form.

[10:34] And she asked her husband, look, it's $25,000. told us, is it okay if I buy it? No. No, was her husband's reply. Price too high.

[10:47] But she returned from Europe and she brought the tapestry with her and her husband asked, why have you disregarded my reply? She showed him the cable, it replied, it ran, no price too high.

[11:00] No price too high. So she thought, okay, no price too high, I'll pay the $25,000. Now friends, it's like that with salvation, isn't it? For man's redemption, no price was too high to save your soul.

[11:13] No price was too much for him to pay to save you. No price was too high that he would shed his very precious blood that you can be saved today. Man's redemption, no price was too high.

[11:26] Even the blood of his son. And this business transaction we've got, it comes at a cost and he's paid it in full, hasn't he? He's paid the cost in full.

[11:38] Amen. Another thing about this business transaction, if you like, is there's a contract. There's a contract. In this business like dealing with God, you have to enter into a contract.

[11:50] And this contract has got, it's a joint agreement between two parties. This contract, it's signed with his own blood and it affects two things. You could say it affects two things.

[12:02] It draws us closer to God, it brings closeness to God and it brings covenant with God. This contract, it brings closeness to God. In Ephesians 2.13 it says, but now in Christ Jesus, you who are sometimes where far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

[12:20] We were so far, far away from God, estranged from God, separated from God by our sin. He's brought us near. He's drawn us near by that magnetic power of his drawing love, of his bloodshed.

[12:34] He closes that gap and he makes us near to God. He draws us near to God by the blood of Christ. And the two parties are joined together in this contract.

[12:46] There's a wonderful closeness, a closing of the gap. And secondly, this contract brings a covenant with God. This cup is the New Testament in my blood.

[12:57] It tells us. In other words, it's a new agreement. This is a blood purchased contract. This is a blood paid contract. The word testament, it means contract.

[13:09] It means concord. It means covenant. This covenant, this contract, it's not on equal terms. God disposes everything as man disposes of his property by will.

[13:23] So, this contract is affected by God's working and simply our receiving. This contract is not equal in the sense that he's done all of the work and everything that has to be made to make this work, this contract.

[13:42] So, we see there's a wonderful blessing there. another aspect of this business transaction with God is conditions apply.

[13:55] Conditions apply. This turns to this agreement. Not everybody gets to benefit.

[14:07] There's conditions that we have to meet. There are terms to this agreement. You have to meet the conditions. You know, you could say in a kind of worldly language, this offer is to approved applicants only.

[14:26] Faith signs the deal. It completes the transaction. It says this, that of Christ, who God has set forth a propitiation through fame in his blood.

[14:39] The conditions are faith. That's the condition. Believe. God has set forth to Christ as a propitiation, as this atoning victim, as this life-giving sacrifice, as the one who is the source of mercy and salvation.

[14:59] He set him forth for those who through faith in his blood will receive that gift. It's a big condition. You must believe. You have to believe.

[15:12] And it's simple. it's almost like, how easy is that? It's simple to believe. This word propitiation, it speaks of the lid of the Ark of the Covenant, of the mercy scene, made of pure gold, where the high priest would sprinkle the blood on the great day of atonement.

[15:36] It's this place of atonement, of making us at one, at one, at atonement, at one with God. And here was where the glory of God came.

[15:47] Friends, this business arrangement is conditional on certain requirements being met. Have you come to the mercy seat? Have you come to the mercy seat?

[15:58] Have you come to the throne of grace? In the book of Hebrews, Christ is the priest, the altar, and the sacrifice. Friends, the cross is the mercy seat.

[16:10] It's the place where God's mercy is revealed. The cross, once and for all. Note, the offer is for a limited time only.

[16:22] It's for a limited time only. Friends, some people are going to miss out. They're going to miss out on this offer. It's going to be offered to them and they're going to refuse it and they're not going to get another opportunity. We see folk like that when we're witnessing and they say, not interested.

[16:39] one day they will be very much interested. Friends, this offer is for a limited time only. In the word of God, it says, behold, now is the accepted time.

[16:53] Behold, now is the day of salvation. We know in Noah's day, the flood came. Just prior to that, God shut the door.

[17:06] God shut the door. He said, time's up. Planet Earth, no more opportunity. No, it's for a limited time only. You had to get on the ark while the door was open.

[17:18] Friends, the door's going to close. The door's going to close for planet Earth again. I urge you, I urge you, behold now, behold, now is the accepted time.

[17:31] Behold, now, N-O-W is the accepted time. Behold, today, today, yes, the day of salvation. That can be true for you.

[17:43] But you must meet the conditions, you must meet the conditions. It is limited to whosoever will. Whosoever will.

[17:53] Are you a whosoever will or a whosoever won't? You're one or the other. It's only two camps. You're either a whosoever will or you're a whosoever won't.

[18:05] In other words, you'll say yes or you'll say no. It's that simple. I can't make it really any clearer, can I? But at the moment, any human qualifies to enter into the contract as they meet the conditions, I believe, through faith in his blood.

[18:26] Amen. Another aspect of this business transaction is that there is complete contentment assured. complete contentment.

[18:36] Full satisfaction is guaranteed. And again, I'm not meaning to be crass with this illustration, but the sense that if you commit in this transaction, if you do business with God, there's a complete contentment in your soul.

[18:54] Paul said, in whatsoever state I am, I've learned to be content. He found that contentment deep down in his soul. Here's a man in prison, in chains, in much suffering.

[19:06] He says, I'm content. There's contentment in Christ. There's satisfaction in Christ. No matter what the externalities of your life, there's a contentment in Christ. There's a peace in your mind, a peace in your soul that overtakes any other consideration of your life.

[19:26] Because that is the peace of God that passes all understanding. it will keep your hearts, keep your minds. In Hebrews it tells us how we've got boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

[19:45] And this word boldness, it speaks of an assurance, it speaks of a confidence, it speaks of that full freedom and access that we have. That you that are saved, that have entered into this business dealing with God, that you've dealt with the business of your soul, of the business of eternity, of the business of facing God, of doing business with God, you have a free access to his very person and a freedom in Christ.

[20:16] So enter in by the virtue of the blood and you can enter in, it says, to the very holy place, the holiest of places, the holy of holies, the sanctuary. There's no holding it back from that full communion and fellowship with him.

[20:32] And Paul says, God forbid that I should glory. There's nothing else I want to tell the world about, there's nothing else I want to be shouting about, but the blood, the cross, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[20:45] He said, God forbid I should glory except in this, the cross, the cross, it means everything. There's complete contentment. Paul says, I never boast of anything but the cross.

[20:59] The cross is essential. There's a story of a wartime, the Great Ball War, where some British troops were overwhelmed.

[21:11] They were under heavy fire in the front lines, and they were lying there in this perilous position. They were wounded facing certain death, and they realised they had to have some protection of a red cross flag.

[21:25] To survive. All they had was a piece of white cloth, but no red paint. So they used the blood from their wounds to construct a large red cross flag, to paint the cross, the red cross flag, the sign of a hospital, on this white piece of cloth.

[21:44] And their attackers respected that green flag that was held aloft by the display of their very blood on this flag. They were brought to safety.

[21:55] Friends, the safety in the blood of Christ. The safety for you that know the Saviour, the safety for you. Because of the blood of Christ today, there's complete satisfaction, there's complete salvation.

[22:09] He's a complete Saviour. Friends, the salvation is full. It's promised, it's a full salvation. There is a complete contentment, there's a full satisfaction here.

[22:22] This is not some kind of salvation you've got to add to by some kind of working of your own to keep it up to date, to keep it valid. Once you have possession of this salvation, it is completely up to date.

[22:38] There's no new improved model. You can't add to your salvation in so far as the saving of yourself. We should add to our faith, yes, we should grow in our faith, yes, but you can't add to your salvation as such to save you.

[22:55] It's not faith plus what you do, it's faith alone that saves. Our Lord Jesus said, he declared it and it was a legal declaration, it is finished.

[23:08] It was declared there, nothing needs to be added to that contract, absolutely nothing needs to be added to this transaction. There's no hidden clauses in the fine print. Some would think that your salvation has got to be somehow manufactured or maintained by yourself, but no, there's none of that.

[23:26] It's all of him, it's all of him. And, you know, sometimes when you think of life's troubles and toils, we can get tested through life and we face the human lot of man, the rain falls on the just and the unjust.

[23:43] as a Christian you're still going to have some fighting and troubles and hurts, but when you think that you've got full contentment in Christ, it makes everything else pale into insignificance.

[23:57] There's a story of a man, again a wartime story, a young soldier in a foxhole in the middle of a wartime and the bullets were flying around and shells bursting all about him and he'd not received mail for weeks and weeks and so he was delighted when someone said you've got mail and he had a letter addressed to himself.

[24:16] He was so delighted, even in the midst of this imminent danger he quickly opened the, he ripped open the envelope thinking it would be some good news from home and he burst out laughing as he read the message from a business establishment in his hometown that said this, your account is seven days overdue.

[24:35] If the balance of $25 is not paid in seven days, you'll be in serious trouble. No friends, there's trouble in our life, there's trouble in our world. As a Christian you don't get out of trouble, you're in trouble, but friends, it puts everything into context doesn't it?

[24:52] You've got complete contentment in Christ, you've got full satisfaction in Christ, you're saved and you know it and you're ever saved, forever saved and it puts the context of life in a different aspect.

[25:05] There's full redemption, there's full release from the chains of sin, redemption, it speaks of deliverance, of setting us free and it tells us that we redeem. It says we have redemption through his blood, forgiveness of sins, think of that, every sin forgiven, by his grace you can be forgiven.

[25:25] You know, I know one of our door knockers goes out there and talks about the dastarliest deed of sin that you can do and you know, even if you are a murderer, you can be forgiven, you can be forgiven, completely forgiven, whatever your ugliest sin that you can contemplate you've ever done, there's forgiveness through his blood, there's redemption through his blood and how so?

[25:55] Through the riches of his grace. The one we're talking about here, he's more wealthy than the world's greatest billionaire, it tells in the word of God of the riches of his grace, don't you want some of that?

[26:08] I'd like to have some of that in my bank account, wouldn't you? The riches of his grace, wouldn't you like some of that? It talks about the exceeding riches of! It talks about the unsearchable riches of Christ.

[26:21] In contrast, the Bible talks about those who trust in uncertain riches. We can trust in uncertain riches or we can have the unsearchable riches of Christ.

[26:31] Which would you rather have? Friends, the riches of his grace is available by faith to you. Trust him. And there's a release on receipt of a ransom, that's the sense of it.

[26:47] Redemption means release on the sense of a ransom. You know, you hear these hijackers who are saying, well, release the hostages for a sum. Well, our God releases us by the payment of his ransom.

[27:01] It's precious. The precious blood speaks of valuable blood. It speaks of, in 1 Peter 1 verse 18, precious, it means valuable, it means costly.

[27:19] Nothing can match the precious payment. The business transaction is offered to you. Friends, you can be set free from the curse of Satan and sin, and be set free, set free, free, free indeed.

[27:38] Consider this, contract today, it comes at a cost, it involves a contract, conditions apply, there's complete contentment, and lastly, there's an ultimate compensation plan.

[27:51] You know, I could say I'm selling eternal life insurance, here, so there's a compensation plan that is, you know, unbeatable. Nothing can beat this. You know, seriously though, it is true, isn't it?

[28:05] Nothing compares with that which God extends as he's offered to you, that tremendous peace, that wonderful reward. He offers peace with man, peace with God.

[28:17] There's a dramatic change of our standing and state. We're changed it says from being enemies to being friends. Change of relationship. Once you were enemies, it says, you're reconciled, made his friends, and it's by the atonement, it says.

[28:36] Once slaves, now brought near. Once far away, now close. Once bound, now free. Once enemies, now friends. The Bible says that our sins have separated us from God.

[28:51] Your sins have hit his face from you. Do you want to stay there? Or do you want to know him? To know him as your saviour. It's the most wonderful thing to have friendship with God.

[29:04] A preacher was once asked, is it necessary to have a personal experience of Christ, to be a Christian? And the preacher said, my friend, a personal experience of Christ is Christianity.

[29:17] It's a personal experience. It's personal. Only you can enter into it for yourself with God. It's between you and God. Do business with God today. Do business with God.

[29:30] It says he can make peace through the blood of his cross. He is the peacemaker. At the moment, if you're outside of Christ, whether you realise it or not, you're in rebellion against him.

[29:42] You're shaking your fist in his face in effect by not receiving him. But you can extend your hand and take hold of his. By faith today, he wants to make peace.

[29:54] And friends, this peace is not some truth, not some short-term peace treaty. It's a peace everlasting. It's a peace forever. Praise him.

[30:05] And he wants to reconcile us to God by the cross. He kills the hostility through the cross. There's a story of a husband and wife.

[30:18] They'd been separated from each other. They'd moved away from each other. They lived in different parts of the country. There was some difference there. The husband happened to come back to the hometown on business.

[30:30] And while he was there, he went to the cemetery to visit the grave of his only son. Standing by the grave, he heard the footsteps behind him and he turned to see his estranged wife and come to visit the grave as well.

[30:43] The initial impulse of the both of them was to turn away. But they had a common interest in that grave and instead of turning away, they clasped hands over the grave of their son and they were reconciled.

[30:56] They were reconciled by death. Friends, we're reconciled by the death of our Saviour. We're reconciled because of the body of Christ. We're reconciled because of the cross of Christ.

[31:08] Because of the death of our Saviour, we can be reconciled with God. We can know peace with God today. And it's peace which is forever, which will keep our hearts and minds.

[31:21] Friends, do business with God. He says, come now.

[31:36] Let us reason together. You've got to come to God for yourself. Your friends, your family can't do it for you. It's you and God. One day you will face him face to face.

[31:47] There's a consultation. He says, come. Come to him. Let's reason together. There's a cost. It's fully paid. You can't pay any of the cost yourself.

[32:02] You must receive his payment. There's a contract. It's by joint agreement of two parties. You and God. It's a covenant, a contract.

[32:13] An agreement can be made such that you can receive his pardon. There's conditions that must be met. You must believe. Believe him. Come to God.

[32:24] Believe that he is. Come to him. Call on his name and you shall be saved. There's complete contentment. Nothing compares with this. It's fully guaranteed by the declaration of God almighty in black and white and red in your Bible.

[32:39] It's there for you to take it. Do business for God. There's a compensation plan. It's out of this world. A compensation plan is beyond our I cannot see noise that ear heard the things that God has prepared for them that love him.

[32:58] I can't paint you a picture beautiful enough of what awaits you that believe. It's going to be beyond our wildest dreams. And pardon me if I'm sounding like a salesman here this morning but I urge you to take this offer.

[33:16] Honestly I'm using colloquialisms here but honestly and truly this is too good to refuse is it not? We can't afford to miss this. If you're outside of Christ and you're hearing this Lord I pray you'd simply trust him.

[33:32] Say yes Lord I receive. Let's pray. Lord we love you. We praise you. The great offer of your love gift is beyond our comprehension that you would even consider granting it to unworthy ones.

[33:51] Lord such as me. Lord God we give you thanks for the precious blood, the payment made and the free gift offered to those who will receive it.

[34:03] pray if there's any here present that would say that's me I want to receive it. That you would simply call out to him and say Lord Jesus thank you for dying on the cross for my sin.

[34:17] For paying that payment of it that I can trust you and receive it. That gift of salvation in Jesus name. Lord we pray for each believer that we might have the same wonder of this wonderful grace and want to tell others too that we can share it with them.

[34:38] In Jesus name. Amen.ยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยย