IT is perfectly clear that the redemption alluded to in these words is something still future. It is the bright hope which is to cheer the little flock through the storms of the latter days. When the world is full of perplexity, and men’s hearts are failing them for fear, the Lord’s people are to look up in calm, happy, peaceful, trusting hope in the full assurance of their approaching redemption. ‘When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.’ It is perfectly clear, therefore, that our Lord was not speaking of the great redeeming act which took place eighteen hundred years ago on Calvary, but of the final deliverance, the completion of His redeeming work, when He will come in His kingdom and set His people free. This final deliverance must be our subject in this lecture. May the Lord bless it to our souls, and grant that, when the time comes, we may be amongst those who rejoice in the blessing! * * * * * I. The redemption here spoken of is the deliverance of Jerusalem. We must not isolate the passage from its context, or forget that the words were spoken to Jewish believers. Thus up to the end of the 24th verse our Lord foretold the destruction of Jerusalem with the terrible afflictions that were to precede it, concluding with the words, ‘Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.’ Then follows the description of the latter days, and all the perils preceding the advent, concluding with the words, ‘Look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.’ Surely, then, there is a connexion between the 24th and 28th verses. The one describes the desolation, and the other the recovery: the one the bondage, the other the freedom; the one the captivity, the other the deliverance; the one the iron yoke on the neck of the captive, and the other the glorious restoration when the Deliverer shall appear in Zion. * * * * *