II. But though the passage refers to the restoration of Jerusalem, it clearly does not stop there, but includes the redemption or deliverance of the Church. When I speak of the Church I am not speaking of those who have nothing more than outward Christianity: but of the Church of the first-born, that Church described in the words, Eph. v. 25, ‘Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.’ This Church is described in Eph. i. 14, as His ‘purchased possession,’ and all the members of it are now His own. They are His own by virtue of the ransom of the eternal covenant, and it is therefore called, Acts, xx. 28, ‘The Church of God which he purchased with his own blood.’ And they are His own by the call of the Holy Ghost, gathering them out from a wicked world, and by His divine power incorporating them into Christ. Thus in one sense they have been redeemed already, for the ransom has been given for their life, and they have found forgiveness through His precious blood. They may say, every one of them, as St. Paul did in the 7th verse of that same chapter in the Ephesians, ‘In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.’ But yet, according to the 13th verse, they are still waiting for redemption, and during the waiting time are solemnly sealed unto God, and assured of what is to come by the present earnest of the Spirit. ‘In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise;’ and so, in chap. iv. 30, they are told not to grieve the Holy Spirit, by whom they are ‘sealed unto the day of redemption.’ There is, therefore, hereafter to be a redemption of the purchased possession, a redemption of that which has already been redeemed, or, in other words, a final deliverance of the ransomed Church. The ransom is paid, but the time is not yet come for the ransomed Bride to be finally free, and presented to her Lord in glory.