4. The blood of Jesus Christ is the purchase money of the flock;- already paid. As it is written:-" Take heed.... to.... the flock.... to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." (Acts 20:28.)
I notice here that the flock is God's; even the church in its poor, militant, wilderness state: and it has been purchased already, and a goodly price paid for it. Judas and the priests fixed the price of Jehovah of Hosts, when He was in the temple, at thirty pieces of silver. (Zech. 11:12, 13.) God's price for the church is the blood of Him who was the Son of God. As we wonder that Judas should have kept to his covenant, and done such an act for so mean a price; so, surely, the greatness of the price God has paid assures us He will not depart from His covenant. If a man buys anything he longs for, and pays for it, we know how tenacious he is of his right to have it; so that nothing but want of power can cause him to leave both purchase money and goods bought in the hands of the seller. The greatness of the price God fixed, show was the measure of His desire; the price is paid, and has He not power, in His own time, to appropriate that He has purchased?