A King's Ransom (1 Peter 1:1-21)

Kootenai Church iconKootenai Church

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Christians have been purchased from slavery to sin at an incredibly high price, the death of the eternal Second Person of the Divine Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ. Contemplation of this reality is great motivation for lives of obedience.

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If you try to help in time of need She will always be your piece
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If you are for us, who can be against us?
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If you are for us, we'll never be ashamed
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If you are for us, who can be against us?
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If you are for us, we'll never be ashamed
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Ashamed God is our refuge, our shelter and our strength
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For our fortress, our rock and our defense
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God is our refuge, our help in time of need
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He will always be our piece
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Lord, you are our fortress Lord, you are our rock
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Lord, you are our refuge, our shelter and our strength
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Always be our piece I lift up my eyes to the hills
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From where does my help come? I lift up my cup
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My help comes from the
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Lord Who made heaven and earth
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He will not let your foot be moved
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He who keeps you will not slumber
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Lord, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep
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I lift up my eyes to the hills From where does my help come?
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I lift up my eyes to the hills From where does my help come?
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The Lord is your keeper The Lord is your shade on your right
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The sun shall not strike you by day
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Nor the moon by night The Lord will keep you from evil
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He will keep your light
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I lift up my eyes to the hills From where does my help come?
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I lift up my eyes to the hills My help will keep your cold
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And you'll come winning From this time forth and forevermore
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Forevermore I lift up my eyes to the hills
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From where does my help come? I lift up my eyes to the hills
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From where does my help come? I lift up my eyes to the hills
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From where does my help come? From where does my help come?
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From where does my help Who made heaven and earth?
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How sweet the place where you dwell,
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O Lord My soul longs and faints for you
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My heart sings out the loud song of joy
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For I have known the living God I want to be where you are,
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O Lord I'd rather have just one day with you
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Than be anywhere else There's no good thing that you will withhold
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From those who live to follow you
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I'd rather be your servant,
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O God Than have the riches of this world
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I want to be where you are, O Lord I'd rather have just one day with you
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Than be anywhere else Those who follow you
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Go from strength to strength Those who trust in you
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I fill with joy Those who follow you
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Go from strength to strength Those who trust in you
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I fill with joy I want to be where you are,
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O Lord I want to be where you are,
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O Lord I'd rather have just one day with you
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Than be anywhere else Than anywhere else
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Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven
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Whose sin is covered Blessed is the man against whom the
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Lord counts no iniquity And in whose spirit there is no deceit
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For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
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Through my groaning all day long For day and night your hand was heavy upon me
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My strength was dried up just by the heat of summer
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I acknowledged my sin to you
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And I did not cover my iniquity
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I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord You forgave the iniquity of my sin
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Therefore let everyone who is godly Offer prayer to you at a time when you may defile
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Surely in the rush of midwaters They shall not be cheated
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You are a hiding place for me
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You preserve me from trouble
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You surround me with shouts of deliverance
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You are a hiding place for me
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You preserve me from trouble
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You surround me with shouts of deliverance
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I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go
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I will counsel you with my eye upon you Be not like a horse and mule without understanding
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Which must be curbed with a bidding rival Or it will not save you
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We're glad you joined us this morning. Would you please stand? We're going to sing a few hymns this morning, getting started with the Solid Rock.
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My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness
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I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name
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On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all underground is sinking sand
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All underground is sinking sand
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His oath is covenant, His blood supports me in the whelming flood
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When all around my soul gives way, even as all my hope bends away
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On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all underground is sinking sand
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All underground is sinking sand When He shall come with trumpets sound, oh may
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I then in Him be found Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne
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On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all underground is sinking sand
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All underground is sinking sand I will sing of my
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Redeemer and His wondrous love to me
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On the cruel cross He suffered, from the curse
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He set me free Sing, oh sing of my
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Redeemer, with His blood He purchased me
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On the cross He sealed my pardon, made the dead and made me free
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I will tell the wondrous story, how
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I lost the strength to say In His boundless love and mercy,
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He the ransom freely gave Sing, oh sing of my
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Redeemer, with His blood He purchased me
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On the cross He sealed my pardon, made the dead and made me free
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I will sing of my Redeemer and His heavenly love for me
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He from death to life hath brought me, Son of God, with Him to be
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Sing, oh sing of my Redeemer, with His blood
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He purchased me On the cross He sealed my pardon, made the dead and made me free
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The mystery of the cross
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I cannot comprehend, the agonies of Calvary You, the perfect Holy One, crushed
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Your Son, drank the bitter cup reserved for me
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Your blood has washed away my sin,
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Jesus, thank You The Father's wrath completely satisfied,
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Jesus, thank You Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table,
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Jesus, thank You By Your perfect sacrifice,
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I've been brought near Your enemy, You've made
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Your friend Pouring out the riches of Your glorious grace
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Your mercy and Your kindness owe no end
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Your blood has washed away my sin, Jesus, thank
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You The Father's wrath completely satisfied, Jesus, thank
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You Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table,
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Jesus, thank You Lover of my soul,
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I want to live for You Lover of my soul,
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I want to live for You Lover of my soul,
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I want to live for You Lover of my soul,
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I want to live for You Your blood has washed away my sin,
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Jesus, thank You The Father's wrath completely satisfied,
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Jesus, thank You Your blood has washed away my sin,
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Jesus, thank You The Father's wrath completely satisfied,
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Jesus, thank You Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table,
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Jesus, thank You You may be seated.
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Well, good morning. Just one announcement and reminder that the choir practices today after the service in the room that is off of the back of the sanctuary here.
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I wanted to make you aware of a couple of prayer concerns, so I'm going to switch up how we do announcements here this morning. We're going to pray first, and then we'll read the
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Scripture after the prayer. But I wanted to bring a couple of things to your attention that we could be praying for. First, of course, we're all aware of what's going on in Ukraine and how that is affecting various Christian populations there.
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There is a sense in which what we are seeing transpire happens on smaller scales and even a similar scale all over the world all the time.
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The difference is that this one is put in front of our face 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and we are forced to pay attention to this, and so we are reminded that this is going on.
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But this is not an anomaly in and amongst other nations. This type of stuff happens all the time because God is ruling, and we should not forget this,
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God is ruling in the affairs of men, and all of this is under His sovereign control. Whatever He is doing,
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He is doing to put together and to put into place all of the pieces so that He can accomplish His redemptive purposes.
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And I was reminded of that this last week. I was at the Shepherds Conference down in Los Angeles at John MacArthur's church.
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There was a Shepherds Conference, over 80 different nations represented there with pastors from over 80 countries.
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And, of course, some of those are Russian. John MacArthur has probably amongst any ministry in the world
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Grace Community Church has a larger and more influential presence in Russia than probably any other single ministry.
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Whether it's the MacArthur Study Bible or the messages translated into Russian or the outreach of the Master's Academy or the
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Master's University, the Master's Academy International, Master's University, Grace to You, all of that has such an impact in Russia.
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So there were a lot of Russian pastors that were at the Shepherds Conference. I met a couple of them, Romanian, and, of course, there are
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Ukrainian pastors there. One of the things that John MacArthur shared before one of the main sessions is that the nation of Ukraine has the largest number of Christians of any nation in Europe in the nation of Ukraine.
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He said that there was a Polish pastor who was there whom he had met with earlier that day who said to John, there are more evangelical
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Christians at this conference than we have in the nation of Poland. He said, how many hundreds of thousands of people were at Grace Community Church?
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4 ,500 men, that's all that was there. Europe is very dark. But they shared at Shepherds Conference that one of the effects of what is going on is that, and John has spoken with some of these missionaries who are huddled down, bunkered down in basements and in homes with large numbers of unbelievers.
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The church has been scattered in the Ukraine and, of course, pushed out of the Ukraine, but a number of these Christians are hunkered down and their unbelieving neighbors are coming to them for provision of food and water and shelter and the
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Christians are having an opportunity to share the gospel. And he said large numbers of people are coming to faith in Christ as a result of this.
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Not only that, but this is forcing massive numbers of people to leave the Ukraine and take the gospel into the rest of Europe.
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Now, do you remember what happened in Acts chapter 9 when the church was persecuted? Everybody fled to all of the other regions around and the gospel went out from that place.
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This is just a glimpse at what God is doing through this. Yes, the human tragedy is a genuine tragedy.
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The toll is significant. But one of the things that we can and should be praying for is that God would be using this to put into place what
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He wants in order to accomplish His eternal and redemptive purposes, His salvific purposes in Europe.
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Europe is a dark, dark place, spiritually speaking. So if the gospel could be forced into Europe, these missionaries and refugees forced out with the gospel, that would be a good thing that would come out of this.
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So it is horrible. There's a lot of horrible stuff happening. We should pray for that, pray for those who are suffering those things.
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But let's rejoice in the fact that God is sending His people out, even if it be in this way. He is accomplishing good in this, and that's something that we can remember.
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And then a last prayer request. I was at a Shepherds Conference with one of the missionaries that we support, Bruce Moorock. Bruce, of course, has had cancer, and we have been praying for him through all of this.
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His state of care now is palliative care. It's not cure. A cure is off the table. So it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when he goes home to be with the
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Lord. I did about a 30 -minute interview with him, a video interview that will be coming out soon. I'll send that out to the church when
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I have a chance to do that so you can hear the testimony of Bruce as he is facing death. It's a very real thing, and how he is trusting in the sovereignty of God through that.
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And I'm aware that even as I mentioned Bruce, there are a number of people here who have similar health concerns. I don't want to be negligent of that, but just that Bruce has been on our radar for a while.
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So let's bow our head in prayer, and then we will read Scripture together. Our Father, we are reminded again of Your majestic sovereignty,
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Your goodness, Your wisdom. You're perfect in every way, and we acknowledge that.
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We as Your people are gathered here together as those who are unworthy of Your grace and unworthy of Your goodness.
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We deserve eternal damnation and judgment. And the fact that we are not suffering the same afflictions that our brethren around the world are suffering, even in the
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Ukraine, is just a testament to Your grace and Your goodness and Your unmerited favor to us.
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We have no claim upon any of the physical blessings that we possess and that we enjoy each and every day, and yet You have lavished them upon us.
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Make us good stewards of those things, and make us always mindful that at any moment all of it could be taken away.
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And if You were to remove all of these physical blessings, You would have done us no wrong, for we deserve none of it.
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It is all of Your grace. And of course, the spiritual blessings that we enjoy in Christ because of our salvation and Your work of grace in our heart is just another evidence of Your goodness to those who are
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Yours. We are mindful of our brethren, pastors and elders and teachers and orphans and widows and Your people in the
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Ukraine and other places around the world. We are thankful that You are putting into place among the nations all of the pieces necessary to accomplish
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Your sovereign purpose and Your sovereign plan. We know that the hearts of the kings are in Your hand and that You turn them wherever You wish.
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You rule from heaven in the affairs of men. No purpose of Yours can be thwarted. Nobody can say to You, What have
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You done? Nobody can question Your wisdom. Nobody can teach You what is good or right or just. But we know that amongst all of these things
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You are working out a perfect plan, and so we pray that You would help Your people to trust You. We pray that in the midst of the destruction that the light of the gospel would shine even brighter, that people's eternal hope and eternal confidence would be displayed against the backdrop of the loss of all things, and that You would be calling out
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Your people, Your sheep, out of darkness and into light and gathering in Your elect ones, so that You may be glorified and receive the fullness of praise and glory that is due to You.
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We know that You are both saving and judging among the nations. Those are Your two works, and so we pray that in the midst of judgment that You would remember mercy and in the midst of judgment that You would be accomplishing salvation, not only in Ukraine but around the world in our nation as well.
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We thank You for our brother Bruce who has been faithful in taking the gospel wherever he has gone to the places that You have sent him, and we pray that You would strengthen him and Linda and encourage their hearts in You as they wait upon You for Your perfect purpose in their life.
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We pray that You would help them to trust You, to rest in Your sovereignty, to show Your love and grace to those around them.
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We pray that the church in Friant would care for them and encourage them and be a rich blessing to them, and that You would give grace to Bruce to testify to the sovereignty of his
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God and the glory of the gospel to any and all who will listen. We pray also for many amongst ourselves who are suffering, who are ailing, who are ill.
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We pray that in times of difficulty and trial that our hearts may be lifted up to praise and honor You, that You would take our focus and our affections off of this world and put it on the world that is to come as we long for and wait for the coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. We pray Your blessing upon our service here, our worship, our time of fellowship together.
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May You be glorified through all that is said, all that is preached, all that is read and sung, and our attitude and our hearts together.
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Be glorified in and through Your church, we pray in the name of Christ our Lord and our soon and coming
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King. And all God's people said, Amen. Will you turn please to 1 Peter 1.
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1 Peter 1, this is the passage that Dave Rich is going to be preaching from. I mentioned that I was at Shepherd's Conference, so as is our ongoing 45 -year tradition,
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Dave is going to be preaching on the... and all 45 years of that have been spent in 1 Peter. Dave is going to be preaching from 1
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Peter 1. Beginning at verse 1, we're going to read verses 1 through 21 together.
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Will you stand with me as we read? Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout
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Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the
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Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.
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May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
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In this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while if necessary you have been distressed by various trials so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
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And though you have not seen Him, you love Him and though you do not see Him now but believe in Him you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.
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As to this salvation the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries seeking to know what person or time the
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Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.
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It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the
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Holy Spirit sent from heaven things into which angels long to look. Therefore prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
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As obedient children do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance but like the
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Holy One who called you be holy yourselves also in all your behavior because it is written you shall be holy for I am holy.
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If you address this Father, the One who impartially judges according to each one's work conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless the blood of Christ for He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God who raised
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Him from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. And may
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God bless the reading of His Word. In the dawning of the
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King He the theme of heaven's praises
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Robed in frail humanity In our longing, in our darkness
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Now the light of life has come
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Looked to Christ to condescend it
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Took on flesh to ransom us
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Come behold the wondrous mystery He the perfect Son of Man In His living, in His suffering
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Never trace nor stain of sin See the true and better Adam Come to save the hell -bound man
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Christ the great and sure fulfillment Of the law in Him we stand
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Come behold the wondrous mystery
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Christ the Lord upon the tree In the stead of ruined sinners
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Hangs the Lamb in victory See the price of our redemption
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See the Father's plan unfold Bringing many sons to glory
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Grace unmeasured, love untold
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Come behold the wondrous mystery Slain by death the
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God of life But no grave could ever restrain
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Him Praise the Lord, He is alive What a foretaste of deliverance
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How unwavering our hope Christ in power resurrected
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As we will be when He comes What a foretaste of deliverance
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How unwavering our hope Christ in power resurrected
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As we will be when He comes However, the law is not a faith.
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Rather, he who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written,
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Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. In order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the
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Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Let's end our music service this morning by singing
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Before the Throne of God Above. Before the throne of God above I have a strong and perfect plea
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A great high priest whose name is love Who ever lives and pleads for me
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My name is graven on His hands My name is written on His heart
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I know that while in heaven He stands No tongue can bid me hence depart
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No tongue can bid me hence depart When Satan tempts me to despair
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And tells me of the guilt within Upward I look and see
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Him there Who made an end to all my sin
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Because the sinless Savior died My sinful soul is counted free
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For God the just is satisfied To look on Him and pardon me
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To look on Him and pardon me
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Hallelujah, Hallelujah Praise the one risen
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Son of God I bow before the cross of Christ And marvel at this love divine
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God's perfect Son was sacrificed To make me righteous in God's eyes
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This river's depths I cannot know But I can glory in its flood
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The Lord most high has bowed down low And poured on me
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His glorious love And poured on me His glorious love
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Hallelujah, Hallelujah Praise the one risen
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Son of God I bow before the cross of Christ And marvel at this love divine
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God's perfect Son was sacrificed To make me righteous in God's eyes
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This river's depths I cannot know But I can glory in its flood
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The Lord most high has bowed down low And poured on me
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His glorious love And poured on me His glorious love
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Hallelujah, Hallelujah Praise the one risen
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Son of God Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Praise the one risen
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Son of God You may be seated
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Though we live as foreigners
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We were chosen just for this So beloved as we wait for home
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Knowing we are not alone Be holy as your
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Father is For silver and gold didn't save your lives
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But the precious blood of Christ The one who made the world with words
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Left heaven's throne to come down to earth Took your sin, died on a tree
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Broke all your chains and made you free So beloved, live your lives
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Remembering this highest prize Now we live in reverent fear
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Pouring out God's love to one another Knowing how our story ends
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Wanting never to offend The one we now call
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Father Though we've not seen, we believe
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And love the one who made us free Knowing that the one who saves
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Was revealed for our sake So that we could live eternally
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For silver and gold didn't save your lives
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But the precious blood of Christ The one who made the world with words
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Left heaven's throne to come down to earth Took your sin, died on a tree
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Broke all your chains and made you free So beloved, live your lives
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Remembering this highest prize In these trials we rejoice
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Knowing they are by His choice Knowing He will see us through And in the end they will prove
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A faith of greater worth than gold And the keeper of our faith
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The one who's shown us endless grace To Him forever we will raise
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A never -ending hymn of praise Jesus is the one who saves
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For silver and gold didn't save your lives But the precious blood of Christ The one who made the world with words
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Left heaven's throne to come down to earth Took your sin, died on a tree
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Broke all your chains and made you free So beloved, live your lives
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Remembering this highest prize For silver and gold didn't save your lives
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But the precious blood of Christ So beloved, live your lives
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Remembering this highest prize Well, I feel kind of superfluous now.
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Jim didn't steal my thunder this week, but they did. Let's pray together.
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Father, we are so grateful for the gifts and talents that you've given our people and their willingness to exercise them for your glory.
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Our church has grown so much, and so we just get to see and enjoy so many of the great gifts that you've given to your people, and we're grateful for that.
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And Lord, my prayer today is that you will speak clearly to your people through your word, and I would be kind of removed from the equation as much as that can be.
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I pray that for those of your elect here who have been redeemed, that they would reflect on that redemption and give you great glory, and that they would live according to who they are.
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And for those among your elect that are here today that haven't been redeemed, I pray,
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Lord, that you might use this gospel message to bring them to salvation. Lord, I pray this in Jesus' name.
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Amen. Jim came really close to stealing my thunder. You probably noticed that a couple weeks ago.
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He was one verse away. I think he just didn't know exactly what verse I was going to be doing.
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But our text today will be 1 Peter 1, verses 18 and 19. But before we really get into that,
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I'll read the larger passage starting with verse 14, but before we get into it, I want to start with a little illustration.
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I want to tell you about a king's ransom, a literal king's ransom, King Atahualpa. King Atahualpa.
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You may have heard of the Spanish explorer Francisco Pizarro. I'm not saying it right, Ed. He came to the area of modern -day
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Peru in 1532. The Incas had a vast empire in South America. Atahualpa was king of the
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Incas. He had a kingdom of over 10 million people. Pizarro invited the
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Inca king Atahualpa to a feast, and that feast was actually an ambush where he captured
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King Atahualpa, and they basically destroyed thousands of his warriors.
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They had guns, and the Incas didn't. They were very afraid of those weapons, and many of them ran, many of them were killed.
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So Atahualpa was imprisoned. Atahualpa was wise, and he said, Hey, I see this cell
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I'm in. I will fill this cell to the height that I can reach with gold, and I'll fill this adjoining room twice with silver if you'll let me free.
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And Pizarro said, It's a great deal. And so King Atahualpa had those rooms filled with gold and with silver.
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The main room, the room that he was in, that's known as the ransom room, it still stands in Peru. We can estimate the quantity of gold and silver that was in those rooms, and so we can estimate the value.
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Now, it wasn't in gold bars or something, so there's some discrepancies depending on what it would have been like. But the estimates range today, the value would be between $500 million to $1 .5
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billion worth of gold and silver. It's the highest ransom ever paid. And what did that ransom achieve?
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Do you know the story? Nothing. Pizarro killed
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Atahualpa, and then he proceeded to kill most of the Incas and take over their land.
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So it was a king's ransom, a useless king's ransom in this case. But when we think of over a billion dollars, I want you to understand for a minute how much a billion dollars in gold and silver would be worth.
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It's a lot of money. It's a thousand to a million. Thousand, thousand, thousand dollars worth of gold and silver.
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Now, if you took a billion one -dollar bills and you laid them out on the ground, it would cover an area of four square miles or about 2 ,600 acres of land.
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If you stacked it up, it would be seven miles high. If you laid it end -to -end, it would extend around the earth four times.
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That's a lot of money. If you spent $5 ,000 every day, and some of you would like to try, it would take you 550 years to spend a billion dollars.
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If you were to save $100 a day, you put it under your mattress, it would take you 27 ,000 years to have a billion dollars and an uncomfortable mattress.
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But you can see, it's a massive ransom. It's a high price. But today, if we understand our text, a billion dollars, rooms full of gold and silver, it's going to seem like nothing, like trivial junk compared to the high price of our redemption.
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A real king's ransom. A ransom paid not for a king, but by a king. So let's read together 1
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Peter 1, 14 -19. As obedient children, not being conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the
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Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct. Because it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy.
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And if you address this Father, the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your sojourn, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
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So verse 18, it starts out with knowing, or you might have for you know that. It's a participle knowing.
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It's a continuation of thought from verse 17. You look at verse 17. If you address this Father, the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your sojourn, knowing that, and then we learn some facts there that would motivate us for obedience to the command in verse 17.
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So conduct ourselves in fear because of what we know, the truth that we know in verses 18 and 19.
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So everything that we're going to learn and appreciate in verses 18 and 19, that is meant by Peter to serve as a motivation for obedience to the commands above.
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Most closely the command in verse 17. Conduct yourselves in fear. So we're going to make that connection and application more towards the end.
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There's a strong sense in which verses 18 and 19 stand alone as a very significant independent thought. So the information in 18 and 19 is presented by Peter as motivation for command, and we will look at that.
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But dwelling on that truth itself, just knowing what we are knowing, it's going to accomplish
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Peter's objective to motivate us but also serves to glorify God in maybe the most concentrated and effective way that I can imagine.
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It accomplishes the purpose of all things, the glory of God, if we just can contemplate the truth that is in these two verses.
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So first we want to know what it is that we know, what it is that we are knowing.
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Peter says we are knowing something, that we know something. What is it? Well the passage, these two verses you see, they're about redemption.
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So what we're knowing are facts about redemption, our spiritual redemption. So the plan for exposition of these two verses,
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I want to demonstrate the dimensions or elements of redemption. First we want to see what redemption is, get ourselves a working definition of what redemption is as Peter would want us to understand it, and then go through the elements of it.
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What are we redeemed from? What are we redeemed to? What were we not redeemed by? What are we redeemed by?
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We're going to see the high price of our redemption. We're really going to dig down into that, that's the emphasis, that which we're redeemed by, the high price of our redemption.
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Peter makes that contrast, we'll spend time in that. Having made the examination of the price of our redemption, again we'll come back and make the application.
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So the two verses, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct, inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
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So the passage is about redemption, so we're starting with that. What is redemption? I'm using the
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LSB, it translates a form of the verb, as redeemed. It's possible you have another good translation that might use ransomed for the word.
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You got a bulletin today, that verse is on here, and it uses the word ransomed.
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So either one is fine, the Greek word has a very specific meaning. It means to pay a price to effect the release of a captive.
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Now in the first century, it would have been understood mainly in two ways, to effect the release of a slave, to buy a slave, and I say effect the release, it could be bought to release, bought to free, or bought to make your slave.
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Or it could refer to a prisoner of war, prisoners of war were treated as slaves, you could ransom them, effect their release.
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It would generally mean one of those two things, or it could mean even more generally, just the freeing of a captive, freeing or purchase someone from any form of captivity.
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Slaves could even buy their own freedom, that would be redemption, they could buy their own freedom.
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So that's the analogy, whether you have the word ransomed or redeemed, that's the first century analogy.
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Now here of course Peter is not talking about redemption from physical slavery, from physical imprisonment, or institutional slavery, or economic slavery, to freedom, or slavery to some other master, that's not what he's talking about.
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He's talking about spiritual redemption, the work of Christ, that accomplishes this aspect of our salvation.
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Now Jim read the first 21 verses, and in the beginning of chapter 1, you see other elements of our salvation,
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Peter talks about our being chosen, much of 1 Peter is about our sanctification, our glorification, regeneration, isn't there, he causes us to be born again.
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So it's about our salvation, and here Peter is focused on the redemption analogy, for our salvation.
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And so now we're going to ask, redemption from what? He's referring to an aspect of our salvation, called redemption, from what did
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Christ redeem us? If redemption is paying the price, to purchase a slave, or a captive, then we have to ask by what, or by whom were we held captive?
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From whom were we redeemed, or from what? So if you were asked this, someone said are you a redeemed person, and you would say yes,
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I sang a song about it today, I know that. And they said well what are you redeemed from?
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You know that's the release of a person, from being in captivity, what were you in captivity to?
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How would you answer that? Well I probably wouldn't say from conduct, from a type of conduct, but that's what
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Peter tells us, alright? It's the same word that's used in verse 15, if you look up, but like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct.
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You see feudal conduct, in verse 18, that's a contrast to holy, reverential conduct in verse 15.
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So you're redeemed from one type of conduct, and to another type of conduct. It's very interesting,
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I don't think I would have said it that way, unless God says it that way. Alright, I need that correction.
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Would you have said you were redeemed from sin, and it's consequences, death and hell? Doesn't scripture say that before our redemption, we were dead in sin, we're slaves to sin?
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Yeah. This is Peter's way, this use of the word for conduct, it's Peter's way of referring to sin.
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It's an emphasis here on outward behavior, but the word conduct, it's an interesting word, it may be translated ways, or way of life, the old
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King James is that word conversation, which doesn't really fit with modern language today, but for them it meant your way, your general way of living.
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It is a reference to outward behavior, conduct, but it's outward behavior that's informed from inner beliefs, it's that which demonstrates your central beliefs.
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It's the outworking of the inner person. That's conduct. And here we're redeemed from one type of conduct to another.
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Let's see how our pre -redemption conduct is described. First, it's futile. And the word means aimless or purposeless, without any meaning.
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It's a thing that doesn't have a reason for being. It's unproductive.
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It's translated as futile or empty or vain, sometimes aimless or useless.
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It's just nothing. Peter has described our former conduct back in verse 14.
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You see that? The former lusts which were yours in your ignorance. So prior to our regeneration, redemption, we were engaged in satisfaction of our sinful desires.
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That's us in our natural selves. We're completely ignorant of the person and work of Christ. We're enemies of God, lawless rebels.
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We're just unrepentantly satisfying the desires of the mind and of the flesh. That's who we are, apart from Christ. We get a description of this life in 1
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Peter 4. You can flip over there if you want. It's up to you.
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I don't know why I say stuff like that when I'm up here, because you do what you want. 1 Peter 4, 1 -4,
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Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to no longer live the rest of the time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
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For the time already past is sufficient for you to have worked out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.
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In all this they are surprised that you do not run with them in the same excesses of dissipation, maligning you, but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
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It's futile. It's empty. It's meaningless life. Abominable idolatries. Sinful nothing.
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It's just intent on the worship of the worthless almighty self. Getting what makes you happy just before it makes you miserable.
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Getting what relieves you just before it makes you more anxious. That's the life of the flesh.
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Hope that ends in despair. Fun and happiness that ends in shame, guilt, emptiness.
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It's just characterized in Scripture as sinful, ignorant, futile, empty, nothing, vain, useless.
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All we do in our natural state is futile. It's just done out of lustful ignorance. It can't have any eternal truly valuable aim or purpose.
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Calvin puts it this way in his commentary. The whole life of man until he is converted to Christ is a ruinous labyrinth of wanderings.
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You might object to that. There are non -Christians out there that are doing great things. They have great value and meaning.
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There's great inventions, advances in medicine and science, and there's great art, there's great music, philosophy, and literature.
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There are great acts of heroism. There's daily acts of love and kindness and bravery done by unbelievers.
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That's all true. We're grateful that God gives common grace to everybody, to all people, all of His image bearers.
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He uses all of that to be good to His image bearers. We're grateful for that.
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We appreciate beauty, kindness, and love. All that's good, wherever it comes from, knowing that it comes from God.
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Here's the point. The deeds of the unregenerate person cannot have eternal value. They can't.
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They're not done for the only good that remains after this place is burned up, which is the glory of God.
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They can't have that as their motivation. They're not capable of a single truly good deed.
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They're incapable of the motivation that it would require. The unredeemed person is not capable of accomplishing the chief end of man.
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What is the chief end of man? The glory of God and enjoyment forever. They can't do that. The things that they do are ultimately vanity, emptiness, nothingness.
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For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? That's the point.
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It's just futile conduct. It's just striving after abominable idolatry, sinful nothing, a ruinous labyrinth of wanderings.
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Now there's another adjective that's applied to our pre -redemption conduct, the way that we live before regeneration.
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You see it there. It's patraparaditas. There's no real reason at all that you or I would have to know the
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Greek word patraparaditas, but if you try to say it a few times, it's fun to say. So that's why
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I'm saying it. I almost made it the word of the day, patraparaditas. It's only used here in all of Scripture.
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Interesting word. It means passed along to you from your father or fathers or forefathers, from your ancestors.
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We might just think of it as traditional. So this conduct is traditional with the emphasis being that it comes from our relatives, from our fathers, our ancestors.
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King James translates this as received by tradition from your fathers. Good translation.
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So there's some conduct, some way of living that's said to be passed on to us from our forefathers. To me, it's a little bit curious.
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What is Peter criticizing here? Is feudal? What kind of tradition? Is he talking about Jewish tradition? Or is he talking about Gentile tradition?
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Maybe the tradition of the Romans at the time? I don't think that we need to answer that question because both fit the bill.
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The worship of Yahweh at the time that Peter wrote this was completely corrupt. It would not have been praised by Peter.
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The behavior, the conduct of the Roman Gentiles certainly wouldn't have been praised either.
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I think he is generally condemning any tradition that contradicts the
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Word of God. Particularly with reference to ethics here, morals. Tradition leads you to disobey a command of Christ.
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That's something that needs to be rejected. Now for us, tradition may mean something different than it would have meant to Peter's first readers.
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I know there's a lot of different backgrounds here. You may have come from a Mormon background or a charismatic background or a more fundamentalist background.
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There's all kinds. Sometimes we may struggle with the exercise of freedoms among one another in terms of ethics.
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You know what I mean. Now I've got to be clear. You may have biblical convictions on those things and we can disagree about those things.
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But that's not what I'm talking about. Those sorts of disagreements are sincere disagreements among people who are trying to obey the
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Lord. They're done out of reverent fear and the desire to live in obedience to the Word of God. It's just difference in interpretation and that's okay and we work together on those things.
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So I'm talking about instead is kind of a fear of man. Of going against the family.
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A fear of taking out from under you some plank of doctrine or ethics that you've held dear that has given you a sense of safety and kind of correctness.
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Being confronted with the Word of God and kind of refusing to drop that tradition.
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Whatever it is. Whatever you thought was okay and you're confronted with a scripture that says otherwise.
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Any tradition that's futile, that's contradictory to God's Word needs to be abandoned. Our identity is in Christ and Christ alone.
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We owe our obedience to Him and Him alone and not to anything that's been passed on to us from our forefathers.
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Now there may be in this notion of tradition an echo of the fall. If you think about it. The futility of our unredeemed conduct.
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It's ultimately received from our first father. Right? From Adam. It's a tradition received from our fathers in that sense.
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That conduct. We receive from Adam that inherited corruption. And so in some sense we've inherited this futile way of life from Him.
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From our first father. From Adam. Okay, so I think we have what redemption is.
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A purchase from captivity. We've seen what we've been redeemed from. From this sin.
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From futile way of life inherited from our forefathers. We've unavoidably touched on what we're redeemed to.
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Holy conduct. Reverent conduct. We'll come back to that at the end. Now I want to spend some time most of our time on what we are not redeemed by and what we are redeemed by.
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There's an important contrast here. We're going to see what could never accomplish our redemption. Then we're going to see the only thing that could and did.
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The high price of our redemption. A true king's ransom. That's what we'll dwell on.
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Verse 18 first tells us, you were not redeemed with corruptible things. Then it gives us a couple of very strange examples of corruptible things.
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Silver and gold. First of all, the word corruptible may be perishable.
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It has the idea of wasting away or decomposing, degenerating. Peter tells us we can't be redeemed by anything that has that character.
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Anything that is perishable in that sense. If you go back to the first century, think of anything that would have been used to redeem a person in the first century.
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It has to be something of value that is sufficient to cause another person who's an owner of a slave to give up ownership of that slave or that captive.
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It's a transaction and it was generally done in money. Money at that time was gold and silver coins.
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This is most likely what Peter has in mind here. He's saying that gold and silver money would not redeem us.
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It wasn't what was used to redeem us and it couldn't because it's perishable.
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If you think about it, if you thought of anything that is not perishable you think of silver and gold.
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That's why they're used as money. If you tried to use something else. I tried to think of some examples.
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Soap bubbles. That wouldn't be very effective money. You couldn't save bananas.
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Bananas we all know are good for about three hours. You can't. Ice. Gold and silver.
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They're not terribly perishable. They're held up as kind of ultimately non -perishable thing.
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What is he doing? Why is he choosing silver and gold as examples of perishable items? It's not the first time he did it.
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He used gold as a perishable item early on in the chapter. These are probably the best examples of something incorruptible, imperishable in all of creation and yet Peter uses them as examples of something that is perishable.
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So it's true. Silver and gold are elements that don't perish over a person's lifetime or anything like that.
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But they do cease to have value at the end of one's lifetime. Don't they? Ownership of any physical asset.
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Gold and silver. Real estate. Digital assets.
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Your mutual funds. Your bank accounts. All of that. They can't be transferred from this realm to the next.
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We're talking about a country song. I don't know the song but there's no trailer hitches on a hearse.
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You've never seen a trailer hitch on a hearse. I don't know the song but it's true. Right? You literally cannot take it with you.
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Ownership of silver and gold. The value of it is certainly perishable. It ends with you. With your earthly life.
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Even these are not enough. They have very high value. They have very high apparent permanence.
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Peter's using them now by contrast. Even these are not enough to redeem a soul from slavery to sin.
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They're not nowhere near adequate. It would be as effective as Atahualpa's ransom.
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It achieves nothing. Why is that so? Why couldn't some worldly wealth, some extreme amount of worldly wealth be sufficient to redeem us?
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Remember what's happening in redemption. It's a price that's being paid to gain the freedom of a sinner from their captivity to sin.
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The debt for sin has to be paid to accomplish that freedom. The price paid has to be equal to the debt incurred by the sinner.
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What is the magnitude of the sin debt of a sinner? What's its measure? What fine could be paid to legally, justly satisfy the debt?
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It's owed by a sinner. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is disobedience of the laws of God.
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The sinner is guilty of multiple charges of disobedience to the laws of God himself, his creator and sustainer.
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So it's not the nature of the sin itself. It's not your lies. It's not your fornications and your adulteries and your blasphemies.
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That in and of itself doesn't measure the depth of your sin debt. What matters is the one you've offended.
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You've offended God. That's what matters. The God of the universe.
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You and me, vile creatures of dust, we shake our fists at almighty
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God. We willingly openly disobey his laws. He's told us what we can have and what we cannot have, and we tell him he is wrong.
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We deserve this or that. That's what we're doing. So apart from God, you are the, apart from Christ, the work of Christ, you are the avowed enemy of God.
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You are subject to his wrath. And it's reasonable. It's just. It's accurate. You have no right to do those things.
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That's your debt. Or was your debt. I hope it was your debt. It was mine.
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But for those of you that repented of your sins and put your faith in Christ Jesus for your salvation, and only you, for you there's redemption.
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A price that's been paid. It's the only price that could be paid. It's the only one to propitiate the wrath of God.
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The only equal to the ransom required for your redemption. And here it is. Okay. If you haven't been listening, listen now.
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Here it is. Behold the price of your redemption. Precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
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Don't worry. I'll be alright. Happens to me every time I read that. This is the point. We are here at the heart of the matter.
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This, we have to behold this. You are redeemed by the only one, the only being that could redeem you.
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You're redeemed by the only act that could have accomplished your redemption. Can you see this?
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See the depth of your sin. See the height of the love of God in this. He paid the ransom.
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He paid it. The price of your redemption. The precious infinite price, the blood of Christ. So let's look at that in its full dimensions and details.
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See five truths about this ransom price. We'll see that it's blood. Don't worry if you're squeamish.
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We're not getting into that. We'll see that it's precious. We'll see that it's the blood of a lamb. That the lamb who gave his blood is unblemished and spotless, as he had to be.
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And lastly, we'll see that the source of the blood, the payer of the redemption price in his own blood, is our Savior.
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It's our Lord and Master, our King, Jesus Christ. So first of all, it's blood.
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The price is blood. Your redemption and mine was accomplished by a price of blood. Now, blood is a reference to his death.
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It's really not talking about the literal fluid that flowed in his veins. There's lots of weirdness that comes from people taking it hyper -literally.
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I'm going to ignore all of that, because you should too. For Christ also suffered four sins, once for all the righteous, for the unrighteous, so that he might bring you to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the
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Spirit. That's the point. He was put to death for you, for your redemption. So the term blood refers to the death of Christ.
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It's also true that due to the manner of his torture and death, it did involve the shedding of much literal blood, and I believe that was necessary.
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There was an aspect of his death that was necessary. The blood sacrifices of the
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Old Testament were intended to foreshadow his death, and so there was always in his death the shedding of blood.
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Without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness. Now think about blood for a second.
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Again, we're not going to get gory, but blood is shocking, isn't it? It's alarming. It's bright red, and when you see it, something's wrong.
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You tell somebody, hey, you're bleeding. It's not a casual thing.
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Why is that? Have you ever thought about that? Why is all this true of blood? Why did God make blood like that? Why isn't it clear, something less disgusting?
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I believe it's because we must understand that the price of our redemption is paid in the blood of Christ.
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We have to understand how serious that is. Blood should shock us. It should disgust us, because it is the price of our sin.
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It's what our Savior had to shed for our sake. So the blood here refers to the death of Christ.
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It also includes the imagery of the violent nature of it. It's not dying in your sleep or lethal injection or something you might think of less brutal.
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It was the most brutal form of torture and death that the ancient world understood. All of it was applied to our
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Savior and King. Now when we see the term, the blood of Christ, we can think of all that He endured for our sake.
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We have to always include in that the death of Christ, but we can think about everything else that went along with it. The torturous death, the torturous nature of His death, but also the embarrassment, the humiliation of all that was applied to Him.
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The mocking and the crowning and the robing and the disrobing. You think about the constant snide smugness of all those that were coming up to Him all the time with their really super wise way to trick the
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God of the universe into a contradiction. He had to deal with that. All the false believers who came around to get their bellies filled.
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Quick to betray Him, abandon Him. Even think about His incarnation. What humiliation, degradation this is for a divine person to be born as a human being.
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And all of it was necessary for our redemption, all of it. Culminating in the most terrible and magnificent event of all history.
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The death and the corresponding resurrection of Christ, our Savior and our King. It was a sacrifice of blood.
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Second, the blood was precious. Precious. This translates the Greek word probably as well as we can say it.
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Almost every translation that I've seen uses the word precious. It does seem that that's a little bit of an understatement.
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The way we use the word precious today. Maybe the word priceless would be a better way to think of it.
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It has inestimable value. There's no way to measure its value. This is from Ephesians 3,
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Paul's prayer that we would be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.
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That you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. That's what we're doing. We're contemplating the love of God and the price of our redemption.
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A love that can't be understood. A love of God which surpasses knowledge. It surpasses our ability to measure it.
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The price of our redemption was blood. Precious blood. Priceless, infinitely valuable blood. Again, not red fluid but his death on our behalf.
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So you have to see in that the depravity of your sin and his love for his church. So of course we already know but we can ask who paid the price?
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Who redeemed us? And the scripture says a lamb unblemished and without spot. So we see thirdly the precious blood of our ransom was that of a lamb.
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We know the identity of the lamb. It's given to us. But we can ask about the imagery. There's you can spend time on which lamb is this?
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Is this the Passover lamb which was sometimes not a lamb but was also a goat, a kid? Was it the daily, the lambs of the daily sacrifice that you're referring to?
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Is it the Isaiah 53 suffering servant? Some other lamb? I believe the reference to Christ is the lamb who redeems us with his blood here.
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It's a general reference to the sacrificial lambs and kids of the Old Testament. I think it includes the imagery of the
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Passover animal. You think that through? Don't have time for that but you know the imagery of the
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Passover the lambs of the daily sacrifice, the suffering servant of Isaiah, even the scapegoat which was a goat.
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The lamb or the ram that was Isaac's substitute. I think all of that idea it's not specific to any one of them.
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It's Christ as sin bearer, Christ as sacrifice, Christ as substitute. That's who died for the sake of his elect.
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So we see forcibly the lamb is unblemished and spotless. So that's interesting. That's a reflection back to the lambs of the sacrifice.
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They had to be unblemished and spotless but that in itself was only a reflection of the perfect morality, the perfect perfectness of Christ, the sinlessness of Christ.
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He is the only one that is truly unblemished and spotless. You know Dianne Carlson is here there's never been an unblemished and spotless lamb.
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Really? There's only one. Only one who's ever been perfectly holy.
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Holy as only God is holy and he is our Savior. He is our perfect Savior. And so we had to be consider if he weren't perfect, if he had his own sin to deal with, he couldn't deal with yours.
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He wouldn't have had sufficient value in him to deal even with his own sin debt, let alone yours.
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But he is perfect. He is. And so he's able to give us his perfect righteousness. Now you'll note in some of your translations the words the blood of at the end of verse 19 are in italics.
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It means the words aren't there in the original language. They're added for clarity in English, which is good.
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The original speaks of the precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Christ.
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Giving us the identity of this lamb. Christ, Jesus, our Messiah. It's more of an emphasis.
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So then a little side note here because this always comes up. We may be curious about the concept of redemption and ransom.
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We may ask the question to whom was the ransom paid? If the price of our redemption is the blood of Christ, to whom was the price of redemption paid?
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Who did Christ's payment of his life's blood compensate for the freedom of the believer? Who are we bought from?
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Who's the recipient? We're bought from the power of sin and death and hell and Satan. You might say, well, it must be
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Satan. It must be Satan. That's the answer to the question. Satan must receive the payment of the ransom.
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You see, it makes absolutely zero sense. He has no right to a ransom. His consent to your liberty was never requested.
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It was never given. He's the ultimate captive of God. The devil is
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God's devil. He has no claim to God. So that's not it.
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So I think there's two reasonable ways to think of this. I'll do these briefly. They both have some biblical support.
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So Christ is said to be our redeemer and our propitiation. Now, Adventure Club kids, you learned on Friday about propitiation.
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Remember that? It was probably said different ways in different classrooms, but that's what you learned about.
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And it's a satisfaction. That was what we learned on Friday. And somebody who asked not to be named, and so I won't name him, used the word,
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I asked, what is propitiation? He said, it's a satisfaction. I'm like, you know, that's pretty good.
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It's something to satisfy something. It's a satisfaction. It's an offering that satisfies an offense, appeases a wrath, and so Christ is said to be that.
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The wrath that is appeased is the wrath of God toward our sins. So in that sense, the ransom price is paid by God and to God, you could say that.
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If you're, actually last Friday in Adventure Club, lesson 22, Jesus gave his life as a ransom.
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Remember that? One of the questions was this, who did Jesus pay a ransom to? And the answer given was, you all know
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B, because it's always B. When they did the Adventure Club curriculum, the right answer is virtually always
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B. I don't know why they did that, but it's true. But B was God. So who did
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Jesus pay the ransom to? The answer was God. That's what was given. And so in the sense of God's, Christ's sacrifice being a propitiation, it is a propitiation paid to God.
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That is true, that's one way to think of it. But we don't have to be that technical here. When God is the subject of redeeming work,
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God is said to be the Redeemer, there's generally no explicit payment made to another party. It's a reference to God's redeeming work, the idea that God is acting at cost.
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God is acting with effort. And so, he's doing something that comes at a cost to God. There may be no explicit recipient of the purchase price for that redemption.
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So think about the redemption of Israel from slavery in Egypt. It's referred to in the Bible as the redemption of Israel, God's redeeming them.
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There's no price paid to anyone. Pharaoh didn't get paid to have them, but God is working at cost,
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God is working at effort. It's done by the strong effort of God, lead them out to the Red Sea. So it's called redemption.
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Even though it doesn't meet the technical elements of redemption or paying of a ransom that you would have seen in the first century.
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There just isn't a recipient of the ransom. And that's okay, we don't have to take every analogy to its far end.
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I look over at Seth for that one. For those of you that don't know,
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Seth takes every analogy that I ever offer to its far logical, find where it lives, and then makes fun of me for it.
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It's his expertise. So now, now let's make the application that the
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Spirit is made explicit here in his word. That's as far as I'll go. The Spirit himself may make whatever application he so chooses with his people from his word.
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And so he may be making application to you that's different from this. I'm going to make the application that he's already made.
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So remember that verse 18, the knowing starts this dependent clause of verses 18 and 19.
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It gives motivation for the commands that are in verses 15 and 17. Let's read 14 through 19 one last time.
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As obedient children, not being conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct.
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Because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your sojourn.
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You see there's two commands there in verse 14. In verse 15 rather, but like the
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Holy One who called you, be holy. That's a command. In verse 17, conduct yourselves in fear.
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It's a command. Those are the two commands. Then he says, knowing that you are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
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So you see the application? Be holy. Conduct yourselves in fear.
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Because you know this, there's a high price paid for your redemption. The blood of Christ.
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That's the application. Obey. It's a motivation to live as you are.
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Live as you actually are. Stop believing lies about who you are now. You are an obedient child of God.
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You've been redeemed from the life of slavery. Life of slavery to sin. Into a new life, another life of slavery.
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Slavery to Christ. Slavery to the good master. The perfect master. You are his.
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You are his child. Live that way. Live as if you've been redeemed at such a price. Can you do that?
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Live as if the God of the universe were willingly mocked and scorned and all the treatment that went on.
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All of that he did for you. Live as if he died on a cross for your sake. Because he did.
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By your conduct, give him the glory that he is due. That's the prayer. Give him the glory he's due.
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You were bought with a price. And what a price. A ransom paid by the eternal king. A true king's ransom.
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Let's pray together. Father, we are eternally grateful for the great gift of our redemption price.
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There is nothing else that could have been done to satisfy your justice and your love.
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And so this is what you did in your wisdom and love and grace and genius. We are just always eternally grateful for that.
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Beyond our gratitude, Lord, let us demonstrate that with our conduct. May we be people that can be described as obedient children of God.
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In Jesus' name. Please stand.
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In Christ alone, my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song.
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This cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
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What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are still, when strivings cease.
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My comforter, my all in all, here in the love of Christ I stand.
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In Christ alone, who took on flesh fullness of God in helpless babe.
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This gift of love and righteousness stored by the ones
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He came to save. Till on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.
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For every sin on Him was laid, here in the death of Christ I live.
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There in the ground His body lay, light of the world by darkness slain.
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Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave
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He rose again. And as He stands in victory, since curse has lost its grip on me, for I am
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His and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ.
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No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me.
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From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.
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No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever block me from His hand.
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Till He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I'll stand.
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The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. Thank you for joining us today at Kootenai Church.