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Please stand as you turn with me to the first epistle of Peter. Stand just briefly. I know we've just sat down from singing, so... Just stand in honor of God's Word to the first epistle of Peter, chapter 1.
Chapter 1, just reading just a few verses, verse 18 to 21. Hear the Word of the Living God. I'm reading from the NASB translation. This is Almighty God speaking. This is the Apostle Peter through the Holy Spirit.
Spirit of God breathing upon him. Every word inspired of God. 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 the 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 your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Let's pray. Oh Father, we thank you for your glorious Word. Lord, as we hear it in our ears, take it to our hearts as only you can. Oh Father, oh how we thank you for the glorious eternal Word that goes forth and does not return void.
It has the very power, the creative power to save a dying soul. Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly. Lord, I pray this morning by your blessed Holy Spirit, grant unto us divine illumination as only you can.
Take the scales away from our eyes so that we may see clearly, clearly in our hearts, Lord. It's our hearts that needs to be enlightened, to know what is the hope of our calling, our effectual calling, and know what are the riches of your glory of the inheritance in the saints.
Father, we pray this in the name that's above every name, the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. For his sake and glory we ask, amen and amen. You can be seated, thank you. There's absolutely no doubt that the text we've read within these verses is the highest motive for holy living.
And you see that in accordance of what the apostle Peter is saying. As believers, we are to pass the time of our stay here on earth in fear of God. The Christians are not at home in this world, and we will, and I should say, we are living in a foreign country.
Scripture says we're aliens. In one sense, we're exiled from heaven. We should never settle down as if this were our permanent dwelling place in our home. We're just passing through. Neither should we imitate the awful and terrible behavior in which the earth dwellers behave.
By no means are we to imitate them. To become worldly, we are to be separate, and that's what the Lord says. We're in the world, but not of the world. God preserves His own in an evil world. Jesus prayed this to keep the disciples, to keep the apostles from the evil one, because He knew that the world was polluted.
We live in a sin-cursed world that's absolutely polluted and contaminated with sin. We should always remember our heavenly destiny, and, should I say, we should behave ourselves as citizens of heaven, because we have been purchased at a high cost.
Our God is a jealous God, and He will not share what He has purchased with another. Now, what I just said basically is backed up from verse 13. If you look at verse 13 of this chapter, I'm going to backtrack a little bit to verse 17.
Notice what the apostle Peter says. Therefore, prepare your minds. Another translation is, Gird up the loins of your mind. Prepare your minds for action. It's almost a military command. And he says, Keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
When the Lord comes back to claim what He owns. And then he says this, As obedient children, or, there's another translation, literally says, As children of obedience. I like that. Children of obedience.
We are to obey our God, to obey our Lord, to obey His commands. And then the apostle Peter says, Do not be conformed to the former of lust, which were yours in your ignorance. But like the Holy One who has called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior.
Not some of our behavior, but all of our behavior. That's so convicting, isn't it? Because we fall short of this on a daily basis. As much as we strive and desire to be holy, and we are commanded to be holy, God has called us in holiness.
We are partakers of His holiness, but it says we are to behave, and all of our conduct, the old King James says, all of your conversation. But the word conversation actually means your behavior, your conduct, the way we walk.
We are to be holy. That's convicting, isn't it? Because as it is written, Peter says, and he tells us, he gets this command from Leviticus, as Ben's been reading through, You shall be holy for I am holy.
Then he says in verse 17, If you address us, Father, the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth, which is very short, in comparison to eternity, because God has redeemed us, He's purchased us, and that's what we're going to look at.
We continue to look at the purpose of that redemption. And He's saved us. He's redeemed us from, He's redeemed us with. He's redeemed us from, let's look at what He's talking about there. He's talking about that He's redeemed us, Not now, the word redeemed actually means ransomed.
He's ransomed us. Not with perishable things, like silver or gold, from your futile way of life, inherited from your fathers. And then He says, before the conversion, and then He goes on to say, but with the precious blood, and that's what He's redeemed us with.
He tells us what He's redeemed us from, but what has He redeemed us with? So before the conversion to Christ, believers were not in any way different from the rest of the fallen world, right? We were right in there with them.
We have no reason to be haughty and arrogant about this. Matter of fact, it should humble us the more that God has saved us by His grace. Our talk and our walk was just as empty and futile as everyone else.
And trivial as those men that's around us, that's fallen in their ignorance. Peter describes the unconverted days as aimless. Notice that word, aimless. Futile. Your way, your behavior was futile. You conducted yourselves in an empty way.
It was folly. It was vain. Received by the tradition of your forefathers. That's quite a word, because religion cannot save us. That's what He's talking about. The tradition from your forefathers. It makes me think also of John the Baptist in Matthew chapter 3 verse 9 to the religious Jews, and there was Pharisees there as well, but he knew there was a lot of religious people in his crowd when he was preaching.
And this is what he said in Matthew 3 verse 9. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, cries out and says, and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, we have Abraham for our father. For I say to you, this is the kind of faith that John the Baptist had,.
And he did have it.
I say to you, that from these very stones, God is able, don't you love that? God is able to raise up children to Abraham. See what he's saying is, it was the religious people in his day, the religious Jews of that day, that they believed merely being descendants of Abraham.
In other words, members of God's chosen race, because they were related through the bloodline of Abraham. So they leaned back on that. The traditions inherited from their forefathers. And there was a lot there that were literally of the lineage of Abraham.
But Jesus specifically later on told them, John the Baptist here, but Jesus later on specifically told them, that he says, he rebukes them. And John, I believe it's John 8,.
He says,.
Your father is of the devil.
Wow.
In lineage, they were literally a bloodline of Abraham, from Abraham. But Jesus still said, spiritually speaking, you're still dead in your sins, your father is of the devil, and they sought to kill him.
And Jesus basically later on told them, before Abraham was, I am, saying that I am the God of Isaac. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That's when they really wanted to kill him. See, Abraham's real descendants are those who share his faith.
Share his faith. Go with me to Romans 1. Let's look at this very quickly. I think this is critical to the gospel, and very important to the gospel, because we cannot be saved unless it's through a blood covenant.
And Paul the apostle is leading up to this, and he goes back to the Abrahamic covenant to point this truth out. Look at chapter 4. Chapter 4,.
I'd like for you to see this.
Chapter 4, verse... Let me begin with verse 13, so we can get the backdrop of it, and what the apostle Paul is saying. And what's interesting here, if you look at this whole chapter, Abraham is justified by faith.
Abraham was saved the same way we're saved. He's saved, he's justified by faith, he believes, he's justified before circumcision. That was an outward sign that came from God, but his belief that saved him was by faith in God.
That God declared him righteous. Notice what he says in verse 13. For the promise to Abraham, or to his descendants, that he would be heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified. For the law brings about wrath. Got to understand that. But where there's no law, there also is no violation.
So the law basically reveals our sin, so that we can do something about our sin. It discovers our sickness, like Luther said, right? And then we go to the remedy, which is the blood of Jesus Christ, who's Christ.
Verse 16, for this reason, this is the verse we're looking at. For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
And then he goes on to say, as it is written, a father of many nations I have made you, in the presence of him whom he believed, even God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist, in hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken.
So shall your descendants be. And I'll stop right there. So basically what he's saying is that the promise, the heir of the world, this refers to Jesus Christ, is that the promise. Anytime you see that in Scripture, Paul makes reference to the promise, the seed, speaking of Jesus Christ.
And as you well know, that God preserved that seed, through the lineage of one after one, thousands of years. Satan did everything he could to stop it,.
But he couldn't.
He cannot stop a sovereign God. And God preserved that all the way through, in one lineage to another. And that's why the genealogies are very important, because it reads the lineage of the descendants of Jesus Christ.
Why is this so important? Because your hope, my hope, and the only hope we have is in Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is not that Messiah, the promised one, the seed, then we have no hope. That's why Paul goes on to say, so then he comes into the world.
Great is the mystery of godliness. He comes in the incarnation, and then he lives a perfect life, a perfect works, perfect righteousness, and his life is a sweet aroma to God, that pleases God. Now this is important, because we're not only saved by the death of Jesus Christ, which is primary focus, but we're also saved by his works.
You understand that? It's his works that saves us. But, and I say, and this is where a lot of theologians break this down. That is his active works. His active works is his life, his miracles, all that he does, not only what he teaches,.
But how he lives.
He lives a perfect life, pleasing to God. And then his passive works is what he does upon the cross. And then he offers his life, as a perfect, spotless lamb, the lamb of God. And then he takes our sin, and he offers it before God, and God, the Holy One, is satisfied, and he's pleased with that sacrifice.
You know, that says everything, because there's no other way to God. There's no other Savior that there is. Jesus Christ is it. And then Paul goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 15, if Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead, everything that we believe in is vain.
So, if Jesus isn't alive right now, the preaching, all preaching, and all that we believe is worthless.
It's vain.
But, he is risen from the dead. Our faith is not vain. It has substance to it, because Christ lives. Christ died. Everything about Christ, he is that promise. He is that seed. And really, that's what the gospel is all about.
And that's why Paul makes this chapter. He breaks it down. If you notice, he starts, it's a beautiful, beautiful book, because he begins with the greeting, and then he speaks about his desire to visit Rome, and then he talks about his calling, then he gives the gospel.
He gives the good news in chapter 1, before he gives the bad news, and then he gives the bad news about God's wrath. We need to understand that. And me and Ms. Lillian, Sister Lillian was talking about this this morning.
She was bringing this out. You're not going to understand the gospel until you understand fully the penalty of sin under the law. So, we've got to have a right understanding of what the law is to discover our sin.
That's the problem today, isn't it? Because, we're no longer hearing. There's a famine in the land of hearing the word of God. And we're no longer hearing exposition verse by verse of the word of God being not only explained, but being proclaimed.
Right? And there's a lot of people who can get up and talk, and give wonderful stories and everything, but I want to hear the gospel. I want to hear the word of God. I want to hear, from beginning to end, the whole counsel of God.
And that's what we need to hear. So, the blood of Jesus Christ is so important, because it's paramount of what the gospel is. So, believers in Jesus Christ, by faith alone, that's what he's saying, by faith alone, in Christ alone, has been redeemed, has been purchased, has been ransomed, by God, through Jesus Christ, by His works, by His merits, by His blood.
And, that is what's purchased us, and it's through the blood of Jesus, from the futile, empty existence. And, going back to Peter, our text, what Peter is saying, in the text we're looking at, there's been a tremendous transaction taking place.
That's the gospel. What's that transaction? What's that transaction? Jesus Christ shed His precious blood for our salvation. He is the head of the church. He's the owner of the church. And, when I say church, I'm not talking about buildings.
I'm talking about, not the organization, I'm talking about the living organism. I'm talking about the blood-bought church of the redeemed. Those whom Jesus has purchased with His blood. Those that have repented and believed the gospel.
See?
Christ, once and for all, shed His blood. What was the last cry that Jesus cried out on the cross? Well, let's go to it. Let's look at it.
You know,.
You could probably say it, but I'd like to look into it a little bit more. Go to John, chapter 19. Let's take a view of the cross. Let's go to what the Word of God says about it. Look at chapter 19. Oh, this whole chapter 19 is just incredible.
The whole chapter talks about the crucifixion of Jesus. But let me just begin with verse 25. Therefore the soldiers did these things, talking about casting lots and so forth. Then it says this, but standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother and His mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clophis, and Mary Magdalene.
And when Jesus then saw His mother, the disciple whom He loved, that's speaking of John, the one that wrote this gospel, standing nearby, He said to His mother, Woman, behold your son. Woman, behold your son.
And then He said to the disciple, Behold your mother. Such a giving thing. It talks about from the hour, and from that hour, the disciple took her into his own household. So we know that the apostle John took Mary, the mother of Jesus, into his household and took care of her.
Because keep in mind, she's up in age here. And now she's beholding the one that she gave birth to, which is the Son of Man, the Son of God, by a miraculous birth, in the incarnation. And the apostle John takes her into his household.
That's what it says in Scripture. But notice this in verse 28, And after this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the Scripture, He said, I am thirsty. Now let me stop right there.
That's a staggering statement, what Jesus is saying. He thirsts. I thirst. I'm thirsty. And you think about it, He's the one that made all the waters. He's the one that told the woman at the well, You drink of this water, you thirst again.
But you drink of the water that I give, you'd never thirst. Isn't that staggering? Here He is. He's thirsty, but He's the one that made all the waters in which there's rivers and rivers of water.
That would never run dry.
Praise God. And then in verse 29, and then it says here,. A jar full of sour wine, it's anesthetic basically, was standing there. They put the sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth, basically to numb Him from the pain that He was undergoing.
But He did not take it, right? And, well I'm sorry, it says right here, therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, in verse 30,.
But He died.
And right at this point, His last words upon the cross was, It is finished. Now this is what I want to get to. It is finished,.
As you well know,.
This here, you see, the entire work of redemption had been brought to completion. And then in a single Greek word here, translated, It is finished, basically means that the sin debt has been paid in full.
That's what it means. It's as on a papyri, placed on receipts for the taxes, means stamped, paid in full. The transaction has been made. Jesus paid the full sin debt. It is finished. Think about that.
It is finished. And then the scripture says, He gave up the spirit, handed over, basically, as an act of His will. No one could take His life. He voluntarily laid His life down. And He shed His precious blood, so that you and I can live forever and ever.
Beloved, can I tell you that there is nothing more glorious than this? There is nothing more glorious than this?
For the church?
Well, God's people are ransomed. They are redeemed. But, keep in mind, now, I don't know about you, but this gives me great motive. It's a means of redemption, but what Peter is talking about, the means of redemption, but he is also giving motive to live holy.
Is not this the greatest motive to live holy? Is to think about and meditate about the cost that Jesus paid for my redemption, your salvation, my salvation, that He not only went... A lot of people look just at the physical torments.
Folks, it goes much deeper than the physical torments that Jesus endured. He did endure the physical torments. It was horrible. Upon Him, He was lacerated with the Canaanite tails. And I am telling you, folks, I could go into detail, and if we went into detail by detail, it would make each one of us sick how horrible a crucifixion is.
I am not going to elaborate on that, but the greatest torture that He took.
Was the wrath of God.
He took the hell, the infinite eternal hell upon Himself, so that you and I can live forever for Him.
Isn't that wonderful?
That is what we need to focus on. Paul Washer made that statement during Easter time. He said there would be so many preachers out there that would go on and on about the physical torments that Jesus took.
And he said they would hardly mention about the wrath of God in which Jesus took.
And that was the purpose of why Jesus came.
He came to take the wrath of God. Now, we are going to look at a little bit of that.
Why?
Because of sin. The horrors of sin. Beloved, we have been rescued from slavery of the world. That is what redemption is. We have been rescued from the conformity of the world by the payment of an infinite ransom.
It cost God infinitely. Oh, beloved, can I tell you this? Is not this the greatest motive for holy living? Let us look at this daily. Remind ourselves of the gospel. This spurs me on to live holy,.
To be separate, to be different.
I want to be different from the world. Because I see what Christ did for me.
At an infinite cost, what it cost Him.
To redeem my soul to Him,.
To purchase me,.
To redeem me. Paul said it. You are no longer young.
You have been bought with a price.
And he says, therefore glorify God in what? Your body and your spirit.
It is both.
Because our body belongs to God. And our spirit belongs to God. A lot of people try to separate that. So, oh, I have been purchased by God, but I can do whatever I want to in my body. I can enjoy myself.
That is why God put this on the earth. That is why He put tobacco for me to smoke. That is why He made drugs for me to drug myself up. You hear people talk about that, don't you?
No, no, no, no.
God gives us wisdom. It is man that has created these evil things. These drugs and tobacco. Plants were never meant to be smoked. A lot of people would argue with me about that, but we won't go there, right?
But you see what I am saying. People will justify sin in every way they can. But sin is still sin in the eyes of God. Now, don't get me wrong. There are some things that Scripture, which I just mentioned, is silent on.
But the Holy Spirit gives us insight in the way we should behave and live. Folks, if we have been purchased by God, and God has given us a body to take care of, God gives us common sense too, but there is wisdom as well that we should know how to behave and to live and what to do with it and what not to do with it.
There are perimeters. We also have to remember there are principles in Scripture too. There is black and white, and there are the gray areas. And I just mentioned some of the gray areas we could talk about.
I am not going to go there. But my point is this, that God has purchased us with His blood, through the blood of His Son, therefore we are to glorify God in our body and our spirit. And the question I would ask, is this act that I am partaking of glorifying the God?
Does it glorify God to clog up my lungs with tobacco? You see what I am saying? It has nothing to do with salvation, but what I am trying to say is that when you are purchased with God, purchased of God, you will know how to glorify God in your body.
That is important.
But we glorify God in our spirit. And Romans 12 verse 1 and 2 makes this very clear. So in other words, am I living my life a life of worship? I had a guy years ago, he wanted to argue with me about this.
Now he was just as heathen as they come, and he was trying to say, well God made these things like plants from drugs. And he said, it is okay for me to snip a little of this, and take a little of this.
And I said,.
Who says?
And then I went to the scripture,.
Look at what, you know God made you in His image, in His likeness, originally to glorify Him. And you are to glorify Him in everything.
Whatever you do, in deed,.
In word, do it to the glory of God.
I says,.
Do you think it is to the glory of God, you taking weed?
Pot?
They are making this legal in some states now, right? And it is okay to smoke, get high, and to ruin your brain? It is a fact scientifically, that it destroys brain cells folks. You know that. And here is a guy trying to argue with me,.
Oh God made it.
It is a leaf that God made.
I said, but who says?
I don't see anywhere in scripture that he says, it is okay to smoke it.
Okay,.
What is my point? Is that we are to glorify God. Isn't that the Christian's passion? He wanted to argue. I had to cut it off.
I said,.
I am not arguing with you friend.
I am just saying lovingly, this is what the Bible says. Study the Bible. But that shows you, man's sinful inclinations, the intent of his heart, is evil continually, because he wants to do his pleasurable things in the flesh.
Oh,.
We can go out, we can go other areas too. Sexual sins, and pleasures and stuff, and outside of marriage and things, and try to justify adultery and so forth, and God made women, and all,.
You can just,.
God made us to be like that. Who said that? That is the fallen nature. What I am trying to say is, when God redeems us, and we see the great cost, of what God has redeemed us, the means by which he purchased us with, we see things in a different light, don't we?
Another reason,.
Is because the Holy Spirit reveals it to us, and the Holy Spirit comes to abide within us. The Holy Spirit teaches us what? All truth. Not some truth. He will teach us all truth. He will lead you into all truth.
What's the truth? All you got to do is start picking up your Bible, and start reading it.
You see,.
And these people,.
I just referred to, this one particular guy, he didn't even darken the pages of Scripture. There was another time, he was loading down some bread, and he worked in the bread,.
I won't stay long on this,.
But in the bread warehouse, and he had this music on, and he was blaring it. Folks, it was the most horrible music you ever heard in your life. It was actually, I looked at the cover of the CD he put in, and it had a goat's head, and you should have heard these people he was listening.
I am serious. It had a big star, the pentagram, the pentagon, what do you call it?
Pentagram?
And,.
Yeah, pentagon. I won't go there.
Had a goat's head.
It was far worse than heavy metal.
I mean,.
It sounded like people puking. It sounded like a, it was satanic. It was satanic. And this is the guy that was trying to justify to me about,.
Yeah,.
They are in their ignorance. They are ignorantly fallen. And folks, we were there too, right? Then the Spirit of God comes. John the Baptist cried out with a loud voice, Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God.
Well,.
Jesus Christ, following Him,.
That's what matters.
He was absolutely perfect. He was perfect inwardly. He was perfect outwardly. He was without sin. No sin was within Him. Beloved, if you and I are ever tempted to return to worldly pleasures, and we are at times, aren't we?
Let's be honest. And when the devil starts throwing that fun in our face, we should know better, right? We should know better. We've been purchased and redeemed from that. We were once slaves to that sin.
Slaves, meaning that we were in bondage to it. That's what we love to do. And He pulled us, He saved us with a strong right hand and pulled us out. He literally took us out with a strong hand. Oh, isn't it wonderful that you know this?
That you have experienced it? And He's taken us away from the worldly pleasures. And if you're tempted to return back to that empty way of living, the vain amusements, and to adopt the ways and the patterns and to become like the world in its false ways,.
Remember this.
Remember this. The great motive to living holy is that Jesus Christ shed His precious blood for you to deliver you from that wicked way of life. I always go back to that. I don't want to go back. What I'm talking about,.
I'll go back to that.
I'll go back to that thought that God has redeemed me, but I don't want to go back to that. Did you know that's exactly what Israel wanted to do when they were in the wilderness? After receiving of the law?
Why'd you bring us out here, Moses, to kill us? In the desert? I want to go back to the onions and the leeks and all those things in Egypt. Those pleasurable things. We're out here suffering in the desert.
And you brought us out here in the wilderness to die of starvation? No food?
No meat? They murmured?
They complained? That's a sin, right?
That convicts me as I'm talking about it.
Oh, save us from our murmurings. Well, let me give some practical applications to this message and then I'll close it. First of all, we've looked at the question What were we redeemed from? What were we redeemed from?
And I'm recapping a little bit, obviously, but I want to say a few more things about this. Because the Apostle Peter makes it very clear on specifics. Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your empty way of life, your futile way of life, inherited from your forefathers.
That's very specific. But the general obvious things that God has redeemed us from is what? He's redeemed us from the eternal judgment and hell and damnation, right? There's therefore no condemnation to those in Jesus Christ, but those that are outside of Christ will be condemned.
Folks, it's a horrible thing to know that people are condemned to hell right now as I'm speaking. There's people in hell right this moment that has heard sermon after sermon, that's heard truth after truth.
They knew the knowledge of what I'm speaking of right now from great preachers, but they never received the knowledge of the truth that saved their souls. It was never granted unto them. Spurgeon put it this way.
He says, no one in hell can say that not one of them could have come to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ would not have received them. They're there because of their own sin and their rejection of Jesus Christ.
You see, we were redeemed from the hand... Now, I got this from R .C. Sproul, but we were actually redeemed from the hand of God paid by His own hand. Do you see what I'm saying? God saves us from Himself.
Now, to a lot of people they say, well, hold on, I don't understand that.
How can that be?
It's God that saves us from God. You know what I'm saying. Let me be a little bit more specific. There's the wrath of God, the frowning side of God, that justice side of God, the righteous side of God, and He saves us through Jesus Christ on His merciful, there's the merciful side, His smiling face, His grace, His mercy, His compassion, His grace that gives us favor, actually through Jesus Christ saves us from His justice.
We've got to understand that. See, what we see in Scripture is that God is just as holy and righteous as He is loving and merciful. And the only salvation that we have is through the mercies that He's shown.
In Jesus Christ.
People say, no, I don't need Jesus. I can be saved by His mercy.
No.
Jesus made that clear. So then why did Jesus come?
He was the supreme sacrifice.
There had to be a sacrifice. People say, yeah, but I can lean back on the animals. No, that did not redeem. That was a temporary covering. That was tides and shadows for Jesus. I pointed that out last week, that Jesus is our Passover.
We're saved by God Himself, from God. Because it was God Himself who had to be satisfied. But this is the beauty of the Gospel. It says, where do I come in in salvation? This is wonderful. It's really God that does it all.
Isn't this beautiful? Now, when we first come to faith, we think, oh, it was my faith that brought me in. It was my repentance. But once you start studying the Scripture some, the faith is the gift of God.
It's an instrument in which is an instrument of laying hold of Christ. That's all the faith is. But the faith is God's gift so you can lay hold of God. It comes from God. Who can repent from their sin unless God grants that repentance that you can turn from that sin toward faith in Christ?
You see what I'm saying?
Yes, you have to do the repenting and then you have to put your faith and trust in Christ, but it's the Holy Spirit that's doing the work in you.
You see?
The word I guess I could say is this, who takes the initiative? That's the question, right?
God takes the initiative.
Sproul said this, no one would be saved unless God sought us. Nobody would be saved unless God took the initiative. He's the seeker. He's the lover of our soul. Oh, this is wonderful. This is the gospel because it's God that does it all.
Our religion cannot save us. Our righteousness is filthy rags. In other words, this may hurt some people's feelings, but our good works are damnable.
They're damnable. They will send us to hell. A lot of people in hell right now, they did good works. And yet you see on social media and you see here people, yeah, but I know there's good in them. I know there's good in them.
No, there's not.
There's no good in them.
People say, yeah, but you're such a gloomy person. You should need to see the bright side of people. Look, folks, there's no bright side of people. They're doomed. They're hellish even in their good works.
There's none good.
I'm just telling you what Scripture says.
There's none good, no, not one.
All of us has come short of the glory of God.
All of us.
That's why we need Jesus. That's why we need Jesus. He's the only one that wasn't bad.
He was perfectly good. Well, we had to be redeemed from the hand of God as our judge because we had to be placed in the hands by our sins, transgressions and iniquities. So we were redeemed, ransomed with a very high cost from sin and judgment and hell.
Let me go a little bit in detail here in closing. Galatians 3 .13 says it this way, You were redeemed from the curse of the law. You were redeemed from the curse of the law. What's the curse of the law say?
I'll tell you what the curse of the law says. You break the law, you die. There's no curveball. A lot of people think one day God's going to throw a curveball to them. No, there's not going to be no curveball with God.
You break the law, you die everlastingly. Forever. And yet, Jesus became the curse for us. Then Ephesians 1 .7 says, You were redeemed through the forgiveness of sins. You were redeemed through the forgiveness of sins.
Titus 2 .14 says, You were redeemed from every lawless deed.
Ain't that wonderful?
So the big picture is that we're redeemed from sin and it's awful results. Which is judgment, everlasting judgment and it's terrible sentence of condemnation. Everlasting hell. That's the punishment. Because God has to punish sin and the sinner.
A lot of people try to separate the two. But the sin is abiding within the sinner.
The wicked.
That's why the Bible says that God is angry with the wicked every day. MacArthur said, try to put that on the church sign. It's the truth.
People don't want to put that out there.
They want to put, smile, God loves you. They don't want to put the word of God because it's too convicting. Well, Peter gets to the very specifics of it. That you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from a futile way of life inherited from your forefathers.
What's the second question? Now that's a recap. We've been looking at this. Peter answers it. What were we redeemed with? What were we redeemed with? The precious blood of Christ. Look at verse 19. But with the precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished, spotless, the blood of Christ.
I don't know about you.
I could say that all day, can't you? But with the precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished, and spotless, the blood of Christ, the blood of Christ, the blood of Christ. You know, beloved, we've got to know this.
And let me make this crystal clear. Nobody, nobody can be a true Christian without knowing this great truth. Because there's no salvation in any other than Jesus Christ. That makes it clear in the Scripture.
No other name under heaven whereby men can be saved, right?
Not Mohammed.
Not Buddha. Not all these dead prophets. We have one. That's our Redeemer. He's alive. And He's satisfied the just demands of a holy God. Jesus Christ and Him crucified, beloved. That's what we're talking about.
Now, negatively, you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold. We didn't buy our own way into the kingdom, did we? We can't buy our way into the kingdom. That's what stirred up Luther in his day, in the dark ages.
He saw Tetzel selling indulgences. These indulgences were things that the people, the poor people, they didn't have much money. They had to spend all that they had to buy these indulgences. And this false prophet was saying, you buy these indulgences, they earn you so many points to God.
Bam, bam, bam.
You could get to God somehow. So many points.
So many.
Out of purgatory.
Had to get you out of purgatory and get you to God. And step by step, trying to get you up. And all this money from these poor people was given to Tetzel. And this false prophet was going to Rome and the Pope to build their luxurious buildings.
And people were perishing. That's why Luther saw that and it stirred him. I said, these poor people, he said, these poor people are deceived. But it stirred him more than anything that God was being mocked.
God would not be mocked. Because he knew that the purchase, ransom price of people's souls, the church, was by the blood of Jesus.
By faith alone.
Well, Ephesians, I just quoted just part of it, but if you look with me very quickly to Ephesians, look at this, chapter 1. Look at verse, this is wonderful. Look at verse 7.
In Him.
Who's Him?
Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ. You could read it like that.
We have redemption through what? His blood. His blood. And then he tacks on this. The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace. And then verse 8. Which He lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.
I'll stop right there. And this is what I want to close with. Keep in mind that redeeming grace. Now, aren't you glad for that name? Because it's in Scripture. Redeeming grace is free to us, but it costs God everything.
I want to say that again. Redeeming grace is free to us, but it costs God everything. And at an inestimable price. The precious blood of His Son. The blood of Jesus Christ. Beloved, can I say this? In our culture, in the world today.
Most people of the whole world. Flaunt sin. Peddle it. I gave you a small example of that earlier. So many countless ways and so many forms. They justify their sinning. Even Christians who would never think of committing certain sins.
Will often allow themselves to be entertained by those same sins. In which Jesus Christ died for. Just go to social media. You see it everywhere. People flirting with sin. Folks, flirting with sin is dangerous.
We should not flirt with sin. It's even more dangerous to the child of God. Because of the discipline that God will put to us. To the child of God it should be more abhorrent. Hateful. Because it costs God so much.
Because God hates sin with an infinite hatred. Now, as I say that. We do not truly understand folks. Even as Christians by the Holy Spirit. How much God truly hates sin. I don't have the language for it.
Just read the Bible. The price that He paid to redeem us. From it speaks the seriousness. In which He views it. And that's what we just read. Beloved, in Scripture the shedding of blood refers to a very violent act.
Physically. And spiritually. In which Jesus took. Whether of a sacrificial animal through the Old Testament. Or to Jesus Christ Himself. You see a crucifixion as a violent act. The shedding of blood is a violent act.
There's nothing pretty about it. Sin is so serious that without bloodshed. There is no forgiveness of sin that God. In God's sight. As a matter of fact all the way through the Scriptures. And the sacrificial animals of the Old Testament.
It just pictures Christ as sacrificed on the cross of Calvary. That's why John the Baptist said. Behold the Lamb of God. That takes away the sin of the world. Behold the Lamb of God. That's a great revelation.
That revelation.
I thought of this.
How did John know that? John understood that. That Jesus was the Messiah. That Jesus was the Lamb of God. And by His perfect and holy sacrifice. He demonstrated not only God's hatred for sin. But He also demonstrated God's great love.
That He's lavished upon the church. In which the people He will save. And sinners like us. You and I could never redeem ourselves beloved. We cannot buy our way into heaven. Jesus did that. By the way if you want to know anybody that earned their way to heaven.
Jesus did that. Jesus is the only one that did that. Christ was willing. And freely paid for the sin. Debt that He paid in full. And His sacrifice that was acceptable to the Father. So our redemption was paid in full.
So what do we do? We come to Him. We repent and believe the gospel. Listen to Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1. This tells you. That God hates religion. It tells us that God would not accept but one kind of sacrifice.
Verse 10. Hear the word of the Lord you rulers of Sodom. And give ear to the instruction of God our God. You people of Gomorrah. What are your multiplied sacrifices to me? What are they? Says the Lord.
Listen to what God says. God isn't happy with religion folks.
Listen to this.
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams. And the fat of the kettle. I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs or goats. Religion. He says when you come to appear before me. Who requires of you this trampling of my courts?
You hear that question God is asking? When you come to appear before me. Who requires of you this trampling of my courts to come in here like this? Before the King of Glory. Without the blood sacrifice of His Son.
That's what He is saying. And then He says bring your worthless offerings no longer. Worthless offerings. We come at the religious people. Incense is abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of assemblies.
I cannot endure iniquity.
Boy you hear that?
I cannot endure iniquity. And the solemn assembly. Even lots of people coming together religiously. And I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feast. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.
And then He says. So when you even spread out your hands in prayer.
I will hide my eyes from you. I will hide my eyes.
David said it like this. If I regard iniquity in my heart. The Lord will not hear me. That iniquity has to be dealt with. That sin has to be dealt with. That religion. That self has to be dealt with. And then God gives us the remedy.
Yes even though you multiply your prayers. I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.
They murdered.
Innocent people.
And then God says this. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from my sight. What He is talking about here folks. Is not something man can do within himself. He is talking about repentance.
He is talking about turn from your evil ways. And turn to me. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Reprove the ruthless. Defend the orphan.
Plead for the widow.
Folks that is a list of fruits of repentance. Right there. Fruits of repentance. That is what John the Baptist was talking about. And then He says this. Come now. Let us reason together. There it is. Come when?
Tomorrow?
Come now.
Come now. And let us reason together says the Lord. Though your sins are as scarlet. They will be white as snow. Here is the remedy. Though they are red like crimson. They shall be like wool. And if you consent and obey.
You will eat the best of the land. But if you refuse and rebel. You will be devoured by the sword. Truly the mouth of the Lord is spoken. Spurgeon said this. It is not your hold on Christ that saves you.
It is Christ. It is not your joy that saves you. It is Christ. It is not your joy in Christ that saves you. It is Christ. It is not even your faith in Christ. Though that be the instrument. But listen to this.
It is Christ's blood and merit. It is Christ's blood and merit. In other words. Only the blood of Jesus and His works. Is going to get us there. Let's pray. Father we thank you for this time. We thank you for the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Oh God. Oh Lord we should be in fear just to speak that. That precious blood that was shed on Calvary's cross. For our salvation. And the good works of Jesus. Worthy is the land that was slain. To receive power.
And wisdom and glory and blessing and thanksgiving. To Him be the glory forever and ever.
Hallelujah.
What a Savior. And we thank you Father for this time together. And meeting with us. And we praise you in Jesus name.
Amen.