The Motivation for Holiness 10/29/2023

The Incarnation and Assurance of Salvation in 1 John

Well, today we start a new book in the New Testament also. First John, as you turn there, just a reminder that we have lunch downstairs. We hope you can stay, sit with us. It's a good time to get to know you, visit with one another.

John was, of course, the apostle that lived the longest among the 12, even toward the end of the first century. And by the end of the first century, of course, Christ had died on his cross probably in around 80, 30 thereabouts.

And now we're in the 90, 60 years after the fact. And by this time, the churches were having a great deal of difficulty in one arena of doctrine or teaching. And there was error because of certain mystical teachings of the Gentile world that were coming into the churches.

And as a result, there were some who claimed to be Christian who were really not. They claimed to believe on Jesus, but they had, because of their philosophy, twisted or perverted views about the person of Christ.

They saw the spirit realm as all good and everything physical as evil. And therefore, they denied the incarnation. They said Jesus wasn't really a man. He only looked like a man. He appeared as a man.

And so they weren't Christian, but they were mixed up in the churches. And so there was a problem. How do you determine who's a Christian, who's not? And the Lord raised up John to write this epistle and the one following.

Basically, this is how you tell the difference between a true Christian and one who is not, who maybe claims he is or she is. And so anyway, 1 John, I think, is the best letter in the Bible that addresses the matter of assurance of salvation.

And right here in the first chapter, John argues that, indeed, Jesus was incarnate. He was a man. He didn't just appear as man. We saw him. We touched him. We handled him. And anyone who says otherwise is a heretic.

He's not a true Christian. And he gets into that later in the epistle also. So 1 John, chapter 1, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon, our hands have handled, concerning the word of life, the life was manifested.

And we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifest to us, that which we've seen and heard, we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us.

And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light.

In him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word that so wonderfully sets before us the truth of your Son, who he is and who he is not.

We thank you, our God, for the incarnation that your eternally begotten Son took upon himself our human nature, a body and a human soul and came and dwelt among us, our God, and lived out a life of perfect righteousness without sin and then died upon that cross in order to atone for our sin, to pay for the penalty of the sin that we have committed.

But because he himself was without sin, death could not hold him, but you raised him that third day, our God, and exalted him to heaven and you seated him on your throne and he reigns even now as Lord of lords and King of kings.

And for this, we're thankful. And we thank you that we can have fellowship with you, Father, through your Son, Jesus Christ, and fellowship with one another. And yet we acknowledge, our God, that we sin.

We are greatly troubled by sin. We will never say that we have no sin for we would be deceiving ourselves and the truth of not in us. But we thank you for the promise, our God, that if we confess our sins before you as Christians, that you will forgive us of our sins, cleanse us, our God, and restore us to sweet fellowship with yourself.

And so, our God, as your people, we humble ourselves before you and ask that you would cleanse us of our sin, forgive us, our God, allow nothing more to hinder our sweet relationship, fellowship with you and with one another.

And Father, we pray for that soul that may be farthest from Jesus Christ, that you would give them a true understanding of the person of Jesus Christ and his full divine nature and his full human nature as well.

We pray, help us and help them, our God, to have faith in the true God, man, Jesus Christ. Now, Father, we pray for Pastor Jason as he comes and opens your word to us that we would learn and be motivated to become more holy as Christians, to become more like Jesus Christ in whom we stand.

For we pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name, amen.

Trials, Eternal Perspective, and the Call to Holiness

Difficulty and hardship often get the best of us. In the midst of adversity, we struggle to retain the joy of our salvation. In the midst of trials, we struggle to look past the temporary and look to the eternal.

In the midst of pain and suffering, we often succumb to fatigue and weariness and we respond to our circumstances in a selfish and sinful manner. And these responses are in light of sound doctrine. Even though we know that pain and suffering come from the Lord God, even though we know that trials and tribulation come from the loving and providential hand of the Lord God, even though we know that adversity, difficulty and hardships prove our faith, they refine our character and produce in us endurance, when the rubber meets the road, many of us still respond with complaints, grumbling and despair.

Why is this? Why do we let our circumstances dictate our attitude? Why do we let our circumstances dictate our actions and our joy and our outlook in this life? Maybe it's because we have forgotten that the Christian life is an ongoing spiritual battle.

There is always more to your circumstances than meets the eye. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Maybe it's because we've forgotten that the Christian life is to be lived in the spirit. The Christian life is to be lived according to the spirit. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? In other words, are you working out your own salvation in the power of your strength or in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit?

Maybe it's because we have forgotten that the Christian life is to be lived with an eternal perspective. The Christian life is to be lived in light of eternity and in light of our great salvation. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading.

Kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Or maybe it is because we lack the proper motivation to live holy, righteous and godly lives.

Please turn with me to the book of 1 Peter. By way of reminder, in 1 Peter 1, verses one to five, Peter reminds his readers of their marvelous spiritual blessings, election, regeneration, living hope, inheritance and protection.

In verses six to nine, he reminds his readers that there is purpose behind trials and suffering. Trials and suffering prove the genuineness of your faith. Which is more precious than gold and proven faith results in love, knowledge and joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

In verses 10 to 12, Peter looks at the greatness of our salvation, not through our eyes, but through the eyes of the Old Testament prophets, the Holy Spirit, the New Testament apostles and the angels.

And in 1 Peter 1, verses 13 through 16, which was our subject, which was the subject of my last sermon a month ago, Peter gave two commands that must be closely followed. In light of our great salvation, this is what we are to do.

The first command was to set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. By preparing your mind for action and by being sober-minded. The second command was to be holy in all your conduct by not conforming to your former passions, but by being conformed to the image of a thrice holy God.

And in our text this morning, Peter provides us with the proper motivation to help assist us in keeping these commands. Let's look at the passage together. 1 Peter 1, verses 17 to 21. And if you call on him as father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed, that you were not ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, 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.

In this passage, Peter gives us two reasons to motivate us to set our hope fully on the grace to be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ and to live holy lives. Let's look at each one of these motivators.

The first motivation is to remember the character of God. The Lord God is our father and the Lord God is our judge. 1 Peter 1 17. And if you call on him as father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.

The first motivation for obeying the commands of 1 Peter 1 verses 13 through 16 is to remember the Lord God that he is our father and our judge. The motivation to set our hope and to live holy lives is the character of the Lord God.

To rightly discern the character of God is of utmost importance to Christian living. It is of paramount importance. A misunderstanding of the Lord God, a misunderstanding of his character will result in a misunderstanding on how we are to obey him, how we are to please him and how we are to glorify him.

The Lord God is our father, but he is also our judge. The Lord God is not more father than he is judge nor is he more judge than he is father. To emphasize one over the other will give you an imbalanced and unbiblical view of the Lord our God.

God is our father. As Christians, we have been adopted into the family of God. While we were yet in sin, separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God, our father took us into his family and he has made us his children.

He has made us heirs. Isn't this a marvelous truth? Think about this for a moment. In eternity past, before the foundation of the world was ever laid, the Lord God chose you and he predestined you to be his son.

He predestined you to be his daughter. The Lord God graciously and lovingly sought you out. You, an unworthy sinner, an enemy of God, and he brought you into his family through adoption. In New Testament times, adoption was a very common practice.

Fathers had absolute authority over their families. And if a father was disappointed with one of his biological sons in their character or their abilities or any other attribute, the father was free to search for another son who would inherit his title, his estate, in the place of his biological son.

And if a boy was found and proved himself to be worthy, the father would then begin the necessary legal steps of adoption. The first step involved a legal separation that severed the boy's legal and social relationship with his natural family.

The second step physically placed the boy permanently into his new family. And the third step, all of the adopted boy's previous debts and all of his obligations were erased as if they had never existed.

Beloved, the Lord God sought us out. And our relationship with sin was severed and changed forever. We were delivered from the domain of darkness. We were transferred to the kingdom of his beloved son.

We were transferred to the family of his beloved son. In Christ, we are placed into the family of God. And in Christ, our debts were forgiven and we were redeemed. We were given a new nature and we became the adopted children of the Lord God, legitimate children, with all the blessings and all the rights and all the privileges that affords.

Romans 8, 15, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. It is through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that we are truly and permanently adopted into the family of God.

And we have received the spirit of adoption. That is the Lord God makes certain that we know that we are his children. Christians have the privilege and the right to cry out, Abba, Father. Abba is an informal Aramaic term for father.

It's a term that implies warmth and tenderness and affection and dependence. It's the term that the Lord Jesus Christ used while praying fervently to his father in the garden of Gethsemane, just prior to his crucifixion.

Galatians 4, 6, and because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. Charles Spurgeon remarked on this passage.

Oh, blessed, blessed state of heart to feel that now we are born into the family of God and that the choice word, which no slave might ever pronounce, may now be pronounced by us, Abba. It is a child's word, such as a little child utters when he first opens his mouth to speak, and it runs the same both backwards and forwards, A-B-B-A.

Oh, to have a childlike spirit that in whatever state of heart I am, I may still be able to say in the accents even of spiritual infancy, Abba, Father. Beloved to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

If you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are a child of God. You are an heir through God. You belong to him. The Lord God is your father. But not only is he your father, he is also your judge.

1 Peter 1, 17. And if you call on him as father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. As one who belongs to the Lord God, as one who is loved by the Lord God, as a child of God, you are not exempt from his judgment.

The Lord God, our father God, is just. And he always does what is right. Thus, the Lord God is impartial in his judgment. Every child of God will give an account to the Lord God according to his or her works.

Article 32 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession states, God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, to whom all power and judgment is given by the father.

On that day, the apostate angels will be judged. So also, all people who have lived on the earth will appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deeds, and to receive a reckoning according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil.

In other words, most assuredly, there will be a day of judgment, a day when all men will appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and a verdict will be given. The judgment of our thoughts, words, and deeds will either validate the authenticity of our faith, or it will invalidate the authenticity of our faith.

All men will receive a reckoning according to their works, and each one will give an account of himself to the Lord God. 2 Corinthians 5 .10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

On that day, every man will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and there will be no place for us to hide. No excuses will be accepted, and no blame will be shifted. The full truth of our lives will be laid out like a scroll before our father, the judge.

There is nothing that will be hidden from his sight, but all will be naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. The judgment seat of Christ is a great motivator to live a holy life.

Again, listen to the 1689. Christ desires that we be firmly convinced that a day of judgment will come, both to deter everyone from sin and to comfort the godly more fully in their adversity. For this reason, he is determined to keep the day secret, to encourage people to shake off any fleshly security and always to be watchful, because they do not know the hour when the Lord will come, and so they may always be ready and prepared to say, come Lord Jesus, come quickly, amen.

The judgment seat of Christ should help deter us from sin, and it should comfort us in our adversity. It should motivate us to set our hope on the grace that will be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Yes, the Lord God is our father. Yes, the Lord God is our loving, caring, and compassionate heavenly father, but he is also the judge. He is an impartial and righteous judge to whom we will give account.

There's also a third imperative or command in 1 Peter 1 17. You must fix your hope on the grace to come. That was the first command. You must live holy lives. That's the second. And the third, you must fear the Lord God.

1 Peter 1 17, and if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. What does it mean to conduct yourselves with fear?

Well, there are two very distinct senses in which the word fear is used in the scriptures. The Greek word translated fear is phobos, meaning that which strikes terror or dread. And the root word carries with it the idea of taking flight.

So the implication is that you are so overwhelmed with dread and fear and trepidation that you take flight. You flee, you get out of there. You run for your life. Deuteronomy 2 25, this day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on all the peoples who are under the whole of heaven who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.

In addition to this usage, fear is also used to describe a holy reverence, a sense of awe and majesty. Psalm 2 11, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Psalm 22 23, you who fear the Lord, praise him.

All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel. Psalm 33 eight, let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

The great reformer Martin Luther struggled to understand the concept of fearing God. And eventually he made a distinction between what he called servile fear and filial fear. Servile fear is a kind of fear that a prisoner in a torture chamber has for his tormentors or his executioners.

It's a kind of dreadful anxiety in which someone is frightened by a clear and present danger that is represented by someone else or some other circumstance. Luther distinguished between this type of fear and what he called filial fear, drawing from the Latin concept from which we get the idea of family.

It refers to the fear that a child has for his father or his mother. In this regard, Luther was thinking of a child who has tremendous love and respect for his father or his mother and who desperately wants to please them.

He has a fear or an anxiety of offending the one he loves. Not because he's afraid of torture or even punishment, but because he's afraid of displeasing the one he loves. William Brackle defined filial fear as a holy inclination of the heart generated by God in the hearts of his children, whereby they out of reverence for God take careful pains not to displease God and to earnestly endeavor to please him in all things.

Sinclair Ferguson defined filial fear as that indefinable mixture of reverence and pleasure, joy and awe, which fills our hearts when we realize who God is and what he has done for us. It is a love for God which is so great that we would be ashamed to do anything which would displease or grieve him.

And makes us happiest when we are doing what is pleasing to him. The fact that the Lord God is our father, the fact that the Lord God is our judge should generate a certain amount of esteem and reverence for him.

It should generate a certain amount of awe and respect and honor for the Lord God. It should generate a desire to please him, taking great pains not to please him and even greater pains to please him.

All of these things encompass the fear of the Lord. And it is these things that should motivate us. It is these things that should motivate us to set our hope on the grace that will be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

It is these things that should motivate us to live holy lives as exiles and sojourners and aliens and pilgrims throughout the days of our lives. To remember that God is our father and our judge offers great motivation to walk in obedience to the Lord and to conduct ourselves in fear.

Redemption by the Precious Blood of Christ

The second motivating reason to obey the commands of the Lord God is because of the infinitely high cost of our ransom. The motivation to set our hope, to live holy lives and to fear the Lord God comes from a clear understanding of the great cost of our redemption.

1 Peter 1 18, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 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.

Beloved, our ransom was paid in full by the precious blood of Christ Jesus. And this infinitely high cost is a tremendous motivation for us to walk in hope, in holiness and in fear. The Greek word translated ransomed means to release upon receipt.

To be ransomed refers to the price paid to redeem someone from bondage or captivity. It was a technical term used to describe the price paid to buy back someone who was headed for judgment, to buy back someone who was a prisoner of war or to buy back and purchase the freedom of a slave.

At the time that 1 Peter was written, there were millions of slaves in the Roman empire. Some slaves had been born into slavery, it was all they ever knew. Some slaves had once been free men, but had been conquered by Rome and were forced to live out the rest of their days under the Roman yoke of slavery.

Still others had become slaves by falling into debt and the only way for them to repay the debt was to become a slave and to work off the amount that was owed. Whatever the cause, a slave was not a free man.

A slave was not his own man. A slave was not able to do as he wished. The will of the slave was subservient to the will of the master. Slaves were property. They belonged to and were in bondage to their owners.

The only way for a slave to become a free man was for the slave to be liberated and redeemed and the payment of that redemption was the ransom, the actual price that was paid. In 1 Peter 1, 18 through 21, we have been ransomed with the precious blood of Christ.

From the feudal ways inherited from our forefathers. In other words, we have been ransomed with the precious blood of Christ from our slavery and our bondage to sin. According to the scriptures, all men are slaves.

All men have been born into slavery, born into bondage, the bondage of sin. Contrary to what so many people believe, man is not born innocent. Man is not born free. Man is born guilty and he is enslaved.

Psalm 51 .5, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Romans 8 .7, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot.

1 Corinthians 2 .14, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him. And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Why are all men hostile to the Lord God?

Why do all men refuse to submit to the law of God? Why do all men reject the things of the Spirit of God? Why do all men fail to understand the things of the Spirit of God? The answer is because a slave obeys his master.

A slave belongs to his master. A slave does not have a will of his own. Rather, the slave's will is subservient to the will of his owner. Slaves remain in subjection to and in bondage to their masters.

In speaking to the unbelieving Pharisees, the Lord Jesus Christ answered them. In John 8 .34, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The master of the natural man is sin.

The natural man is a slave to sin. He cannot resist sin. Indeed, he cannot. The natural man is enslaved to do the will of his master. Now remember, the only way for a slave to become a free man is for that slave to be redeemed.

He must be delivered. He must be freed. He must be liberated by payment of ransom. And what is the price of the ransom? What does it cost to redeem a fallen man? What does it cost to free a sinner from a life of slavery?

What does it cost to set a man free? The cost is blood. The ransom is blood. For a man to be redeemed from the clutches of sin, someone has to die because the wages of sin is death. Beloved, your ransom, the price of your redemption was paid, not with perishable things, such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Galatians 3 .13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, curse it is everyone who is hanged on a tree. Ephesians 1 .7, in him, referring to Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight.

Hebrews 9 .12, again, speaking of Jesus, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by the means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption.

It is through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have been redeemed. It is through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have eternal redemption. It was his blood poured out for us.

It was his blood spilled in our place as a divinely appointed substitute, freeing us from the shackles of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ gave his blood. He gave his life, he gave his all, he gave himself for us on the cross.

The death that was due me, the death that I had earned, the death that I rightly deserved, he died for me as a substitute in my place. The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished what no man could ever accomplish.

The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished what the blood of bulls and goats could never accomplish, what the entire sacrificial system could never accomplish. Hebrews 10, 12, but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sin, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

Verse 14, for by a single offering, by one offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. By one single offering, the Lord Jesus Christ has paid in full the ransom. By one single offering, he has set us free.

And beloved, this is the chief message of salvation. We have been ransomed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. He paid the price for sin. He delivers us from the captive hold of sin, and he sets us free as liberated sons and daughters of the Lord God most high.

Furthermore, our redemption, our ransom, is wholly the work of the Lord God. The Lord God gets all the credit. 1 Peter 1, 20, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, 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.

The Lord God planned our redemption and our ransom before we had ever sinned. Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world. In other words, our redemption was not impulsive. It was not an afterthought.

The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ was not a last minute plan. The payment of our ransom was not paid on a whim. It was foreordained in eternity past. It was foreordained well in advance of the creation of the world.

In article three of the 1689, by God's degree, for the demonstration of his glory, some human beings and angels are predestined or foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ to the praise of his glorious grace.

Others are left to live in their sin, leading to their just commendation.

Why?

To the praise of his glorious grace. From all eternity, the Lord God decreed everything that occurs without reference to anything outside of himself. And he did this by his perfectly wise and holy counsel, the counsel of his own will.

Our deliverance from sin was decreed. It was decided from the Lord God from all eternity. By the decree of the Lord God in the last times, he became flesh. The Lord God became incarnate. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. Verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth.

The Lord Jesus Christ came into this world. He entered into time and history and he became a flesh and blood living and breathing man. He was made manifest. He was chosen in eternity but revealed in time.

He came into the world to glorify the father. He came into the world to seek and to save the lost. He came to live amongst his own creation. He came to die at the hands of his own creation for his own creation.

He was buried, he was raised from the dead and he was given glory. Jesus is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is God, who lived before time, who was predestined from eternity to be a sacrifice, who is incarnate, who was born a virgin, who lived a perfect life and who died on a cross.

The Lord Jesus Christ is our redeemer. He is the predestined, incarnate, risen, ascended Christ who made the purchase of our sins with his own precious blood. Why did the Lord God go to such great lengths to redeem fallen man?

Look at our text. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in these last times for the sake of you. For the sake of you. God's plan of redemption was put into place and accomplished for the sake of you so that your faith and hope are in God.

God's plan of redemption was put into place and accomplished for you. It was not a blanket policy. It was personal. Before the foundation of the world, the Lord God knew you. The Lord God predestined you and the Lord God provided a way to redeem you from sin through the precious blood of his son, Jesus Christ.

Thomas Watson remarked, this is one of my favorite quotes. Great was the work of creation but greater was the work of redemption. It cost more to redeem us than to make us. In the one, there was but a speaking of a word.

In the other, there was a shedding blood. The creation was but the work of God's fingers. Redemption is the work of his arm. Beloved, it is the blood of Christ that has redeemed us. It is the blood of Christ that has redeemed us from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin and one day soon from the presence of sin.