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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/marcus-cain/who-are-you-leaning-on-1-peter-1-17-21/
1st Peter chapter 1, we're going to read from verse number 17. And just remember this before I start reading, that Peter is writing to believers, not to unbelievers. But there's things that unbelievers can learn from what Peter wrote to believers.
These believers were poor. They were persecuted. They were going through all kinds of problems. They were strangers in a foreign land. And this is what Peter says to them. Verse 17, 1st Peter 1. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.
For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.
If you want to carry on with the questions that I started with over this weekend of meetings, here the question is, who are you leaning on? As far as your eternal destiny is concerned, who are you trusting in?
Where is your confidence? Where is your faith? But before we get there, I want to go back to where we were last night. If you were here last night and listened to my good brother Brandon, he mentioned that there were some people who didn't know a few things.
He talked to us from Matthew's Gospel about the fact that some didn't believe the record that God had given to them, the word of God and the power of God. They didn't believe it. They didn't know it. And then he took us to Romans chapter 2, and he talked about the fact that there were some that didn't understand that what was happening in their lives was to lead them to repentance.
Repentance means understanding what I am before God. I am a sinner. God is holy. God is righteous. I deserve his judgment. And having that desire to have a real inward change. You don't know that God is leading you to repentance.
And then he took us to Romans chapter 10, where he said you don't know the righteousness of God, which he explained to us in the book of Romans has a couple of different aspects. One is that God is righteous.
He's just. But the other is that God wants to make us righteous. He can justify us by means of the Lord Jesus. Now, looking at the audience that's much smaller than last night, I think that most of you were here and you probably heard all of that and you probably remembered all of that, I think, I hope.
And then my good brother Isaiah, I call him Ike, but my good brother Isaiah, he got up and read to us from Luke's gospel chapter 4. And he talked to us amongst amongst many things, especially about two people who were from the Gentiles.
And what happened in their life is that they came to rely on the message that the prophet brought to them. Now, I'm not going to go back in those details either, but that's what he talked to us about.
So I'm I'm kind of linking those two messages with what I have in my mind and in my heart at this evening hour. So simply from these six verses that I've read with you and you've read with me, I have five points.
So, you know, if you follow along carefully, when I get to number five, that we're coming towards the end. OK, so the first one that I want to talk to you about is is the relationship that we need to have.
These people had it. They had it because he says you're calling on God as father. Now, when you and I were born, we were not really able to call God our father. Now, I know I know that in many countries of the world, people learn our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Although God is not their father, he is their creator, but he's not their father. Because to be able to call God your father means this, that you have been born into the family of God. Now, I wasn't born into the family of God.
Neither were you. But once a person is a true believer, they they have this relationship and they can call God their father. So Peter is writing to people and he says, if you call on the father. So I have a question for you.
And again, it's not 1 p .m. It's not the Sunday school. Don't raise your hand, but ask yourself honestly before God. Have you ever entered into this relationship? Do you know the Lord Jesus as your savior?
And do you know God as your father? But there's another relationship that he's going to mention to us in the very same verse. And it's our relationship with the world, because he says this. Now, again, he's writing to believers, but he says, pass the time of your sojourning in fear.
Now, there's a couple of things that obviously we should explain from this verse. I'm not sure when the last time somebody said to you, when you went to school or when you left school, sojourn carefully.
I expect that even in the very solemn and serious Midwest, that people probably don't use this word on a regular basis. But what it means is this in a very simple way. It means that you're just passing through.
You're not here forever. You're just passing through. And this is what Peter says to them. Pass the time of your sojourning in fear, in reverence to God. Now, if you are not a believer, you don't have this reverence towards God.
We learned that from the book of Romans chapter 3. But I come back to this. Remember, whether you are a believer or an unbeliever, that we are just here for a short time. Sometimes the time is very short.
And sometimes the time may be much longer. I dread mentioning the fact that somebody today told me how old they're going to be in the month of October. I won't say who it is. Some of you may know. Well, most of us will never ever reach that age.
Our sojourning is short. So our relationship with God, is he your father? But at the same time, remember this. That your time here is short. You're just passing through. So the big question is, are you ready to leave this scene of time and go out into eternity?
But the next thing that I want to talk to you about is the word redemption. And we find that in these verses that we have read together tonight. He says in verse number 18,. So here's the next question.
He's writing to people that have been redeemed, and they know they've been redeemed. And I'll get back to that little phrase, you know, just in a little while, God willing. But I want to ask you at this juncture of the meeting, do you know that you have been redeemed?
Well, maybe you'll say to me, Marcus, I'm Marcus, I don't even know what redeemed means. Well, we sung about it, about redemption ground. I was going to give out the hymn, I think it's number 102, but we didn't.
We might sing that later. There's lots of hymns that speak about redemption. In a very simple way, it means this. Now, the people that Peter was writing to, they would have understood exactly what it meant.
Because most of them, maybe not all of them, but a good number of them, if not most of them, were Jews before they were converted to the person of Jesus Christ. Before they realized that Jesus was the Messiah, the Savior.
And so they, as Jews, would have understood from the Old Testament exactly what redemption meant. Because they would have remembered the story of their nation that was under bondage in the land of Egypt for over 400 years, and God, with a powerful hand, redeemed them.
He rescued them. Now, there was a price that had to be paid. The price that had to be paid was the blood of a lamb. Now, we've read about that, haven't we? But the lamb that he's speaking about in 1 Peter 1 is not the same lamb that we find back in the Old Testament.
There's lots of lambs in the Old Testament, but Peter is thinking perhaps especially about Exodus 12, when Moses gives instructions to the people that every family had to take a lamb and look after it from the 10th day till the 14th day, then slaughter the lamb and put the blood on the doorpost and on the upper beam of the door.
Because that night, that very night, an angel was going to pass by, and if the blood was not on the door of the firstborn, the oldest boy in the family, he would die. I'm the oldest of five. I'm the firstborn.
Had I been living in Egypt way back then, thousands of years ago, and heard what Moses said, I can tell you one thing. I would have had a good conversation with my father and made pretty sure that this lamb is the right kind of lamb, and he doesn't have any broken legs, and he's got two ears and two eyes, that he's the right kind of lamb, acceptable to God, and that the blood was properly applied at the doorway.
And then I could have gone into the house with this confidence. If the blood is there, and God has said that the person inside is safe, I'm okay. I'm safe. I will not lose my life this very night. I would have had a good conversation with my father, who, thank God, is still alive.
I can still have a good conversation with him, but I'm not living back in Egypt. But here we are, and Peter says this, you have been redeemed. He says it's not with corruptible things. It's not something you can buy.
You can't save enough money. He uses the words silver and gold. Now, I don't even have a... I don't have a sweet clue what gold is worth. Maybe you know. Maybe you have some idea what an ounce of gold is worth.
You see how much gold I own right now. It's right here. That's all I own. No idea how much it weighs. No idea how much it's worth. But some people think that somehow or other, with their efforts, with their money, maybe with their church attendance, maybe with their baptism, with something that they can do, that they can be redeemed, that they can be rescued, that they can be saved.
Because remember, back there in the book of Exodus, these people were under bondage, and God was going to free them that very night. Give them their liberty. And you say... Maybe you don't want to say Marcus because you're too young and you think I'm too old.
So you might say Mr. Cain, which I'm not used to at all. But if you do, that's okay. You might say, Mr. Cain, don't you know that I live in the land of the free and the brave? And I will say to you, the Bible tells me this.
The Lord Jesus tells me this. Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin. You're under bondage. That's what the Bible says. But then we have this good news that comes from the pen of Peter, and other places too, and he says, you have been redeemed, not with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ.
Now Peter talks as well about their past, about their vain conversation. You say, well, what is vain conversation? Vain means empty. Conversation means behavior or conduct. So he's saying the way that you used to live was just an empty way of living.
It couldn't give you what you needed. It couldn't give you satisfaction. People think that maybe it can. And maybe for a moment or two, or for some passing time, people can find some contentment, some happiness in the way that they are living, but it will not give eternal satisfaction.
It's a vain or an empty way of living. And he says you've been rescued, redeemed from that. A price has been paid. What is it? The precious blood of Christ. Now, when I go on to my third point, I want to speak about the Lamb and His revelation, because it's going to say this.
He was foreordained. I'm in verse number 20. Before the foundation of the world, but manifest in these last times for you. So think about this Lamb. Now, these people that were listening to Peter's letter being written way off there in lots of different little towns and villages, they were persecuted.
They had fled their own home, and they received this letter from Peter, and it's full of good news. And it's a reminder you have been redeemed from your vain conversation, not with corruptible things, not with what you can count up, not with what you can do, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.
And then he says foreordained, verily, truly foreordained before the foundation of the world, but now made manifest, revealed to us now. So think about this for a moment. Foreordained before the foundation of the world.
That to me is an absolutely marvelous phrase. Why? Because it tells me this. When you go back to the book of Genesis and you find Adam and Eve that were formed by God and placed in what we could call paradise, placed in a perfect spot without any sin in the world, with everything they possibly could need or want, sin, however, enters into this world.
Satan tempts Eve, Adam joins her, and they sin. But what Peter says is this. The Lamb, the Lord Jesus, was foreordained before the foundation of the world, before sin entered, but before God even made planet Earth, he already had the plan of salvation in his mind and in his heart.
What love! Can you imagine? God knowing that his creature would sin against him, would rebel against him, and yet God already had this plan. He thought, I will send my son. When he makes Adam and Eve, he knows that one day his son will look somewhat like Adam.
Adam was made in the image of God. The Lord Jesus comes. He is the image of God. He was going to send his only well-beloved son into this world of sin and sorrow so that he could give his life and shed his blood on the cross of Calvary so that you and I can be redeemed, rescued.
The price is the blood of Christ. Nothing less will do. God demands nothing more, but nothing less will do. So Peter tells us he was foreordained before the foundation of the world. God had this plan in his mind from eternity past.
You were on his mind. And then, it says, made manifest or revealed in these last times. Here's another phrase that I love. For you. Now, here are these persecuted poor believers far from their home in all kinds of problems.
Persecuted. Trials are happening. They have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow. They're all concerned about lots of things. But Peter says, remember this, you know you have been redeemed. You know that all of this was for you.
God foreordained it. And then, at the right time, at the exact right time, he was made manifest for you. Now, I can take that personally. I could read the verse. Now, I'm not going to change the Bible.
Don't worry. But I could read the verse like this. We're in verse number 20. Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but manifest in these last times for me. For me. That doesn't mean that I saw him physically, but we have the truth of the coming of the Lord Jesus and his work on the cross.
It's right here in this book. And he was revealed because he loves us. Now, there's more that we want to see here. Look at what he says in verse number 21. I'm looking at the phrase that raised him up from the dead.
God raised him up from the dead. Now, if you go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul tells us that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and was buried. The fact that he was buried means that he died.
But then he says in 1 Corinthians 15, and that he was raised the third day according to the scriptures. So Peter is giving us the same truth. It's a bit more summarized, but he's spoken about the death of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God.
And now he tells us that God raised him up from the dead. Why? Well, this is just a brief statement about the truth of the resurrection. But you go back to Acts chapter 2, and Peter is preaching, and he says that the bands of death couldn't hold him.
They couldn't. It was impossible for the Lord Jesus to stay in the tomb. God raised him from the dead in part to prove to us that he is completely satisfied with what the Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross of Calvary.
You remember what the Lord Jesus said there when he was hanging on the cross? It is finished. And God said when he raised him from the dead, it's true. It is finished. There's nothing else to do. Paul tells us that if Christ hasn't been raised from the dead, our faith is in vain.
We have no message. But he says he is risen. And that's the glorious message of the gospel. Yes, that he died, but he is alive. So the resurrection was a key point in the message of the apostles as they stood in different places and preached the word of the gospel.
But then he says as well here when he speaks about the resurrection, God raised him from the dead and gave him glory. Now, we looked at that a little bit in Psalm 110, didn't we? God said to his son, Sit thou at my right hand.
The right hand is the place of honor, of privilege. And that's where he is. He's waiting, but he's still there. And he's willing and he's able to save. So let's go back for a moment. The relationship.
Do you have this relationship with God as your Father? Do you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior? What about your relationship with the world? Do you remember that you're just passing through? The second thing we thought about is redemption.
He says, you know, you've been redeemed. Do you know? And then we thought about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. That lamb that was revealed. He was raised from amongst the dead by God. And you know what that gives to me?
That gives me great rest. The Lord Jesus said back in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 11, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. So when Peter is writing to these people that have so many challenges in their life.
And let me remind you that we live in difficult and dark days as well. We live in days that maybe worry us for different reasons. But there's a wonderful truth that every believer relies on. Christ died for me.
God raised him from the dead. That gives me rest. So Peter says here in verse number 21, Who by him do believe in God. And then he finishes verse 21 saying that your faith and hope might be in God. So where is your faith?
Where's your confidence? Is it in yourself? Is it in your good works? Is it in your church? Is it in the fact that you're brought up in a Christian home? Do you have something that you're relying on that's not the person of Christ?
I want to point you as I finish one more time to the Lamb of God. Remember what John the Baptist said. John chapter 1, verse 29. He looks and he sees the Lord Jesus approaching him. He has a whole multitude of people around him.
And he has a very simple message for them. Behold. There again, probably not a common word. It means take a good look. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. That's why he came.
That's why he was forwarding before the foundation of the world. This one who is without blemish and without spot. Absolutely perfect. Never did sin. And as we've heard already today, he couldn't sin.
But he came to bear our sin in his body on the cross of Calvary. So today, I point you to the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. So that you rest. So that you can rest only and completely on him.