We're going to turn at our Bibles
to the book of 1 Peter, if you want to turn there. I wrote a
brief article in the bulletin for today. It says in 1 Thessalonians
5, verse 9 through 11, for God hath not appointed us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation, notice, by our Lord Jesus Christ, who
died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live
together with him. live together with him, live
together with him. Sometimes I've thought, wouldn't
it have been nice to have been with Jesus while he was on this
earth? I think it would have been. And I know that those people
who gathered on the hill there with the 5,000 men plus the women
and children, all of those mothers and fathers wanted to get their
children to hear Jesus. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God, and this Word is preached to us through
the Gospel. And we are to, according to 1
Thessalonians 5, verse 9 through 11, we are to comfort ourselves
together and edify one another with these words, that Jesus
Christ The one through whom God appointed us to salvation died
for us so that whether we wake or sleep, whether... As believers,
we're alive to God. We've been raised from the dead
in our souls. Because we've been raised from
the dead, we're awake. We're not asleep in our soul. But our body is still dead. The
body is dead because of sin, it says in Romans 8, 10. But
the spirit is life because of righteousness. And one day our
bodies will have to die. But that is called a sleep for
the believer. And so whether we wake or sleep,
whether we live by the spirit of God now in this body of flesh,
or whether we lay this body of flesh aside, we're going to be
with the Lord Jesus Christ together. That's the promise. And we're
to comfort one another with those words. And I found that so comforting. And I wanted to point that out
to you at the outset here because these words that we're about
to read here are meant for our comfort. And they're spoken of
after verse 17. I'm gonna read verse 18 and 19,
but let's read 17 also because we'll see the connection here
in 1 Peter 1, verse 17. If you call on the Father, now
that means that you believe that through the Lord Jesus Christ,
God the Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
one of whom Jesus spoke when he was on the earth so many times
when he said, my Father, my Father, I came to do my Father's will.
He is our Father when we call upon him through the Lord Jesus
Christ. It speaks about this throughout scripture, but especially
in the Book of John, the Gospel of John. So if you call on the
Father who, without respect of persons, judges according to
every man's work, do this, pass the time of your sojourning here
in fear, in honor, in the respect, in the awe of children of God
the Father. Made children, how? He says,
for as much. as you know that you were not
redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. From your
vain conversation, your worthless lifestyle, things you trusted
before, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the
precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot. If you call on the Father, and
you know that judgment is coming, you pass the time of your sojourning
here in the honor of those who have been humbled by the operation
of God's spirit through the gospel in our hearts to honor God because
of Christ. You have not been redeemed with
corruptible things from your vain conversation that you receive
from your fathers. Those to whom Peter wrote here
were, according to verse one of chapter one, strangers scattered
throughout these different regions, mostly Jews, because they were
scattered. They had been forced by persecution
to flee from Jerusalem, and now they were scattered about. And
he writes to them, your former lifestyle, which was in the Jews'
religion, was an empty and vain lifestyle. The true has now come. The true has come. You're not
redeemed with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of
Christ. So I've entitled today's message, The Most Precious. The
Most Precious. And I don't want to say the most
precious thing, but I don't know how else to word it, but the
most precious. What is the most precious? For
a thing to be precious, it must have great value. That's the
first thing, right? Great value. The value of anything
is how much worth it is that is considered to have. So therefore,
in a lot of ways, value is in the eye of the beholder, isn't
it? For example, iron is worth a lot more. I mean, it's worth
a lot because you can make steel out of it and build strong things
that'll last a long time like tools and buildings and cars.
But gold is worth more than iron because gold doesn't rust. Gold has a high quality for many
uses such as jewelry, which people like to look at and wear, and
electronics. Very, very thin wires can be
made from gold. It's very stable. Its physical
properties are almost unchangeable. Its electrical properties are
excellent. And it's also beautiful to look
at. And there's not much of it. It's
rare. So it's durable. It lasts. There's not much of it compared
to other things. Because it's rare and of this
kind of quality, people hold it in a high regard, in a high
esteem. They place a lot of value on
gold. But diamonds are more scarce
than gold, aren't they? They're called precious stones.
In fact, among the gems of this earth, diamonds are considered
the most rare. and the most durable because
it's very difficult to scratch a diamond. So you can wear it
and they retain their beauty over the course of time. The
elements don't affect them. And since they're so beautiful
to look at and they don't deteriorate, and because they are so rare,
people are willing to pay a high price for them, for diamonds. There is a diamond. I mean, there are some diamonds
that are noted. I looked this up on the internet.
I don't know this off the top of my head. But there is a diamond
that was found in the 1300s. That's a long time ago. And it was found in India, and
now is the gemstone in the crown of the Queen of England. If you
go to England, you can look at the crown jewels. And in the
crown, there's this diamond. I probably won't pronounce it
right, but it's called the diamond Koh-i-Noor. And it's estimated
to be worth over $160 million. That's a lot of money, isn't
it? Just for a piece of rock, really. the most expensive diamond in
the world, and it's part of the British Crown Jewels. And they
also have another diamond there, I think it's called, if my memory
serves me correctly, the Star of the Millennium. And I think
it's on the end of a staff or something. But these things,
these diamonds are rare. especially when they're large. A large diamond, how big is this
diamond? Well, this one that's worth 160 million or so in today's
dollars, it's only 2.1 grams. That's 0.07 ounces. That doesn't sound like much.
I mean, you hold it in your hand, you hardly feel it. It's like
a half a teaspoon of powder. It's not very much. But it's
worth a lot of money because it's so highly treasured. And
so you see that things have worth because of the value that people
place on them, don't they? And all of this is meant to be
a background to build up to the most precious thing. What do we consider precious?
What do you and I consider precious? I was thinking about this a little
bit as I was preparing this sermon. But as we think about it, sometimes
you have something in your home that someone has given you, someone
dear to you. and you consider whatever they
gave you to be precious because they were important to you. Maybe
it was work, something they built, something that they bought and
gave to you. It might just be simply a card, something they
wrote to you. And you treasure that, don't
you? You put it in a safe place, or maybe you put it on your wall
so you can look at it. I have things like that. They're
not worth anything to anyone else, but they're worth something
to me. They have a high value. They're precious to me. Other
things that are important are things we have to have. like
air and sunshine and water and food. But these things are so
plentiful because of God's goodness to us that we don't consider
them precious unless we're deprived of them. And then suddenly, like
our health, it becomes very precious to us. We tend to take it for
granted, don't we? But other things seem to have
an even higher value to us. Think about this, the ones you
love, aren't they precious to you? Rommel was thanking God
for his wife. That's something to be thankful
for, isn't it? I put my wife down right here
in this list, but our own brothers and sisters are precious to us,
aren't they? Our friends are precious to us.
Our best friend may be our most precious thing on this earth. They're more precious than things,
aren't they? I mean, I read about a rich man who bought one of
these diamonds or precious gems and one of the Rockefellers or
something, he gave it to his wife to wear and they had it
for a few years and he died and they sold it. They sold it out
of his estate. But I'm sure that he considered his wife worth
more than the gem. Jesus even said to the Pharisees,
The altar is more important than the gift because the altar sanctifies
the gift. And they were saying they could
do things like you can swear by this and that. You can't swear
by the gift. And he says, no, no, the temple
is greater than that and the altar is greater than that. So
if you swear by those things you call gifts, then you swear
by the temple. And if you swear by the temple,
then you swear by him who dwells in the temple. And so these things
that are precious are distinguished in comparison to those things
that are less precious. And so I'm sure that every husband
treasures his wife. And think about this, husbands.
That woman gave up her life to spend her life with you, to follow
you, to bear your children. And never lose sight of that. I was sitting at the table yesterday,
I think it was, eating and Denise wasn't there, and it was quiet,
and Faith wasn't at home, and here I am sitting there eating,
and I'm thinking, the sun is shining in, I have this food
to eat, and this water to drink, and I'm comfortable. I don't
deserve this. You can see that God has given
us these things, and we're to be consciously aware of the fact
that even the ordinary things of life are a gift from God.
So these things are precious to us in light of who gives them
and who provides them and our own need for them. Our mom and
dad are precious to us, aren't they? How precious to you was
your mother's labor? Not just the labor that brought
you into this world, but the labor that she expended night
and day. to raise you and to bring you,
to keep you, to teach you right and wrong, to teach you the worth
of your eternal soul and the importance of seeking God first. How important is that to you
if God has blessed you with a mom or a dad who has given that to
you? That's a high and precious treasure, isn't it? I think about
my own parents that way. And we ought to honor our parents
that way. Never take it for granted. God gave you those parents, and
we all have them, don't we? And so God tells us, honor them.
The other day, in fact, a couple days ago, I was at a light in
town here, and I noticed a man in a chair with wheels on it,
and he was about my age, but he couldn't walk. He was constrained
to the chair, and he had to pull the chair forward as he put his
feet on the ground and pull. And that's kind of hard on your
hamstrings, but he kept doing that to just inch his way along. And then he came to a point where
there's a very slight slope, and he couldn't get up the slope.
And he was struggling and struggling with that. And there was too
much traffic. I thought, I'd like to get out and help this
man. Just push him up, get him up that hill a little bit, you
know? And I thought, when I was watching him, I thought, Lord,
what do I have? I see this poor, suffering man. I'm no better than he is. And
yet, God has given me good health. He's given me a loving and faithful
wife, healthy children and grandchildren. He cares for every need I have
in abundance. And most of all, He's given me
His word and faith. And when I think of that, Mephibosheth
answered David this way, and I thought of these words. Mephibosheth,
who was laying on both his feet, spared by David from being destroyed
with all of Saul's household, he said to David, what is thy
servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? And that's in 2 Samuel 9, verse
8. Apart from Christ, I don't deserve to live. And without
him, I'm not prepared to die and must sink lower than the
grave. And apart from Christ, I must be forever separated from
him and from God, the only one good. And yet I sit in my everyday
life, in the warm sunshine of my house, eating my bread, and
still have sight. Hearing, taste, health, I hear,
I feel, while millions suffer in ways that I don't suffer.
And so I think of these words of Mephibosheth, why should you
consider such a dead dog as I am? Or Ruth told Boaz, why have I
found grace in thine eyes that thou shouldest take knowledge
of me? Now these things are precious, aren't they? This is the truth
of God. What is precious to us? Well, certainly our life is precious
to us, isn't it? Our wife, our children. How precious
are our children? Rommel is talking about his youngest
son being almost a year old and Antonio being almost four. And
at that age, we hold our children in our arms and we look at them
in the eyes and they just tell us everything that they're thinking
and they're so precious to us. You hear these phrases, I could
just eat you up. because they are so sweet and
precious to us, aren't they? These things are precious to
us. But what is more precious than these things? Jesus said,
listen to these words in Matthew 16, 26. What is a man profited
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall
a man give, notice, in exchange for his soul? That's the value
of your soul. You put it on the scale, on this
side is your soul, on this side, everything in creation. And Jesus
said, if you could gain everything in this world, it would not outweigh,
it would not measure up to the value of your own soul. Now,
the Lord Jesus said this, it's an eternal soul. Think about
that. These things are precious, aren't
they? They ought to be precious to us. The things that God has
said are precious in his words, some of them. I'm not going to
give you all of them. In 1 Samuel 3, verse 1, it says that the
word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open
vision. Now, God's Word is precious by
any absolute measure. Where else and how else would
we know the things of God, spiritual things, the truth, unless God
revealed it to us in Scripture? How precious is that? We would
be totally blind. and the truth of God unknowable
unless God recorded it in his word. The word of God is the
only truth and it is able to make us wise unto salvation. And so the scripture of truth,
the scripture which cannot be broken is precious, isn't it?
The gospel is precious, isn't it? By the gospel, the word of
God is revealed and preached to us, according to 1 Peter 1,
25. And the gospel is precious because
it is the revelation of God concerning his son, Jesus Christ. The gospel
is precious because it reveals what? The unsearchable riches
of Christ, Ephesians 3, verse 8. Is that precious? The unsearchable riches of Christ. It's precious because this truth,
the unsearchable riches of Christ, were hidden, according to the
Apostle Paul, from the foundation of the world, and that makes
it extremely rare. And until Christ came and lived
and died, rose, ascended, and was enthroned at God's right
hand in glorious triumph, who makes intercession for God's
saints and sends His Spirit to build His kingdom in triumph,
it was unknown. That unsearchable riches of Christ
is immeasurably, unspeakably great in its preciousness. And the Bible also says in 1
Peter, where we're at, in 1 Peter 1, verse 7, that the trial of
your faith, your faith being much more precious than of gold
that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto
praise. and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ. Faith is precious, isn't it?
Faith is precious. This precious faith. It calls
it precious faith also in 2 Peter 1, verse 1, where Peter wrote,
to them that have obtained like precious faith with us. through
the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. 2 Peter
1.1, we have been given as an allotment. God has bestowed it
upon us freely out of what seemed good to him, what pleased him. We didn't obtain faith. We don't
have it inherently. We don't have it innately, not
faith in Christ. We can only be given faith, and
God has to give it. We don't produce it. It doesn't
come by exerting our will or by drumming up some kind of sincerity
that we have inside of ourselves to seek God. Faith in Christ
is the opening of the eyes of our blind mind and soul to the
things of God, as Rommel was reading about Bartimaeus. We're
blind. utterly blind, and we cannot
open our eyes to see the truth of God. God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
has to command the light to shine out of darkness into our soul.
And what a blessing it is to know you're blind. And what a
feeling of desperation it is to know you're blind and you
can't do anything about it. And what a privilege it is. What
a great providential blessing it is to hear that Christ is
passing by in the crowd with all these people who are surrounding
him and you as a blind man sit on the sideline and not knowing
what can be done for my blindness. And you cry out, Lord, have mercy
upon me. Faith is precious, isn't it?
It is a very precious thing to have. And here's something else
that God says is precious, also in 2 Peter. He says, to them
that have obtained like precious faith with us, he goes on, he
says, according as God by his divine power has given to us
all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge
of him, through Christ. that has called us to glory and
virtue, whereby are given unto us," notice these words, "'exceeding
great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust.'" We have escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust because we've been born
of God. according to His promises. All
of the Old Testament promises about the new covenant and God
putting His Spirit in us and giving us a new heart, putting
His fear in us, and and not remembering our sins that we might know the
Lord, all these promises are fulfilled when God, by His Spirit,
opens our mind, opens our heart, gives us a new heart, a new soul,
puts His Spirit within us to see Christ and Him crucified
as all of our salvation. This is the work of God. That's
precious, isn't it? Those are exceeding precious
promises God fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. These are
precious things. Now, there's many things given
in scripture that are to be found precious. In 2 Samuel, I'm sorry,
1 Samuel chapter 26, I want to read this to you, 1 Samuel chapter
26. I was going through this section
of scripture recently. But you remember the account
that King Saul, the first king in Israel, who was the people's
choice, when God raised up David because Saul utterly failed,
that David, a man after God's own heart, went out and fought
the battles of the people of Israel for them and overcame
their enemies, the Philistines. Remember, Goliath first and so
many after that. So that the people sang his name
in praises. Saul has slain his thousands,
but David his tens of thousands. And Saul so envied David, even
though, obviously, a man after God's own heart, he thought only
of his own standing, his own pride. And so his own pride rose
up, and in his heart, he envied David, hated David, and he set
about to destroy David. And in 1 Samuel 26, it rises
to one of the peaks here, and in verse, It says in verse 5,
David arose and came to the place where Saul had pitched and out
seeking for him, Saul with all his men and David with his men.
This is 1 Samuel 26, verse 5. David beheld the place where
Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain of Saul's host,
and Saul lay in the trench and the people pitched around about
him because they were all asleep. It's like they have a camp out,
Saul and all his men. and God had caused his sleep
to fall upon them. And then answered David and said
to Ahimelech, the Hittite, and to Abishai, the son of Zeruiah,
brother to Joab, saying, who will go down with me to Saul
to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down
with thee. So David and Abishai came to
the people by night, and behold, Saul lay sleeping within the
trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster, his
head. He had his spear stuck in the ground, he laid right
there, And all the people are sleeping, even Abner the captain.
But Abner and his people lay round about him. Then said Abishai
to David, God, this is Abishai talking to David, the one who
said, I'll go down with you. Abishai was an incredibly valiant
warrior, but he lacked discretion, or he lacked discernment. And
you can see this, Abishai said to David, God has delivered thine
enemy into thine hand. No doubt Saul was David's enemy.
Now therefore, Abishai said, let me smite him, I pray, with
a spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him
the second time. And David said to Abishai, destroy
him not, for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's
anointed and be guiltless? David looked upon Saul sleeping
there, Saul who was out to kill him, David, And he considered
Saul's life valuable. Why? Because he was the Lord's
anointed. It's what God considered valuable. And having anointed Saul, even
though he was in himself a total failure and shameful and sinful,
David said, no, I'm not going to stretch forth my hand against
the Lord's anointed. Otherwise, I wouldn't be guiltless.
Verse 10. And David said, furthermore,
as the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him or his day shall
come to die or he shall descend into battle and perish. The Lord
forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's
anointed. But I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at
his bolster, and the cruise of water, and let us go." Grab the
spear and his water, let's go. So David took the spear and the
cruise of water from David Saul's bolster, and they got them away,
and no man saw it or knew it, neither awaked, for they were
all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon
them. Then David went over to the other side and stood on the
top of the hill far off, a great space being between them. And
David cried to the people and to Abner, the son of Ner, saying,
Answerest thou not, Abner? Then Abner answered and said,
"'Who art thou that criest to the king?' And David said to
Abner, "'Art not thou a valiant man? And who is like thee in
Israel? Wherefore then hast thou not
kept thy lord the king? For there came one of the people
in to destroy the king thy lord. This thing is not good that thou
hast done. As the Lord liveth, you are worthy to die, because
you have not kept your master, the Lord's anointed. And now
see where the king's spear is and the cruise of water that
was at his bolster.'" So he's holding the spear, he's holding
the water, and he's crying from this hillside far off from them.
And Saul knew David's voice. And he said, is this thy voice,
my son David? And David said, it is my voice,
O Lord, O King, my Lord, O King. And he said, Wherefore doth my
Lord thus pursue after his servant? For what have I done, or what
evil is in mine hand? Now therefore I pray thee, let
my Lord the King hear the words of his servant. If the Lord have
stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering. But if
the children of men, cursed be they before the Lord, for they
have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of
the Lord, saying, go serve other gods. Now therefore, let not,
here's what David said to Saul, do not let my blood fall to the
earth before the face of the Lord, for the king of Israel
is come out to seek a flee, as when one doth hunt a partridge
in the mountains. Then Saul said, I have sinned.
Return my son, David, for I will no more do thee harm, because
my soul, notice, was precious in thine eyes this day. Behold,
I have played the fool and have erred exceedingly. And David
answered and said, David is going on. was much set by this day in my
eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the Lord
and let him deliver me out of all tribulation. You see what
David is saying? May the Lord consider my life
precious in his sight. May he consider my life to be
precious in his sight. Isn't that what we want? Oh Lord,
consider my life precious in your sight. And how precious,
how precious has God considered the life of his people? Go back
to the New Testament now. And when you do go back to the
New Testament, go to the book of Acts, the book of Acts, and
look at Acts chapter three. Remember, we were not redeemed
with silver and gold. It says in Acts chapter three, In verse one, Peter and John
went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being
the ninth hour, and a certain lame man, lame from his mother's
womb, was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the
temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered
into the temple. So here's a man, couldn't walk,
they pick him up, they bring him to the temple. Here's where
people are going in, ask them for money, for gold and silver.
And he's seen Peter and John about to go into the temple,
asked them in alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes
upon him with John, said, look on us. Now, I'm sure he expected
to receive some kind of gift. And he gave heed to them, expecting
to receive something of them. Peter said, silver and gold have
I none. But such as I have, give I thee. OK, I don't have that kind of
help. And oftentimes you greet people
who are begging for something. I don't have that. Here's what
I have that can help you. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk. Jesus, the one who came to save
his people from their sins, the one who came into this world,
God having prepared a body for him to offer himself in sacrifice
to God with the sins of his people, and make a full payment for their
sins in his own blood. That Jesus, he's the one I declare
to you, more precious than all the money in this world, more
helpful than anything else, Jesus of Nazareth. Look at Acts chapter
20. Remember in the Old Testament
how everything in the temple was made? out of pure gold or
at least overlaid with pure gold, the altar of incense, the Ark
of the Covenant, all the bowls and the cups and the spoons and
the table of the showbread, and even the tent itself of the tabernacle
was put into these silver sockets. because that whole tabernacle
was designed to be the place where men made sacrifices to
God for their sins. But silver and gold can't redeem
us. In Acts chapter 20, he says this
in verse 28. Paul is exhorting the elders
of the church here. He says, take heed to yourself. to yourselves, to all the flock
of God over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers." To
do what? To feed the Church of God, which
He hath purchased with His own blood. Now, it would be my desire
for each of us today to get a sense of the preciousness here of the
redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We talk about things
that are valuable to men in this world. We talk about things that
are valuable to us, our life, our children, our wives, our
mom, our dad, our homes, things that we live in, things that
we dress with, things we eat, water and stuff, things we need
to live because our life is precious. But here God is talking about
something that has an entirely different level of preciousness. A preciousness that cannot be
measured. It cannot be measured. We like
to know, how much is it worth? Well, it's a $160 million diamond. Or it's worth $2 billion, you
know, and it staggers our mind. How many zeros in that number?
That's too many, you can't count them. That's all of creation. Everything God made. was not
enough to redeem our souls. It took the value of God to redeem
our souls. The precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He has purchased the church,
God has, with his own blood. The Son of God gave himself for
me. Remember Galatians 2.20? He loved
me, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. In
the book of Revelation, I won't turn you there, but the Apostle
John sees a vision of Jesus Christ. And in that vision, he is so
overwhelmed by what he sees of him. He sees he holds the stars,
the seven stars in his hand, and his hair is white as wool,
and his feet are like they've been in a fire, like brass, and
all these things. And he falls on his face as dead
before the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Son of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, touched him and said, fear not. Now, you see,
The problem is that we tend to think of Jesus Christ as a mere
man. But here it's talking about him
purchasing the church with his blood as the blood of God, because
the altar sanctifies the gift. It was the divine nature of the
Lord Jesus Christ that put an infinite value on the sacrifice
of his own self. When he offered himself to God,
he didn't just offer physical things, he was offering himself,
the Son of God, in our nature. And all of heaven, you know,
when all of heaven's armies, the angels of God, they look
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who do they see?
They see the Son of God. They see Him who made them, their
Creator, their Sovereign, and they worship Him constantly.
And they're constantly considered the highest privilege to do whatever
His eye even directs them to do and commands them. And they're
powerful, much more powerful than we are. So that much that
it says in Hebrews 2, that if the word of angels was steadfast
and every disobedience received just recompense, They're mighty
creatures, and they're the angels of the Lord Jesus Christ. When
they see Him, what do they see? They see the Son of the Father,
the darling of heaven. And when they hear that we were
not redeemed with the currency of this world, that creation,
even the most precious things in this world, that even our
own soul was more precious than we could redeem, we couldn't
redeem it. We owed a debt we could not pay,
an infinite debt. We couldn't begin to pay it.
It says in Luke 7 that when they both had nothing to pay, we had
nothing to pay towards this debt, an infinite debt. God, from before
the foundation of the world, foreordained the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the most precious. Because in God's estimation,
there's nothing that can compare in value to this. The life is
in the blood. The Lord Jesus Christ gave his
life. He gave his all. The darling
of heaven, the one who made everything, who is the object of heaven's
worship, was given by God the Father in order to redeem us
and not just to pay our debt, which is infinite enough. but
to exceed the payment of our debt so much that by an immeasurable
amount, God has given us not only liberty from the guilt of
our sins, but has made us sons of God. And made us sons of God
so much that he gives everything to those for whom he gave his
son. With him, he gives to his church,
to his people, everything. He says, heaven is yours, earth
is yours, the world is yours, everything is yours, and you
are Christ's, and Christ is God's. In 1 Corinthians chapter three,
and verse 21 through 23. The church is given everything.
The Lord Jesus Christ says in Ephesians 1, 22 and 23, that
they are the fullness of him who filleth all in all. He gave
himself for her, his bride. He gave himself in blood. He sacrificed his life. He bore
our sins in his own body on the tree that we might be, that we
being dead to sins might live unto righteousness. You're not
redeemed with corruptible things, not the temple things on this
earth. but with the precious blood of
Christ. In Hebrews chapter nine, in verse 12, precious beyond
words, beyond our ability to fathom. We can't even fathom
the debt we owed, let alone the infinite price that Christ paid. The price was paid for our redemption
was not in the currency of anything measurable in terms of what we
consider valuable. If you go to a foreign country,
you have to get your money changed into the currency that they accept
in the shops and so on. But when you go into heaven,
there's no exchange house. You can't exchange the things
of earth for the things in heaven. Your works won't buy you anything
in heaven's currency. There's only one thing of value
there. It's what the Lord Jesus Christ did in shedding his blood
for his people. It's that valuable. But the price
that he paid when he gave himself was so immense and so infinitely
greater than the debt we owed that it purchased for us not
only the removal of our sins, but it purchased for us eternal
glory, everlasting righteousness before God, a place with God
in his presence, as it says in Colossians 1, without fault,
unreprovable, unreproachable, faultless, pure, without spot
or wrinkle or any such thing, because the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ is so infinitely precious. shed in love for His
people, not only the love of Christ, but the love of the Father
who gave His Son for us. And that's why when he adds this
in 1 Peter 1, verse 18 and 19, he says, for as much as you know,
for as much as you know, you live your life sojourning in
this world in fear, in honor, in awe, in respect of God as
your father, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed
with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He says in Hebrews 9, 12, In
11, he says, verse 11 of Hebrews 9, Christ being come, a high
priest of good things, to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood. He entered in once. into the
holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Eternal redemption,
eternal liberty, eternal blessing to be able to come to God. We
were redeemed, he says in Revelation 5, 9, to God. redeemed to God. Thou hast redeemed
us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, tongue, people,
and nation, and has made us kings and priests to God." What a preciousness
this blood must have with God, that He would accept this blood
from Christ, appoint this blood, from Christ for his people and
accept it from him as everything. Now imagine that somebody goes
into the king's treasure in the London, place in London where
they keep the king's treasure, the crown jewels of London, and
he wants to buy, he wants to add something to that jewel there
in the crown of the queen. And what does he bring? Oh, he
brings a lump of coal. Look, I brought this piece of
coal. I want to set it here beside the jewels. It would be utterly
abhorred, wouldn't it? Isn't that what it says in Song
of Solomon? Song of Solomon, let me read this to you in chapter
eight of the Song of Solomon. And then we'll close with this.
Song of Solomon, chapter eight. If I can find it. It's not a
very big book. He says in verse seven. Well,
he says in verse six. Now think of this as the proper
setting here. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
bridegroom and his people are the bride, his love, the love
of his heart from eternity. And the Holy Spirit, by inspiration
here, has put words in the mouth of the bride to speak to her
bridegroom, to draw out what was in his heart already. But
he put those words in her mouth in order to reveal it to us and
comfort us with these words, to reveal his glory in this.
In verse 6, Song of Solomon 8, verse 6, set me as a seal upon
thine heart. A seal like a man would wear
his ring on his finger, that's a seal. It speaks of a love that's
deep and hidden, but it's an emblem of that love. And so God
tells his people, pray this, come to Christ this way. Set
me as a seal upon thine heart and as a seal upon thine arm,
for love is strong as death. Jealousy is cruel as the grave,
the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement
flame. Many waters cannot quench love. All the sins laid on Christ's
people, and all the wrath of God poured out upon him for our
sins, could not quench his love. Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the
substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contempt.
The majesty of the king in all of his glory, the gemstone in
his crown, his own life given for his people, how could we
dare think that we could add to that? that we could do anything
to bring something of ourselves, when all we were was deserving,
indebted, deserving of God's wrath, bound up in our prison,
the prison of our own making, God consigned us to, and God
had to receive a ransom payment, which he provided and Christ
paid. And he has set us so free that
we're made to sit with Christ in heavenly places. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. How low esteem we have compared
to what we ought to have of our Savior. Help us, dear Lord, to
see that he who is Heaven's Lord and Heaven's King stooped to
be our Savior, the one who is the judge to our place as our
surety to God for us. And he offered himself and answered
every charge with himself in order to bring us to God again.
What a price, a price so great that nothing can measure it.
God himself considers it most precious, a sweet-smelling savor
to cover all the stench of our sin. May we, Lord, see him and
worship him today. and be with us now, Lord, as
we remember what he did for us in shedding his blood and breaking
his body. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I wanna direct you to, we're
gonna take the Lord's Table now. Brad and Tom, would you please
bring the elements around? There's an account in 2 Samuel
19, again with Mephibosheth. I wanna direct you to this as
we take the Lord's Table. What had happened here was that
the king, King David, had been driven out of Jerusalem by his
own son, Absalom. Absalom, for years, had gathered
together through false pretense the affections of the people
of Israel, and finally he had enough of an army together that
he could just walk right in Jerusalem and take over. Thank you. And
so Absalom took over in Jerusalem, David is driven out, Finally,
over the course of events, Absalom is destroyed, and David is being
brought back into Jerusalem, King David being brought back
into Jerusalem. And at this time, Ephibosheth,
during the time when Absalom had came into Jerusalem, and
David was driven out of Jerusalem, so far out that he had crossed
over Jordan, gone across Jordan, Mephibosheth was left. He was
lame. He couldn't go anywhere. And
his servant, who was a servant of Saul previously, Ziba was
his name, he deceived Mephibosheth and he slandered Mephibosheth
to King David and said that Mephibosheth was trying to get back what was
his father's, King Saul. And so after David was being
brought back across Jordan, back into Jerusalem, Mephibosheth
meets David. It says in verse 24 of 2 Samuel
19, and Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the
king, and he had neither dressed his feet nor trimmed his beard
nor washed his clothes, thank you, from the day the king departed
until the day he came again in peace. And so Mephibosheth was
so distressed because the king had left Jerusalem, that he hadn't
shaved his face, he hadn't washed his clothes, he hadn't taken
care of his feet until King David came back again. And it came
to pass, when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that
the king asked him, wherefore wentest thou not with me, Mephibosheth?
Why didn't you go with me when I left? And Mephibosheth answered,
my lord, O king, My servant deceived me, for thy servant said, I will
saddle me an ass that I may ride thereon and go to the king, because
thy servant is lame. And he has slandered thy servant
to my lord the king. But my lord the king is as an
angel of God. Do therefore what is good in
thine eyes. Mephibosheth said, My servant
tricked me, and he slandered me to you. He accused me falsely. You do whatever's right. He trusted
David to do what's right. He goes on, for all my father's
house, the house of Saul, were but dead men before my lord,
the king. Yet didst thou set thy servant
among them that did eat at thine own table. What right, therefore, have I
yet to cry any more to the king? Mephibosheth is saying, I was
a dead man, a dead dog, and you had grace upon me, so much so
that you made me to sit at your table and eat with your sons. And the king said to him, why
speakest thou any more of thy matters? I said thou and Ziba
divide the land. Mephibosheth said to the king,
yea, let him take all. For as much as my lord the king
has come again in peace to his own house, Mephibosheth was happy
to have only David. He can take everything. I have
been given a place at the king's table. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
king. We are Mephibosheth. We are lame. Apart from the king,
We have nothing but filthy rags, righteousness. All of our sins
were disgusting. And yet because of his oath to
his father to be surety for his people, he set his love upon
us. God the father gave his people
to his son to redeem them. And he loved them and gave himself
for them. And he made them sit at his table.
He told his disciples, This bread is my body broken for you. It's
not physically his body. It represents Christ breaking
his body in obedience to his father, thereby fulfilling the
everlasting righteousness which God imputes to his people for
their own righteousness. He says, this body, my flesh,
he gives thanks to his father that he could break it, that
he could offer himself so willingly in sacrifice to God who was worth
nothing less than the sacrifice of the Son of God in our nature
for our sins to bring us to God. He said, that's what it is. Remember
me. When you do this, remember me.
Like Mephibosheth, oh my Lord the King. I'm not worthy of the
least of your mercies. I am a dead dog's dinner. I was
with all of my father's house, a dead man, and you made me sit
at your table, right, to eat of your bread. Christ, the bread
of life, take the bread and eat with me. And then that same night, the night of the Passover, when
Christ was taken, by his enemies in the religious world, in the
political world, and put to death under false accusation. And yet
he owned all that was charged to him because it was the sin
of his people before God. He owned it. And he bore it all to death. His soul was made heavy. His
soul was made an offering for sin. He was troubled, he was
amazed, he cried out to God and he was delivered and that he
feared. He said, now this cup, this cup is the New Testament
in my blood. This cup brings every condition
necessary to make every promise in the new covenant, everlasting
covenant into force for you. The blood, it does everything,
doesn't it? It gives us access, peace with
God. It cleanses us from all of our
sins. It sets us among kings. It makes us a priest to God,
right? This cup, he said, you take it
and you drink it. It's shed for you. Take it a
cup and drink. And as often as you do this,
he said, do it in remembrance of me. Mephibosheth, he couldn't
think of being separated from David. I won't leave. I can't
leave. but I'm looking for the King
to come again. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the Lord
Jesus Christ, the King of glory, and the one who made himself
a servant to his people to bring us to God by the ransom price
of his own self, help us to ever forever esteem his blood the
most precious, and to consider everything in life nothing. In fact, dung that we might have
him, In Jesus' name we pray, amen.