The Lord may graciously help
me, I turn your attention to the first epistle of Peter, chapter
1, and verses 18, 19 and 20. The first epistle of Peter and
chapter 1, taken for a text, verses 18, 19 and 20. 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. First Epistle of Peter chapter
1 and verses 18 to 20. Peter here in his epistle is
talking about redemption. He's talking about the need to
live, in verse 13, wherefore gird up the loins of your mind,
be sober to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you.
Really from verse 13 to the end it's about the necessity of a
Christian walk that glorifies God. But his central argument
really in that is the preciousness of the redemption that those
children of God have experienced. And you see, if we lose sight
of the preciousness of the redemption, we will lose sight of our need
to walk worthy of the vocation to which we have been called. If, as it were, Christians are
cheaply made, they can live cheaply and irresponsibly. But Christians,
as it were, become Christians because of the work of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. And there was nothing, as it
were, cheap, or nothing of little value. in what he was doing. It was a great salvation. We've
just been singing of redemption in our middle hymn, the wonders
of redeeming love. And you see, if you and I this
morning, this evening, lose sight of the wonder of redemption,
we will lose sight of the privilege it is to be a child of God. We
will lose sight of why we should walk worthy of the vocation to
which we have been called. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things, the price that was paid
for us to be redeemed, why did we need to be redeemed? Why do
you and I need to be redeemed? Well, it's the Spirit's work
to convince of sin. And if by God's grace the Holy
Spirit's work in our hearts, we come to realise that we need
redemption, that we have fallen foul of the law of God, that
we are condemned by the law rather than excused by the law. That
the law does but curse us, does but condemn us. It's a righteous
law. It rightly says the soul that
sinneth it shall die. Therefore we are, as it were,
on the wrong side of the law. The law cannot help us. The keeping
of the law can only lead to condemnation, separation and eternal punishment. Well then, we are in a great
state. and what a mercy if God has taught
us what it is to need redeeming, what our lost condition is. But
the Apostle here is saying what we have redeemed, in what way
we were redeemed. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed, he's speaking to Christians here, to believers,
with corruptible things. And then we have these words
as silver and gold. It's interesting, really, as
silver and gold, you might say, are the least corruptible things
in this world, really, you could say. You think of silver and
gold was much set by in biblical days, and to be honest, that
hasn't changed. The price of silver and gold
is still very high in our day to day. They're very valuable
commodities. They're very worth having, as
it were, on an earthly level. Well, Peter is taking then the
example of the most, as it were, established and the most valuable
thing here below, silver and gold, which through the generations
has been, as it were, so set by in this world. He's saying
that silver and gold are corruptible things. They're passing, they're
fleeting, yes, they're, as it were, a lot more substantial
than a lot of other things here, but coming to the end of this chapter,
he talks about that everything is passing away. This world's
passing away. The most substantial things,
the most stable things, the most enduring things in this life
are passing away. You're not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold. And what have you been redeemed
from? From your vain conversation, emptiness. You see, the world,
the lusts, the pride of life. is emptiness. Solomon, you see,
he was a man of great wisdom and he found out, as it were,
he tried to find fulfillment in the things of this world,
doing everything to the best that he could do with all the
resources he had as a very rich man to be able to further all
his schemes. His conclusion in Ecclesiastes
was vanity, a vanity. all is vanity, where the Lord
Jesus comes to redeem people from living empty, vain lives,
and to put them on a pilgrimage that leads to the city, the celestial
city. has a purpose in life, has a
reason to live for, has a purpose, is looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing, as Peter says in this chapter, to
an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth
not away. I mean, those of us perhaps who
are older here, perhaps in their 80s, what good would an inheritance
on this earth really do you now, as it were? As it were, you're
old, elderly, in earthly things, what good would that do? But
you see, this inheritance, it doesn't matter how old we are,
in fact, as it were, the older we get, the closer we get to
it, the more precious it becomes. to an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you. This is something substantial. The gold, the silver of this
world, though in earthly terms it holds their value, if you
have gold bars, they hold their value, and through generations. But you're not redeemed with
those things. You're not redeemed with corruptible
things, from the emptiness of your life without Christ, by
tradition from your fathers. But in verse 19 we have, but,
there's a contrast. Not with silver and gold, not
with the riches of this world, not with what this world calls
good or great, you're not redeemed with that, but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb, without blemish. and without
spot. As you know, many of you will
know that we were speaking of the Paschal Lamb this morning,
the Passover Lamb, and how this is a reference to a lamb without
blemish, if you remember. The lamb had to be without spot. This is Peter speaking. Peter,
the one who was one of the disciples with our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ in his earthly ministry. Peter was one who was quite vocal
about what he was thinking. Others perhaps would think something
and keep it to themselves so you didn't know what they did
think. Peter was one to blurt out, as it were, just what he
thought, and so you understand something of the way he thought
more than others because he was more vocal. Well, if we go to
Matthew chapter 16, I want to just paint a little bit the background
of Peter. Because as we talk about the
precious blood, these things might be words that you've heard
so regularly, words that you've heard so much, and they can lose,
basically, their impact. You see, the hymn that we've
just sung is trying to paint the picture of the astonishing
reality of redemption. And we as Christians can, in
the Christian services as we're used to enjoying as it were,
we can become immune as it were, we can lose sight of the amazing
nature of the gospel. And I think it's important, perhaps
some of you are grappling to understand these things. Precious
blood, what does that really mean? Is it precious to me? How can I understand these things? Perhaps you're grappling with
that tonight and thinking, well others seem to find it precious
but I struggle to see it. Well, perhaps it's helpful to
look at the disciples and to realise that you're not on your
own. in finding these things difficult to grasp. And sometimes
I think it can be, in a way, helpful to look at the disciples,
to see what they grappled with, what they struggled to understand,
so that we realize when we struggle, when we can't see things, that
we can realize, well, they struggled too. But Peter did write the Epistle
of Peter. He did write about the precious
blood. In other words, he was led on
with placid pace to Jesus as his hiding place. But these are
the words of Peter. In Matthew's Gospel, chapter
16, Jesus is asking those around him, who do people say I am? He's asking his disciples, what
do the crowds think I am? And they say some John the Baptist
and so on. And some say John the Baptist
and some Elias. This is Matthew 16, verse 14. And they said, some say that
they are John the Baptist, some Elias and others, Jeremias and
one of the prophets. And he said, this is Jesus speaking
unto them, but whom say ye that I am? Who do you think I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the Living God. He made this declaration that
he believed that Jesus was the Son of God, this declaration
that he was the true Messiah. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. In other words, Jesus was saying,
this revelation that you have of me, this understanding that
you have of me, is God given. It's given of God that it's understanding. Same way as we read in Luke,
He opened their understanding that they should understand the
Scriptures. And in verse 18 it says, And
I sound to you that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. And I will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt find
on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever shall be loosed
on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then we come to verse 20, so
really Peter has shown that he knows who Christ is, he understands
that this is the Messiah and Jesus has confirmed that this
is the Holy Spirit that has told him these things. But in verse
20 of Matthew 16 we have, "...then charged he his disciples." that
they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. At that
time, as it were, his identity was to be hidden, otherwise it
would not be possible for him to continue, as it were, in his
public ministry at that time. But then in verse 21, from that
time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he
must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders, and
chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again
the third day. Jesus basically gave the disciples an account of what was going
to take place, of what was awaiting. their Lord and Master. You see,
they loved the Lord. He was the one that stilled the
storms. He was the one that was their
Master. He was the one that cared for them. He was the one that
taught them. He was their friend, their companion,
their guide. He was a real, living, precious
person to them. He was the Son of God to them. Then Peter took Him This is verse
22, "...and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee,
Lord, this shall not be unto thee." Here was one Peter who
had had the revelation that Jesus was the Son of God, that Jesus
was indeed the Christ. But Peter is now rebuking the
Lord Jesus for saying that he is basically going to die. at Jerusalem. Can you see here that Peter was
struggling to see what was going on. Peter could not grasp, and
you may not be able to grasp tonight, as it were, what is
going on in the Gospel. Basically the magnitude of what
Jesus was saying was far beyond what Peter could imagine. Yes,
he could understand that there would be a paschal lamb. There
was these Israelites that had their firstborn son, and that
firstborn son wanted to be preserved and not be killed. Yes, so in
the place of that person to save his life, there would be the
death of the lamb. But the lamb was relatively cheap,
wasn't it? It was not too expensive, it
was of little value compared to the firstborn in the family.
Animals were of little value, relatively speaking. I'm not
saying they were of no value, and it may have been costly for
the people to do it. But relative to the death of
the firstborn, they were of little value. But you see all these
sacrifices, these types in the Old Testament, all these things
were pointing to the great anti-type. and as it were it was too much
for Peter to take in, that this one who said he was the son of
God, can he, can he be killed? Is he going to lay his life down? The one who is the joy of heaven,
the one who his father said, this is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased, is this the one that's going to lay his life
down? Surely all the types you see were relatively cheap, that
they were lambs, they were animals, the blood of bulls and of goats,
which could never take away sin. And yet they were pointing to
the great antitype, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who
was going to lay down his life, a ransom for many. Lay down his
life? The one who was the glory of
heaven? The one who the angels were constantly praising? Was
he going to lay down his life? You see, Peter's reaction, then
Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee,
Lord, this shall not be unto thee. I'm really saying these things
in contrast to what we have in Peter's epistle in our text,
Peter's epistle chapter 1 and verse 19. but with the precious
blood of Christ. It was not a lamb. It was not
a cheap lamb. It was not a bull. It was not
an animal's blood. It was his Lord. Can you see?
The death of somebody, if you hear of death and it's just somebody
you don't really know, well it probably will have little effects
upon you. But the closer the person to you is that dies, generally
speaking, and if you love them and if you really, as it were,
found them to be lovely to be with, the more it will affect
you when they die. Isn't that true? If we really
love somebody and we live with them as it were, we daily work
with them, we're very integrated with them, if they die then that
suddenly becomes something much more of an issue to us, much
more of a problem, much more, we feel it much more than if
it's somebody remote. You see, and that was typified
with a paschal lamb. The lamb was to live with them
for four days. They were to get to know this lamb. But the disciples,
you see, they got to know the Lord Jesus for three years. He
was their Lord and Master. They looked to Him to provide
for them. He taught them. He ministered to them. He stilled
the storm. He was able to speak and the
disease was gone. He was able to heal the sick.
He was able to feed the 5,000 with the word of his mouth, blessing
those people. This was the Son of God they
believed he was. And yet this one is the one that
is going to lay down his life. You see it comes much closer.
It's not just a lamb. It's the Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. This is the Son of God. This
is why the plan of redemption, if we can only grasp it in a
fraction, as our finite minds can cope with, it is indeed a
tremendous plan. And no wonder Peter says, ye
are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, but
with the precious blood of Christ. You can imagine Peter thinking,
yes, it was his blood you see, it was his blood, the one I walked
with, the one I communed with, the one I laid upon his breast
at times, the one who was my friend, my companion, though
all men should forsake me, yet will not I. This was the one,
his precious blood. So what had changed in Peter's
understanding? Peter had realised that he absolutely needed this
precious blood to be made right with God. I don't know exactly
what Peter thought earlier in Christ's ministry, I don't know
what Peter really thought the way of salvation was when he
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. What exactly
he thought was the way he could be saved, as it were, in a substitutionary
sense. What he made of the lamb, as
it were, the paschal lamb and what all that pointed to. No
doubt there was some confusion in his mind. I'm not saying these
things to be unkind to Peter. What I'm saying is, the Lord
needs to lead us on. You see, the things of salvation,
to have the precious blood that is spoken of in our text here,
it is a tremendous preciousness. It is not just a lamb. It is
the Son of God. It is the One who was Lord of
life and glory, the One that created the universe for His
glory, the One that sustains everything by the Word of His
power. This is the One that laid His
life down, a ransom for many. No wonder Peter says, but with
the precious blood of Christ, invaluable blood, It was not
just the blood of an animal. It was the blood of the Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. The one who, as he says here,
as of a lamb, without blemish, without spot. There was no blemish
in it. His life was perfect. Well, if
you have something that's perfect and you have something that's
complete, you don't want to see it die, do you? You don't want
to see it killed. And you see that with the disciples. At Jesus' death, at the crucifixion,
they were completely confused, as it were, as to what was going
on. On that road to Emmaus, we thought it had been He that should
have redeemed Israel. We thought that that's what he
should have done. How he would have redeemed Israel, in their
terminology, I don't know. But that's what they said. We
thought it had been he that would have redeemed Israel. They had
all the types and shadows of the Old Testament, and yet they
never as it were, laid hold of this fact that Christ must suffer,
that all the Old Testament, with all their relatively cheap sacrifices,
were pointing to the one almighty sacrifice of the Son of God at
the hands of infinite justice from his Father. But with the precious blood of
Christ, There was no other good enough. There was no other blood
that could atone. There was no other one that could
stand in the breach. There was no other one that could
endure the wrath of Almighty God against sin. The one who
was God as well as man. The one who had that affinity
with man because he was bone of our bone and flesh of our
flesh. And yet he was the son of God.
So he had that power to endure the wrath of God. for as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things." See, lambs were corruptible. Lambs die, don't they? They don't
live forever. If you didn't sacrifice a lamb,
it wouldn't live forever, would it? It dies. It's corruptible. All the Old Testament sacrifices
were but looking, they were but types, beautiful, but they were
but types of the great antitype of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. He need never have died in the sense that death had no
reason to put him to death. We have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God and therefore we must, all needs die. Jesus didn't. Jesus had no need
to die. He had no need to die, he had
not sinned. The law had nothing to say against
him. The law had nothing to condemn
him. Until he stooped down and took our sin upon him. And that sin was laid upon him,
so he became guilty as it were, although he himself was innocent. He took the handwriting which
was against his church, nailing it to his cross so that there
would be redemption. Do you grasp something of the
wonder of redemption tonight? When you say the precious blood,
we're talking about the blood of the Son of God, the One who
was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, was the
praise of all the angels. That's why it says, which things
the angels desire to look into. It's a wonder. Have you come
to see it as a wonder? And have you come like Peter?
Or will the Lord bring you? May the Lord bring you. as it
were, to stop questioning, as it were, why should this happen?
A great problem. We understand that he was a great
leader. We understand that he was a great one, that we should
try and follow, as it were, as the son of God. But as to the
need for him to lay down his life, as for the need for him
to shed his blood, as for the need for him to be made, as it
were, a curse. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
upon a tree. You see, this was outside the
zone of belief of the disciples. This was outside what they could
cope with. It was beyond their expectations
until Jesus drew near on that road to Emmaus and said, Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things? and to have entered into
His glory, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounding
unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
The whole New Old Testament was pointing to this Lamb of God. Yes, they were just animals.
He was not an animal. He was the Son of God. He was
the beloved of his Father, the one in whom his Father delighted
from all eternity past. The Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit in that blessed Trinity, in unity. He was that one, the
most precious thing you can imagine. You're not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold. What is silver and gold compared
to the Son of God? the one who made everything,
the one who spoke and it was done, who spoke the universe
into existence, who spoke the silver and gold into existence. This is the one, this is the
one that laid down his life, a ransom for many. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold, but
with the precious blood of Christ, redeemed by his blood. That means
the blood of Christ is that indication that he laid down his life, the
indication that he was killed, that he was killed by wicked
men. We read in that what Jesus said to Peter, and must suffer many things of
the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and
rise again the third day." Jesus told them all, but it was too
much for them to cope with. And I want to encourage you here
tonight, you may say, well the precious blood, it's too, I don't,
it's beyond me, I don't understand it. Peter was there once, Peter
stood up and said, Lord this shall not be unto thee, we don't
need the death of our saviour, we need him to be our leader
and our helper and our king, but we don't need him to die.
But as Peter was led into his need of redemption, Peter was
led into his need of a substitute. Then there was only one substitute
that was possible. There was only one that could.
And Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane said, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. If there was any possible way
for the church to be set free without the death of the Saviour,
then surely the Father would have proposed that way. But there
was no way. There was no possibility. There
was no way that the church should be set free. then Christ should
go and die on the cross at Calvary. For you are not redeemed with
the corruptible things, but with the precious blood. of Christ. The precious is life,
is all. This is what you've been redeemed
with. And of course Peter is saying, then, walk in newness
of life. Walk according to the thing that
you've been redeemed with. You've not been redeemed with
a bit of silver and a bit of gold, a few million pounds somebody's
given to purchase, you know. You've been redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ. of a lamb without blemish and
without spot. You see, we're full of sin. Our
best is stained and died with sin. Our all is nothing worth.
Everything that we do is marred by sin. But here we have one
who was sinless, who the law could have nothing to say against. And yet he gave his life a ransom
for many. He gave then his obedience. His
keeping of the law became our keeping. So that we, instead
of So he instead of us is seen when we approach to God without
blemish and without spot who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world. You see the fall was no surprise
to God. It's been pointed out before
there was a sinner there was a saviour. The saviour was appointed
before there was the first sinner that needed salvation. It was
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God had made a
way, a way whereby mankind with all his sinfulness could be made
right with God, who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last days for you. You
see, time it can be split up into two times, isn't it? Really,
before Christ and after Christ. And of course all the Old Testament
is before Christ, B.C. But we are living in the time
obviously after Christ, death and resurrection. And Peter was
speaking that basically the Lord Jesus had come in his day. Jesus
had come in the fullness of time. There was this time appointed,
a time appointed for all eternity, when the Son of God would come
to this earth, would live a perfect life, and would die a sin atoning
death, so that Peter's, so that Christians might have a substitute,
that Christians might be covered from the wrath of Almighty God.
Peter here then calls it, but with the precious blood of Christ. Peter the one who said this shall
not be unto thee. Oh how Peter changed in his thoughts
towards this blood, invaluable blood. May we be led then with
placid pace to Jesus as our hiding place. You may not be able to
as it were cope with all the All the thoughts of these great
words, of the precious blood, they may seem all too high to
you, but they were to Peter. When he was a disciple, they
were beyond him. When the disciples came to his death, they didn't
understand what he was accomplishing. What about this time, restore
Jerusalem? They said it even after the Lord's
resurrection. But the Lord did send his Holy
Spirit, did teach them, did lead them. on to see that unto you,
therefore, which believe, he is precious. And it's the work
of the Holy Spirit, you see, to take this root out of a dry
ground as described in Isaiah 53. This one who seems of no
value, seems of no benefit, the one that Peter would say, this
shall not be unto thee, that we don't want this to happen
to the Messiah. No. the precious blood of Christ. Oh, how Peter speaks so differently
in his epistle, so beautifully about the Lord Jesus and his
death. We read that in the second verse
of chapter 1. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Oh, he's no He's
not against the death of the Lord Jesus Christ anymore. He
sees the necessity of it. He feels the effects of it. He
realises the efficacy of this precious blood and he wants it
to be sprinkled. He wants it to be applied. He
wants it to have an effect upon us, so that we live in newness
of life, not in the oldness of the letter, but that we may live
unto Him that loved us, that laid down His life, that gave
His life a ransom for many. Well, may we then have a fresh
appreciation of these two words, precious blood, precious, not
a lamb, not an animal that could be easily replaced with money,
but the Son of God. Abraham's son Isaac was precious
to him, but he didn't actually lose his son on Mount Moriah. He was stopped in killing his
son, but God in heaven had to go through
with this with his beloved son. He had to plunge the sword of
divine justice, a Waco sword against my shepherd, against
the man that is my equal, smite the shepherd and the sheep shall
be scattered. The sword of divine justice had
to plunge on Christ so that there would be a way of salvation for
sinners, so that they may come and sing of the precious blood
of Christ, no substitute, no hope of salvation without it,
no other way. There is one way given among
men whereby ye must be saved and that is through this precious
blood, through this acceptable sacrifice. May we each be led
by the Holy Spirit to find Christ to be precious. and to truly
have a greater, we can never truly understand the value of
this blood, but may we be led to a greater height than we currently
have of the value of this blood and that we may then, it may
affect the way we live, the way we think, the way we love our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. May the Lord have his blessing.
Amen.