Let's turn to 1 Peter. Our study
in 1 Peter, we're going to pick up in chapter 1, verse 17. We'll actually begin in verse
15, just to get a little context here, and then our text will
be from 1 Peter 1, 17 through 19. Let's begin in verse 15. But
as he which hath called you is holy, So be ye holy in all manner
of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am
holy. Now, if you'll remember from
the last time I was here, we saw that that word, be ye holy,
for I am holy, is not to be heard as a bare precept by this flesh,
whereby we think that we can do something to make ourselves
holy before the holy and living God, right? But rather, This
is the Lord's communication to us. If you have ears to hear
it, this is the Lord's communication of His grace and mercy to His
children, right? He's telling us, He's communicating
to us that He, just as He calls us to this holiness, so He has
provided all things through His Son to make us holy, to establish
us in holiness, that we could stand before Holy God on His
throne, is the judge of all things, of all of us. So this is the
communication of His grace, right? It's by His works, His power,
His Spirit in us. Now, here's the reciprocation
of us by His Spirit. Here's what we give back to Him
in fruit that He bears in us in righteousness and in holiness.
And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons
judgeth according to every man's work, past 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. Our title this morning is Redeemed
by the Precious Blood of Christ. We'll have three divisions, the
fruit that Christ bears in us, those judged outside of Christ,
and those are we who are judged inside Christ, in Christ. All
right, so first, the fruit that Christ bears in us. Let's look
there at two phrases in verse 17, the first phrase and the
last phrase of verse 17. We read, and if ye call on the
Father, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. As we saw, God the Father calls
his children unto holiness. And that's what Peter says there
in verse 15, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be
ye holy in all manner of conversation. So the scriptures have many like
phrases to us that we read here in the scriptures. We see that
we are the call of Jesus Christ, that we are called to be saints. We're called according to His
purpose. We're called unto the fellowship
of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. We're called unto the grace
of Christ, called unto liberty, called unto eternal life. We're called that we should inherit
a blessing, and we are called unto His eternal glory. And there's
many others, but I'll just say we're called unto the marriage
supper of the Lamb. So we go unto Him, who is the
husband, the groomsman. We go unto Christ, our husband,
through the church, which is His bride, where His gospel is
preached, where the Lord is given all the honor, the glory, and
the praise. Not to man, but to God. We're not preaching up man so
that man goes away thinking about what he can do or should be able
to do when he leaves here, what he can do for the Lord, but rather
we hear the glorious gospel of what Christ has accomplished,
what he's done for his people, so that he's the one that receives
all the glory, the honor, and the praise, right? We're not
looking to puff man up. Turn over to Revelation 19. Revelation
19, and we'll pick up in verse seven. Revelation 19, 7. Let us be glad
and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the
Lamb has come, and his wife hath made herself ready. Now what
has the bride done to make herself ready? Well, actually verse 8
tells us. It says, And to her was granted,
to her was granted, that she should be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and white, so that we see, rather than the bride doing something
by vain, dead, religious works, it's instead granted to her.
This righteousness has been given to her by her husband through
the work which he has done. This fine linen is the righteousness
of the saints. Not by our works, but it's our
righteousness by the work of Jesus Christ and what he's accomplished
for his people. Now notice here it says that
we're speaking of the marriage of the lamb. It's the marriage
supper of the lamb. So that we who have been given
ears to hear understand that We're married unto Christ because
of that office that he's fulfilled as the Lamb of God, to be the
sacrifice, the propitiation for the forgiveness of our sins.
He laid down his life, and in doing so, in saving his people
from their coming destruction, which was their just due for
our own sins and our own righteousness, because He did that. He is the
Lamb of God. He is the Savior of His people
and now we are His people and are to be married unto Him. He sacrificed His own body, shed
His own blood to purge our filthy consciences, from our dead works,
from trusting in those things, that we might obtain eternal
redemption in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Turn over to
Hebrews 9 verse 12. We'll see this. Hebrews 9 verse
12. Hebrews 9.12 says, 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. For if the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify
to the purifying of the flesh, right, just outward things, How
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God, so that we who are
called unto his holiness, unto him whose holiness, find that
there's nothing left for us to do? Christ didn't leave this
into the hands of his children. to fulfill and to figure it out
and to make ourselves holy, because we can't. The scriptures are
clear that we cannot save ourselves through vain religious works,
because that's all that they are. You know, we read of the
marriage supper of the king's son, right? And the king comes
in there, and it says he came in to see the guests, and he
saw a man which had not on a wedding garment, and he saith unto him,
Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?
And that man was speechless so that the Lord had his servants
come, bind him hand and foot, take him away and cast him into
outer darkness. And who was he talking to? The
Pharisees, right? And the Pharisees were a very
religious people. They did a lot of good works
that appeared to be good on the outside. And what we see is that
our righteousness must exceed that of the righteousness of
the Pharisees or else we shall never have that wedding garment
whereby we can be guests welcomed into the marriage supper of the
Lamb, we need righteousness that exceeds the righteousness that
this filthy flesh can accomplish. And that comes by one way, through
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who gives that wedding
garment to his bride. She's granted that fine linen,
whereby she presents herself to her husband spotless, without
blemish, without wrinkle, without spot, that she may be married
unto him It's all by His work and not our work. So, not only
has He called us unto holiness, but the Lord makes provision
for us. It's by His work that we are
now holy and righteous. As 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, But
of Him, of God, are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Christ is made
unto us all those things by God through the work that Christ
has accomplished and finished for us. So that now being called
of God, we're simply here returning to him thanksgiving for what
he's done for us. We're not trying to earn his
approval of us. We're not trying to earn a salvation. We're not trying to prove or
verify to God or to anyone else that we're his. We believe him.
We can't help but believe him because it's what he's put into
us. He's worked that faith in us whereby we believe him and
trust that that's the only way that I'm going to be saved. It's
through the blood of Jesus Christ. I'm not looking to my works or
anything that I've done. Peter says, And if ye call on
the Father, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. So he first calls us unto holiness,
irresistibly working his spirit in us to bring us, to drag us,
if need be, to the Lord Jesus Christ, that we see it's not
by my works, it's not by the things I've done, but by what
He's done. And our sojourning here isn't
in fear, brethren. It's not in terrors, you know,
the way that you would be terrified when your mother threatened saying,
just wait for your father to get home. he's gonna deal with
you, and he's gonna give you the belt. You know, and you had
that trembling, and everything you did, all you could think
about in the back of your mind is that dad's coming home, and
I'm gonna be getting that belt. And that's not what this fear
is that he's speaking of, not at all, but rather the reverential
fear and realization that my life that I have is of God the
Father. He's provided all things, and
what he determined is good for me, it's good for me. and I know
that in His Son and in His Son alone is salvation. That's the
fear, that understanding that there's not another way. I can't
work this thing out some other way by some other thing that
I do. I must hear Christ. I must be found in Him. And He
works that in us. And He opens up the way. He leads
us to the Gospel. He calls us to hear the Gospel
and to be settled in Christ. To rest right there in Him. You know, we come forth into
this life in Christ and we have so much baggage, so many fears,
so many doubts, so many worries. We get caught up in the thinking
that there's still something more that we got to do. It's
like those grave cloths on Lazarus that had to be taken off of him,
right? We come forth and it's through
this gospel that the Lord strips us of those grave clothes. He
strips us of our vain hope and our vain confidences that we
see that Lord, you are sufficient. You've done all things, and He
settles us. But me telling you to be settled
and just trust Christ, that isn't going to do it. The Lord's got
to work that in His people, but trust Him. If your only hope
is Christ, Even if you have baggage, trust the Lord. He'll strip that
away from you. He'll settle you in the Lord so that you have
peace in Christ. He's sufficient and able to save.
Don't even get caught up when you're worried and doubting and
looking at things you shouldn't be looking at. The Lord knows
how to save His people from even those things and deliver them
because Christ is sufficient. Ephesians 2.10 says, We are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. He'll
work everything out. You don't need to worry. The
Lord has it under control. Just seek Him. It's not according
to us, right? Even our faith, right? Many people
look, well, don't I have to believe? Don't I need to believe on Jesus
and have faith? Yeah, but that's not going to
come as a work of your flesh. God's not waiting for you to
figure it out, to believe Him first. The Lord's going to cause
you to see your need of Him. He's going to cause you to reach
out and to cry out for mercy through the Lord, because He
gives us all things. Every spiritual blessing is of
Him. Any work necessary, if faith
is necessary, the Lord is going to give it. And that's what Peter
says in 2 Peter 1, 3, according as His divine power hath given
unto us all things, that includes faith, all things that pertain
unto life and godliness. As it says, 2 Peter 1.3, all
things. He's given to us all things.
So where is boasting then? It's excluded, right? No man
or woman can say to their neighbor, well, I believe Jesus and you
didn't believe Jesus. That's not the deciding thing.
The Lord worked that in us so that we can't boast in our faith
even, because we know that the faith that we have, it's worked
in our hearts. by the Spirit of God who called
us to believe on Him. As Peter also said, we've obtained,
we've come into possession of like precious faith as all the
other brethren before us. Just as the apostles, they didn't
have faith except that they obtained it as a gift of God through the
Son, Jesus Christ. Turn over to Romans 8, Romans
8 verse 14. We'll see here the fruit that's
exercised in us as a result of the Spirit of God working in
us. Romans 8, 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the
spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Right? As your daughters, as your sons
cry, Daddy, Daddy. You know, they come running to
you because they have some need. Your protection, whatever it
is, they come crying to you, Daddy. The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Right? Because where do we run
when we're scared? Where do we run when we have
need? We run back to our Father, our Heavenly Father, who's provided
for us richly in His Son. If you're running back to the
world, the movies, you know, drugs or alcohol or whatever
it is for your comfort and your hope, your friends. Maybe you
don't know the Lord. You run back to your father,
to the one that provides for you. You may run back to those
things for a time, but the Lord will show you they're vain, they're
empty, they're worthless. You'll stop going back to those
things if you're the Lord. He'll work that in you, though.
I can't tell you to not do those things. The Lord will work that
in you so that you see those things of the world They're just
vain, vain things. They're just passing, temporary
things. But our hope and our comfort and our confidence comes.
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we'll see that. He'll
work that in us. And if children and heirs, heirs of God, and
join heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that
we may also be glorified together. So there again, we see as well
how the Lord will work various circumstances and things in this
life that we begin to see the frailty and the vanity of this
life that those confidences that we once had in this life, where
things seemed to work out well for us, they begin to break and
snap and fall apart before us. And, you know, in the flesh we
think, the Lord must be against me. The Lord must be, you know,
against me, you know, my sin is catching up to me and now
the Lord's gonna get me. But no, that's not what, if you're
the Lord's, he's not coming to get you and punish you and make
your life a miserable thing. But rather we suffer that we
might see the vanity of this life. If you're broken and the
Lord humbles you and brings you low in yourself and you see what
a sinner you are, that doesn't necessarily mean at all that
you're cut off from the Lord. You know what, when I was in
vain religion and the Lord began to do that to me, I thought the
Lord hated me. But he showed me eventually through
it that it's because I was trusting in my own righteousness. And
as long as I was holding on to my righteousness, I didn't see
the sun or trust the sun. I said all the right things,
but I didn't even know at all. And so it, it, I found that suffering
and that pain and that sorrow to be a mercy to me because it
showed me what a, what a vain, wicked Pharisee I was, even though
I knew Pharisees were wrong. and I shouldn't be like them.
I didn't even know that I was a modern-day Pharisee trusting
in my own work. So, the Lord will work suffering
in us to bring us to himself. Peter says in 1 Peter 1, 7, that
the trial of your faith being much more precious than a gold
that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. You know, we may not all be martyrs,
but we shall indeed, by his power, will die itself. This outward
man is going to waste away and perish, right? That's what Paul
said to the Corinthians when he said, but though our outward
man perish, yet the inward man, that which is created of Christ
and is by the Spirit of God, the inward man is renewed day
by day. Turn over to Psalm 116, and we'll
see this even in the psalm, Psalm 116. This psalm is speaking about
Christ our Savior and the work that He did for us And there's
a sweet verse in verse 15 where we behold Christ and His death
being precious to the Lord, and then we remember that we were
in Christ when He went to the cross He carried us. We were in Him. He bore our sin. He bore us. So that when He died,
we died. When He laid down His life, our
life was laid down. So that there's no more us. It's
us in Christ. It's Him. So Psalm 116 verse
15. It says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death
of His saints. Right? So that in Christ, more
and more as we grow in Him, we die to self. This outward man
perishes. It's vanity. It's seen for what
it is. We see the weaknesses that we
are. We see how weak our minds are.
We see how weak our will is to do the things that we think that
we're going to get done that day. Those things that we think
should happen don't happen. All the time, our designs and
our schemes and our plans are getting crossed all over the
place. And it's for our good to see
that it's not us, we're not God. It's not that we're now saved,
that we can be something special, independent of ourselves, but
rather, we continually are driven back to see that our hope, our
all is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're nothing
apart from Him. But being dead, we're set free
from all the vain desires and the lusts of this flesh. More
and more as we grow in the Lord so that we're free. We're free
of that law which was given not for a righteous man, but for
wicked men. That's why the law was given.
It's not for a righteous man, but as we grow in Christ We behold
Him, we see Him and rejoice in the work that He's done so that
we don't need the law to constrain us and to bind us and to keep
this flesh under control, right? And we're free to live unto our
God in liberty, not as a cloak of the flesh, not to do those
sinful things that others will look on us and say, how can you
say you're of the Lord? No, the Lord shows us that we're
not to just go on doing those things of the flesh. Not at all,
but that's not where our confidence is. And our confidence is in
Christ, and He keeps us there in the Lord Jesus Christ. Right,
now here's the fruit that is returned unto the Lord from our
lips in verse 16. O Lord, truly I am thy servant. Not the servant of this flesh
anymore, not the servant of sin, not the servant of the yoking
law, but I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid. Thou
hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice
of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. So you see how the Lord works
that In his child, he calls, he brings them to call upon him,
to cry out to the Father, Abba, Father, Daddy, have mercy upon
me. I see what I am, I see the need
that I have for your salvation, for your work to be done in me,
because I've got nothing. a dead dog sinner in need of
your grace and so he brings us to die to self to see that it's
precious through his son Jesus Christ and just as Christ is
precious to the father so Christ is made precious to us and that's
where we settle and that's where we grow from there on in his
son if you call on the father past the time of your sojourning
here in fear right so he works that fruit of the Lord in us,
that we call upon him and rejoice in him. All right, our second
point, those judged outside of Christ. Verses 17 and 18, we'll
read them, 1 Peter 1, 17 and 18. And if you 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." Now there's a great many people that are going to
be judged when they stand before the Lord. They're going to be
judged according to their works, right? Their works done outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their works that are not covered
by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, Cardinal Mann, vain man,
and that's all of us by nature, right? And we're in a state of
that nature. We think that God is like us,
right? We think that God is very much
like us. I think it was Luther that said,
I think it was Erasmus or something like that, your thoughts of God
are too human. You think of God as being just
like yourself, too much. Maybe a superhuman, but still
much too human. So that we think that God is
impressed with the things that we're impressed with, He's swayed
by the arguments that we're swayed with, or that he's angered in
the same way that we're angered. And, you know, I remember speaking
to a man once who was a very good speaker. He was a very good
talker. And he really imagined that when he died, he'd stand
before God and that he'd be given a platform whereby he could argue
with God and make his case as to why he did certain things
so that God would excuse him and allow him into heaven. But
that's how we are by nature, so that we think that that by
our fancy smooth talk, you know, that we can justify ourselves.
And that's how we are, right? I know when you remember back
to being a child, probably, when you had to talk to your parents
and you, I would like think out of my mind what I was going to
say and it sounds so good. Like I sound like, yeah, that's
going to, that's going to go over really well. And then you,
as it's coming out of your mouth out loud, you realize, man, I
sound really bad right now. This doesn't sound at all good
like I thought it was. And that's how it's going to
be for people outside of Christ, right? They think that they're
going to impress God by the things they say, but the Lord's already
declared us guilty sinners. We're already condemned by nature. We're condemned. We're not going
to have an opportunity to speak. Our sins, like the wind, are
carrying us away, brethren. We see this in Romans 1, actually
128, we see a pretty good outline of many, many people. You can
go there. I'll read it, but Romans 128 through 32, so it says, and
even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which
are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate,
deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful,
proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection,
implacable, unmerciful, who, knowing the judgment of God that
they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only
do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." So brethren,
when we see that list, If you're like me, you think if it's not
by mercy and grace, if it's not through a son, I'm a dead man
because surely all of us have some things in that list that
we know and confess. Honestly. Yeah, that's me. That's
me in my heart. And that's me by nature. I deserve
that judgment of God so that we know it's not going to be
by our works, but of the Lord. So brethren, the Lord shows us
more and more. It doesn't matter who your mommy
or your daddy are. It doesn't matter how rich you
are. It doesn't matter how poor you are. It doesn't matter how
much of a sinner you are, right? It's one thing to get lost, but
that doesn't make you safe. Just being lost and just being
down on yourself all the time, that's not enough to save us,
right? We need the comfort of the gospel of Jesus Christ to
save us and accept you being Christ You're outside of them.
You're not under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, except
the Lord put you in Him. So it doesn't matter how much
time we give, whether we read the Bible a lot or little or
pray or stand up and serve, none of those things save us. What
saves us is the Lord Jesus Christ and the work that He did on the
cross. for his people, bearing their sins and putting it away. Has the Lord washed you in the
blood of His Son? Oh, look to the Lord. He's a
sufficient, able Savior. He's able to save. He's a successful
Savior. He did that which He came to
do. Your trust in Him, you will not be ashamed for trusting in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's able to save and saves the
guilty, filthy, vile sinner. You see, all, many people around
you even this very day are guilty, filthy, vile sinners who have
been saved by His grace and His mercy. We're not able to save
ourselves. There's nothing you can do apart
from Christ that is going to make your case with God to be
better or to make your standing with God any better than what
it is, brethren. We are undone sinners in need
of His grace and mercy. The wicked, it says, shall be
turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. Therefore,
we don't put any confidence in ourselves and in the works that
we do. We're full of sin. And for that
reason, we rejoice. We who are in Christ, we rejoice
in him because we know what vile sinners we are. We know what
wrath we deserve. And yet Christ is that salvation
that God has provided. Paul said, I want to be found
in Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the faithfulness
of Christ, the faithful work of Jesus Christ. Not even looking
to our own faith, but that faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. You know, many people have faith,
but they have faith in their faith, rather than faith in the
person of Jesus Christ and what he's accomplished. That's where
our faith needs to be, in Christ, in a person, not our works, not
what we do or haven't done. For this reason, Paul said this,
the reason why I want to be found in Christ is because he at the
point in a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness,
that is true righteousness, not comparing man to man, but comparing
man's so-called righteousness to him who is true righteousness,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He hath appointed a day in the
which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men in that he hath raised him. from the dead. He raised Christ from the dead. Hebrews 9.27 says, And as it
is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,
so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto
them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without
sin unto salvation. You don't want to face God outside
of the covering of Christ's blood. You do not want to face Him in
your own so-called righteousness. Christ is the righteousness of
his people. Look to him. I urge you, flee
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a sufficient Savior, able
to save all those that come to him by faith, trusting not in
their own works, but in the work that he has done. We must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ, Paul said, that everyone
may receive the things done in his body according to that he
hath done, whether it be good or bad, knowing therefore the
terror of the Lord, we persuade men." Right? The terror of the
Lord that's coming upon those outside of Christ's blood. Get to Christ. Are you certain
that you're ready to meet Christ? If you're not covered in the
blood of Christ, the answer is simple. You are not ready to
meet God. You don't want to meet God like
that. All right, third, we who are judged in Christ, in Christ. 1 Peter 1 18-19 says, 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. So you who are of the purchased
possession of Christ, rejoice, brethren, blessed and holy is
he that hath part in the first resurrection. You have been called
to Christ here in this life. You have been called to the first
resurrection. And it says, you, on such the
second death, you die again. When you die and lay in the grave,
the second death has no power over you. It has no more power.
Christ's blood is precious for many, many glorious reasons.
This is the Son of God who came to do this work. that he covenanted
with the Father to do, and he has done it. He took upon him
the form of a servant, the likeness of our sinful flesh, doing and
fulfilling the righteousness of God that was required of us.
He fulfilled it all perfectly on our behalf. He came to John
the Baptist as an example to be baptized of him and John tried
to stop him saying no Lord I have need of being baptized by you
and you come to be baptized of me and Jesus answering said unto
him Suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness Everything that Christ did he did it for
the benefit of his people to obtain to to work to weave that
beautiful and precious, righteous, fine linen, white garment of
the saints, that she might stand before her God and be married
unto the Lamb of God. So the scriptures tell us that
Christ was perfect in all his ways and without sin. And being
perfect, he offered himself to God without spot and without
blemish to put away those sins. First Peter 2, 22 through 24
says, speaking of Christ who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth. When he was reviled, reviled
not again. when he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously,
who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness,
by whose stripes ye were healed. So Christ himself committed no
sin, but he bare the sins of his people in his body there
on the tree. As Peter said to the Corinthians
in 521, 2 Corinthians 521, for he hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Now earlier in that chapter,
in 2 Corinthians 5, Paul said, we are confident We're confident,
I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body than
to be present with the Lord. But you know, when it comes down
to your works to either be justified with Christ or to be sanctified,
like to work out your own sanctification before God, are you ever confident? Do you ever feel like you've
done enough? When it's according to your flesh, when it's according
to some work that you have to do, we don't feel confident.
So Paul isn't looking to our works that we've done, right?
Because there's no confidence when it comes down to the flesh.
Paul reminds us that we have, in verse 5, we have the earnest
of the Spirit. We have the Spirit of Christ
formed in us, living in us, forming that new man in us. And by the
new man, we trust Him. We rest in Christ. We have confidence
in the Lord Jesus Christ because of the work that He's done so
that we are not afraid now to stand before God, our Father,
before Christ, the Son, who sits in the throne of God with his
Father, ruling and reigning, having all authority and dominion,
honor and power. We're going to stand before him
who sits on the throne. But remember this, brethren,
in Revelation 5, 6, it says, low in the midst of the throne
and of the four beasts, in the midst of the elders stood a lamb
as it had been slain and he came and he took the book out of the
right hand of him who sat upon the throne. We see that this
is Christ who as the Lamb of God has earned the authority,
the right to establish the kingdom of his God. So as he takes that
book and he's opening up those seals that we see going on all
around us, all kinds of things occurring here, it's Christ establishing
his kingdom. Satan, it might seem like Satan
is gaining ground and doing things, but he's judged already, and
the Lord is establishing his kingdom in the hearts of his
people. So that whereas before it was just the Jews, a small
remnant of the Jews, now it's gone out to us Gentiles, and
he's calling us from every tongue, tribe, and nation, to the marriage
supper of the Lamb, because he's establishing the kingdom of his
God in the hearts of his people. So brethren, that's whose throne
we're going to stand before. It's going to be Christ himself.
And what better work could we appear in than in his work? Not
in our own righteousness, but declaring what he has done for
us. And because of his work, it says,
the host of heaven sung a new song saying, thou art worthy
to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou was
slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every
kindred and tongue and people and nation and has made us unto
our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.
So, Brethren, Christ is worthy. He's prevailed with the Father,
right? He's prevailed in God. with God
as a prince and as a savior for his people, so that we come in
him as kings and priests made so by the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. So don't fear. When you look
at yourself and you see what you are by nature, don't fear. Just keep running back to the
Savior. Look to the Savior. Trust Him for His blood is sufficient
to save. It says that all that believe,
that by Him all that believe are justified from all things
which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. will stand
before the throne of God. The wicked and the just alike
are both going to stand before the throne of God, but it's going
to be a very, very different perspective for each group, right? For the wicked, it says that
they shall be turned into hell. But in Isaiah 35, 10, it says,
but the ransomed of the Lord, they shall return and come to
Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall
obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee
away. Has Christ redeemed you from
your awful sin, fall, and Adam? I'll go to Him. He's a sufficient
Savior, able to save. I'll close with this passage
from Revelation 22, verses 16 through 21. Christ says, I, Jesus, have sent
mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning
star. And the spirit and the bride
say, come. and let him that heareth say
come, and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let
him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man
that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any
man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues
that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away
from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take
away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy
city, and from the things which are written in this book. He
which testified these things saith, surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen. All right, let's pray and
then we'll take the Lord's Supper together. Our gracious Lord,
Father, we thank you for your mercy and kindness to us through
your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, you know our weaknesses
and our infirmities and how foolish and frail we are, Lord, but we
thank you that you've established your kingdom in your Son, Jesus
Christ. You've established our righteousness in Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior. Father, keep us. Keep us under
the sound of the gospel. Bless us and feed us with Christ,
your Son. Pray this in Jesus' name, our
Lord and Savior. Amen.