Heavy Bibles this afternoon. Our text is going to be taken
from 1 Peter 3, verse 18. You know, the Lord gave us, His
people, this ordinance to remember His death until He comes back
for His people. 1 Corinthians 11, 26 says, for
as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show
the Lord's death until He comes. I'm going to speak on behalf
of the Lord's body. At the last supper he took bread
and he gave thanks and he break it. And he gave it unto his disciples
and said unto them, this is my body which is given for you,
this too in remembrance of me. The purpose of this supper is
to remember him and all that he has done for us. Christ Jesus
has always been the surety of God's elect. God's word says
in Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5, but when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. And he said, do this
in remembrance of me. We are to remember him with deep
gratitude. We are to trust our souls to
him. We are to remember his person,
his work, and his love. And we are to remember him as
a sole object of our faith, and to remember his broken body on
the cross, that it was to make atonement for the sins of his
people. Christ crucified is a foundation
of a whole volume of God's word from Genesis to Revelation. If you will now look at our text,
here in the third chapter of Peter, verse 18, it says, for
Christ also hath once suffered for sins, a jest for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit. He says here, for Christ hath
also once suffered for sins. In Ephesians 1.4, God's word
says, according as he hath chosen us, in him, in Christ, before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love, And Matthew, the angel of the Lord,
come to Joseph and agreed and said unto him, fear not to take
unto thee Mary, for that which is conceived in her is the Holy
Ghost. And listen to this, she shall
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. He says here that Christ hath
suffered once for sins. Why did he have to suffer only
once? It was because of who he was.
Almighty God become a man to become our suffering substitute. He was 100% God, but he was also
100% man. He partook of all the weaknesses
of humanity. He became bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh. He was the perfect man. He was
the only man in whom there had never dwelt sin. In his human
nature, he was without spot or blemish. He was ever pure. He was perfect. He was spotless. He was holy. And he was one that
had never knew sin. And it says here in their text,
in verse 18, Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, but jest for the unjust. All right, who is this jest?
There's only one, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible
says in Isaiah 21, there is no God else beside me, a jest God
and a Savior, and there is none beside me. In verse 18 of our
text, it says, for Christ hath also suffered once for sins,
but just for the unjust. Who are the unjust? I think we
know the answer to that. It says in Romans 5, 12, and
we're speaking here of Adam, it says, wherefore, as by one
man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death
passed upon all men, for they all have sinned. We serve a just
God, and a just God must punish sin. And the Bible says that
the wages of sin is death. But sacrifice had to be as holy
and sinless as God himself. In 2 Corinthians 5.19, God's
word says that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Let us also always remember that
while Christ was truly man, He was also the God that made all
things that are created, that are in heaven and earth, visible
and invisible. Let us read our text again in
1 Peter 3. It says in verse 18, for Christ
also hath once suffered for sins, but just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God. We are put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit. In the book of John, Jesus said,
no man can come unto the Father but by me. And then in Acts 4.12,
God's word says, neither is there salvation in any other, and we're
speaking of Jesus Christ our Lord, for there is none other
name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. He suffered the full wrath of
God alone by himself. And his body, his body suffered
and his soul suffered. You know, you ask yourself, well,
how much sin was imputed into Christ? You know, in the book
of Revelation, it says that no man can count the number. Our
texts say, speaking here of our Lord, being put to death in the
flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. You know, Christ's suffering
on the cross was foreordained. It's not something that just
happened. It was evil men that tortured and slaughtered our
Lord. And even though it was foreordained, But they will be
held responsible for what they did, because they did what was
in their evil hearts to do. If you will turn just for a moment
to Acts 4, verse 26. Acts 4, verse 26. It says, the
kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered
together against the Lord and against his Christ. For of a
truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hath anointed
both hard and polished violent, with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel were gathered together, and listen to this, for to do
whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel had determined before to be done. If we will, just for a minute,
we have to turn to, if you would, turn to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. Our Lord went through so much
pain for us, for our sins, for He knew no sin. The sin that
was imputed unto Him was our sin. It says here in verse 3
of chapter 53 of Isaiah, He is despised and rejected of man,
a man of sorrows, and he is acquainted with grief. And then in verse
4 here, He says, Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows, Yet we did extend him scretin, spittin of God,
and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. And all we like
sheep have gone astray, and we have turned every one to his
own way. And the Lord hath laid on Christ,
the Lord, has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers
is done. So he opened not his mouth. Why
didn't he open his mouth? He had the sins of all of his
people imputed unto him. Acts 2.23 says, him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, And then
in Hebrews it says, by so much was Jesus made surety of a better
testament. What does surety mean? He became
responsible for our sins. Our Lord Jesus laid down his
life of his own free will. In John 10, 18, our Lord said,
no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. Of his
own choice, he laid down his life. Of his own choice, he went
to the cross, and he finished the work of redemption. He finished
it for the sins of his people, and his heart was set on the
salvation of his sheep. He fulfilled all the demands
of the law, and he satisfied the justice of God. In the book
of Hebrews, God, word says, looking unto Jesus, the offer and finisher
of our faith, Who, for the joy that was set before him, endeared
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. You know, may God give all of
us a sincere desire to grow in grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ. May we pray on behalf of our
Lord's body. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank
you, oh Father, so much for allowing us to gather together and to
observe this ordinance tonight, Lord, of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
for all that you have done for us. We thank you, dear Lord,
for we cannot even begin to imagine the pain and the suffering and
what he went through, how his soul suffered and how his body
suffered. But we thank you for that, and
we know we don't deserve it. But Lord, we thank you for that,
and we pray, Lord, that you will help us to remember Not just
here and now, but to remember every day the things that our
Lord went through to save our souls from a burning hell. He delivered us from our own
selves and He took all the sins that we had within us and He
put them into Himself. He's the perfect God. He's the
perfect Savior. He is precious in all of His
ways. We do love him, and we do praise
him, and we do worship him. God help us to grow closer and
closer to him, and to love him more and more, and to always
keep in mind that he's coming back for us. We love you, Lord,
and we praise you, and we thank you for all things, Lord. For
it is in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, we do pray.
Amen. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1. Last week, Brother William told
me that his text was going to be 1 Peter 3, and I immediately
thought of 1 Peter 1. And the Lord did bless this to
my heart for this service tonight. Let's read verses 18 to 20. 1 Peter 1, 18 to 20. For as much as you know that
you 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. I want to take a few minutes
to look at this payment of blood that our Lord made for us. In just a moment, I'm going to
take you to five scriptures. We're going to turn to five different
scriptures that will tell us what this blood payment of Christ
accomplished. That's what I want us to enter
into. What? Why did he shed this blood? What happened here? What did
this do? Before we go to those five scriptures,
though, I want to acknowledge a few things from this text. And the first thing is this.
Our Lord was ordained to this payment of blood. Just reading
this made me think that's everything he just said. I'm going to repeat
everything he just said. Our Lord was ordained to this
payment of blood before the world began. This was not an unexpected payment. Amazing, isn't it? This was not
an unexpected payment. This did not come from an emergency
fund. This was not our Lord scrambling
to fix a problem. Verse 20 says, he truly, verily,
he truly was foreordained before the foundation of the world to
make this payment for this cause came out into the world. Revelation
13 says he was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world
in the mind and the will and the purpose of God. In verse 20 says he was manifest
in these last times to make that payment for us. And that manifestation and that
payment was made on the cross of Calvary. Our Lord made a payment
with his precious blood. Verse 19 says it was precious
blood. What that means is his blood
was costly. That's what it means. It was
a costly payment that was owed. What we owed to God for our sin
against him, that was a lot. It was a costly payment that
was owed, but that payment was made with the most valuable substance
that heaven possessed, the blood of the Son of God. God's precious
Lamb, His precious Son. How could we put a value on the
Son of God? How could you put a value? The
life is in the blood. And when He gave His blood, He
gave His life. How can you put a value on that?
How can you put a value on the life of the God-man? It's infinite
value. Infinite value. The precious
blood of the lamb is priceless, infinite value. That's what God
gave for the sin of his people. Infinite value. Not only was
our Lord's payment priceless, but it was perfect. It was perfect. The end of verse 19 says it was
without blemish and without spot. Perfect is perfect sacrifice. It brought a perfect payment
that made his imperfect people. Perfect. Absolutely perfect. And from
these five scriptures, I want us to see why. All right, we'll
move right through each one of them. I want us to see what did
he accomplish in this perfect, priceless payment that he made. Turn with me to Matthew 26. Matthew 26 verse 27 says, And he took the cup and gave
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New
Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Shed for many. This was a particular
payment. This was not a general payment. The blood of Jesus Christ, the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ was not a general payment for
sin. This was a particular payment.
It was shed for many, but it was shed for the remission of
sins. This was a healing payment. When
this payment was made, his people were healed. Remission. Healed from disease. Remission
from disease. When a person who is sick hears
the glorious news that he or she is in remission, that means
the disease is gone. That's what it means. All trace
of the disease is gone. And that's what our Lord accomplished
in his precious payment, remission from sin. Full, total, complete
remission from sin. This was a healing payment that
he made. All right, turn to Acts chapter
20. Acts chapter 20 verse 28 says. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased
with his own blood. This was a buying payment. What happened when he shed this
blood? He made a payment of ownership.
That's what he did. He bought with this price. Hebrews 9 verse 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. That means eternal ownership. That's what it means. I love
that. This was a buying payment. We are bought with a price. A precious, costly price bought
to ownership. Healed and bought to ownership. All right, turn with me to Romans
5. Romans 5 verse 9 says, much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Our Lord's
payment of blood was a justifying payment. God was just in spilling
Christ, our substitute's blood for our sins. And let me just
repeat this and let's just dial into this one part right here.
This is so amazing. This is such amazing grace. God
was just, you know, everything that God does, he is just in
doing it. That means justified in doing
it. I told you before, there was a long time ago, there was
an incident where a police officer had to shoot someone and he was
taken to court over it. And after all the evidence was
put out, the judge deemed him justified in his shooting. No
sin committed, no wrongdoing committed. Everything that God
does, He must be justified in doing it. There has to be right
reason for it according to the law. God the Father was just
in spilling Christ, our substitutes, blood for us. He was just in
doing it. And it's because He bore the
sins of His people in Him. And that's what they deserved.
And with Christ wearing them and bearing them and having them
in his body on the tree, God was just in doing that to him. And with that spotless, perfect,
priceless payment of blood being poured all over his people. We are now justified before God. We are justified because the
blood of Christ covered all of our sin. And because now God now sees
that blood, he said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Why justified? Justified. God now only sees us in that
spotless, perfect, priceless blood. When He looks at us, that's
all He sees. Perfect, spotless, priceless
blood. And when He looks at us in that
blood, He declares, no sin, no wrongdoing justified. Our Lord's blood was a justifying
payment for us. It justified us. It was a healing
payment, a buying payment, a justifying payment. All right, go to Colossians
one. Colossians chapter one. Verse 20, Colossians 1 verse 20. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled."
Our Lord's payment of blood was a reconciling payment. It was a unifying payment. It was a payment of peace. It was a payment that brought
peace and unity. It was a payment that drew us
near to God again. now made nigh by the blood of
our Lord and Savior. It satisfied, it appeased, it
removed all enmity. It broke down that middle wall
of partition, creating one new unified man, so making peace. What a beautiful thing. Our Lord's
payment was a healing payment. It was a redeeming payment. It
was a justifying payment. It was a reconciling payment.
And here's the last one. Go with me to Revelation chapter
1. Revelation 1 verse 4. John, to the seven churches which
are in Asia, grace be unto you and peace from him which is and
which was and which is to come and from the seven spirits which
are before his throne and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful
witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of
the kings of the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from
our sins in his own blood. It was a cleansing payment. That's
what it was. It was a purifying payment, a
washing white as snow. Oh, how we thank our Lord for
his precious payment of blood, don't we? I pray that the Lord
might let us enter into what we're doing here. Oh, he said,
do this in remembrance of me. And that's what we're here to
do. We're here to worship him. We're here to remember him. We're
here to give thanks to him for his broken body and his shed
blood. All right, let's give thanks.