1 Peter 1. We'll look at verses
17-21. The title of the message is, What
the Redeemed Know. What the Redeemed Know. We are
told in the Word of God, All thy children shall be taught
of God. God takes in hand each one of
His children and teaches them. He educates us. And the lesson
is Christ and Him crucified. And everything we will learn
of God, we will learn through the Lord Jesus Christ. We will
learn it through Him, by Him. God's children are not uneducated
children. They are taught of God. Now we will see in these verses
our relationship to God as our Father. He's not the Father of
all men. The Pharisees said, God is our
Father. And the Lord said, no, you're
of your father, the devil. God is the Father. He's the God
and Father of those in Jesus Christ. And we see our relationship
to Him as our Father here. And we see that we have been
redeemed, purchased, that's what that means, purchased, God has
purchased us, bought us back by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, by the blood of His Son, by His own blood, as it is written
in Acts chapter 20. We see that He has redeemed us
by the blood of Christ from our vain, futile, empty, useless
life. Life, I'm telling you the truth,
life apart from Christ is useless. If I am never brought to faith
in Christ, it's better, it's better than I had never been
born. And we see this. that He has
redeemed us by the blood of Christ from our vain life, and that
this was foreordained of God before the foundation of the
world, and that our hope and our faith that we have is of Him. It's a work of God. It's a work
of God. Now he says here in verse 17,
"...if, or seeing that this is so," this
is a fact, this is a real fact, "...that you call God your Father,"
and so you do, "...and you call on God your Father. And this
being so, I thought of this, How is God my Father?" How is
it I can call God, and what a statement, that I can call God my Father?
Well, first of all, God is our Father by adoption. That's what it says in Ephesians
1.5. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, He has adopted us. Now, you know
this. In adoption, the child does not
choose the parent. The parent chooses the child.
And what that's telling us is that God chose us. He didn't have to. He didn't
have to. He could have passed me by. You
know, when a parent adopts a child, that parent does not adopt that
particular child because it had to. It did so because the parent
wanted to. He was drawn to that child. That
love was drawn out toward that child. God is our Father by adoption. Then God is our Father by regeneration. We are born of the Spirit of
God. We are partakers of the divine
nature. Not only has He adopted us, we
are born of God's Spirit. We are partakers of God. If you could check and see the
DNA of a believer, you would see the DNA of God, if that were
possible. It's a spiritual DNA. We are
begotten of Him. Begotten of God. Born of God. Born of His Spirit. We are the
sons of God. I recognize this. Every time
I'm putting a message together and I know I'm coming out here
to speak, I'm speaking to children of God, sons and daughters of
the King. Now, I truly preach to royalty
every week. I do. I preach to the king's
sons and daughters. We have been made what? Kings
and priests under God. I am the one who truly speaks
to royalty every week. Sons of God. And this being so,
what a high honor is bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. What a great position that you
and I have as sons of God. That means we can come into His
presence in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son. We can
come into His presence. We can come to the throne of
grace. Not everyone can do that. Not everyone can do that. Not
everyone wants to do that. Not everyone has a will to do
that. But through the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, We who are
sons of God, sons and daughters of God, we have access to His
presence. You know, Prince William, he
can just go over to the palace anytime he wants to, can't he?
He can go over to the palace and see the queen and talk to
her. I can't do that. They'd shoot
me. You let me try to get in there,
they'd shoot me. They'd put me in jail. But he can just walk
right in there. You and I have the grand privilege,
high, high privilege of coming into the presence of God, coming
into the Holy of Holies. Think about that, the Holy of
Holies, where God dwells, through the Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the
Father but by me. And you and I who know him, we
have an entrance into his presence, a real entrance. interest and
entrance into His presence. And what a humbling truth this
is. What a humbling truth. We ought to be so humbled by
this, because there's nothing better about me by nature than
anybody else. You know, if you take everyone
in this world, every person, you take what we call nobility,
They are only nobility in name. They're just as rotten as I am.
The same blood that flows through my veins flows through their
veins. It's just in name only. But now, you and I are not sons
of God in name only. We are sons of God in nature.
In nature. Now, in verse 17, this being
so, And I hope we really get this in our hearts, that we really
get a hold of this, or that it gets a hold of us, one or the
other. We have the character of our
Father and the reverence due unto our Father throughout our
lifetime. Who without respect of persons,
and this word has the meaning of faces, Now, you know that
you and I, by nature, and all humanity, by nature, shows respect
to persons. Partial. We show partiality. Our sons and our daughters, they
get the benefit of the doubt, don't they? We favor them more
than we favor anybody else, as far as that goes. You know, if
somebody does something wrong, we're ready execute judgment on them. But
if my son does it wrong, or daughter does it wrong, we start making
excuses for it. Don't we? I saw this on television. This has been some time ago.
But they were conducting a survey. And they were sending these people
in for a job interview. And the people doing the interview,
this was a real interview. They didn't know that the people
being sent in were, these were actors. Anyway, this was a setup. Well, they sent the tall, slender
man in, good-looking, for an interview. And they sent the
tall, slender woman in for an interview. Then they sent the
short, chubby one in for an interview. Guess who got the job? Even though
the shorter ones, they had more education. They sent them in
who were better educated. Guess who got the job? The tall,
slender ones got the job. Almost, almost every time. Almost
every time. God doesn't judge like that.
Our father's not like that. Place does not impress him. Face does not impress him. Education
does not impress him. He judges righteously. He's a
just judge. And this is what he's saying
here. Our father is just, is just. He shows no favoritism. He judges righteously. Now, listen
to this, because I had to think about this for a little bit.
We know that we will not come into judgment with the world.
We know that. Our judgment has been passed
on Christ. But I tell you this, He will chasten you. Now, He's
going to judge the world. Remember, there's no bands in
their death. It says over in the Psalms, there's no bands
in their death. They are the ones who prosper in the world.
Judgment's coming. Judgment's coming. But you remember
what he did to David after David had committed adultery and had
Uriah murdered? Nathan said to David, you're
not going to die. God has put away your sin. But
you know what else he said? The sword will not leave your
house. And David's house was a mess
for the rest of his life. David said, God has made with
me a covenant. Although it be not so with my
house, God has made with me a covenant, ordered in all things and sure.
But it's not that way with my house. It's a mess. My house
is a mess. Because of this one thing David
did, it was a horrible, horrific thing David did. God said, the
sword is not going to leave your house. He didn't say, David,
don't worry about it. He didn't cover it up. He didn't
cover it up. He didn't make excuse for it.
God dealt with it. And He deals with our sins. He
chastens us. He chastens us. Sometimes He
chastens us very sorely. Here's what He's saying. I believe
this is what He's saying. Never lose respect and awe of
God Almighty because of our relationship to Him as sons and daughters. Never lose that awe and respect
because he's still the judge. Our father is the judge. I know
a man back in Ashland whose father was a judge, and that rascal
got away with everything. He got away with everything. He'd
get caught drunk driving, he got away. He'd get away with
it. He says here, just because God's
your father, You keep that awe and respect, even more so, because
you know Him. You stand in respect and awe
of Him, reverence Him as your heavenly Father. And this being
so, pass the time of your sojourning in fear. That word sojourning
means alongside of. You and I live alongside of the
world. We live alongside of neighbors
who do not believe God. And that's why Peter said earlier,
he says this in verse 14, As obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance, but
as He which called you holy, so be ye holy in all manner of
conversation. Don't you pick up their mannerisms.
I touched on this last week. You see, most of the people he's
writing to here are Jews. They are the scattered. You remember
in Acts how many thousands were saved? Thousands upon thousands
were saved in the early church. And then they were scattered
by persecution, and as they were scattered, Peter says to them,
don't you pick up the mannerism of those whom you are now living
by. So don't pick that up. And you pass the time of your
living alongside of them in fear, in awe, in reverence of God. Let them see your fear and reverence
of God. When you're among the ungodly,
let them see your fear and respect of your heavenly Father. Let
them see it. Live out your life on this earth
in respect. in all of your father." This
is the first thing that ought to be taught to our children
when they're born. From the time they're born and
they're growing up, teach them respect. Respect your elders. Respect the law. Show respect. And he's saying here, respect
and stand in all of your father, always remembering first and
foremost that God is your father. Remember that. because not everyone
can say it. And here's another reason to
stand in such awe, is we had nothing to do with making God
our father. I had nothing to do with making
Daryl and Charlotte my parents. I had nothing to do with that.
And you and I have absolutely zero to do with making God our
father. He made us, He made us sons and daughters. Listen to
Psalm 103. Know ye that the Lord, He is
God. Know ye that Jehovah, our Savior,
our covenant God, is God. Know that first. It is He that
hath made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep
of His pastures. He made us sons and daughters. We didn't make Him our Father. And here's something else you
know, in verse 18. 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. First he tells us here what we
were not redeemed with. Silver and gold. Silver and gold. You know by the gospel that God
has sent to you, and you know by the Spirit of God that you
were not redeemed. And the silver and gold here,
he's talking about the coins that they used in that day. And
in the specific illustration here that he's using, speaking
of, that they were well aware of, that silver and gold was
used to purchase slaves and to give them their freedom. And
he says, you were not purchased with silver and gold. And he
calls them corruptible things because they're of this world.
What you and I were redeemed with is not of this world. It's not of this world. Not one
taint of Adam entered into the birth of Christ, the body of
Christ. He is the spotless Lamb of God. He knew no sin. No sin
entered into His being. He knew no sin at all. He knew
none. Now you were not redeemed with
incorruptible things. Money didn't redeem you. God
can't be bought. Justice can't be bought. True
justice, now listen, real true justice cannot be bought. So you can buy off men who are
corrupt, but you can't buy off true justice with money. It can't be. Because justice,
true justice, demands what's right. And nothing more. Nothing more. So you were not
redeemed with these corruptible things. Your redemption was much
more costly than that. That's why it's called precious.
Very costly, very rare. There's no blood like the blood
of Jesus Christ. Pure. Spotless. And here's another reason you're
not redeemed with silver and gold. There's no blood in silver
and gold. There's no blood in silver and gold. No blood equals no redemption.
No blood equals no forgiveness. All the silver and gold, listen,
here's another reason, all the silver and gold is His already.
How you gonna purchase? You gonna purchase somebody with
the money that belongs to the other person already? God said,
if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you, I own the cattle on
a thousand hills, everything's mine. All the gold and the silver
is mine. But here's what you have been
redeemed with. Precious blood. Precious blood. You've been redeemed. You've
been purchased, which supposes that someone else owns you. We
like to think we are our own person, don't we? We all like
to think that. Now, you who believe, you know
better than that. You know better than that. But who is this someone
else that owned us? You've been purchased. You've
been redeemed, bought back, ransomed. It has the meaning of ransomed.
Just like the children of Israel, God ransomed them out of Egypt
through that Passover land as a picture of Christ. Who owned
us? It wasn't Satan. Satan didn't
own us. He didn't know me, he didn't
know. Christ said, you have given me power over all flesh. The
earth is the Lord, the fullness thereof, and they who dwell therein.
Now, those who believe not are under the power of darkness. They're under his power. They're
under his influence. They are under the power of sin,
that sin nature. They are under the power of sin
nature. But the blood of Christ purchased you, now listen, from
the Law. From the Law. The Law had claims
on you. Turn over to Galatians chapter
3. Galatians chapter 3. Let me read
to you a couple of verses over here out of 3 and out of chapter
4. You couldn't purchase us with
gold and silver because God's law doesn't recognize that. But
listen here, in verse 13, Galatians 3, Christ hath redeemed us, ransomed
us from the curse of the law. He redeemed us from the curse.
The law had claims on me. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. The law has claimed on everyone
Who has sinned? For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now look over at chapter 4 and
look in verse 5. To redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons, but to
redeem them. Christ came, he was made of a
woman, born under the law that he might redeem them, purchase,
ransom them from the grips of the law. The law, Satan didn't
own me. You know, when he took our Lord
in the wilderness, the temptation in the wilderness, he took him
on this high mountain and he showed him the kingdom of the
world. And he said, if you'll fall down and worship me, I'll
give you these kingdoms. He's a liar. Anytime Satan opens
his mouth, if a word comes out of it, this is so, if a word
comes out of it, it's a lie. Truth can't come out of his mouth.
If he says something that's true, he's lying still. His ulterior motive underlying
that is a lie to get you to do something that's wrong, to bring
down the glory of God. He said, I'll give you the kingdoms
of the world. God owns the kingdoms of this world. They're His. They're
His. And the law, God owned me. It
had claims on me. Now, there's where a real, true,
honest fear comes in, is when you have a healthy fear
of God's law, God's law, it's claims on you. That's when you'll
run to Christ. That's when you run to Jesus
Christ to save you from the curse of that law because you have
sinned. And you know it. You know it. And you run to Him. And now that
the blood of Christ has purchased us, the law is satisfied, and
you are free. You're free, but you're still
not your own. You belong to him. You belong to him who has set
us free. You and I belong to him who has
set us free. Free from the curse of the law. We're like that bond slave. We've
been set free, but we love our master. We love the one who has
set us free. And we have said, bore my ear,
I want to stay with you. I tell you what, we are willing,
we are willing bond slaves. We are willing to stay with the
Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him. Are we not? Yes, we are. I don't want to be my own, I
want to be His. I want to be His who is infinite
wisdom, who has all power, who is holy and righteous. I want
to be His. I don't want to be mine. I don't
want to belong to me. You are redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. The law did not require money,
it required blood. The law required the death of
the offender. We have both of those in Jesus
Christ. I have in Christ everything the
law demands. I have it. It's mine. Get a hold
of that. Live in reality of that. Don't
let that just be a doctrine. Let that be a living reality.
Day by day. God said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. That's satisfaction. And over Revelation 1, verse
5, it speaks of the blood that washes us, washes us from all
our sins, cleanses us. And over in Acts 20, 28, it's
called the blood of God. That's how it can wash us from
all our sins. It's the blood of God. That's
exactly who Jesus Christ is. And then it says here in verse
20, "...who verily," that is Jesus Christ, "...verily was
foreordained." That means designated beforehand. "...who verily was foreordained
before the foundation of the world." And that word foundation
in the Greek has the meaning of throw down. Before God threw
down the foundation, before God slung by His Word, before He
slung the stars out into space, into the universe, before He
did any of that, He foreordained Jesus Christ to be our Savior,
our Lord, our Redeemer, our All-in-all. God took care of the matter before
creation. That's what He's saying. Oh,
you know this. You know that your redemption
was foreordained, and you know the One who redeemed you was
foreordained of God, and you know that One is God in the flesh. God in the flesh. How humbling this ought to make
us, that God thought upon us before creation. I can't wrap
my mind around that, that God thought upon me. Me. You, you who believe, He thought
upon you and took care of you. He took care of you. He took care of the matter. He
took care of this sin issue. He took care of it. And it's by Him, listen, the
One who was foreordained, Jesus Christ, who was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was made known, revealed
in these last times, and we are in the last times. We're here. We're at the door. We really
are. You say, well, it's been 2,000
years. Well, you know the Word of God says, 1,000 years with
God is as one day, one day as 1,000 years. So with God it's
been two days. That's just all. It's just been
two days. That's a short time, isn't it? You and I, we look
at a thousand years and we say, wow, that's a long time. No,
with God, it's just two days has gone by since our Lord was
crucified, died, and rose again. That's just a couple of days. Who by Him do believe in God. Now listen. It is by Jesus Christ formed
in you that you believe in God. It is by the faith of Him that
you believe in God. Paul said this in Galatians.
When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, He did not say, to me,
though He does. But the point is this, and it's
a very strong point. The very fact that you believe,
that you from your heart, Believe. It's not just head knowledge.
Head knowledge is this, you can know something about someone
and have no affection whatsoever to that person. You can study
history and all the people in history, and you have no love
to them, you're not drawn to them. But Paul is saying that
God revealed His Son in me. The evidence that Christ is in
you is two things. First, you believe. You believe. That's evidence of Christ dwelling
in you because He's the one revealing. He's the one revealing Himself
to you because He's in you. And here's the second one. You
love God and you love the brethren. That comes from the Spirit of
Christ in you. That's not a natural response. It's a natural response of the
new man. But that old man, you know, we love our own, don't
we? That's why there's so much prejudice
in this world. We love our own, we don't love
anybody else. Not really, not really. We love our own. But now when you're born of God,
there's a love that has shed abroad in your heart That's real. It's the love of God. It's not
this human fleshly love. God is love. The evidence of
God in you, Christ in you, is that you truly love God, the
brethren, and you have a real genuine love to all men and women
throughout this world. It doesn't matter what nationality
they are. You have a real genuine love of them. because there's
a part of you that's kin to them. That old nature, that old nature
that I'm born with, everyone else has, I'm kin, I am related
to every person on this earth in Adam. Everyone, it don't matter
where they're from, I have a relationship to them. The whole human race
started with two people. God has made of one blood all
nations. If you need a blood transfusion,
are you going to ask where that came from? You're not going to
say, well, where did that blood come from? No, you're going to
say, give me that blood, because the life of the flesh is in the
blood thereof. And God has made of one blood all nations. And believers know that. They
know that. They know their connection to
Adam and Eve, and their connection to the whole human race, and
they know their connection to God by grace, by new birth. They know that. They know that. And that's exactly why Peter
says there in verse 22, "...seeing you have purified your souls,
and obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto unfain, unhypocritical..."
That's what that is. It's unhypocritical love of the
brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart fervently. Remember now, He's speaking to
those who've been scattered abroad. They've gone out into the world.
They're living among other Gentiles. They're living among other cultures.
And God has saved sinners out of those other cultures and Gentiles. And He's saying here, you see
that you love one another fervently. It doesn't matter where they're
from. You hug them up. You hug them up. If you can't
do it, it's because you're lost. You're lost. If you can't love
one another, no matter who they are, you're lost. God has never
saved you. The love of God has never been
shed abroad in my heart if I can't love. if I can't love, no matter
where the person's from. Who by Him do believe in God,
who raised Him from the dead, and you've obeyed the truth,
see that your love is pure and holy and fervent. Fervent. I'm going to stop there. See that it's real, it's genuine
and fervent. Grow in love. We are to grow
in faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is
what? Love. Love. See that you grow in love. Love to God. And here's the key.
Here's the key, and I'm gonna shut up. Here's the key. See
that you grow in love to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will
grow in love to everyone else. You can't help it. You can't
help it. You can't grow in love toward
others if your love toward Him doesn't grow. Because it comes
from Him, and it flows out to others.