1 Peter chapter 1. The title of the message is Redemption. Redemption. For as much as you know, 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. We have been redeemed. We have been bought, we've been
purchased by the blood of the Lamb. Now we are told here starting
out in verse 17 how believers are to walk in this life and
the reason is given. First of all, God is their Father. God is the Father of every believer. And secondly, you are a purchased
people. You are a bought people. Paul
said that you have been bought with a price. You are not your
own. I am not my own. And I thank
God I'm not my own. I thank God that I belong to
Him. He tells us that the redemption,
our redemption, was very costly. It was so costly that silver
and gold has no value in comparison to its cost. Now he says in verse
17, if you call on the Father, who without respective persons
judge according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning
here in fear. If you call God your Father,
or seeing you call God your Father, first of all, let's never forget
this. Our Father is God Almighty. That's who our Father is. He
is the Living Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth. That's our
Father. That's our Father. Our Father is a just God and
a Savior. He says this in one place, I
am God and beside me there's none else. There's no God beside
me. The only God that there is, is
our Father. To everyone here that believes,
He's our Father. That's amazing. It's amazing to me. And as God,
He has no respecter of persons. Never think, never think that
because God is your Father, that he'll wink at sin. Never think
that. Not like we do, our children.
You know, they do something, especially when they're little,
and they do something they ought not to, but we think it's cute.
God never thinks it's cute. Never thinks it's cute. Look
what he did when his only begotten son was made to be sin for us. He suffered the full wrath of
God's justice. Scripture says he spared not
his only son. Now I know this. Jesus Christ
suffered the penalty. He suffered the penalty of God's
wrath for all of God's elect. I know that. I know that. But I also know this. He chastens
every son whom he receives. He disciplines us. He chastens
us. Now, seeing God as our Father,
and Peter is telling us this, let us walk in humility, in true
humility, not pride, but true humility. It's humbling. It's
a humbling fact that God is my Father, that God would even be
my Father, that God would make me His son. Now are you the sons
of God. That's amazing. And to me, that's
a humbling truth. that God would take a wretch
like me and wretches like you, and make you sons and daughters.
That's amazing. We're to walk in humility. We're
to walk with reverent fear. Respect, that's what that is.
It's a reverent respect for God. And we're to walk in worship
of Him, not just here. But when we leave this building,
when we're at home or in the workplace, we have an attitude
of worship. Worship is not just something
you put on when you come in. It's something that better be
going on when you come in. We better have a spirit of worship
when we get here. And we are to worship Him as
we go through this life on earth, always aware of His presence. I want myself and I want you
to grow in awareness of God's presence at all times. Thou God
seest me. I want to live with that knowledge
of being in the presence of God at all times and ever respectful
of God as our Father. And knowing this, knowing this,
believers are taught, they are taught of God, they are taught
people. All thy children The Lord says, shall be taught of
God. Those who have heard and learned of the Father cometh
to me. They are taught of God knowing this. That's what that
word means for as much. That means knowing this. They
know they were redeemed. They know they were bought with
a price. But you know, every now and then
we've got to be reminded of it, don't we? That's why we take
the Lord's table and do this in what? In remembrance of me. Now first, how we were not redeemed. Peter points this out. How we
were not redeemed. We were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold. You know, we put great value
on silver and gold while God puts no value on it, especially
in our redemption. You know, in glory, the streets,
it says, are going to be paved with gold. That's what God thinks.
We're going to walk on it. That's how much God thinks of
it. You're going to walk on it. But we were not redeemed with
corruptible things as silver and gold. The redemption of the
soul, the scripture tells us, is precious. It's precious. Look over in Psalm 49. In Psalm 49, let me start reading
in verse 6. 6 through 8. They that trust in
their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches,
none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give
to God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their soul
is precious, and it ceases forever. No amount of gold, no amount
of money can redeem a soul. And that's what Peter's telling us
here. He said, you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold. There's nothing, let's think
about this today. There is nothing that brings
out human corruption like the love of silver and gold, is there?
Nothing. If we knew If we knew the things that the
money in our pockets has bought. You take the money you have in
your pocket and I've got mine. If we knew, if you could trace
it, if you knew what it had bought, it would be appalling. It would
be appalling. And that's not going to be used
for our redemption. That which is used for our redemption
will have no sin in it whatsoever. Now notice here, notice how our
lives are looked upon before salvation. That you've not been
redeemed with crumpled things of silver and gold from your
vain conversation, your vain life, received by tradition from
your fathers. Before the Lord saved you, redeemed
you, my life and your life was empty,
It was an empty, useless life. We never have a reason, and I need to learn a lesson
from this myself. We never have a reason to boast
about what we used to be before redemption, before God saved
us. I don't ever have a reason to
look back and say, I used to do this, I used to do that, I
used to be this. You used to be lost. You used
to hate God back then. You used to be. I tell you, we
never have a reason to boast or look back on our old life. Any life outside of Jesus Christ
is a vain, empty life. It's useless. It's useless. I assure you that rich man who's
still lifting up his eyes in hell would give every penny not
to be there. It's an empty, useless life.
He was bragged on. Everybody bragged on him when
he was a living. Ain't nobody bragged on Lazarus laying at
his gate. Dogs were licking his sword. Nobody wanted to be Lazarus.
Everybody wanted to be that rich man. But now who do you want
to be? I want to be with Lazarus. I
want to be where Lazarus is. Any life outside of Christ is
a vain, empty life. Don't envy. David said this,
don't envy the wicked. You know who the wicked are?
Everyone that does not believe the gospel. Period. That's the
wicked. Everyone that does not believe
God. Everyone that does not believe God is calling God a liar. Now,
is there anything more wicked than that? Absolutely not. not. And our ancestry is just as empty. Those Jews said, we'd be Abraham's
seed. We'd be not sinners. We'd be Abraham's seed. That didn't get him anywhere
did it? No, Paul said he, at one time,
Paul said in Philippians 3 that he had, at one time, he had confidence
in the flesh. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
He was a Jew. I mean, he was a Hebrew of the
Hebrews. He had it. He had all the credentials. And
all those things he said that were gained for me, I count lost
for Christ. Useless. Useless. And that's
what God brings us to when he saves us. That's what God teaches
us when he saves us. that without Christ, I'm just
a useless human being. That's why the gospel is offensive,
because it tells us the truth about ourselves. Now, here is how you were redeemed.
He told us how you're not redeemed, silver and gold, and he calls
them corruptible things. But here's how you were redeemed,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish, and without spot. God's people are redeemed people. They are purchased people. God
bought me before I was ever born. Jesus Christ died on that cross.
He bought everyone that will enter into glory. He paid for
every one of them. Bought them lock, stock, and
barrel. They're His. And paid for their sins. And
they're gone. They're gone. Oh, with the precious blood of
Jesus Christ. Precious because it's the only
one of its kind. He knew no sin. He's the only
man that ever walked on this earth that knew no sin. Spotless. Without blemish and
without spot. And it's precious, now listen,
it's precious because it is the blood of God. Turn over to Acts
20.28. I want you to read this. Over
to Acts 20.28. Paul says here in verse 28 of
Acts 20, and to all the flock over the
which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church
of God which He hath purchased with His own blood." With His own blood. Now brethren, if we are purchased
with the blood of God, I assure you, He's going to have us. He's
going to have what He bought. It's mine. Mine. And then it's precious because
it's the blood of Christ. It's the blood of the one whom
God appointed to be the Savior of sinners. It's the only blood that makes
atonement for the soul. No other blood can do that. All
the blood of all the lambs and the bullocks and all that was
shed throughout the whole Testament for a few thousand years, Not
one drop of that blood ever made atonement for a soul. But Jesus Christ, His blood makes
atonement for the soul. It says in Hebrews, He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Blood of bulls and goats couldn't
perfect you, but He did. He did. And it's precious because it's
the only blood that cleanses us from all sin. All sin. Now, redemption was not an afterthought
with God, nor a rescue attempt to recover man from his ruin.
Peter says there in verse 20, Who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world. Before the foundation of the
world, before God ever laid it, Christ, it says over in Proverbs
8.23, was set up. He says in verse 23, I was set
up before ever the earth was. He was set up in the covenant
of grace. He was set up as our surety. He was set up as our
high priest. He was set up as our sacrifice.
He was set up to be our wisdom, righteousness, justification,
and redemption. He was set up to be our all in all before God.
And we don't need anything else or anyone else. Don't need it.
Don't need it. Christ is the Lamb slain, the
scripture says. He's the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. Adam sins. Adam did what God
said do not do. And Adam hears the voice of God
walking in the garden in the cool of a day. Doesn't sound
like somebody all been out of shape, does it? No, not to me. That sounds like somebody that's
just taking a stroll through the garden. You know why? You know why. You've been taught.
The whole matter was taken care of. It's been taken care of. God wasn't caught by surprise.
The fall of Adam did not catch God by surprise. God had already taken care of
the matter in the Lord Jesus Christ before he ever created
the first thing. Someone said this, and I've heard
this so many times and I know you've heard it. Before there
was a sinner, there was a Savior. David said in 2 Samuel 23 5,
Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me
an everlasting covenant. Ordered. I love that. I love
that. Ordered. Taken care of. Every
eye dotted. Every teeth crossed. Ordered. In all things. In all things. And sure, it's
going to happen. You can count on it. You can
stake your life on it. It's going to happen. For this
is all my salvation and all my desire, although I make it not
to grow. He said, although it doesn't appear like, it doesn't
appear so. David's house was in ruins at that time. But David
wasn't in ruins. He said, God's made with me an
everlasting kingdom. When did that happen, David? Back before the world began,
when he made that covenant with Christ, and David was in Christ,
and I was in Christ, and everyone of you who believe is in Christ,
and everyone who ever shall believe, and everyone who has believed. That's when he made that covenant.
And he ordered it, he ordered it in all things, and it's a
sure, it's a sure, it's a done deal. It is an absolute done
deal. But, he says, was manifest in
these last times for you. We know, we looked at this last
week. We know that the things that the prophets spoke of was
not for themselves, but for us. Look back in verse 12. Well,
let's see. Let me go back a little further.
Let's go back to verse 10. Of which salvation, in 1 Peter
1, of which salvation The prophets have inquired and searched diligently,
who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching
what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in
them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that should follow, unto whom it was revealed
that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister." They
were ministering to us. The things which are now reported
unto you. by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desired
to look into." The things that are now reported, the gospel
we now hear preached, the gospel we believe, is the same gospel
they preached, and they were witnessing to us. It says in
Hebrews, and I'm just going to paraphrase this, because I didn't
write down the chapter and verse. I believe it's in Hebrews. Paul
said, they without us, that is, the Old Testament without us,
and the New Testament, the believers, could not be made perfect or
mature. They without us would not be
made perfect or complete. God had purpose to save a people.
through His Son, dying on a cross, being buried, raised again, seated
at the right hand of God, making intercession for them. And you
and I are beneficiaries of that. We who believe the gospel. Because
it says in verse 21, who by Him do believe in God. The reason you believe in God
is because of Christ. Faith is a gift of God. He's
given you faith. It is by Jesus Christ. You believe
God. You believe in God. You believe
God. You believe the record that God gave of his son. You believe
the gospel. You know how few people even
in this community believe the gospel. Very few people believe
the gospel. You believe the gospel and the
reason you believe the gospel because Christ has revealed it
to you. You believe that Jesus is the
Christ. You believe the Father sent him into the world as the
Messiah. You believe that with all your
heart. You believe that. It's your life. It's your life. As that one man said, Lord, I
believe, help thou mine unbelief. Lord, I believe. I believe the
gospel. I believe Jesus is the son of
God. I believe he is the Messiah. Well, he revealed that to me. The reason you believe is because
the Son of God has revealed the Father in you. He said to Philip,
Philip, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to
the Father, but by me. No man knoweth the Father, save
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. You cannot know the Father apart
from Jesus Christ. Can't do it. You believe that
God raised him from the dead. You believe he really died for
our sins and raised again for our justification and that God
has given him glory. That Jesus Christ is seated at
God's right hand. I believe that. I believe right
now there is a man, a man in the flesh, in the flesh, seated
at God's right hand as my representative. And he's standing, he's seated
there making intercession for me. It's by a high priest, and
you're a high priest, you're a representative. He's seated
there right now, and in the hands of that man is all power and
all authority to do as he will. I believe that. I can't help
it. You can't help it, can you? You
can't help but believe. You can't help it. He did this, God did this, that
your faith and hope might be in God. Not in you. And listen, this is important.
And not anything done by you since you believe. Not anything done by you since
you believe. Our faith and our hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. It doesn't
matter if God were to use me, like he used Henry. If God were
to use me, at the end of the day, you know what? All I've
done is what I'm supposed to do. I'm still an unprofitable
servant. I'm still an unprofitable servant.
All my hope and plea is the Lord Jesus Christ. We never at any
point have confidence in this flesh. We never reach a point. We never reach a point where
we can say, look what I've done. Can never do that. And we don't
want to do that. But I also know this. That self-righteousness
will grow in any ground. That it's not completely eradicated.
And if God was to leave me alone, I'd become so self-righteous,
I'd be so obnoxious, you couldn't stand me. If it weren't for the
grace of God. That's why God told Paul, He
said, this is why I gave you the thorn in the flesh. For the
abundance of revelations I've given you, I'm giving you this
thorn in the flesh to keep you down. To keep you humble. Now he says in verse 22, and
I'll wind this thing up. Seeing you have purified your
souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfailing love
of the brethren, true love of the brethren, see that you love
one another with a pure heart, fervently, energetically. You
know, the Word of God has a cleansing effect about it. Look over at
Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Let me see what verse I've got written
down here. Look in verse 9. Psalm 119, verse 9. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according
to thy word. But I also think this goes back
to verse 2. Look in verse 2 of 1 Peter. He
says here that you are elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit, through the work
of the Holy Spirit in you in the new birth, which you'll mention
here in a minute, through sanctification of the Spirit and to obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. And the evidence of this work
in you, is a real fervent love for one
another. Doesn't that just keep coming
up? How many times have we seen this come up in the epistle of
John here lately? And then James, how many times
has James talked about loving the brother? And here, Peter,
loved the brethren. I reckon the greatest evidence
of true salvation, of true conversion, is a real genuine love of the
brethren. And he talks here, he said, love
one another with a pure heart. Where does that come from? A
pure heart. I'll tell you where it comes
from. Verse 23, being born again, a new heart. God gives you a
new heart. Without this, you cannot love
the brethren. You won't love the brethren. You'll love your
own. You will not love the brethren. When Nicodemus came to the Lord
to ask Him some questions in John chapter 3, the Lord stopped
him. This is a ruler. This is a teacher.
This man had been in school and studied for many, many, many
years before he could be called a teacher. And the Lord stopped
him. He said, Nicodemus, you must
be born again. You must be born again. Without
the new birth, there can be no understanding of truth. Before God teaches His children,
they must be given life from spiritual death. Must be. Now in every birth, in every
birth, there is a seed planted. In every birth. That's the way
God ordered it. Even so it is in the new birth.
He says, here is not of corruptible seed, being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible are the
word of God, which lives and abideth forever. The word of
God is the seed used of God to beget his children. It's the
seed. This is why it's so important. It's so important to bring your
children here. You never know if that seed will
be planted. If God's going to save anyone,
if God's going to save a sinner, There's got to be a seed planted,
and the seed is His Word, and the Word is the Gospel. It's
the Gospel. That's how important this is.
I thank God, I thank God that one day that seed was planted
in my heart, in me. And then in God's time, He gave
the increase. And I became interested in Jesus
Christ. I became interested in salvation.
I became interested in living and not dying. The living Word, now listen to
me, the living Word and the written Word cannot be separated. Paul says, I travail to what
Christ be formed in you. In preaching the gospel, I'm not just giving words. Just
words are not going out. If it's just my words, that's
all it is. But now when the gospel goes
out, that's a living word. And the living word is Jesus
Christ. Where you find one, you find
the other. You find the other. Other seeds
planted have to die and germinate before there's life. This seed can never die. It's the living
word. Liveth. It liveth. Paul speaking
to the Thessalonians, he speaks of the Word of God, which worketh
in you effectually. I've never read a book in my
life that ever worked on me like this book, effectually. This book, no other book ever
changed my attitude like this book. I've never got direction
from any other book like this book. It's the living Word of
God. And then we see in verse 24,
the reason we must be born again. For all flesh is as grass, including
mine. There's no hope in this flesh.
It's all grass. What do you do with grass? Well,
you either mow it And you let the cattle eat it. And after about the end of summer,
you're sick and tired of mowing it. That's what you do with grass. And all the glory of man is the
flower of grass. Remember this, the grass withers,
it grows old. And the flower thereof falleth
away, it dies. Where are the beautiful flowers
of spring? Where are they at? They're dead. They died. My, what God teaches us in nature
every day. Every day. The prettiest of flowers always
die. I was, we was watching, Vicki
and I was watching a program, I don't remember what it was
now, but the gentleman that came on there, I said to Vicki, I
said, my, I said, man, he's aged, hadn't he? I said, I guess we
have too. I said, we have sat here and
watched this, watched him age, watched some of these actors,
I said, we watched him grow old. I said, I remember when he was
young, and now he's old. The flower, is about to die. All men, and we need to remember
this and not be so enamored with a man's riches or his abilities. God said, I make rich and I make
poor. I lift up and I bring down. But all men are but frail grass. Even God's children It says in
Ephesians 2, "...are children of wrath by nature, even as others."
At one time. I have the same nature that everybody
in this world has. Same fallen nature. I still have
that. I still have it. But thank God. Thank God that we've been born again. That
we've been born from above. That we've been born of God. And when that grass, when they
bury this grass, when they bury this grass, I'll go to be with the Lord.
I couldn't help but that song, Fanny Crosby, Blind, when I see his face. You know,
when she was writing that, she was writing it in anticipation. of seeing his face. Well, now
she has. Now she's looking at him face to face. Face to face. And that's what I look forward
to and I know you look forward to. Let us never be taken up with
his flesh. Let's not get too carried away
with it. But when I was a young man, you know, I did get carried
away with exercising and I mean, I got I got into all that junk. I mean, you need to exercise
and take care of yourself. You need to do that, but you
can go overboard. I've learned this, you're going
to die either healthy or sick, but you're going to die one way
or the other. It don't matter. But the word of the Lord endures
forever. This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto
you. Everyone, everything will die.
But this is what really gives us hope and joy. I mean, this gives me comfort. When I look at these little children
around here, these young ones, and we're gone, and we look at
this world, we say, it's getting worse, it can't get any worse,
it's just as bad as can be. Remember this, the word of the Lord endures
forever. When God removes the most powerful
preachers of the gospel, even in our day, the gospel will go
on. It doesn't depend on me. It will
go on. The Word of the Lord will endure
forever and this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached
to you. God's Word will go on. That's
why it's called the Everlasting Gospel in the Book of Revelation.
We do not need a new Gospel to fit the ages. The Word of the
Lord that was preached all the way back in the Garden. It's
the same word being preached right now and if the world stands
another thousand years it'll still be the same gospel being
preached. Satan will not snuff it out.
Darkness will not overcome it. The light shineth in darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. Let me give you this
translation. The light shineth in darkness
and the darkness overcame it not. Now, if God's going to send
the gospel to a place, no matter how much darkness is in that
place, when God commands light, darkness has to give way. It has to give way. And that gives me hope for my
grandchildren. When I'm gone, if they live out
the normal life and I'm gone, The gospel will still be around.
As long as God has the people on this earth, the gospel will
still be around. And sinners are still going to
be saved. And I pray they'll be one of them. I pray that God
will have mercy on them. I pray that God will have mercy
on your children. I do. Let us walk in worship of God
remembering that we've been bought with the precious blood of Christ,
and let us love one another fervently with pure heart, looking unto our Lord's coming,
looking for Him. Set your heart on things above,
not on things of this earth.