Thank you, ladies. What a blessing
that was. I was thinking of the passage
that a few words from that song came from. Song of Solomon, chapter
2, verse 1. The Savior said, I am the rose
of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. And indeed, he is the
bright and morning star and the rock of ages. That was a great
blessing, wasn't it? I certainly appreciated that. It was so honoring to our Lord.
And I would like for you to open your Bibles this morning to 1
Peter 1, if you would. 1 Peter 1. It's very important that we understand in the first
chapter of the book of 1 Peter, he is setting forth motives for
right living by the children of God. Now, we know that our
Lord Jesus is our righteousness and he is our holiness. We read in 1 Corinthians chapter
1 of our Savior, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification, and that's the word holiness. Sanctification
and redemption that according as it is written, he that glorieth
let him glory in the Lord. We are righteous in the Lord
Jesus Christ, for His righteousness that He established by His sacrifice
upon the cross of Calvary has been imputed to us. It's been
credited to us. And we're also made holiness. He is our holiness. I hear some preachers every once
in a while talk about progressive sanctification. And what they're
saying is we're progressively becoming more holy. That is wrong. Our holiness is seated at the
right hand of God. And we are in him absolutely
holy, perfect, and righteous. Now as to our daily living, We
seek to live a holy and a godly life. And this is what Peter
is speaking about here in chapter one. And I just want to read
a few verses to you, beginning at 1 Peter 1, verse 14. He says, as obedient children. And then he puts it negatively.
Don't fashion yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. You're the people of God. You're
people who've been washed. You're people who've been robed.
You're citizens of a much fairer land and country. You're just
sojourners, and he says that at the beginning of the chapter.
We're just pilgrims and sojourners in this world, so don't live
according to your former lusts. You're different. Now, you're
different in Christ Jesus. And so he says in verse 15, But
as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner
of conversation in your life. The Apostle Paul says to adorn
the gospel of God by your outward living. And we need to do that.
We should strive to do that. It doesn't earn us a place in
heaven. It doesn't earn us any rewards
in heaven. But we're the children of God.
and our actions, our words, our attitudes toward others, these
things are reflection upon the profession of faith that we've
made. We're different. You see, the
people of the world, they live for the world. That's the only
thing they've got. Their wealth, their possessions,
their land, their property, their things, And most of the people
that you know live for those sorts of things. But here's what
Peter is saying. We're people who now are made
by the grace of God to have different tastes and different desires. So God help us to walk in our
lives in a manner that is befitting the children of God. And he says this in verse 16,
because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And I look
at verse 17, And if you call on the Father, who without respect
to persons judgeth according to every man's word, pass the
time of your sojourning here in fear. What does that mean? Live always afraid? No, he's talking about in the
fear of God. You see, if we seek to live right
and always walking with this view in mind, the fear of God,
the worship of God, the honor of God, you're not going to go
far wrong. Lord, help me to honor you today. And then Peter gives the greatest
motivation for right living that he could ever give. The motivation
for right living, for godly living, is not the promise of future
rewards. It is not the threat of punishment,
if you don't. The motivation He sets before
us is the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
motivates us to right living by setting before us once again
the glorious gospel of the grace of God to sinners through the
bloody death of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a legal obedience
that we want to render to God, but a thankful obedience, a worshipful
obedience, a life of honoring God in our words and in our thoughts
and in our motives and in our actions. We honor our Heavenly Father. And He sets before us this great
motivating truth. Grasp it. Listen to what he says. Verse 18, "...forasmuch as ye
know." That for, that forasmuch means here's the reason, this
is the primary reason behind our obedience and our actions
that glorify God. Forasmuch as you know, you're
confident of this, that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold. God didn't need silver and gold. He owns it all already. All of creation belongs to Him. What would silver and gold be
to Him? And Peter is saying that you
were not redeemed from corruptible things such as silver and gold,
from your vain conversation received by tradition from your father."
Vain conversation. The word conversation is the
idea of your manner of living. Vain is empty. That's what vain
means. You weren't redeemed from an
empty life, a life empty of spiritual quickening power. A life empty
of grace. A life empty of the life of God
in the soul. You weren't redeemed. You weren't
made alive. You weren't forgiven by corruptible
things like silver and gold, from a vain manner of living. For you who are the people of
God, we understand this. Before our conversion, before
the grace of God flooded into our souls, our lives really meant
nothing. They were empty, right? They
were empty of the grace of God, empty of the love of God, empty
of faith, empty of repentance, empty of seeking God's glory
in all things. It was a vain conversation. It was a vain and empty life
that we had. We didn't have Christ. If you
don't have Christ, your life is empty. It's nothing. You can't glorify God. You can't
magnify His name, because that's not your goal. Before conversion,
our life is summed up like Peter sums it up here. Vain conversation
and empty life. Well, it's not empty anymore
though, is it? I tell you, the grace of God came surging in,
in irresistible power. The grace of God through the
bloody death of the Lord Jesus Christ came flooding into the
soul, pouring into the soul. It wasn't something you did,
it's what God did for you through Christ Jesus. So he says you weren't redeemed
from this vain conversation by silver and gold, but here's how
you were redeemed. He says in verse 19, but with
the precious, precious blood of Christ. Well, who's he? A lamb without blemish and without
spot? Where did all this start? Verse
20, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the
world, but was manifest revealed in these last days for you who
by him do believe in God. Did you see that? For by him,
who gave you faith? The same one who loved you and
gave himself for you. You believe by him. You can't believe without him. That's the impossibility. Who by him do believe in God,
who reveals himself in his word, that raised up our Lord Jesus
from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might
be in God. Well, my subject this morning
is the Redeemer's work. The Redeemer's work. Christ Jesus
died for our sins, was buried, rose again. He's been exalted. He shed his precious, very precious
blood to redeem us to God, to buy us, buy us by price from
the justice of God, and to redeem us by power from the captivity
in which we were held by Satan. Here is the motivation for right
living. And any other motivation that
any preacher ever tries to set before you for right living is
wrong. The motivation is because of
what God in Christ Jesus has done for you. Now live right.
Seek the glory of God. And I'll tell you what, every
day if you get up and your attitude is, Lord, help me seek your glory
in my life today, and enable me by your grace to do it, that's
the right motivation. Not to get something from God.
Listen, you've got everything from God. He's not gonna give
you any more than his son. He's not going to give you any
more than that salvation by free grace through the bloody sacrifice
of His darling Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He can't give you
any more than that. That's God's unspeakable gift. You see, we worship Him, we seek
to serve Him for this reason, because of what He's done for
us. It's out of thanksgiving. That's the motivation. Well, let me give you a few things
here. Number one, and I'll give you a few words. Number one,
value. That is the value of the Redeemer. The value of the Redeemer. Well,
He's the Lamb of God. That's why His blood's precious. May not be precious to you, but
I'll tell you one who says this blood is precious and
His Son is precious. That's God. Christ is precious to God. I
don't know what you think about the Son of God. Don't know. Can't
see anybody's heart. Say, Jim, don't you think I'm
saved? What I think doesn't matter. I'm not sure about anybody in
here and sometimes I ain't so sure about myself. I'll tell you who I am sure of. I'm sure of the Lamb of God who's
the Son of God with power. I'm sure He's the Savior of sinners,
and I'm sure if I come to Him as a beggar, needing His mercy
and needing His grace, I'm sure He'll save me. Just come to Him empty-handed.
That's what Augustus' top lady said in his song, Rock of Ages. Nothing in my hands I bring.
Well, Lord, you know I've been reading your Bible, and I've
been trying to pray, and I try to put some money in the offering
box, and I try to do this, and I try to do that. You're not
going to get anything. Come empty-handed. Lord, I need
you, and I've got nothing to give you. I've got nothing to
bring to you. Just an old foul, smelly, filthy
heart. That's all I got. And you don't
want that. But I heard the preacher say,
give your heart to Jesus. Nah, he don't want your heart. He gonna give you a new one.
He'll give you a new one. Oh, the value of the Redeemer. He's the Lamb of God. Several things in the Bible are
said to be precious. Faith is precious, rare. It's a treasure to be sought.
The promises of God are precious. Promises of the covenant, everlasting
life, pardon of all sin, imputed righteousness, His Spirit can
dwell us. His divine providence to direct
our steps. His Spirit who teaches us. His home to be our eternal dwelling
place. Wonderful promises, they're precious. And the Bible says the death
of a believer is precious to God. Sad for us. We bid farewell to many a child
of God from this congregation, men and women, saints of God,
sad for us, but of exquisite value to God. Do you know what the Lord says
about his children? We are his jewels. That's right. We're His jewels. Precious. Precious. That's why David says
in Psalm 116 verse 15, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of His saints. And then, of course, Christ is
precious. You can read I Peter chapter
2, the first few verses. Precious in His person. He's
God and man. Precious in His names. precious
in his works as prophet, priest, and king. And in our text, the
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is called precious blood. Blood
is a valuable thing. Can't live without it. I was
talking to one of you in this congregation the other day, talking
about the blood levels down. Got to get it back up. Might
have to give you a pint or two or however they give it. Because Leviticus 1711, the life
of the flesh is in the blood. Blood's a solemn thing. We read of wars. You that are
historians, got several historians in here. Ron's a retired history
teacher. Y'all have read a lot about wars.
The glory of winning a war. But if we could take a walk through
a battlefield right at the end of a battle, you'd see mutilated
bodies. and grass stained with blood. General Stonewall Jackson, after
a victory, walked among his fallen comrades and looked at the dead
Southern soldiers and looked at the dead Northern soldiers
And in his biography, it says he fell to the ground and he
started crying. He was a man who believed in,
believed sovereign grace, by the way. And the general, weeping,
a corporal, a young corporal, ran over to him and spoke up
and said, but general, the victory is ours. And the general, it is written
that he turned with tears in his eyes and he said to the young
man, but at what a price. Blood, mutilated bodies of southern
soldiers and northern soldiers scattered across the field. Look at the price, the blood
of so many men. But I want to tell you about
another battle that was fought when the Son of God faced our
enemies. He conquered Satan, and he conquered
this world by his power. But the justice of God demanded
his bloody death. We sinned against God. The wages
of sin is death. And Christ shed His blood to
save us. And to God, that was precious
blood. That's the blood of His Son.
You understand? That's the blood of His only
begotten Son. He who is eternal God was made
flesh in order to shed His blood to His death. to buy us from
the justice of God that demanded death for our sins. We were redeemed by that precious
blood. Not with corruptible things like
silver and gold. That won't do the job. Not by
corruptible things such as your works or my works or our tears,
our labors or anything else. That which secured our redemption
was the bloody death of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray to God that
in this place, the blood of our Savior... Something wrong with
my watch here. It says it detected a fault. Stupid watch. Take it away. Thank you. That's a smart watch. It's too smart for me. Too smart
for a dummy. Well, where was I? I was on the
serious subject, talking about the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a battle was fought
at the cross. And that battle was won by our
triumphant Savior. That's why Paul, in that passage
in Romans 8, And I read the last two verses from a while ago,
said, we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. He
won the battle, he won the war, and it's over. The work of redemption,
you see, made it consistent with divine justice to confer spiritual
blessings on unworthy worms like you and me. His precious blood
removed every obstacle out of the way between this sinner and
a holy God. And I'll tell you, that blood
that's precious to God was precious to me. Precious to you too, isn't
it? Precious blood. Value, the value of the sacrifice. Here's the second word, perfect. The perfection of the Redeemer.
Look what it says there in verse 19. As of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. Without blemish and without spot. Think of the Passover lamb. When our Lord instituted that,
Moses brought it to pass according to the word of God. That lamb
couldn't have any flaw. Couldn't have anything wrong
with it. Leviticus 22, 21 says it shall be perfect to be accepted. I'm not without blemish. I'm not without spot by nature. But my Savior is. My Savior is. See, because I'm not without
perfection in myself, I can't redeem myself. You can't redeem
yourself either. Our Lord's work of redemption,
that was the crowning act of his obedience unto God. He was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. He was perfect in life and perfect
in death. Here's the third word I'm gonna
give you, foreordination. That is, the foreordination of
the Redeemer. It says in verse 20, who verily
was full ordained before the foundation of the world. Now,
I don't know if any of you have Scofield reference Bible. I was
brought up in a home when my parents made professions of faith
and the preacher in our church said, if you don't have a Scofield
reference Bible, I'll sell you boots and buy you one. And C.I. Schofield was a dispensationalist. You don't need to know what that
word means. But it had actually a different way of salvation
for the, what, seven different dispensations. And that first of all, the Lord
put men under, there was a dispensation of innocence, Adam and Eve, and
then the dispensation later of the law. And that's how, if you
read some of the notes in John chapter 1, they were saved by
legal obedience. That's what they believed. Nobody's
ever saved by legal obedience. Not at all. But dispensationalism
really believes, I'll get it right down to where the rubber
meets the road. Dispensationalism says that because
every other way that God presented was rejected, He finally said,
I'm going to send my son to take the load of sin and put
it away. Christ was not a last-ditch effort
on the part of God to save. That's horrible. He's the Lamb
ordained before the world began. In fact, it says in Revelation,
He's the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world.
He was foreordained to die. This was His destiny. That's
why He came. He came to die. He came to shed
His blood. He came to redeem. And there
was no other way to save us except by His sin-atoning death upon
the cross of Calvary. He was foreordained. Acts 4.27
and 28 says, For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou
hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles
and the people of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before. Before to be, when was
the before? Before the world ever began.
When was the before? Back in eternity past, where
your mind can't go nor mine either. This is God's eternal decree
that Christ died. And then the fourth word I'm
gonna give you is manifested. You see there in verse 20, who
was verily, truly, was foreordained before the foundation of the
world, but was manifest. He appeared. Where did he appear? In Bethlehem's manger. What do
you know about that? Isn't that something? Who is
that little infant born to a Jewish virgin? Who is that? Why, that's God Almighty right
there. That's the Son of God. Great is the mystery of godliness. And there's no controversy about
that among the children of God. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. He came to save. And then I'll give you a fifth
word, success. The success of the Redeemer.
So while I don't see the word success in here, well, you're
not reading close enough. Look at verse 21. Who by him
do believe in God that, here's the proof of his success, raised
him from the dead and gave him glory. That's the proof of his
success. God raised him. Raised him from
the dead and took him to glory. Seated at the right hand of the
majesty on high. My savior is not a sissy little
wimp who needs your cooperation to do something for you. He's
your sovereign king. He's the Lord of everybody. He's seated on His throne, high
in the heavens, seated at the majesty of God. He's the King. He wears the crown. You better
bow before Him, I can tell you that. Oh God, do whatever's necessary
to make me bow to King Jesus. He's the Lord. He's the Lord. I don't know whether he'll save
you or not. That's up to him. He's the sovereign Lord. But
I'll tell you this. He has never turned away a needy
sinner yet, and he never will. You come to him. You come to
him. Lord, here I am. I'm nothing. and you're everything, save me
by your grace. I'll tell you what, you'll be
a new creature in Christ Jesus, that's for sure. And then here's
the last thing, faith. Faith, faith given to believe
the Redeemer, verse 21, who by Him do believe in God. We believe,
how do we believe? By Him. The same One who chose
us, the same One who redeemed us, gives us faith to believe
Him. Now what do you think about that?
So from first to last, from eternity past to eternity future, guess
what? It's all of the Lord and Christ
gets all the glory. Simple, but glorious. Because in all this we see the
wisdom of God. in saving sinners like you and
me. Get your psalm book out. Turn to hymn number 242. I guess
when I hit the pulpit like that or something, I guess that watch
said, well, he's taking a fall. I don't know. 242, sing first and
fourth standards.