I invite your attention to the
book of 1 Peter, and we'll go to chapter 1. The book of 1 Peter, chapter
1. We visited this portion of scripture
for a little bit the last Lord's Day, and we shall do so again
this morning, and God willing, once again this evening. Our
subject is truths that strengthen, truths that strengthen. And,
of course, they do strengthen believers. They strengthen the
people of God. Who's the writer of this book?
Well, obviously, he introduces himself, and the very first word
of 1 Peter is he identifies himself as being Peter. That's his Greek
name. And his Hebrew name is Simon. But both of them mean exactly
the same thing. In fact, he has another name. He's called Cephas. And each
of them mean the same thing. A little stone or a little rock. A little stone or a little rock. You see, Simon Peter, this man
Cephas, Like all of the rest of us, by sovereign grace, he
was cut out of the court of mankind. The Lord dug him out, the Lord
fitted him, the Lord shaped him, and he put him into the temple
of God. You remember when Solomon built the temple. All of those
stones that were used in building the temple, they were dug out,
fashioned, all cleaned up, fitted right into the temple to build
that great building to the glory of God. Well, our Lord Jesus,
He's building a spiritual temple. He's building His church. He
even said to His disciples in Matthew 16, I will build my church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Well, what
does He build His church out of? Folks like us. who are by
nature dead, that is dead in sin, dead in trespasses, but
he's made us to be living, living stones. And Simon Peter is one
of those men who's been fitted into the house of God, that is
the spiritual household of the Lord Jesus. He's been fitted
into this temple and he is himself a living, he's a living stone. He's a living rock, as are we.
We're living stones. In fact, he mentions this, and
if you will just kind of glance over perhaps to the other side
of the page, at least it is in my Bible, the second chapter.
And he says in verse four, of our Lord Jesus, 1 Peter 2 and
verse four, to whom coming as unto a living, a living stone. Now this is a stone who has life
in himself. He doesn't receive life from
God like we do. He is the one who is life. Did He not say to His disciples,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by Me. He is the life. He is the living
stone. He has life in and of Himself,
and He's the one who gives life to us. He's the living stone. And so Peter says, of our faith,
and of course faith is not an isolated act, faith is not a
one-time thing, we know that, to whom coming. We're always
coming to Christ Jesus. I was coming to Christ Jesus
yesterday, I'm still coming to Him today, and by His grace I'll
still be coming to Him in all the rest of the tomorrows of
my life. To whom coming, as unto living
stone. Disallowed indeed of men, that
is, men rejected him. Isaiah said that in Isaiah 53. He's despised and rejected of
men. He is disallowed of men, but
he's chosen of God. And he is precious. He is of
exquisite value, just like his blood is. as we read and studied
last week in the first chapter. Now notice what he then says,
ye also as lively stones. You're also lively stones. Now he doesn't say living stones
because you don't have life in and of yourself. Life was given
to you. Life has been communicated to
you. You were dead. You were dead
spiritually toward God, dead toward all the things that are
of eternal importance. You were dead in all of these
areas, that is, spiritually. But now you're living stones. You also are living stones, just
like the Savior. He gave you life. I know He gave
you physical life, but He also gave you spiritual life. And
He gave you eternal life. What is eternal life? Is it not
to know God? That's what the Savior said in
John chapter 17. This is life eternal that you
may know God and Him whom God has sent. He gives us physical
life, He gives us spiritual life, He gives us eternal life, and
He gives us everlasting life. That's a life that will never
end. We are living, living stones, stones that have been made lively
by His grace. We weren't lively by nature,
but we're lively by grace. You also, just as our Lord Jesus
is the living stone, we're lively stones due to his grace effectual
within us. But I think also when Peter says
that in verse five, ye also, I think he is writing also about
himself, just like me, because that's what his name means, a
stone. And he's a living, he's a living
stone that has been, he's made alive by the grace of God. He's
made alive by the regenerating power of the spirit of Christ
Jesus. And he says, you also as lively stones, just like me,
he says. Yeah, but you are, you're different,
Peter, because as you introduced this letter, you said Peter,
an apostle. Yeah, but he reminds us, listen,
I'm just a lively stone like you are. I'm just like you were. Void of any goodness, void of
any life toward God, void of any righteousness, just like
you. But you also are lively stones,
just like me, he says, just like me. So the writer of this book is
himself, Peter, who is a lively stone. And he writes the first
epistle and then the second epistle of these books that bear his
name. And he wrote them by the leadership
of and the inspiration of the Spirit of God. And he writes
to the elect of God who are scattered. He says that in chapter one and
verse one. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. The Lord made him an apostle.
He didn't volunteer for it. He was drafted to this position. The Lord made him an apostle,
and he writes to those who are strangers, that is, those who
are sojourners, who are scattered throughout Pontus and Galatia
and Cappadocia and Asia and Bithynia. He says they're the elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. It says grace to you and peace
be multiplied. So he writes to these who are
scattered, who are indeed strangers in this
world. Now, Like all the other writers of
scripture, and especially the apostles who received this commission,
go into all the world and preach the gospel. That's what Peter
is doing. And the reason the gospel goes
out broadly is because the Lord has a people that are scattered
abroad. They're scattered everywhere
according to the purpose of God. They're not all in one location. They're out here everywhere from
the north to the south to the east and the west. And so these
who are the people of God, these who are the beloved of God, these
who are the elect of God, they have got to hear this gospel.
The scripture says that how shall they hear without a preacher?
And so the Lord sends a preacher to these people immediately in
1 Peter and 2 Peter who are scattered abroad. The preacher is Peter
and he writes these inspired letters to them. And still the
Lord is sending forth His Word and His preachers throughout
the world. And the reason is because He's
got a people everywhere. And we don't know who they are.
We don't know how to identify the elect of God. We don't know
how to identify those that are beloved of God from the beginning,
but they will make themselves to be known by this. They will
receive this message. They will receive the message
of Jesus Christ and am crucified. You see, it isn't for you this
morning. The first issue for you this
morning is not to determine whether you're one of the elect of God. So how can I then determine whether
I'm one of the elect of God? Or how can I know I'm one of
the elect of God? When you believe the Gospel.
Those who believe the Gospel, their faith is evidence that
God ordained them unto salvation. They hear the preaching of the
Word. They hear the glorious Gospel, the good news of Jesus
Christ and His work of redemption. There is hope and life and salvation
for ungodly. ungodly sinners, and they hear
that in their hearts, and they say, listen, I'm an ungodly sinner. You mean there's life for me? There's salvation for me? There's
forgiveness for me? There's righteousness for me
in Christ Jesus? Yes, there is. Even for you. And you lay hold to the Savior,
believe Him. And like Brother Toplady said
in that song, nothing in my hands I bring. You don't bring anything.
You don't bring your prayers. You don't bring your church attendance.
You don't bring your tithes. You don't bring your offerings.
You don't bring any kind of sacrifice to God. You come empty handed. That's the way to come to God,
through Christ. And you come to Him that way,
and you believe him in your heart of hearts, that's evidence of
your election. That's what the Apostle Paul
said to the people in Thessalonica. He said, I know your election
of God, because the word of God came to you, not only in word,
it did come that way, but in power. And you received it, you
embraced this savior, you embraced this gospel. That's the evidence
that you're the elect of God. And I would ask you this morning,
are you a believer? Has God the Spirit, has He revealed
to you the exquisite beauties of Christ Jesus? The glories
of His Son? Has He showed you how precious
His blood is? Has He showed you there's no
hope in anything else or anywhere else or in anybody else for you
except Christ Jesus the Lord? And if He showed you that, that
is evidence that you're one of the elect of God and it's evidence
that you're a lively stone. You're a lively stone. You've
been made alive by the Spirit of God. So, Simon Peter, he writes this
epistle and the next epistle to be of great help to the people
of God, to the elect of God. Now, if you would, you can hold
your place here in 1 Peter 1. I'll even put one of my ribbons
there. And go back with me to that passage
that our brother had difficulty speaking about. pronouncing Luke,
Luke. We'll go back to Luke, the 22nd
chapter. Bless his heart. Luke, the 22nd chapter. We know from what he read to
us, the disciples were bickering among themselves as to who would
be the greatest in the kingdom of God. And it gets down to verse 31. Now, after rebuking them about
their fussing and arguing or quarreling over who'd be the
greatest in the kingdom, the Lord said, now look at verse
31, and the Lord said, Simon, Simon. Now, what does his name
mean? Little Stone. And we know he's a little living,
lively stone. He's a little lively stone. So,
lively stone, lively stone. Simon, Simon, Simon. Behold, Satan hath desired to
have you. Now, just stop right there, that
word you. Actually, it isn't in the singular. It means more than one. Our Lord
is, he speaks to Simon but he's really addressing all of the
disciples, because the word you is plural. So he's speaking to
all of the disciples. But he specifically, and maybe
it's because Simon was really involved in this bickering back
and forth, we know that James and John were involved in it
as well, but perhaps all of the disciples were fussing about
who's gonna be the greatest in the kingdom of God. And our Lord,
he does, he singles out Simon because the Lord, he knows what's
going to happen to Simon. He knows of the denial that's
gonna come about and how you'll deny him three times. So he does
single Simon out, but this man, Simon, must not assume that this
is only for him. This is for others as well. And
I'll tell you this, it is also for us. It isn't just for Simon. It's for all of the lively stones,
the little lively stones. So he says, Satan hath desired
to have you, that he may sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. Let
me ask you a question. What is it that really pleases
God? It's your faith. Because the
scripture says in Hebrews 11, but without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Therefore, it isn't shocking
to us that that which the evil one goes after, that which he's
going to attack, is the very thing that pleases God, your
faith. He will try to cause you to doubt,
to call into question the Word of God. Did he not do that in
Genesis the third chapter with Eve? Did he not call into question
the Word of God? He is always on the attack. He's
a lion that goes about seeking whom he may devour. And Simon
Peter, who wrote those words by divine inspiration, knew full
well the truthfulness of that. It's the reason the Spirit of
God led him to say that. Because Satan was on the prowl
pertaining to him. He was attacking his faith. And
our Lord Jesus says, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail
not, that you will not quit. And he still prays for his people
that our faith won't quit. He makes intercession for us
that we'll keep believing. You see, there have been many
people, and you know this, those of you who've been around for
a few years, there have been many people who make a profession
of faith. And then along the way, they
just quit. They don't go to church anywhere.
Or maybe they forsake the gospel and go into false religion. They
just quit. Did they have true faith to begin
with? No. It was a false faith. It was a temporary faith. But that faith which is given
of God, God will maintain it. Aren't you thankful for that?
Because if you could have quit, wouldn't you have quit several
times throughout your Christian journey? Have you not had doubts along
the way? And the person who says, well
I never have any doubts, I'm always 100% full of assurance,
I'm really concerned about you. Because you can't face realities.
You can't face the reality of your old nature. Of his deal
with the new. Of his battling against the new. Our Lord Jesus says, I prayed
for thee that thy faith fail not. Now watch this. And when thou art converted,
so you mean Simon Peter wasn't converted here? He's a saved
man. He's come to the Lord Jesus Christ. He believes the Savior. But he's
going to wander off. He's going to wander off, though
he doesn't know how weak he is. And listen to me. Listen to the
Word of God. You really have no idea of how
weak you are, of how easy it would be for Satan to do something
about you believing God, if the Lord didn't keep you believing.
He's got to preserve us, I'm telling you. He's got to keep
us. No wonder the psalmist said,
keep me, Lord, as the apple of thine eye. If you don't keep
us, we'll wander off. If you don't keep us, we'll go
hither and yonder. He says, when you're converted,
that is, when you come back, when you're brought back to me,
because Simon Peter, he's gonna wander off, he's going to deny
the Lord. He's gonna deny that he ever
knew him. And he'll take an oath. And he'll
use swear words. I don't know the man. Say, wow,
I don't see how an apostle could do that. Well, then you don't
have any idea the frailty of your own heart. You see, here we are at the children
of God. Let me tell you something, we're
capable of doing anything that any other son or daughter of
Adam has ever done, unless God keeps us. That's absolutely the
truth. It is absolutely the truth. But he says, when I bring you
back, and thank God he did. The message was given to the
women, go tell my disciples and Peter, tell Peter, the Savior
is risen. Got a special word for those
who wander off. For those who kind of seem like
they've lost the way. Aren't you glad that when you
go through those times, when you feel it seems like you've
lost the way? I don't know, I'm confused, preacher. Is this really right? Am I really
a child of God? Aren't you glad that the Lord
converts you? He brings you back in line and
he convinces you, yes, this is the gospel. This is the very
truth of God. This is the very life of your
soul. I am God, there's none else.
I'm the Savior, there's none like me. Yes, yes, this is the
truth. Effectual grace, sovereign grace,
full atonement, the work of the Holy Spirit, this is the truth. The Lord brings you back, says,
well, Lord, I'm sorry I ever doubted. I'm sorry I let my mind
wander there. What's happened? He converts
us. He comes after us. Oh, he may let you go for a little
ways, and he says, well, that's far enough. And he'll bring you
back in line. That's what he did with Simon
Peter. That's what he does with all of his lively stones. Just an old dead rock, he just
let it go. Because it doesn't mean anything
to him. But these living stones, these lively stones, made alive
through His grace, by His power, by His own life, He's not going
to let us perish. He's not going to let us go.
And I'm thankful for that. But now watch this. He says,
when thou art converted, when you're brought back, here's what
I want you to do. Strengthen thy brethren. I want you to strengthen Thy
brethren. Make them strong. Help them. You help, you help your brothers
and sisters in the Lord. And you know what? It's exactly
what he's still doing this morning. Through his writing here in 1
Peter and in 2 Peter as well. Because here we find, as you
go back now to 1 Peter chapter one, we find Simon is still being
used of the Lord to strengthen his brethren. And he presents
to us these glorious truths that strengthen us, make us strong,
strong to believe, strong to serve, strong to live before
God and before this world in a manner that's honoring to our
Lord. He writes to the people of God
here in 1 Peter chapter 1 who are scattered. But He not only
writes for them, He writes for us. Words that will make us stable. That's one of the meanings of
the word strengthen. He stabilizes us. The Word of
God, and most especially this morning, since we're looking
in 1 Peter 1, He gives us these truths that steady us. We're on the sea of life. And
all around us, the billows are blowing, and the waves are rolling,
and the storms are crashing, the thunder and lightning, and
all of the trouble around us. And here are the people of God.
He gives us truth from the pen of Peter that steady us in this
world of turmoil. And he gives us, beginning at
verse 18, he gives us six, Very strengthening truths. And I'm
going to deal with these this morning and again this evening. And this morning I won't be able
to get very far. But here's the subject. We're
talking about truths that strengthen. Now who needs to be strengthened?
The weak. The weak. And that's all of us. We're weak. And we need to be
strengthened. We need to be made steadfast. You know, there are a number
of times in the Word of God where we're admonished to be steadfast
in the faith. And here, especially toward the
end of the first chapter, Peter gives to us these wonderful,
wonderful truths that just have a way of steadying and strengthening
the people of God. Now, whenever I get ready to
take a trip, I'm just one of these. I've got
to have GPS. OK, I've got GPS on my phone. Nancy's got it on her phone.
And I want both vehicles that we have have GPS, have it up
there. I want to see where I'm going.
But even that's not good enough. I've got to have a map. Because I'm one of these that,
even with books, hey, on my phone, I've got bunches and bunches
of books. I read, I sit down, go to the
doctor's office or wherever, and you're waiting forever for
your appointment to come around. I'm reading. But you know what
I prefer is a real book. I just love, I love a real book
so I can make some notations on the pages and that sort of
thing. And that's the way I am when I take a trip. It's good
to have the GPS. But, you know, we go to Wally
World and buy that big thing by Rand McNally, you know. And
it's got, because it's big print and I can see it. And before
we go, I open it up. Yep, we're right here. This is
where I want to go. And yeah, I want to know the
route to where we're going. Well, let me give you a roadmap
of where we're going in this message. So you'll know where
we're going. Now, we won't arrive fully this morning. So you'll
have to come back tonight because we'll have a rest stop all afternoon. And then we'll get to our destination,
the Lord willing, this evening. But here's where we're going.
Number one, we're gonna talk about redemption. That's our
first stop. Redemption. Second stop, revelation. Redemption is verses 18 and 19
and first part of verse 20. Redemption and then revelation,
that's the last part of verse 20. And then we're gonna get
to reception. Because this truth that is laid
out for us leads us to believe God. So that's reception. And then fourthly, our next stop
is going to be resurrection, the resurrection of our Lord
Jesus. And the fifth stop is going to be the results of what
the Lord does for us. The result of His work is our
souls are purified in obeying the truth, and we love one another,
not with a hypocritical love, But with an unfeigned love, he
says, that's a true love. And the sixth stop is going to
be regeneration. So that's where we're going.
We're going from redemption and we'll end up this evening studying
the subject of regeneration because he talks about being born again.
So you got to hear the stops along the way. Redemption, revelation,
reception, resurrection, result, and regeneration. You see, it's
these very truths that the Spirit of God will use to strengthen
us in order to withstand all the attacks of the evil one.
It's as the Word of God is made known to our hearts, as the Spirit
of God teaches us these vital issues, then we're better able
to withstand the attacks of the evil one. And then it's these
truths that will give us confidence and assurance in this great salvation
that is ours in Christ Jesus. And then it's these truths that
will keep us steady, keep us immovable. Listen, we're in a
vast ocean of false religion. A vast ocean of false religion. It's these very truths that will
keep us steady. in the midst of all of it. And it will be these truths that
will motivate us, that will motivate us to live in this world in such
a way as is becoming to the children of God. And it's these truths, when they're
taught to our hearts by the Holy Spirit, that will enable us to
stand firm and be immovable. In fact, one of the meanings
of this word strengthen, actually, it presents the idea of stubbornness. You say, well, that's a negative
word. Yeah, because if you say, well,
that's a real stubborn person, you're like, well, that's not
good. But sometimes being stubborn's very good. Because as the Spirit
of God reveals the gospel to us and reveals all of this truth
that is in Christ Jesus, then by His grace, we become stubborn
for the truth. Right? We're stubborn for the
truth. We're not going to give. We're
not going to, hey, I can't believe this other. Well, you're being
very stubborn, aren't you? Yes, I am. Yes, I am. Because there's only one truth.
There's only one gospel. There's one God. There's one
Savior. There's one salvation and it's
by free and sovereign grace. That's the only gospel there
is. It's the good news of Jesus Christ and His doing and His
dying and His rising again for sinners. I'm very stubborn on
this. There is no room for leeway.
Here's a very straight line. And we don't want to deviate
from that at all. So one of the meanings of this
word strength, strengthen the brethren. Remain stubborn in
the truth. Stubborn in the truth. Well, let's look at redemption.
in the few moments I have left this morning, and this is as
far as I'm going to get. And this is verses 18 and 19.
And of course, we were introduced to the subject of redemption
last Lord's Day. Verses 18 and 19, 1 Peter 1,
for as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation, empty
your futile, your useless manner of living received by tradition
from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of
a lamb without blemish and without spot. Redemption is indeed the
payment of a price, a ransom, in order to secure the release
of slaves. is the rendering of a payment
price in order to settle the indebtedness of another individual. I give you two illustrations,
one from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament. Hosea
and Gomer. We know that Hosea was commanded
to marry Gomer, and she was a woman whose mother was a woman of ill
repute, And Hosea married her anyway, because God told him
to marry her. And they had children, had three
children, a boy, a girl, and another boy. And then she left,
and she left to go back to a vain conversation that she received
from her mother. She went to live a wild life,
a life of harlotry, just like her mother and just like her
grandmother. And she wasted the money that she was paid for her
services. And she became broke. And apparently
she borrowed and she owed. She had some indebtedness that
she couldn't pay. And it appears from the book
of Hosea that the law took her because she couldn't pay her
debts. And the law put her up for auction. And when the bidding began, there
she was. And it was typical, the slaves
were stripped naked. And her beauty's gone. That attractiveness
that men once saw in her, it is no more. That's a thing of
the past. And there she was in her indebtedness,
which she had no means by which to relieve that indebtedness.
She couldn't pay what she owed. She goes up for bid, and Hosea
bids on her, and he buys her. He redeems her for a price. And he says, you'll always be
mine now. That's a picture of us in Christ
Jesus and our spiritual nakedness and our filthiness. We've wasted
all. We lost everything in Adam. And all we've done since our
birth is just add to our indebtedness, that's all. We were born with
that inherited indebtedness from Adam, but hey, we've added indebtedness
to that. Actual sinfulness, actual transgressions. And we owed a debt to God we
could not possibly begin to pay. Not with silver, not with gold. Peter says you weren't redeemed
with those things. All the silver, all the gold,
all the precious jewels in the mines of this earth, God already
owns those. And all of them together cannot
relieve you of your indebtedness to God. Well, what will it take,
oh God, to satisfy you that I be released from my indebtedness
that I owe to you and I can't pay? He says, behold my son. Behold, my son, I found the ransom,
and the ransom is Christ Jesus himself in his substitutionary
death, in his sacrifice. That's the price. That's the
reason Peter says you were redeemed, not with corruptible things like
silver and gold, because that's not gonna buy anybody from God,
from the justice of God, but with the precious blood of Christ. That exquisite blood. The blood
of an innocent man, but more than that, the blood of God.
That's what Paul says in Acts chapter 20. The church has been
purchased with the blood of God. Is this a redemption? You see, we're like a bunch of
gomers. We've given the love of our hearts
to somebody and to some things that don't deserve them. We're all spiritual, guilty of
spiritual harlotry, spiritual fornication. Listen, thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your
neighbors yourself. What have we loved? Everything
and everybody but God. God's kind of a, he's down the
line somewhere. Oh yeah, I love God. I love God. The Lord Jesus talked about loving
him more than mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me more than these, more than the things of the world? Oh my,
we've given the love of our hearts to things that don't deserve
it. We're just like Gomer. and we have no beauty about us,
we have no righteousness about us. We lost all of our beauty,
all of our uprightness in Adam's fall. It all came crashing down. We're ugly in our sin. Who wants
us? Why, there's nothing we can add
that would add to the glory of God, or to the goodness of God,
or to the majesty of God, to the supremacy of God. Listen,
God got along just fine before we was ever made. God dwelt in
eternity in the majesty of His own person, in the glorious Trinity. He didn't need us to complete
Him. There's satisfaction within the Trinity. It wasn't that he
needed us, we needed him. We needed him. We became indigent. We became
paupers. But our Lord Jesus paid our debt. That's what he did at the cross.
Jesus paid it all, all the debt, everything I owe to God. What
do I owe to God? I owe to God a perfect life.
I can't live it. I owe to God obedience to his
law. I can't live it. Christ did. What about all my sins that are
deserving of and merit and are worthy of death? Christ died
for my sins according to the scriptures. He paid my debt. Second illustration,
New Testament. In the New Testament, you'll
find a little bitty book, it's only one chapter, called the
Book of Philemon. And he was a man who lived in
a certain city of Colossae. He had a servant whose name was
Onesimus. Onesimus stole from him, embezzled
from him. He did something, took something
that didn't belong to him, whether it's money or possession. I don't
know, the scripture doesn't say, Anyway, he stole from Philemon,
and then he ran. He was a servant, and he ran. And he thought he could escape
to Rome, big, big city, get lost among a huge population of Rome. But lo and behold, in the providence
of God, and according to God's sovereign direction, he ran right
to the Apostle Paul, who was preaching. The ways of God are
very mysterious, aren't they? He could have, when the apostle
came to Colossae, how come the Lord didn't deal with Onesimus
then? It just wasn't His will. So here, Paul goes away to Rome,
Onesimus he steals, and then he just runs. Run for your life,
I gotta go! I'm outta here, throw the rest
of the sermons, I'm gone. He runs to Rome and he goes and
he hears the Apostle Paul preach. And something mysterious happened.
The grace of God got a hold of his heart. And he became a believer in the
Lord Jesus. I'm a poor sinner. I'm nothing
at all. But Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
the son of God, he's now my all in all. That's what Onesimus
said. It's his blood, it's his righteousness. He's the savior
and he believed him. And the apostle Paul says, you
need to go home. He said, now here's a letter.
He wrote a letter, inspired with the spirit. A letter written
to Philemon. And he carries that letter with
him, and he goes to Philemon. And in the letter, the apostle
Paul, of course, greets him warmly. But then he says, I'm sending
this letter back to you by way of Onesimus, and I want you to
receive it. But don't receive him as a servant.
Receive him as a brother. And then he said this, and if
he owes you anything, you put that to my account. and I'll
repay. You see, that's what the Lord
Jesus said in essence to the Father. Whatever they owe, put
it to my account. I'll pay it. That's why Christ
called the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
In the mind and purpose of God, the debt's paid. That's how God
justified all the Old Testament saints by the righteousness of
Jesus Christ, though it had not actually been worked out yet
literally in the mind and purpose of God. It was done. He's the
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And I'll deal with
that a little bit more tonight, because God has always viewed
Him as the Lamb. And the Lamb came and redeemed all
of His people. He redeemed the saints of God,
those who were set apart in old eternity. And he bought us. He paid the debt that we owed
to the Lord. See, that's the gospel, my friends. There's no way I can lay it out
for you any simpler than that. That's redemption. Redemption
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That has a strengthening ability
to it, doesn't it? It just kind of levels us off.
It kind of stabilizes us. We stand on the sure footing
and foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ and His bloody work of
redemption. And we know God was satisfied
because He raised Him from the dead. And that's the Savior you
need. That's the Savior I need. Somebody who has settled all
the issues with God. And then He makes it known to
us as we shall see tonight. Well, let's get a psalm book.