Let's go back to the book of
1 Peter and the first chapter, 1 Peter chapter 1. After our Lord's resurrection, the disciples decided they would quit the ministry
led by Simon Peter. Our Lord Jesus, He came to them
in the 21st chapter of the Gospel of John. And let's say He recommissioned
them to preach the Gospel, especially the one who led them in quitting the ministry that is
Simon Peter. The Lord asked him, he asked
him this three times. He said, Simon son of Jonas,
lovest thou me? And of course each time Peter
said, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. Each of those times, our Lord
said to him, well, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. And one time he
said, feed my lambs. And Peter went on to do just
exactly that. And as we read through the first
epistle of Peter and the second epistle of Peter, we find that
he is, he's feeding the lambs of the Lord, those who are young
in the faith. And he's also feeding the sheep,
the more adult members of the body of our Lord Jesus. First
Peter and second Peter are well called the general epistles. And the reason that they are
spoken of as being the general epistles is because they're not
addressed to a specific believer or to a specific congregation,
but really to all of the people of God. He began in Ron read
1 Peter 1 to us, and it begins by addressing people who are
in time different areas And these people were scattered due to
the persecution that arose with the stoning of Stephen. So they've
gone into these five different areas and these are the people
of God. They're pilgrims and they're
wanderers. in these various areas, and Peter
is led of the Holy Spirit to feed these people, to nourish
them from the Word of God. Listen folks, we all who are
the people of God, who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, those
in whose hearts the Spirit of God has done a work of grace,
we need to be fed, we must be nourished, when our brother Wiseman
went to Ohio State University. One of the first things they
said about him, he's malnourished. He is malnourished. He's not
getting enough nourishment. And if your body doesn't get
enough nourishment, well that is soon going to be evidenced
by a pitiful physical condition. And you and I who are the people
of God, we must be nourished on a regular basis from the Word
of God. We've got to hear the Scriptures.
We've got to hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
so I want to do what Peter was commissioned to do and what all
of the preachers of the Gospel are commissioned to do. I want
today to feed the sheep. I want to feed the sheep. After all, this is a general
epistle, 1 Peter is, as is 2 Peter, and it's written to all of the
children of God. Therefore, this is written for
you. The Spirit of God, when He had Peter to write these two
books, and most especially, of course, we're looking at the
first chapter this morning, when the Spirit of God had Simon Peter
to write this first chapter, His intention was to feed you. And to feed me. And so may the Spirit
of grace give us eyes to see what God has for us today, and
give us ears to hear the message that we need to hear from the
Word of God. Now Peter begins by telling them
that these who are scattered, and they were having great difficulties,
he talks about the trial of your faith. These were difficult times
for the people of God, but he would remind them of their everlasting
standing in the Lord Jesus. And he says, you're the elect
of God. elect according to the foreknowledge
of God. That is, God has ordained you
even before He made the world in love unto salvation. You're the beloved of the Lord.
You're the chosen of God. You're the elect of God. Listen,
you who are the people of God, and some of you are going through
or have gone through or will go through some severe trials,
when you do that, you must remember and be encouraged in this, God
chose me from all eternity to be His child. I'm His. I belong to Him. Therefore, let come what may,
though the trials may be very severe, and the fiery trials
that will come my way, nevertheless, nothing can hinder me or prevent
me from reaching that inheritance that God has purposed for me
in Christ Jesus. I'm His and He's mine. Let's
be very encouraged with that. So it begins by going all the
way back to the beginning. It says, you're the elect of
God. You're the elect of God. And He said, then the Spirit
of God has sanctified you. He has set you apart. And He
has instructed you in the gospel of grace, how God can be just
and justify the ungodly. And He stresses here the obedience
and the sprinkling of the blood of the Lord Jesus. His blood
has been shed. It's been put on the mercy seat. Just like the high priest in
the Old Testament went behind the veil into the Holy of Holies
and he sprinkled the blood upon the mercy seat. So our Lord Jesus
has entered into heaven for us with His blood. and God is satisfied. This is what he says. And he
then says, now grace be to you, verse two, and peace be multiplied. And then he blesses God for doing
all of this for them. He honors God, eulogized be God
who's done all of these things for you, and according to His
abundant mercy, He's raised you from spiritual death by the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's that you would receive
a glorious inheritance reserved for you, and the inheritance
is reserved for you, and you're reserved for the inheritance.
And then he says, you're kept in the power of God. Do you worry
about your salvation? Will it be lost? Will my sinfulness,
my iniquities, is it going to ruin anything? Oh, I would hate
to ruin anything about my salvation. No, you can't ruin it because
God saved you. And He keeps you. He preserves
you by His power. Even though he says it is necessary
for you to sometimes be tried, but he says it's going to work
out. It's going to work out. And then
he gets down and after sitting before these believers and us
believers, while having set forth all of these things, he gets
down to verse 13 and he says, now wherefore? Wherefore, that
is upon the basis of all that God has done for you. And when
you get home today, why don't you just stop, get by yourself, think about all the good things
God has done for you in Christ Jesus. Listen, I know we have
problems, I know there are difficulties in life. We have sick people. We have diseased people. All of these things are difficult.
We have the trials of our families and all the things that's going
on with each of us. But think of how immensely God
has blessed you. Just get along. reflect upon
his goodness to you, certainly reflect upon the physical goodnesses
that he gives to you every day. We all receive multiple physical
things, but even more so the spiritual blessings that are
in Christ Jesus, all of which belong to us. And as you think
about all of these things, and Peter has laid out for us so
many things that God has done for us, and that's why he says,
blessed be God, blessed be God, eulogize be God. I'm going to
brag on God because he's done all of this, all of this salvation
we owe to him. Wherefore, and here's your responsibility,
gird up the loins of your mind. Let's do some thinking. Be sober about the things of
God. Be serious. And hope to the end,
because of the grace, and that word for is because. because of the grace that is
to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Think
of what awaits you. Think of the grace that's out
there for you. Oh, grace saved you in the beginning. Grace redeemed you. Grace preserves
you now. But grace is not going to end. Grace is going to continue all
the way unto the time when you see Christ Jesus. And he says in verse 14, live
as obedient children. Don't fashion yourselves according
to the former lusts in your ignorance. Your life is not to be as it
was before you were converted. You see, Peter is indeed, he's
admonishing the children of God, the sheep of the Lord to right
living. But I'm going, here's what I'm
going to show you in just a little bit. The motivation for doing
that is not a promise of rewards or a threat to punishment. It's
what God in Christ Jesus has done for us. This is what He
urges us to do. Live as obedient children. Don't
fashion your life according to your former life in the world.
When you were ungodly, when you hated Christ Jesus, when you
had no interest in the Gospel, your life is not to be lived
that way. You're different now. Be obedient
children. be a reflection of the Father. For he says this in verse 15,
but as he which hath called you is holy, so be you holy in all
manner of conversation, in all manner of living, because it
is written, be ye holy for I am holy. Now, when you talk about
the holiness of people, or living a godly life, and we want to
do that, All of God's people want to be a godly people. It
has very little to do with outward appearance. It may have to do
with your outward behavior, certainly. It will have something to do
with your outward behavior. It'll have something to do with
the way you conduct yourself and even the way you dress and
where you go. but it is also an attitude within
you and a desire within you to pattern your life after the Lord. He is the supreme example. And we seek to love as He loved,
and hate as He hated, and forgive as He forgave. Our Lord Jesus
is indeed our Savior, but He is also our worthy example. Walk in His footsteps. Be forgiving,
that's what the apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter four. Even as God, for Christ's sake,
forgave you. This is the way we're to live.
That's what he's talking about, is godly living. And then he
says this in verse 17, and if you call on the Father, who without
respect of person, he judges every man's work. He's the one
who observes us. He's the one who determines the
worth of what we do or the uselessness of what we do. He says, therefore
pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. We're just sojourners. How will we pass in the time? Well, let us Be very careful
as a people of God to pass the time in fear. What does that
mean? In fear of the devil? No. In
fear of death and judgment? No, because Christ has died for
us. He's been condemned for us. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Well then, who is this fear toward? where he says, past the time
of your sojourning here in fear. It's the fear of God, the reverence
of God. You wanna know how to live your
life? You wanna know how should I conduct myself? At all times,
at all times, conduct yourselves with reverence to God, with utter
respect for God. That's the best governing rule
I know of for a child of God. To always keep the Lord in your
view. Respect for Him, reverence for
Him, love for Him. Remembrance of all the things
that He's done for us. And here is the motivation Peter
gives us for doing all of these things. It is not a legalistic
motivation. If you'll do this, God will do
that. No, it's not that. If you'll
obey Him and live right, you'll have all of these rewards in
heaven. It isn't that. Because your reward is the Lord
Himself. The Lord is my portion. That's
what Jeremiah said in the book of Lamentations, saith my soul.
Well, if I don't obey the Lord, if I don't live for Him, if I'm
not obedient to Him, He will whip the fire out of me. No,
that's not the right motivation either. That's a motivation of
being scared to death of God. What is the right motivation
for godly living, living as obedient children? What is the motivation? And He gives us the motivation
beginning in verse 18. 18, for as much as you know. In other words, here's the reason
you should conduct yourselves as I've just laid it out before
you. You were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers. but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Preacher, why
should I, what motivation does he set before us? Remember, Peter
is feeding the sheep. This is sheep food. What is the
reason that he lays out for us as to why we should live as obedient
children? and conduct ourselves in a manner
that's honoring to God always. The motivation is this, what
God in Christ Jesus has done for us. That's the motivation. That's the reason that he lays
out for us as to why we should do these things and conduct our
lives in this world, because of redemption that's been accomplished. Now, three times in this chapter,
Peter mentions the word salvation. Verses five, nine, and 10. Now, salvation is a very broad
word. It's a glorious subject, and
it has different aspects to it. Salvation itself means deliverance,
being rescued, It also carries with it the idea of being made
whole, being made spiritually healthy. It's salvation from
sin, salvation from self, salvation from Satan, salvation from the
law of God against which we've committed multiplied transgressions. And when we speak of salvation,
generally, generally, as we speak of salvation, we use several
Bible words as well we should. And so we'll use words like sacrifice, reconciliation, propitiation, redemption. And we tend to kind
of gather them all up together and say, there it is, there's
our salvation. We'll just sum it up with the
word salvation. But this salvation, which does
indeed consist of different parts or different elements, it is
a wonderful thing, but it does consist of various aspects. Sacrifice. The word sacrifice in regards
to our salvation, it conveys the idea or the concept of that
which is necessary due to our sins. What happened to every
sacrifice. What happened to every sacrifice
in the Old Testament? They all died. They all died. So when you think of sacrifice,
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, think of this, the Son of God
was put to death as a sacrifice for our sins. He was the one
time offering for our guilt. Sacrifice. Then there's another
idea associated with salvation, it's reconciliation. The idea
or the concept of reconciliation answers to our being cut off
from God. Our alienation from God. We had to be reconciled. Sacrifice presents the idea of
death. The wages of sin is death. The
soul that sinneth shall die. That's what's embodied in that
word sacrifice as related to our salvation. And then there's
the word reconciliation. We're alienated from God because
of our sins. The Lord said to Israel, your
sins and your iniquities have separated you from Me. Our Lord Jesus was put to death
to bring us back to God. 1 Peter 3 and verse 18 says that. So that's the meaning of the
word reconciliation. So now you know about sacrifice,
that's death. Reconciliation, it's to bring
us back to God because we're alienated from Him. Then there's
the word, a nice big long word that John uses and the Apostle
Paul uses, propitiation. And the idea of propitiation
answers to the wrath of God, which all of our sins deserve. The justice of God has been wronged
Law has been violated, and Christ's death made propitiation for our
sins. That is, He satisfied divine
justice. And so we have sacrifice, death. Reconciliation, bringing us back
to God. Propitiation, Satisfaction of
God's justice. And then the word we want to
look at this morning, redemption. Redemption, now these are different
aspects of this salvation, and we could give some more words,
but I'm gonna stop with these four. You see, the idea or the
concept of redemption answers to the release from bondage or
release from indebtedness by the payment of a price. That's
redemption. Sacrifice? Death. Reconciliation? Bring us back
to God. Propitiation? Satisfy His justice. redemption, releasing us from
bondage and from our indebtedness by the payment of a price called
ransom. Ransom. So this is the subject
we want to deal with in the remainder of our time this morning. You
see, our Lord Jesus, in laying down His life for unworthy sinners, He was the appointed sacrifice who died. Because the wages of
sin is death. And in laying down His life for
unworthy sinners, He was not reconciling the Father to us,
but He was reconciling us to the Father. Because a barrier
had been put up between us and God. Our sins. We put the barrier
up. And in laying down his life for
unworthy sinners, our Lord Jesus not only was the propitiation
for our sins, but he actually, he turned the wrath of God away
from us. That's the idea of propitiation.
Perhaps that's as good a definition as I can give you. When the Scripture
says Christ was a propitiation for our sins, He turned the wrath
of God away from us. You get that? It will never come
to us. It cannot come to us because
the wrath of God went somewhere else. It went to the Son of God. who loved us and gave himself
for us, so wrath can never touch us. Romans 8 and verse one says
that. But in laying down his life for
unworthy sinners, our Lord Jesus was redeeming his people. He was releasing us from awful
servitude and slavery to sin and Satan. And He was releasing
us from an indebtedness we legally owed to God, but He paid it Himself. He was the ransom price in His
death. After all, we read, Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law. Once again, Zion shall
be redeemed from judgment, is what Isaiah 127 says. And in Isaiah 44 and 22, the
Lord says, I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions,
and as a cloud thy sins, return unto me, for I have redeemed
thee. Here's the good news for sinners.
Redemption has already taken place. The payment price has
already been rendered to a holy God. As stated in the book of
Job, release them from going down to the pit. God said, I
have found a ransom. That's what God said. We read in Galatians chapter
4 Our Lord Jesus, he came to redeem them that were under the
law. And so our subject this morning
is redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Redemption is the payment
of a price, a ransom, in order to secure the release of the
slaves, in order to release us from our indebtedness by the
paying of a ransom. And our Lord Jesus said that,
he said this very thing about himself. speaking to his disciples
in Matthew chapter 20 and verse 28. He says, for the son of man
is not come to be ministered to, but to minister and to give
his life a ransom for your sins. A ransom. And very quickly, let
me show you two things in this text, and we'll just try to stick
with the text here for the rest of our time. Two things, number
one, What were you redeemed from? Well, look here in verse 18. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. Well, what was the redemption
from? From your vain conversation. from your vain conversation.
The word conversation is a word Peter is very fond of using,
and he uses it in 1 Peter and 2 Peter eight times. It means
your manner of behavior, your manner of living, or your manner
of conduct. It is therefore your life as
you live it. And he tells these people, and
he tells us, Before conversion, prior to the Lord doing the work
of grace within us, prior to Him bringing us to see the beauties
and the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ, our lives were vain. They were vain. So this redemption has got something
to do with the purchase of us out of the life of vanity. What does vain mean? Well, someone says, well, it
means empty. Pretty good definition, but really
could do better than that. It means empty of anything good. Empty of anything worthwhile. You see, the reason that word
empty is not good enough to define the word vain is because before
conversion our lives were full, but full of ungodliness, full
of unbelief, full of disobedience. So the word empty isn't a very
good word for the word vain. I would think of the word futile,
futile, useless. This redemption is a redemption
from a futile, useless life without purpose. That's what it is. A
life that is indeed empty of anything good and useful. and you were redeemed from a
life of uselessness, nothingness, emptiness, wherein everything
you did was futile and no good. Everything. I read an interesting
story this week about concentration camps that the Germans had for
the Jews. And one of the things that the
Germans did to break their spirits, they did many awful things, of
course. And you've read about them as have I. But one of the
things was they would have the men, they'd give men wheelbarrows. And they'd go over and there'd
be a big pile of rocks over one side of that enclosed area. The prison itself. And they'd
load up those rocks and take them way over to the other side
where they'd emptied those rocks. And once they went back and forth,
back and forth, loading those rocks up, going to the other
side and emptying them, then they said, now, take them back
where you found them. And they'd have to take them
back. And they did this to break their spirits. All of their effort
All of their work, everything that they did was absolutely
futile or useless. It accomplished nothing. That's
the idea Peter is getting across to us here when he says, your
vain conversation. Now listen to me. Where there
is no faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, where there is no love
for the Savior, where there is no desire to honor God and worship
God and adore God. Everything about your life is
just vain. That's all it is. It's useless.
It's to no good purpose. All you're doing is loading up
rocks over here and carrying them over there and then carrying
them from over here back there. It's useless. It's no good. Nothing to any good purpose is
being served. See, that's the life of an unbeliever. And this redemption is from a
vain conversation. In most of the confessions of
faith, you'll have a question that goes something like this,
the catechisms, I should say. What is the chief end of man? What is the chief end of man?
Why were you made? To serve yourself? To make yourself
happy? What is the chief end of man? And the chief end of man, almost
every worthwhile catechism, though they all have some weak points
in them, but almost all of them begin this way. The chief end
of man is to glorify God. That's the chief end of man,
to glorify God in fellowship with Him and enjoy His presence. That's the chief end of man.
But if you don't know Christ Jesus, if you've not been washed
in His blood and robed in His righteousness, your life can
be summed up this way. It's nothing but vain conversation. It's just emptiness. It's vanity. It's nothingness. Well, where did we get this vain conversation from? Well,
look, the last statement of verse 18, received by tradition from
your fathers. That's the way your fathers did.
You just inherited it. You're just doing what your daddy
did and what his daddy did and what his daddy did before him.
Go all the way back to Adam. It's just a vain conversation
received by tradition from your fathers. How often did our Lord
Jesus, when he was instructing his disciples or speaking to
the religious Jews, talk about the traditions of the fathers?
Why do you believe this way? Well, that's what my daddy believed.
Why did he believe that way? That's what his daddy believed.
And just go all the way back. It's the traditions of the fathers. You see, the reason we live vain,
useless lives to no good purpose is because That's what we received
from our fathers. That's the way they were. In
other words, we have inherited this depravity. We got it naturally. We got it from the fathers. They
passed it down to us, and guess what? We're going to pass it
down to our kids. It's just the way it is. So I don't know how
my child can do such a thing. I do. They're your child. That's
the reason. They're just like you. It's like
in the book of Hosea, remember Hosea marries Gomer? And she was a daughter of a harlot. What did Gomer go to do? What
lifestyle did she choose? A life of harlotry. She just
doing what her mama did. She went right back to that,
and that's the way we are. Why is it we're born dead in
trespasses and sins, and we're persistent in our unbelief, and
though valid reasons are given us concerning the person and
the work of Jesus Christ, and that God's not going to receive
you outside of His Son, the necessity of a work of grace, that our
Lord Jesus died on the cross for sinners, and that's the only
way God could be just and justify the ungodly, why won't people
believe this message of salvation all of grace because of the traditions
of the fathers. They didn't believe either. And the fact of the matter is
nobody is going to believe apart from the work of grace. And so, this brings us to my
second point. What are we redeemed or were
we redeemed? With what were we redeemed? Well, negatively. And you know,
we have several teachers or retired teachers in the congregation
whose service we very much appreciate to our young people. A good teacher
in setting forth a lesson will often set forth things in a negative
way in order to emphasize the right way or the positive way. And Peter is a good teacher.
Remember what he's doing? He's feeding the sheep. And so
he sets it forth negatively to begin with. He says, you were
redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold. Now
these people lived in a time when the Roman Empire was vast. And people were in servitude
to Rome. They were slaves to Rome. And
in order for anybody who was in slavery to be redeemed, there
had to be the presentation of a price, either silver or gold. And undoubtedly, some of these
very people who were scattered abroad into these five different
areas that Peter tells us in verse one of chapter one that
they were scattered to, It certainly would be very likely that some
of those had been redeemed. And with what was the price of
the ransom? With what were they redeemed? Silver and gold. There was an
exchange. A legal binding agreement. Give
me the money, I'll give you a paper that says you're released from
servitude. You're free, you're in liberty. They were very much acquainted
with that system. But our bondage to sin and our
indebtedness to the law of God and the justice of God cannot
be purchased that way. In fact, jot this scripture down
and read it later. Psalm 49, six through nine. You can't be redeemed with money. That's an impossibility. Well, if we can't be redeemed
with corruptible things, of silver and gold, what then is the positive
response to this question? Negatively, it isn't with silver
and gold. Here's the positively, the precious
blood of Christ. That's what he says in verse
19, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot. Now what makes this blood so
precious? What makes this blood so exquisite? So valuable? What is it that
makes this blood presented to God result in the everlasting
freedom of everybody for whom that blood was shed? What makes
this blood so valuable? What gives it dignity? The one
who shed it. Who is He? He's God. Read Acts
20, 28. Paul tells the Ephesian elders,
God purchased the church with His own blood. It's the blood
of God. But since God in the purity of
Himself in His invisible character and nature, since He can't suffer,
bleed and die, God joined Himself to man. The God-man both suffered,
bled, He suffered and died for our sins. He shed His blood. It's the dignity of the one who
shed it. See, there's nothing you could
do to effect or bring about redemption. It's too great a cost. It's too
valuable a price. The ransom is way too high. You can't afford it. You can
never present it. But the Lord Jesus, He suffered,
He bled, He died. And on the basis of who he is,
his death availed to satisfy everything a holy God demanded
for the release of the indebtedness and the servitude of sin, those
for whom he was shed. Well, in what character did he
shed his blood? As a lamb, as a lamb. The lamb without blemish and
without spot. And you know, when I read this,
I was thinking about Simon Peter. Do you remember when Simon was
first brought to the Lord Jesus? It was in the Gospel of John
chapter one. And we have two statements are
made regarding the messages of John the Baptist. And they're
condensed, the Holy Spirit has condensed them into two statements
which are identical. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. Two men listened to the messages
of John the Baptist. One was most likely that man
who would become an apostle, John. And the other one was Andrew. And when the eyes of Andrew's
heart were opened to see that Jesus of Nazareth is the Lamb
of God, all those Old Testament lambs, they pointed to Him. When
he heard that Jesus is the Lamb of God, he immediately ran home
to his brother, who was Simon Peter. And he said, we have found
Christ, the Messiah. And I'm sure Andrew told him,
listen, that preacher said he's the Lamb of God. Indeed he is. And now here's Simon Peter feeding
the sheep. Many years later, and he's talking
about that one who just took hold of his heart and stole it
away. And this is the one who fell
in love with the Savior himself. And Peter writes, we're redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb. A lamb. What kind of lamb was he? Without
blemish and without spot. In other words, he's a perfect
lamb. He's a sinless lamb. Permit me to let my imagination go a little
bit. Peter being a Jew, he would have
watched many times as his dad took a lamb to a priest to offer
it as a sacrifice to God for him and then once every year,
especially after Simon Peter got to be 12 years old, he would
go to Jerusalem with his dad and they'd have to buy a lamb.
And I'll bet you, Simon's dad said, come on, Simon, go with
me. I'm gonna show you how to pick
out a lamb. And it's gotta be without blemish, and it's gotta
be without spot. He said, let's walk through the
flock here. If you find one, Simon, let me
know now. And Simon's looking at all the
land. He said, Here's one over here. I just talked to the owner. He
said, this is a year old. It's a male. Tell you, dad can't
find anything wrong with him at all. And his dad said, well,
let's see. His dad started looking. He said,
Simon, see these scabs on his belly? He's got some kind of parasite.
This is not good enough for God. Oh dad, I see. I'll remember
the next time. I imagine that's kind of the
way Peter grew up, and I don't think that's very far fetched,
do you? I'm sure that happened. Well now, fast forward many years
into Peter's future as he becomes an aged man, writing this. He speaks of the lamb of God. And he said, he's the lamb without
blemish and without spot. Well, who looked this lamb over? God did. Isaiah 53, he shall grow up before
him as a tender plant. Who's the him? God. The father
inspected his son. There was an exceptional worthiness
about him, a qualification that nobody else could ever meet to
be our substitute. And then God said, this is the
lamb. Of course, this is the lamb slain before the foundation
of the world, but God makes it known with his son because John
the Baptist identifies him. Behold the lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. And he dies without any blemish
of his own and without spot. No scabs, no parasites. He's perfect. He meets God's
requirement and he redeemed us. When was all this worked out? Well, look at verse number 20.
Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in these
last days for you who believe. For you who believe. Do you worship Him as the Lamb
of God? Do you see the necessity of His
redeeming work? Do you see this is the only way
we could be saved is for the ransom to be paid to the Father? To release us from all this servitude
and slavery to sin, to Satan? And to release us from our indebtedness,
our Lord Jesus died. He is the ransom price. And I asked you this in closing.
I've preached a long time this morning, but I only get to preach
once today. But I asked you this. Let's talk
about your life. Are you just moving rocks from
this pile to over there and then moving them back again? Most people are. That's all they're
doing. It's a useless, wasted life. It's spent in vanity, vain conversation. Oh, that God the Holy Spirit
would arrest each of us by His sovereign effectual grace and
bring us to the Savior, the Lord Jesus, and seeing Him, the Lamb
of God who redeemed us by His blood, who died a violent death
upon the cross of Calvary. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. He shed His blood to His death. And that satisfied God's justice. God said, that's enough. That's
all I require. Perfect sacrifice. And all who
are brought to believe Him are the ones who will partake of
and who have a part in this redemption. Just those who believe Him. That's
what it says. And who's going to believe Him?
Those who are quickened by the Spirit of God. Who's the Spirit
of God going to quicken? Go all the way back to the beginning
of the chapter, the elect of God. The elect of God. Oh, may God bring us to Christ,
to know Him and the very power of His resurrection.