It says here in verse 7, 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 7, Under you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. Under you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. But under them which be disobedient,
the stone that one that God laid in Zion, that stone which the
builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. But I see here that our Lord
Jesus Christ is called precious. Precious. He is precious. The word precious
means highly esteemed. It means cherished. Now, there's
things that's precious and cherished to you that absolutely has no
value whatsoever to somebody else. There's things that mean
something to you that when you try to bring them up to somebody
else, they have no interest whatsoever. There's things that maybe you
have stuck in your body that to you is precious, to nobody
else it'd mean absolutely nothing to. And that's the way it is in life.
Everything's relative. But one person would throw away,
another person would say, I've got to have that. And that's
the way it is in this business called of knowing Christ. But
some people say, I must have Him. I cannot live without Him. I need Him more than I need anything
in this world. And then there's others that
say, Oh, I don't need Him. I don't even know if He's the
Savior. I don't know that He's any more
than anybody else in this world. To some people, He's absolutely
necessary. To some people, He just absolutely
means nothing. And what does it mean here, then,
that He's precious? To some of us, He is precious.
We've got to have Him. We cherish Him. We esteem Him
higher than any other person in this world. We esteem Him
to be everything and all things to our soul. And O beloved, let's look at
this business of precious. Christ being precious. It says
here that unto you therefore which believe, He is precious.
He is precious. What makes Christ precious to
us? What makes Christ precious? He's a precious Savior. A precious,
precious Savior. Oh, we high esteem Him. In fact,
we say He's the only Savior. There's not another Savior on
the topside of God's earth. Never has been, never will be.
There's never been another prophet like our Lord Jesus Christ. Never
been another priest like our Lord Jesus Christ. He was God
manifest in the flesh. We have no qualms saying that
there's no other Savior. No other Savior. That's what
makes Him so precious. We tell men that no matter what
you do, what you think, or where you go, there's no other Savior
other than Jesus Christ. Mohammed is not even a prophet,
much less a Savior. Ain't that right? There's no
salvation in the church. Salvation is in this Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's why I say He's a precious
Savior. And what makes Him so precious
to us? Well, His character. His character is what makes Him
precious. It's who He is. It's who He is. You see, us people that we love
because of their character. We just think so highly of them
and cherish them because of their character, the way they act,
the way they carry themselves, their generosity. their easiness. Oh, so many things about them.
What makes Christ precious to us is who He is. What makes His
character so precious to us? You know, His disciples, when
they were in a ship one time, and a great storm arose, and
they said, Lord, and the Lord Jesus was asleep, and they said,
Master, carest thou not that we perish? To think that you
could perish with the Lord Jesus Christ? Our Lord woke up and
says, Oh yeah, a little haze. And He just says, Peace be still. And He rebuked that storm. And
the wind calmed, and the waves got just as calm. And they said,
What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the seas obey
Him? Huh? They said some people asked
him to arrest him one time, and they come back and they said,
why didn't you bring him? They said, never man spake like
this man. See, he's different than any
man that's ever been. What is it about him that caused
a woman who had seven devils in her to wash his feet with
her tears and drive him with her hair? And I, Lord, commend
her for her faith. What caused another man, what's
about him that caused another woman to set at his feet and
hang on to every word that came out of his mouth? What was so
precious about him, what was so wonderful about him that made
this happen? What's so precious and so glorious
about our Lord Jesus Christ that makes men and women forsake all,
everything to follow Him? What makes him so precious in
his words of glorious that the common people hear him gladly? What is it? Oh, he's precious. He's precious with his character,
who he is. That's what makes him so precious. Look back up here in verse 6
just a moment. God says he's precious. God made
him to be precious. Wherefore also it is contained
in the Scripture. It's contained in what God said.
Behold, I lay in Zion. I lay in the church. I lay for
God's people. A chief cornerstone. Chief cornerstone. What about him? Well, he's elect. I chose him. I chose him. I was the one that chose him. He's mine elect. I was the one
who chose him to be the chief cornerstone. I was the one who
chose to lay him in Zion for a foundation. I was the one who
chose him to be my redeemer. I was the one who chose him as
to be the head of all my elect. And oh, beloved, he's precious.
When God says he's precious, when God highly esteems him and
God cherishes him, How do you think we ought to regard him? He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. You see, he's precious because
he's costly. And he is rare. There's nothing
else like him in this world. And look what else it says about
him here now, in verse 7. To whom is he precious? To whom
is he precious? Unto you, that which believe.
That's who he's precious to, to believers. He's not precious
to people who are not believers. And He wasn't precious to me
until I became a believer. Ain't that right? Lived years
without Him. Lived years without thinking
of Him. Without even considering Him. But now, since I'm a believer,
He's precious. And He becomes more precious
all the time. And, oh, you see, why I believe, why is He precious
to us? Because we've tasted that the Lord is gracious. Look down
there at verse 3. If you have so many, you have
tasted. Tasted. Tasted that the Lord
is gracious. When you taste something, it's
got a flavor to it. It's something you enjoy. And
we've tasted the graciousness of God. We've tasted, as the
girl sang in love, He lifted me. We've tasted that God is
gracious, that everything He's done for us is based on His grace. We've tasted this grace. We've
enjoyed this grace. We eat this grace. And that's
why we don't bring in our works. That's why we don't bring in
our marriage. That's why we don't bring in our works or our work
or anything that we do. It's because He We've tasted
grace, and we're not going to taste anything. Anything else
don't taste good. Works don't taste good. Free
will don't taste good. Our hedonism don't taste good.
Nothing tastes good but grace. And if you ever taste it, if
you ever taste it, Nothing else will taste like it. You won't
eat nothing else. You know, somebody will come
along and try to put something else in your mouth and say, taste
it. No, I don't want to. I don't like the taste of that.
Don't taste that. And oh, beloved, He's precious
to us to believe because I'll give you several reasons why.
To us who believe He's precious because He's our life. He's our
life. Our Lord Jesus says, because
I live, you shall live also. Paul says, when Christ, our life,
shall appear, we shall also appear with Him. He's our life. He's our life. Look there in
verse 4. Here, 1 Peter 2. To whom? To
Him. A living stone. We've come to
a living stone. And because we've come to Him
in verse 5, we become living stones. We become a spiritual
house. Join the Christ. Christ lives
in us and we live in Christ. Christ in you. The hope of the
Lord. He's precious because He's our life. We have no life apart
from Him. He gave us our life. He gave
us this spiritual life. He made us alive to God. And
not only that, He's precious because He's our righteousness.
He's our righteousness. So you hold that and look over
at 2 Corinthians 5. And oh, this is it right here. If you don't get this, if you
don't grab this, and if you don't understand this... You know,
I just read there in 1 Peter, you know, be ye holy as I am
holy. For I am holy, saith the Lord
God Almighty, and be ye holy as I am holy. Now how are you
going to be as holy as God is holy? Those people out here preaching
that to become holy, you've got to quit sinning. And you've got
to dress a certain way, and attend a certain church, and stay away
from certain bad habits, and go to certain places, stay away
from other places, pray this much, do that much, do this other
thing, and you'll become holy. Well, how are you going to ever
get as holy as God Almighty is? When the heavens, when He says
the sun and the moon and the stars are not pure in His sight.
How much less is man? These are the pure eyes of the
beholden evil. How are you going to be as holy
as God? You've got to be as holy as God if you're going to go
to glory, if you're going to be saved and commune with God.
You've got to be that holy. As holy as Him. We don't get
that holy in this act. Well, look right here in 2 Corinthians
5.21 and I'll show you. For He, God, three people in
this verse here, He, God, Sovereign, Almighty, Eternal, have made
Him to be sin. Only God can make a man to be
sin. We were born sinners. We'll live
sinners. We have a sin nature, but Christ
didn't. So how's he going to be made
to be sin? God's got to make him to be sin.
God made him, legally constituted him to be sin. For us who knew
no sin, had no sin, knew not what it was to sin. Now watch
this, that we might be made Just like God made him to be sin,
for us who knew no sin, and we who know nothing but sin, God
made him to be, made sin for us that we might be made what
he is, the righteousness of God in him. It's a perfect exchange,
don't you absolutely, he gets our sin, we get his righteousness.
He became what we are in order to make us what he is. And when
you have the righteousness of God, that makes you like God.
That makes you righteous in the sense, not like God, in the sense
that you're like God, but in the sense that you have the very
righteousness of God. When God looks at you, He sees
you fulfilling the law, keeping the law, obeying the law, being
without sin, access to Him any time, any day, any hour, any
moment that you want to. And will do it. Now, ain't that
right? And I've told you this so many
times before, but when I get to glory and you get to glory,
our righteousness will be no better there than it is right
there. See, righteousness is something
you are. And if you're righteous now,
how can you be more righteous at one time than you can another?
Can God be more righteous at one time than He can another?
Can it be more holy one time than it can be in another? Holiness
and righteousness is states of being. And if you're righteous
now, you'll be righteous throughout eternity. He that's righteous,
let him be righteous still! That's what's glorious about
it, that I'm going to be done with this, but I'll never be
through with righteousness. My righteousness cannot be any
better than it is. It's the righteousness of God.
That's why Christ is precious to us. We're righteous. He gave us His righteousness. Oh my, in fact, back over in
our text it says this, Because He's our righteousness, it says
here in verse 5, He also is lively stones, living stones, to build
up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices. We offer up spiritual sacrifices
by Him. What's a spiritual sacrifice?
Praise and thank-giving. Blessing His holy name. We don't offer the sacrifice,
we have to... One of the prophets says, we
offer the fruit of our lips. The fruit of our lips, not the
fruit of our loins, the fruit of our lips, thanksgiving and
praise and honor. And God accepts them. A man outside of Christ, I'm
telling you, the man outside of Christ can pray all he wants
to and pray as free as he wants to and do everything under the
sun, but God will not hear him. But for those which believe,
to those whom Christ is precious, whenever they call on God and
say thank you and bless your holy name, God hears those and
is a sweet-smelling Savior. But the Pope ain't never made
a prayer that God heard. That's right. A Pentecostal ain't
never prayed a prayer that God heard. A free-will Baptist never
prayed a prayer that God heard. He said, that's awful hard, preacher.
That's the truth. That's just the truth. Ain't
nothing hard about it. And if more preachers told that,
there'd be a whole lot less of that rigmarole going on. That's
what it's called, rigmarole. He's our righteousness. And oh,
He's precious because not only is He our life and our righteousness,
doth which believe, He's our peace. He's our peace. He made peace. He is our peace. You know, some stumble at Him,
being disobedient at His Word. But He brought peace. He brought
peace. He's the Prince of Peace. He
brought peace between us and God. He brought peace. He slew
the inmates in our...made peace. He is our peace. And oh my, the
peace that we enjoy because of Him. He is our peace. He's not
going to become our peace. He's not going to give or only
give us peace, but He is our peace. Yes, sir. Whenever we
do things and say things and that, we're still standing to
fall off, we come closed without any enmity in our heart, without
any anger against God. When things don't go our way,
we don't say, God, why me? What did I do to deserve this?
No, we come to God no matter what's going on with peace. We're
not going to charge Him foolishly. And, oh, beloved, know that He's
precious to us because He's our character. Now, as He is, so
are we. And as He is now, In this world,
so are we. Now you keep 1 Peter, look over
in 1 Corinthians 1, just a moment. He's our character. You know, and you hear people
say all the time, what would Jesus do? Well, I guarantee you,
He'd do each side different than what most of us would do. But
here, He's our character. What I mean by He is our character,
we become living stones. We build a spiritual house. that
God regards us as Him. And everything that we need,
we find in Him. Here in 1 Corinthians 1.30, but
of Him, of God, are ye in Christ. How do you get in Christ? Joining
the church? No. By God. God puts you in Christ. God chooses you in Christ. God
keeps you in Christ. But of Him, are ye in Christ
Jesus? And God made Him unto us wisdom. Wisdom. Wisdom to know God. Wisdom
to understand God. Wisdom to know ourselves. And
He made Him righteousness for us. So we've got the character
of wisdom. His wisdom. Righteousness. His. Sanctification. Holy. Set
apart by Him. And redemption. So everything
we need, God made Him unto us. So He's our character. When we
come to God, God regards us just like He does His own dear Son.
Oh, bless His holy name. Huh? Look back over here in our
text again. You always keep that now. And He says there is what we
are. He's our character. You're a chosen generation of
royal priesthood. Not only that, but a holy nation.
Not only that, but a peculiar people. You're all those things. Who
made you that way? God made you that way. God made
you that way. And oh, beloved, let me say this
to you who believe, therefore He is precious. Well, he's our all in all. That's
why he's precious to us who believe. Christ is our all in all. He's our sufficiency. He's our
sufficiency. Look what it says there in the
last part of verse six. And he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. You know what that word confounded
means? Ashamed. Embarrassed. When we face, you
know, our Lord Jesus told a bunch that came to Him, and they said,
Lord, we've cast out devils in Your name, we've done many wonderful
works in Your name, we've preached in Your name. And He says, depart
from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. They were confounded. They were ashamed. They were
embarrassed. Huh? There was the ten virgins. Five
of them wise, five of them were called foolish. Five of them
went to be with the bridegroom, five of them was left there trying
to figure out where am I going to get some oil. They were embarrassed, they were
confused, they were confounded. But he that believes on Christ,
that Christ is precious to. When he faces God, when we get
to God Almighty, face Him and see His glory and His holiness
and that bright white holiness of God's light and go into glory,
we'll not be embarrassed, we'll not be confounded, we'll never
hear, depart from me ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you.
You won't hear that. Why? Because He's our foundation. We're laid on Him. We're built
on Him. We were built on Him for time
and eternity like the verse in that hymn that we sung. And our
time as race began. We were chosen in Him. We were in Him. Do you highly esteem Him? Do
you cherish Him? Do you think He's precious? Is
He all these things to you and more? He becomes more precious
in the passing of time. More precious. You know, it's
just the way we've become to one another. As time goes by
with us, our relationship is more precious now than ever.
We've got time to enjoy one another. And that's the way it is as you
get older. You become more precious to one
another because you become more endearing to one another. And
you know, the longer you know, the more precious they become.
And that's the way it is with Christ. The longer we go on as
believers, the longer we go on in our need of Christ, the longer
we worship Him, the more precious He becomes to us. Oh my, He becomes so precious
that one of these days, bless His holy name, we'll get to embrace
Him as He is. And see Him as He is. Now let
me give you one more here. I've got several, but I'm just
going to give you one more. So He is precious. But to whom?
To them that believe. What makes Him precious? His
character. All that He is to us. All that
God made Him to us. That's what it means to trace
that the Lord is gracious. He made Christ this way to us.
We didn't make Him this way. God made Him this way. God laid
Him as the foundation stone. God put us in Christ. God made
Him unto us wisdom, righteousness, and faith. God made Him to be
sent. God made us the righteous of God. That's why we take it
that the Lord is faithful. This is the Lord's Word. This is not our Word. It's His
Word. Well, let me give you another
one. Over here in 1 Peter 1, verse
18. Precious, precious, precious. 1 Peter 1.18 says, for as much as you know that you are not
redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. Now, under
the Old Testament, under the law, every man had to give a
shekel according to the sanctuary, the weight of the sanctuary.
The firstborn, rich or poor or like, they all had to give exactly
the same amount. And the foundation of the tabernacle
was laid in that silver that they paid as redemption. And they would pay, it was built
on redemption, to show when the firstborn would come and all
of them would do that, called redemption. And that's why he
said that was corruptible things. Silver corrupts. Gold corrupts. Things that won't last. Things
that you can buy. Things that you think that you
can perish with them. But as silver and gold from your
vain, empty, useless manner of life that was passed on by tradition
from your fathers. But this is what you were redeemed
with. With the precious blood of Christ. Well, now watch this. As of a
lamb, without blemish and without spot. When was He ordained to
be this Lamb without spot and without blemish? When were we
redeemed by Him? In the first place, this blood
is precious to the Father, because it says, Who verily was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was manifest, brought out
for us to see. to redeem us in these last times
for you. Oh, beloved, precious, precious
blood. Hunger. Being hungry makes bread
precious, food precious. When you're thirsty, oh, really
thirsty, water is precious. If you're poor, Riches is precious. If you're naked, clothes is precious. If you're sick, health is precious. And you know what makes the blood
of Christ precious? Sin, guilt, and condemnation. If you ever feel your sin, ever
feel your guilt, ever feel the condemnation that you're under
the wrath and judgment of God, that's when the blood of Christ
becomes precious. Oh, you feel that sin, you feel
that guilt, you feel that, oh, that's when the blood of, you
know why the blood of Christ is not precious to people? They
got no sin, they got no guilt, they got no condemnation. But
boy, if you got it, oh, there is a fountain filled with blood
drawn from Emmanuel's veins and centers plunged in that flood,
what happens? They lose all their guilt and
shame. Oh, my. Oh, this precious blood,
this blood of Christ is precious because of its redeeming power.
It says you were redeemed, not with silver and gold, but with
the precious blood of Christ. It's called the blood of God.
In Acts 2.28, look over here. Now, Titus has written a little
book before Hebrews. Look at that with me, just a
moment. To be redeemed, it's precious because of its redeeming
power. Then does it need our faith to
make it more powerful? Does it need our obedience to
make it more powerful? Does it need our tears to make
it more powerful? It has redeeming power in its
own. You know, for whom He redeemed, Christ redeemed. He redeemed
a people. There's multitudes of people that's been redeemed
by Christ. I was redeemed by Christ before I ever existed.
And I didn't know anything about it until somebody preached the
gospel to me. That's the power it has, that the power of Christ
is so powerful, and so glorious, and His redemption is so blessed,
that for all whom He redeems, He guarantees that they'll be
brought to the Father. He guarantees that redeeming
that blood has such power that it guarantees the salvation of
a multitude that no man can number, and they didn't even know they
were redeemed until God made them to know it. Isn't that right? They're still learning about
it, that's right. Look here in Titus chapter 2, verse 14. Who gave himself for us? Christ,
this blessed, great God and glorious Savior, gave Himself for us,
offered Himself as that Lamb, that He might redeem us. What
did He redeem us from? All iniquity. God had that much
power that He saved us from all iniquity, and God had enough power that
He purified us. And what did He purify us to?
Unto Himself. Not what the world calls purification,
what Christ and God calls purification. Unto Himself. And look what else
how powerful that is. It made us a peculiar people.
You're a peculiar person if you trust Christ, if you believe
Christ and Christ is everything too. If you don't trust your
works, you don't trust your own righteousness. You're a peculiar
person that puts all your eggs in one basket in what Christ
did. Huh? And oh, his blood had enough
power to make him zealous of good works that you want to live
to his glory and his honor. That's how powerful His blood
is. Oh my, the word redeemed means
to ransom. You know, if somebody holds you
captive, you know, I'm going to send a ransom. And a ransom
has a price. This is what's going to cost
you to get me to let these people go. Well, God set the price. What
held us captive? The justice of God. He said,
I will not let them go. They're sinners. But I cannot
let them go. That soul is sin if it must die. God set the price. The life of
Christ, the blood of Christ, the death of Christ, the sacrifice
of Christ. And you pay that ransom, you
pay that price, and I'll let every one of them people go.
God told Abe Moses, says, you go down there and tell Pharaoh
to let my people go. You know when the people were
let go? When the blood was shed. And God brought them out with
a high hand. And when Christ shed His blood. And that's why,
beloved, before the world ever began, God set the price. The blood of His Son. Someone's
got to die for sin. justice must be satisfied. Well, Christ, because of the
worth of his person, it's the blood of God that redeemed us.
And the soul that sinneth in must die. And so Christ took
our sin upon himself, And when God took all that sin and put
it on himself, he says, that soul there is going to die, and
he is of such infinite worth and has such merit to himself
that I'll take all those people for whom he dies, his blood is
so powerful and so precious, that I'll take all of their sins
away from them and remove them and let every one of them go
free. And that's what happened. That's
what happened. And oh my, sin, death, law, justice. He redeemed us from all of it.
That's how much power it's got. That God himself lets us go. And oh, and I'll tell you what
else makes it precious to us. It's because it has cleansing
power. Power, power, wonder-working power. Look over in Hebrews 9 with me,
just a moment. You know, John said it like this,
he says, His blood cleanses from all sin. He said, Though your sins be
as crimson, they shall be as white as snow. And it cleanses
us from all sin and from all unrighteousness. Look what it
says here now in Hebrews 9 and verse 12. Oh, the cleansing power. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, that's what they did under the law, they'd come
to the priest with the blood of goats and calves and come
into the presence of God at the brazen altar. But by his own
blood, he entered in once into the holy place. Having obtained,
now listen here, eternal, eternal redemption. Not a redemption
that lasts until you do something wrong, or think something wrong,
or until you fall, or you miss a church service. That wouldn't be much of a redemption,
would it? That you're redeemed until you commit some kind of
a sin or something, you become unredeemed, you've got to start
all over again. This is an eternal redemption. Now what's this? And he obtained it for us. For
if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of that red
heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of
the flesh, and God accepted that for that time, how much more
shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without spot to God. Now look where it works, does
its work at. Purge your conscience. See, that
just sanctified the flesh. Purge your conscience, this inward
man, this man here that demands perfection. Purge your conscience
from dead worse, everything you ever hoped or trusted in to serve
the living God. That's the power, cleansing power
of His blood. It purges your conscience. Let me give you another real
quick. It's precious because of its
pacifying power. Now what do I mean by that? It's
redeeming power, it's cleansing power, pacifying power. You see,
His blood made peace with God for us, having made peace through
the blood of His cross. You see, God said, when I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. And the blood of Christ slew
the enmity in our hearts against God, and slew the wrath of God
against us. It made peace with God for us. You know, he that hath the Son
hath life. He that hath not the Son of God, the wrath of God
abides on him. The wrath of God don't abide on me. Why? Christ made peace through the
blood of His cross. And when we understand that,
oh the peace that comes into our heart and our conscience.
Oh the peace that comes. I don't give up and don't quit
whenever I say or do something I'm not supposed to say or act
the way I'm not supposed to. You know why? Because God don't get
mad at me when I do it and I understand that. I don't have to stand back
carrying in fear that God's going to do something against me because
I've done something wrong. I don't have to do that. I can
come to God, but why? Because there's peace. He ain't
going to close his eyes and say, oh, I can't look at him. He can't
say, well, I can't bless him. No, no, it's Christ that made
peace. It's the blood of His cross that
made peace. I didn't make it, and if I didn't make it, I can't
keep it established. Ain't that right? Oh, my. No concession on God's part.
No, no. No, no. And then, beloved, it's
precious because of its reconciling power. Him reconciled us to God. Reconciled us. Huh? And what
it done, it removed and reconciled us. You know, to be reconciled,
you had to have, there had to be a friendship before, there
had to be a closeness before, a relationship before. And then
something has to happen to sever that relationship. And for that
relationship to be reconciled and be brought back together,
somebody has to make amends. And Christ, See, we had fellowship
with God and our father Adam in the garden. We lost that fellowship,
we lost that friendship, we lost that relationship. So what Christ
did, He come and reconciled us to God by His blood, and He slew
that enmity that was in our hearts that was against God. Pacify
the wrath of God that was against us, and now we're back in union
and fellowship and relationship with the Father. And oh, let me tell you this
quickly. Because it has such power, because it gives us such
glorious, glorious assurance. Oh my, what assurance it gives
us. What access it gives us. Look
at Hebrews 10. Just a moment. Hebrews 10. Oh my, it gives us such assurance,
such assurance, such glorious assurance. Access, not only assurance, but
gives us access. Look at verse 1 of Hebrews 10.
For the law having a shadow, just a shadow, everything in
the law and all the sacrifices, the priesthood and the ceremonies,
they were just a shadow of good things to come. They weren't
the very image of the things. Which to never with those sacrifices,
because they were shatters, which they offered year by year, continue
to make the comings there unto perfect. Never could be made
perfect under the law. So you could never have assurance.
You had to keep coming back over and over and over and over. Offering
the same sacrifices could never take away sins. Now I don't know
how people live without assurance. I remember being in, when I was
lost in legalism and Arminianism, I never had assurance. Couldn't
keep assurance. Couldn't have peace. Always doing
something to make myself better. But now watch this. So I was
trying to, I couldn't be made perfect. But now look down at
verse 14. For by one offering, he hath
perfected. I'm afraid he couldn't be made
perfect. Oh, he had by his one offering, he hath perfected.
Forever. Them that are sanctified. How
do we know? The Holy Ghost witnesses to us.
He tells us. He makes it real to us. For after
that, He has said before, this is the covenant that I will make
with them after those they said the Lord. I'll put my laws in
their hearts. He writes in our hearts. He deals
with our hearts. And I'll open in their minds
when I write them. Watch this. And their sins and
iniquities, I ain't going to remember them anymore. No! Where these sins are gone and
where there's no sins and they've been made perfect, there's no
more offering for sin. You don't need an offering for
sin because you don't have any sin. He put them away. So since
we don't have any sin, since we're made perfect, and God don't
remember them, having therefore, brethren, boldness, liberty,
confidence to enter into the very holiest, into the very presence
of God. How? By the blood. of Jesus Christ
by new, not the old way, not the long way, new way, living
way, living, always living, which he hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And then last of all,
beloved, and I'm through. Last of all, back over in our
text. Let me show you this. It's precious because of its
redeeming power, its cleansing power, its pacifying power, its
reconciling power, because it gives us assurance and gives
us access. And then it's precious because
of its origin. Look in verse 20. Who verily
was ordained before the foundation of the world. It's originated
with God. This blood, this redeeming blood,
this precious blood, it was before the foundation of the world.
It was ordained for us before the foundation of the world.
Predestinated, if you want to call it that. For ordained means
that it was, God said, this is going to happen. This is what
I'm going to do. And that's what it is. Watch this. But was manifest
to him these last times. God brought him out, whom he
set forth to be a perpetuation through faith in his blood. God
brought him out, manifested. Manifested through the womb of
a virgin. Manifested in his life. Manifested on the cross. Manifested
in his resurrection. And all mine, now watch this,
and all he was manifested for you who by him, by him, do believe
in God. Oh, that's how much power His
blood has to give us faith, that raised Him from the dead and
gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Oh, where did it originate from?
It originated from God, before the foundation of the world.
Oh, He's precious. To whom you therefore wish to
believe. You who by Him believe in God.
He's precious. Our Father, O our God, thank You, O thank You. Blessed be Your precious, holy,
glorious name. Thank You for giving us Christ.
And oh, blessed Savior, thank you for giving yourself. And
oh, Holy Spirit, thank you for bringing new things of Christ
to us. How we bless you and praise you for these things. God, make
this alive and real and powerful in the hearts and minds of your
dear saints here today. That soul that's been redeemed
by your blood, we know that they shall believe. We know that they
shall Come, we know that they shall be preserved, because your
blood has all power to cleanse from all sin and to purge the
conscience and make us acceptable. Thank you, Lord. May Christ become
precious. May you, our Lord Jesus, become
precious today to some soul. We ask and bless you in Christ's
name. Amen. Let's do 125. I believe it is. Stand with me
while we turn.