Week 142, and y'all go, it's been that
long? It's been that long? Goodness,
y'all. The things that we can ponder
in our brains, it's a wonder sometimes we can function. You
ever feel that way? Like if we could just stop thinking
about thinking, about thinking for just a minute, we'd be in
good shape. Peter chapter 1 verse 1 and 2,
we'll hear it again. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, in the sanctification of the spirit, for obedience
to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling of his blood, may grace and peace
be multiplied to you. So we've done some work in this. We've talked about these things.
We've looked at how to unpack this introduction. And there's
so much there. And so by way of being redundant
and mundane, I'm going to remind us of what we're looking at.
We are looking at an uneducated man who is a servant of Christ,
who is probably one of the most zealous of all the disciples,
ready to roll, grounded in his masculinity, tough guy, and he's
the one who denied Christ over and over again. And Christ restored
him because that's what grace is about. The narrative of scripture
shows us that we are not able to affect righteousness or even
a little bit of goodness in the context of this world in comparison
to the righteousness of God. Yes, we can do good things. We
can have a sense of righteousness as human beings as we define
it. as we measure it, but as God
measures it, in true justice, in true righteousness, we don't
measure up. Even when we do well, it's not
enough. You see, perfection is not, I
did it perfect this time. Perfection is without fail, ever. Perfection is without delay.
Perfection is never late. Perfection means having never
Subjected our ideas to doubt. Perfection is impossible and
perfection is a plague in my life. And not just my life, yours too.
Mine probably more than yours, but I don't know. We'll see.
But when it comes to perfection, it is the greatest errand of
fools that has ever walked the planet. Because even the two
perfect people out of one created flesh came to. They could not
keep it. Because part of the image of
God in us is that we are inquisitive, we are knowledgeable, we can
gain wisdom, we can think, we can reason. It's not just about
our physical appearance, it's about the essence of who God
is in his mind. That's why it's very important
to understand that so that when we read what Paul tells us in
Philippians 2, have this mind among you which is yours in Christ
Jesus. And then he gives an expression, an adjective overview of who
Christ is and what Christ did and what Christ could have done,
but what Christ did instead. And so we see Peter, and Peter,
he was a dummy. He was a shepherd. He was a smelly
rat. He was one of these guys who,
you know, I don't even know what profession would fit this today
because we're in such a civilized world that even the grossest
of professions, I mean, we can clean up, right? As a boy, I had some family who
used to have livestock, cattle. I guess it was family, it was
always out there. And there was some other family down the road
that had pigs. And I don't care how you shook
it, when you went into the pig pen, you were filthy. I don't care. You didn't just
walk in. I mean, no guy in a suit put
on rubber boots and walked up to the pigsty so he could take
a gander at his new Baconator. Is that the one I bought? All right, no. That dude would
have to bathe. I don't care if anything got
on him. When you stood in the presence of pigs, you stunk. And the people around you stomp,
and the world around you stomp, and the acres around you stomp,
and we live miles away from the pigs, but every now and then
when the wind would blow, we stomp. Same could be true for
chickens. So imagine sleeping with sheep,
eating with sheep, living with sheep, tending to sheep, and
not bathing but once or twice a year. You stink. Peter had that profession to
not only was it frowned upon as a low-life profession, but
it was for the dumbest of dumb. Oh, you couldn't do that? Well,
you can always be a shepherd, sort of, you know? And yet, look
at this. Look at what God does with the
humble and the lowly and the weak and the dumb. He made Peter a servant to the
sheep of Christ and to this very day God ministers to us through
a dumb shepherd. And the very icon, the moniker
that the God of glory took upon Himself in John chapter 10 to
describe the essence of His absolute inner mind is He is the Great
Shepherd. I mean, does it matter? If you're
the bum of all bums, does it really make a difference? Well,
I'm the king of the bums. I'm the bum of the bums. That's
not even the attitude that Christ had. Christ had the attitude
of, I am the lowly of low. If you want to be great in the
kingdom of heaven, you've got to be the least. You've got to be the last. And
it's not self-deprecation. It's an attitude. You can't fake
it, but for so long. You cannot pretend to be compassionate.
You cannot pretend to care. Because when those triggers come
out and that stuff that's wrapped up deep inside your psychological
profile called your brain and your mind and your thoughts,
that stuff will flesh out. You can run a rat out from under
the house if you put a big enough dog under there. So here's Peter, and he writes to these Christians
who are scattered everywhere. Remember? Don't ever lose sight
of that, beloved. While we may not be scattered
politically and we may not be scattered socially in the context
of having to be forced out, we are in many ways scattered. We are scattered because of the
world that we live in and it is fractured. And it's fractured
more today than it's ever been in my life. I can't say for you. And the worst thing that I ever
tried to do when I saw these pieces crumbling is try to put
together what I had. rather than just assemble the
pieces of what I was given and build something else. I want
you to think about that for a second. It's the essence of what Peter
is writing to this church. It's not psychobabble, this is
biblical. Peter's writing to this church who will never, to
these Christians who will never have what they had ever again.
They lost their homes, they lost their land, they lost their family,
they lost their way, they lost their game nights, they lost
their entertainment, they lost their singing together, they
lost their loved ones, They were no longer able, I can't wait
till we get back to the homestead where we can do dinner. No more
dinner. No more dinner, no more status
quo, no more anything. I have a friend that lives in West
Africa and he messages me weekly for years and little updates. Somebody came along in his village
and took an aerial photo. And he was so proud of that.
He sent it to me. He said, this is where I live.
What does your place look like? I'm not sending him an aerial
photo of our place. Because the only thing I could
say when I come back is, brother, I live in a palace on the top
hill of the highest elevation of a kingdom that is rich. where we spent $6 a cup on coffee
and rolled up ice cream with monkeys. I'm embarrassed, you see? And
there's pictures that I get of this guy and these children,
these people in this village, and every time they're sending
pictures and they're smiling so big their faces are about
to fall in half. And I'm sitting there getting
that going, oh, I gotta go take the trash out. You see? Contentment. I preached on that
some months ago and I'm gonna go back and listen to it next
week. Contentment is the centrality of truly resting in sovereignty
for me. Maybe something else for you.
And here's Peter writing, he's telling these people, hold fast
and rejoice. And when, man, we get into chapter,
we get into verses three, three through nine, it's gonna soar. I don't even know. I mean, we
might have to stop singing songs in between verses or something,
because this text, this text is power when we're struggling. This text is power when we're
good, when we're doing well. And so as Peter writes, as the
Lord writes through this servant, we're reminded of the servant
for the servitude of the Lord Jesus. We're reminded that we
are whose we are because God has elected to love us. That the love of God is election. That's just the point. It's not
about the nuanced theological things that we see throughout
history. Let's get it this way. I married Robin because I chose
to love her. She married me because she chose
to love me. And every single day that choice
is put before us. I will either choose to love
her or I will embrace whatever frustrations I may have and milk
them to a new narrative until I have no affection at all. God does not do that. Before the world was, He loved
you. Before you were, He loved you. And He showed that love
to you. He showed what that looked like through the giving of Jesus
Christ, His Son. And all of that's in these first
two verses. These elect exiles, these royal
priesthood, this chosen race, these chosen people of which
you and I are a part of in Christ Jesus. And I don't know about you, but
when we sweep out all the theological dust and we blow church history
into the corner and close the door and stand in the outside
air and start breathing in the grace of God, we are able to
truly find, and I just say it this way, a spiritual euphoria
that also rests on a foundation of truth. I know I do a lot of
metaphors, I'm sorry. If I could have my way, my sermons
would be nothing but poetry. And y'all be like, thesaurus in hand. So here, we see then in verse
two, according this, you are who you are and where you are
according to the foreknowledge of God. This is God, the Father
and His work foreknowledge. in the sanctification that is
being set apart and declared holy by the Spirit, or made holy
by the Spirit, set apart by the Spirit. This is the work of God
the Spirit. Unto obedience to Jesus Christ
and for sprinkling of blood, this is the Son and His redemptive
work on the cross. And this is where we're going
to be today, looking. Remember I said I was going to
go into the Old Testament a little bit? I'm going to do that this morning and look at the
necessity of righteousness in the context of the sacrifice
of Christ. I mean, every week we get together and we talk about
Jesus. We embrace this, we sing songs about the love of God,
the love of Jesus, the Lamb of God. So we need never forget that
Jesus died. We need never forget that Jesus
did so because he loves us. And it was the only way. So here, as we'll see next week
when we close out this introduction, we'll really look at the Trinity
and its work, and His work in redemption. But today, let's
focus on this obedience and sprinkling by Christ's blood. So we come
to see that we are loved by the Father, we are the chosen ones,
we are saved by grace. Peace has been multiplied to
us and blessed. We are blessed in that way. We're
approved by God because of Christ. And the Holy Spirit, through
the declaration of the finished work of Jesus Christ, enters
into us and works into us and illuminates to us the truth of
Christ in such a way that we then embrace the teachings of
Christ that we may follow after him in obedience, not because
we are earning favor or we're fearful of wrath, but because
we have been granted such a great love. And that was the last two weeks
of sermons. Don't lose sight of it. This
letter's meant to be read in one sitting and then discussed
for years. Don't think that just because
seven days have gone by that we're on a new subject. We're
not on a new subject. There's no such thing as topical
understanding of a letter unless the letter itself is about topics. So the centrality of Jesus Christ
and salvation, His role in the transformative journey of faith,
this is the focus that we're going to be on today. We're going
to see that the sprinkling of the blood of Christ and what
it means and why it's important. and why it's fundamental to understanding
everything that we're going to see in the rest of these two
letters. Because if you think about it, obedience to Jesus
Christ and for sprinkling with His blood, you have grace and
peace multiplied to you. And then we start to see all
of these things. Therefore, prepare your minds for action. As obedient
children, do not be conformed to the passions. As He's holy,
you will be holy in all your conduct. Let's just keep on going
here. Having purified your souls by
your obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love. And I've
focused on love a lot and will throughout the rest of this teaching.
And then we get some poetry, we get some Psalms, we get some
Solomon, and then we get some more instruction. Put away malice.
Put away deceit, put away hypocrisy, put away jealousy, put away slander. You know that's inclusive of
the mind? Put away those thoughts. How? Like newborn infants long
for pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow into the salvation.
If you have sorely tasted that the Lord is good. and we see it over and over.
Abstain from the passions of your flesh. Be subject to the
human institutions that God has ordained, like the emperor. Be
subject to your masters. Be subject to one another. Be
subject to your husbands. Be subject to your wives. Be
subject to your parents. Be subject to, and we get over
and over again, and I've already said this, and I said this last
week, a lot of abuse and pretexts has created what we would call
formal, unquestionable theological application. Well, I spent years doing research
and applied study to understand how to apply doctrine in theology. And I thought I knew what I was
doing until the last three years. So we're learning together, brothers
and sisters. Obedience, as we've learned,
is to illustrate and to reflect and to mirror our thankfulness,
to mirror the essence of what we understand has happened for
us and to us. And the symbolism now that we
see in the sprinkling of blood, it connects the Old Testament,
it connects the imagery. What that means, the word that
we use for that is called illusion. It looks back to something. We
see it in John's writing, we see it all the time in Paul's
writing. It's everywhere. Jesus does it constantly. And
for us it's a look back, but to them it's a look at. Because we have misapplied the
Old Testament's authority by saying, oh, that is the old.
And it is the old. It's the old covenants, the old
expression, it's historical, and there's very little in the
Old Testament that we are going to identify as prescriptive until,
what does that mean, something that we must follow, until the
apostles in the New Testament say that we should follow it.
You see? And then when they do say we
should follow it, then they give us the parameters and the boundaries
by which we follow it. So there's a really huge movement,
and it's been around as long as I've been alive, that people
like to get into the position to where we want to be so biblical,
we're going to follow the laws, we're going to follow the rules,
we're going to follow the festivals, we're going to follow all the
things that Israel had to follow. Paul has something to say about
that in the context of the churches of the region of Galatia. Matter
of fact, that's the first recorded letter that Paul ever wrote,
and it's hot under the collar. How dare you, who have been sanctified
by the Spirit, want to continue to grow and be sanctified in
the flesh? You don't follow these things.
And so, it's funny for us to look back to the Old Testament,
but it is a back. It's back in the book, it's back
in the pages, it's back in time. But all of this is back in time,
but it has a present relevance. It has a present relevance, not
culturally, and not one for one, it has a present relevance in
the gospel as it relates to us in the time in which we live. It's funny that oftentimes we
think that the old days seemed purer. They didn't. They just didn't talk about it.
Everything was behind closed doors. I mean, growing up in
this area, we learned not to speak about anything. We learned
not to speak about financial stuff. We learned not to speak
about marriage. We learned not to speak about
our job or how much we made. We learned not to speak about,
you know, politics, unless it was like hoorah for the older
folks. We learned not to be honest about
our feelings. We learned all sorts of things.
Why? Because there, especially here in the Southeast, there's
this bougie line of baloney that just sort of ran from like the
days of being at court, and the lords and the ladies, and you
had to dress a certain way. You know that's where dressing
up for assembly came from, is trying to stay focused on social
status. And nowadays, I mean, I know
the brands. I mean, heck, you can spend $6,000
on a pair of blue jeans if you're dumb enough. So God's best ain't
good enough until you spend the most. I mean, where does it stop,
you see? The same thing is true. We've
learned a lot of things in our life about conduct, about everything
else. And beloved, we need to listen
to the Bible in a pure sense and in a slow way. If you come
to conclude today in the teaching, you know, there's this thing
in my life that I need to work on, then take a year or more. Quit saying, next Friday, I'm
never going to cuss again. Ding dang it. I mean, you know,
it's just not going to work. Like, don't worry so much about
pressing yourself out of the wine press. The imagery of a
wine press is about wrath, not about liberty, not about freedom.
And what I just said is not a license for you to just live the way
you want to live. But beloved, in the economy of grace, there's
nothing going to bankrupt us if we do. Except that our soul
and our mind and our lives will be empty and void. Because it
is not grateful to the Lord to live in a manner unworthy of
the call that God has given us. And we know it, it hurts us,
but let it hurt us because of our love for God, not because
of the esteem that we wish others would see in us. It doesn't matter. What other
people think of you and your Christian faith is none of your
business. What people think of you, period,
is none of your business. Don't give them free rent in your brain.
Charge them something. Economy's rough, get some money.
So in this sanctification, in this sacrificial blood of this
new covenant, in Hebrews chapter 9 we see, And there's a lot.
I talk quickly through, I did a reading, I think I did a Wednesday
night reading through Hebrews. But Christ's sacrificial blood
as this new covenant. We take the Lord's table at the
end. There's two things that we do in the context of the Lord's
table every single week. And that is we remind, we taste
the stuff. We feel it in our bodies. It
goes into our bodies. We absorb some type of substance,
whether it be wine or juice or bread or whatever, Styrofoam.
I don't know what it is. But we can experience it. There's
a somatic experience there. It's touch, it's taste, it's
feel. And then with our minds, we do
what Christ told us to do. We remember. We remember. Do this and do it so that you
can remember me. We don't talk about that. Remember
me when you do this. Think of me when you do this.
So we think of Christ, we think of who He is and what He accomplished
and whose we are in Him and all of that, the good report of Christ,
which we now call the gospel. The good report. It's literally
what it means. And so we got the good report
of Christ, we're remembering, but because we remember Christ,
we're remembering Christ in the fullness of what he's talking
about. This is my body broken. This is my blood spilled. So
we need to always be remembering the sacrificial system and the
law and justice. So that in that right perspective,
we learn righteousness by grace. Sanctification by the Spirit,
not the flesh. See, that's the point there.
God has done the setting apart. How could God set apart someone
who deserves to go to jail? Because Christ took jail. Somebody
deserves to die. Christ took death. sprinkling
of His blood, this whole relationship here. But the second part of
what we do every single week, and what I need to emphasize
more, I do it, but y'all, I preach way ahead. I'm probably down
the page somewhere. I mean, I saw some stuff I said
last week that it's not even for until next week's sermon,
because it's just the way it works in my head, okay? And I'm
sorry. Take what you can, throw out
the rest. But we get to a place where I don't emphasize it enough in
the Lord's Table, and that is the second part that we see the
instruction. We saw the story of the Lord's Table. We saw the
story of what Jesus said, but that's not the institution to
the church. That's the story in the Gospels. That's for us
to read and go, wow, that happened. That's amazing. And then the
apostles come along and write letters to instruct the church
and say, now that you know the story, what difference does it
make and what are you supposed to do with it? Let's apply this
story. And so the application of the story in several ways
of correction and instruction and exhortation is that the Lord's
Table is not only an opportunity to remember the grace of the
Lord for us individually, but more importantly for us collectively. And because of us collectively,
by the blood of Christ, we need to make sure in our heart of
hearts that we hold no ill will and animosity toward each other
in the church, in our homes. Now I'm going to say that again.
When we take the Lord's table and we remember what Christ has
done, we have a spiritual option to let people free of the bondage
of unforgiveness. Now I'll say this too, because
it begs the question, it doesn't mean people are not responsible
and accountable for what they do and say. It doesn't mean that
there aren't consequences, but loving and forgiving comes from
the cross. Does that make sense? And it's
so, yeah, just forgive. I mean, that is just like saying,
why don't you just grow six inches? Come on, kid. You're three. Why
aren't you five foot tall yet? What's wrong with you? Just grow.
You can't. You can't just, it has to be
cultivated. And we talked about that last
week and the week before. Just listen, I'm trying to share
with you how to cultivate these things and these disciplines.
And I'm doing so because I am also learning how to cultivate
these disciplines. The worst thing you could ever
do when you look at me is to think I've got it all together. It's a lot of work by God to
have me stand up here every week. And I don't hide behind the desk
of theological studies. to make you think that I'm somewhere
else. So, where does this sacrificial
blood, what's it all mean, why is it important? We could spend
several weeks just unpacking this, but for today, let's just
get an overview. In the garden, we see at the fall of Adam and
Eve. And you understand who is to
blame for that fall and who is the one who caused it all is
Adam. Eve was never blamed. She was
a victim. Of temptation, and she rightfully
and willfully disobeyed, just like Adam did. It was Adam's
guard, it was Adam's duty. This is a picture, beloved. This
is a picture. And then they were naked and
ashamed. How shameful, how terrible. Goodness. And so what they did
is they covered themselves with their own provision. They found
leaves and they covered their nakedness because they were ashamed
to see the Lord Jesus naked. And so, God came in and did His
thing and showed His curse and showed the outcome, the weird
and terrible outcome of such a thing. the constant labor,
the deconstruction of the world, the death of the body, the sexism
of men wanting to rule over women, and the frustration of women
wanting to rule over men, and the pain of raising children,
the pain of having children. I mean, you look at it. Daggone
snakes lost their legs. A lot of stuff. And if you want to know the theological
exposition of Genesis 1 through 3, I preached on that a year
or so ago. It's on the church website. And I'm open to discuss
it. I'm open to discuss it. So God slays something. He kills something and by the
blood, by the death, see the wages of sin is death, so something
dies. And in this sense, in the tabernacle of the Garden of Eden,
whatever, a lamb dies and the skin of that animal is used to
make garments to cover the guilt and the shame. There's nothing
wrong with their nakedness, it's the shame behind it, it's the
guilt behind it. And I'm gonna, I'm just gonna leave that there.
I'm not telling y'all what I'm doing. Because it may not happen. So now we see that the shed blood
of something else covers the guilt of someone else. Or the
shed blood of that person has to pay for the guilt, right?
You shall not die. You won't die. You'll be like
God. See, that's the truth. You will be like God. You will
know good and evil as soon as you eat this. It was not a lie. It was a deception. It was deeper
than a lie. It was a truth bathed in candy
corns and unicorns and popcorns and everything else that you
might like that has to do with corn. And that's not the only time
we see that. Death, the sprinkling of blood we see in Abel, Genesis
chapter 4, just one chapter over. Everything happens so fast in
Genesis. One chapter over. We got Cain and Abel, and we
see, matter of fact, I might have taught this in the last
year or two as well, but we see these brothers and we see this
sacrificial system. We see that whatever you do,
God had required, we don't know all the details about it until
we start getting into Moses, but we started to see that in
some sense there was a way of always remembering what God had
done by sacrificing that. Lamb, and promising the true
one, the seed of the woman, the giver of life, and through the
woman alone would come the Savior who would crush the head of the
serpent who caused all this mess to start with. And the ultimate cause is God
and His sovereign will. Cain and Abel, they're following
the regulations of worship and they're offering what they have
as a sacrifice to God, as an offering to God. And God does
not accept Cain. So Cain's sacrifice is moot. And we can debate that all we
want. We can talk, well, what's this? What were they thinking?
What's about this? Did he leave some vegetables out? I mean,
did God not like capricorns? I don't know. I'm just telling
you that the Bible says God didn't have favor for Cain, but God
had favor for Abel. Just like God didn't have favor
for many people and had favor for others. Just like Jesus healed
the one cripple and left 900 and something other
ones to just sit there. But what does Cain do? It's not acceptable, Cain. If
you would just obey, if you would just walk in a manner like I've
shown you, you'll be acceptable. Be humble, Cain. And Cain took
that as a way of hardening. And in God's providence, in God's
purpose, in God's sovereignty, in God's power, he purposed it
this way. McCain is a murderer. He murdered his brother in his
heart long before he hit him with whatever he hit him with. And so in an attempt to make
face, he goes to feel better, to establish himself, he goes
out, sort of like Joseph, right? His brothers hated him. Jesus,
His people hated Him. So He goes out and He kills His
brother Abel. And the Bible, oh goodness, it's just so hard
not to just sit and pull a chair up and just sit here and just
talk about this for days, but the Bible says that the blood of Abel cries
out from the ground. cries out for vengeance, cries
out for justice. And it puts that in comparison
to the blood of Christ that is greater than the blood of Abel,
that testifies not for justice, but it testifies justice is served. You see the difference? Like
Moses as the lawgiver, as the death bringer, and Jesus, the
life giver, the shackle breaker. That's the whole thing. And the
anointed one of God is to set His people free, not bind them
up. We see the same sacrificial system
in the context of Abraham taking this son, not Ishmael, which
was also his son, whom he loved, taking Isaac to the mountain
to be sacrificed. And Isaac didn't know it. That's
Genesis 22. And in this text, it's hard for
me to read the narrative there when I'm in a good state of just
really being aware and present in the Word without truly being
struck at my heart and being emotional. I feel the lump in
my throat. because I see the point of God's
purpose and Christ in it, the sacrificial system where God
has created a people for himself and the means through which he
will justly forgive them without costing them anything. And he
will prepare a way for them when they can't find the way for themselves.
And as they run into the fire of destruction, he will swoop
them up in the wind of affection and he will bring them out to
a place where they will eat with him and dine with him. and have
intimacy with him forever. Out of the pigpen, Luke 15, with
a name and a robe and an inheritance that wasn't even yours, because
you blew yours. And several times Isaac asked,
Hey, Dad, what are we going to kill when we get up there? What
are we going to burn? And Abraham said, son, the Lord will
provide a sacrifice for his burnt offering. Paul writes to the Hebrews. He
writes to the Hebrews. Abraham obeyed when he was called
to go out to a place that he was to receive an inheritance
when he went out. He did so not knowing. And this man, good as
dead, et cetera. And he goes on to say in verse
17 of chapter 11 of Hebrews, by faith, Abraham, when he was
tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises
was in the act of offering up his only son of whom it was said
through Isaac, shall your offspring be named. Abraham considered
that God was even able to raise Isaac from the dead. which, figuratively
speaking, He did receive Him back. It doesn't stop there. We see
the superiority of the sacrificial system as it came into the world
through Moses. The establishment of the precepts
of all of the regulations over and over again. We see it, the
Levitical system, the law given on Mount Sinai, which actually
Paul has something to say about that in Hebrews 12. And as the people of the Lord
had just been miraculously saved at the Passover, which the Passover
was what? It cost blood. And every home, whether they
believed it or not, if there was blood on their doorpost,
they did not die. No matter how strong, no matter
how fearful, no matter how weak, no matter how cynical, they did
not die. If there was blood on their doorpost,
they did not die. For the blood is the one thing
through which we escape justice. And I think we need to start
equating wrath with justice when we talk about the gospel. We
escape righteous justice because of the blood. I don't even know who told this
story one time, but they personified a couple of hypothetical people
in the days of the exodus in Egypt. Just say these two men
and they're talking as they're getting this buckets of blood
ready and they're standing outside their houses and they're jawing
about it. And one's all excited about the
idea, you know, I can't believe the Lord's going to save us this
way. This is so beautiful. This is so amazing. I was just blah
and all this kind of stuff. And the other was like, man,
this is ridiculous. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. It's just
nonsense. What is wrong with him? Moses
is crazy. I mean, he's already walking around with a stick,
acting like he's some wizard or something. I mean, he's all, he's crazy.
And I just don't believe this garbage, and I'm going to do
it. I'm not that dumb, but I'll see
you in the morning. No angel is going to kill all
these babies. And the very next morning, the
question is posed in this comparison, which one of those two households
wept over the death of their firstborn? And the answer is
neither of them. It's not about us. It's about
the blood of Christ. The Mosaic Law in the Passover,
the blood shall be assigned for you on the houses where you are.
And when I, God says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you
and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike
the land of Egypt. It's important to understand,
too, that I guarantee you that a large number of Egyptians put
blood on their doors, too. Had you just seen rivers turn
to blood, locusts, plagues, frogs, livestock dying, fire coming
from heaven, darkness? And then that dumb old wizard
comes out and says, OK, I'm going to kill all your children unless
you put blood on your door. There's a lot of bloodied Egyptian
doors at night, but there were a lot who also didn't. In Leviticus 16, the day of atonement,
Yom Kippur, is established. The Scriptures say, this shall
be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for
the people of Israel once in the year because of all their
sins. All of these pictures And then since Moses and all
the way through Malachi, we have a group of individuals who are
continually what? Talking and telling people and reminding
them about the covenant of God, the promises of God. We have
Isaiah, we have Malachi, we have Jeremiah, they're called the
prophets. And these prophets speak about sacrifices. The prophets
bring in not just the eternal, salvific message of the sacrifices,
but also the temporal benefit of the sacrifices. Some of these
conditional things, like if you do this, then I'll do this. If
you do that, then I'll do this, God says. If you follow me in
this way, you'll prosper. If you don't, you're going to
starve. Why would God do that? We see
it. We see why God did it, to show that even when humanity
had it all in their hands possible, they still couldn't produce it.
You cannot produce righteousness, beloved. If the perfect people walking
in... I mean, can you imagine walking with Jesus with everything
that you could ever need? Life. If they couldn't muster
the discipline to resist the flesh, how can we? When I emphasize and beat the
drum of faith and hope being rest, it's because the scripture
teaches that. And beloved, when we rest, we're
not working. The harder we work to satisfy
God, the worse we are. And the deeper we rest in the
satisfaction of God, the greater our works will be, the greater
our love will be, the greater our obedience will be. And we'll
be able to see what John talks about in his first letter when
he says, the law of God is not laborious for the believer. It's not laborious. The prophets,
Psalm 51. David, I mean, this is his confession
song. I've got a new song for you today,
beloved. It's a song of my confession. Let's sing it together, stand.
I mean, could you imagine? Now what does David say? He says,
you will not delight in sacrifice, because if you did, I'd give
it to you. If you wanted me to kill something, I'd do it. You'd
not be pleased with a burnt offering, though, God. The sacrifices that
you do want, what is pleasing to you is a contrite heart, a
broken spirit. Oh God, please don't despise
me. Now see, David was authentic. He was the king and he didn't
care what people thought of him in the context of what he was
feeling. He didn't play politics with his mouth. He played politics
with other things. He played politics trying to
hide his guilt at the cost of his dearest friend
so he could look the hero. But when it came to his authenticity
and his writing and his poeticness, he was honest. He whined and
complained and cried and prayed. Take note, beloved, you can't
pretend, you can't posture before the Father who knows the innermost
parts of you. And if we'd stop posturing before
one another, I think we'd be closer than we've ever been.
And I think that also needs to start at home with our spouses
and with our children. We need to be honest. In Isaiah 53, we see the prophecy
of Christ. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that's led to the
slaughter, like a sheep that before its shears is silent,
so He opened not His mouth. Sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Because we are sprinkled with
the blood of Christ, out of that foundation, we are able to love
and obedience. And when we can't, out of the
next foundation, we are set apart already by the Spirit. What can
I do to be set apart? You can't, because God has set
you apart as an elect child who He loves before the foundation
of the world. See, that's how you preach it
backwards. That's next week's sermon, by the way. To show the
triune God. Jesus Christ is the ultimate
sacrifice. His death is the point of all of it. The final. John the Baptist,
John chapter 1, verse 29 and 30, somewhere in there. Behold,
the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Remember
this guy, right? John the Baptist. If there was
anybody who had bad fashion or poor manners or terrible etiquette,
it was John the Baptist. Born from a priest, a family
of priests. And ended up being this weird
guy that you would try to not give a dollar to at the filling
station. I saw a meme some time ago by
some famous pastor. Had a drawing rendition of John
the Baptist. This is what a real man looks
like. In comparison to somebody else
wearing like a coat and a bow tie or something. I'm like, yeah,
sure. That's just what we need to do.
in the body of Christ. John the Baptist was a nobody,
so when he's like, the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the
world, and he started having people follow after his teaching
and he was baptizing them, the authorities couldn't care less,
because that's quack. He's a quack, they're a quack,
all of that quack quack, Old MacDonald, here we are. We've got it, it's
a farm of nut jobs, but when Jesus was baptized, So they went and they inquired
about John, the Pharisees, who are you and what authority do
you have to baptize? He said, there's not my authority.
One comes after me that is before me. I'm not even worthy to clean
his sandals off. In other words, I'm not worthy
to wash his feet as a slave. I'm not worthy to take off his
shoes. He's going to baptize with fire. Watch out! Bugs in his mouth. I mean, you
know? They're like, yeah, okay. But when the Lamb showed up,
I want you to think about it for
a second. Jesus is the Lord. Jesus is the King. Jesus is the
God of glory. But He is known in the Bible
by His design as the Son of Man, the human man, and the Lamb of
God. and the Son of God. The Lamb of God kept silent because
His purpose was to die. His purpose was to die, not just
to show the way as a martyr, but to die as a payment for justice. Because it is unjust for God
to just say, that's okay. I know you've done wrong and
you've violated the law and you've violated righteousness, it's
okay. It's not okay, it's not okay, it's wrong. It's evil for
anyone in justice to say that's okay. It's not evil for us to
forgive because we've been forgiven. And it's not evil for God the
Father to forgive because Christ paid it all. I know we know this
stuff, beloved. But Peter is very clear, this
is not like a nugget. This isn't the cherry on top
of this thing. This is the structure. This is the architectural foundation,
the skeletal structure of this entire letter. If we're hanging sheetrock on
the wall, every stud is the gospel of grace. And it's filled with
the insulation of God's sovereignty. Let's keep doing construction
metaphors. How many you got? The Last Supper, as I've already
mentioned, this is my blood, the covenant, the new promise,
the new contract. This is the point of everything.
This is the reason the world exists, so that you would understand
the freedom that you have in me for what I'm about to do for
you. And Peter, it's like, no sirree, Bob, you're not washing
my feet. No, you don't have to die. No,
you're not getting arrested, chopping ears and stuff. Peter, your zeal is misplaced,
brother. I'll die with you, Jesus. Hell,
whatever, you're going to deny me three times before you hear
the rooster crow, before the sun comes up. Never! And not only was it denial, he
cursed Christ. Feed my sheep. When Christ had offered for all
times a single sacrifice for sin, he sat down at the right
hand of God. Hebrews chapter 1. Therefore now, Hebrews chapter
9, he is the mediator of a new promise, of a new contract, of
a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the
promised eternal inheritance Since death has occurred that
redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first contract. Because we are cleaned by the
blood of Christ. We seek to follow after Christ
in his way. Because we've been set apart and called by the father
and the spirit. And as I've said in the beginning,
this covenant is, yes, for me personally and for you individually,
but the essence of it is for us collectively. And I think that's something
else because we do need to reflect. We do need some intrinsic work.
We do need to consider and be aware of who we are and what
we're doing in this world. We do need to take time out.
take care of our needs and love ourselves so that we can love
others also the way we love ourselves. But when we lose sight of the
fact that it is us, we worship Christ, we will be together in
eternity. There'll be no isolation booths in the new world. We won't
need them. We won't have social disorders.
We won't have ADD. We won't have any of these problems. We won't be obsessed with perfection.
It will already be perfect. And I smile because I'm not so
sure that I can see that. It might be perfect because I
don't have a role in it. But it's hard to envision. It's
just so silly to envision perfection. But the death of Christ transforms
us. to be a people for His glory,
to the praise of His glorious grace. See, when you see Paul
write, when you see James write, you see John write, you see all
these apostles write their letters, they're not saying anything different.
There's no conflict there. It's all about the response that
we have as children of God to the love of God for us. And that
response is to Him because of what He's done for us, But that
response is for others also. And I want you to hang on that
for a minute as we close out our service. I want you to hang
on that for a second as you go home. I want you to think about
that tomorrow when you get up for work or whatever it is that
you have to do, whether you're working at home or out in the market. I want you to embrace that on
Tuesday when we're traveling or when you're dealing with somebody.
I want you to be mindful on Wednesday of the fact that the gospel of
grace is yours, beloved, because of the love of God for you. Therefore,
that is the funnel, the filter, the fuel through which our lives
are supposed to be lived. And Thursday, I want you to pray
for me because I haven't done it at all, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
And so I'm going to be frustrated because Sunday's coming. Friday, hee-yah, oh, I haven't
done laundry, I haven't cut the grass, we haven't washed the
car, whatever comes up, dog's got a splinter, kid breaks an
arm, I don't know. No matter what happens, good,
bad, or indifferent, let's be mindful of the gospel. Get into
those disciplines I talked about last week of prayer and reading
the Word, looking for opportunity, asking God to open your hearts
to serve others. Because the Christian life is
not about transforming the culture, establishing a national kingdom,
or promoting some generalized sense in which evangelicalism
takes over everything. The Christian life is not about
just doing church on Sunday and having a Bible study. Those are
small, teeny things. The first things I've mentioned
are not even part of our lives. But these last two things I've mentioned
are small parts of a large time frame of 168 hours a week. And incrementally, these small
little opportunities that we have, we need to be living Christ-filled
lives by considering what He's done for us. And in that consideration,
the flow of the Spirit of God's work, the work that He had prepared
beforehand for us to walk in, we'll walk into our lives and
afterwards we'll go, wow, look what the Lord did there. We don't
have to hunt it. We don't have to seek it. We
don't have to make it. We just have to be. I hope you
understand that. Let's pray as we prepare for
the table. Father, we are glad to be able to come and worship
and hear your word and think about these things in a way that
is not inhibited or that you've fully given us understanding. Lord, help us to walk, help us
to walk with ourselves and with those close to us in a loving
way and do so because of what Christ has done. Father, as we grow in those disciplines,
Lord, take us out to the wider world in which we live. Lord, I pray for those who are
not able to be here with us this morning because so many are sick,
so many are ill, so many are just not well. Some are troubled. The father
put in their hearts for them to be in touch with us so that
we do not worry and labor. And we thank you, Father, when
we hear from our brothers and sisters in the faith that we
are. So glad that we can rejoice and we thank you for it, for
you get the praise and the glory. Help us to spend our time in
these things. And as we take the table this morning, Father,
help us to remember these things. In Jesus name. Amen.