and here in fear. Now, really,
this should be translated, since you call on the Father, you've
been born of God, He's made Himself your Father, and since you do
call on the Father, you call on God as your Father, past the
time of your sojourning here in fear. We call on the Father,
who we know judges according to the heart. He doesn't judge
according to the appearance of the flesh or outward appearances.
But he looks on the heart. So since that's our father, we
call on him, call on him in reverence, in sincerity, in truth, and worship
him in spirit and in truth. And remember that you're sojourning
here. God's children are just pilgrims
passing through here. This is not our home. We're just
passing through. We're not citizens of this world.
We've been born again. We're going to look at that here
in the lesson this morning. We've been born again. And that
second birth makes us citizens of a new country. We have a new
citizenship. We were born citizens of this
world, but we've been born again, citizens of a heavenly country.
And we're just passing through here, and as you're passing through,
Don't get caught up in the things of this world, because you don't
belong here. These things don't belong to you. They're not, you
know, don't get caught up in the political landscape and the
thing you're just passing through. Don't act like the people of
this world. Follow the example of our father, of our Savior.
As we said in verse 15 last week in our lesson, but as he which
hath called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation. Follow the example of our Lord. And remember, as you're passing
through here, we're not our own. Look over in 1 Corinthians 16.
We've been bought with a price. Now, we're not our own. And we're
told to conduct ourselves accordingly. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19. What? that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and
you are not your own. For you are bought with a price.
Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which
are God's." He's redeemed us both body and soul. Glorify Him
in both. He's bought both. We've been
bought. Now, what price have we been bought with? The title
of the lesson this morning is The High Price of Redemption.
What price have we been bought with? Well, verse 18, he says,
for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers. Now, the single great need of
every son of Adam is that we be redeemed. We need to be redeemed
in Adam. We were sold under sin. We are
fallen soul under sin. And the law has a price on our
head that must be paid if we're ever going to go free. We must
be redeemed, bought back from sin, bought back from the law.
God's justice demands payment for our sin. And that ransom
price has to be paid to the father because he's the one we've sinned
against. The ransom price has to be paid to him. And believers
know, he says, you know this. You know how we've been redeemed
because you're taught of God. The Lord didn't leave this matter
of redemption. To speculation. He didn't leave
it up to interpretation. Well, you know, I interpret that
we've been redeemed this way and I interpret that we've been
redeemed this way. Somebody else interprets it this way. No, this
has not been left open to interpretation. It's not left open to guesswork
or my opinion or your opinion. God's provided one way of redemption. It's the blood of His Son. Just
one way. So we know. We don't have to
guess about this. I love knowing things. I don't
like having to guess about things or being uncertain. I hate that. We know that we're not redeemed
with silver and gold. Our soul is spiritual. It can't be redeemed and bought
with material things. Our soul is eternal. It can't
be bought with something that's just temporal. And men's religious
traditions will teach many different ways, never different kinds of
ways of redemption. And they're all empty promises,
they all just follow the logic of men. Now to the Jews, and
Peter knew this very well, to the Jews, the traditions of the
fathers, had become as important or in many cases more important
than God's word. They said, well, you've broken
the traditions of the fathers. Well, what does the word say?
Well, I don't know, but you've broken the traditions of the
fathers. They just become bent out of shape about that. But
believers have been redeemed from that, from that bondage,
from that way of thinking, we've been redeemed and set free from
religion, set free from religious traditions. And we've been set
free from that the same way we've been redeemed, set free from
the law and from sin. It's not with money. It's not
with our actions. You know, we've reformed our
lives and changed our actions and, you know, turned over a
new leaf. We know we've been redeemed. Verse 19, he says,
with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. is the high price of redemption. The cost of our sin debt is so
high that nothing can pay the price except the blood of Christ. The only thing that can pay the
price of our redemption is the blood of God's own son. Now, that tells us how high the
price is, that that's what it takes, the blood of God's son.
And Peter says it's precious blood. Precious blood. Now something is precious. First
of all, if it's rare. Something's very rare, it's precious. A Honus Wagner baseball card
is precious because there's very, very few of them made. If I understand
the story right, a tobacco company started to make his baseball
card. He was against tobacco and he
made them quit making them. And so just very, very few of
them are made. And if you got one today, you're a millionaire
because there's few of them. They're precious. Well, the blood
of Christ is so rare, it's the only human blood that's ever
existed that's been pure and sinless. It's rare. It's the
only one and none like it. It's precious blood. And second,
something is precious when it's very, very valuable. The blood
of Christ is valuable because it's the blood of God. This is
the blood of God. Our souls, in order to be redeemed,
it's going to take the blood of God flowing through the veins
of a man. It's God's blood and it's the
blood of a man that's pure and sinless. What can wash away my
sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, precious is the flow. Precious blood. That blood is
precious, thirdly, because of whose blood it is. That blood
is precious to the Father. That's the blood of His Son.
And that blood is precious to the believer. That blood is all
my hope of my sin ever being put away. All my hope is in His
blood. His blood is precious because
He's precious. Look across or down the page
here at chapter 2, verse 7. Unto you therefore which believe,
He is precious. Oh, He's precious. And His blood
is precious because of whose blood it is. It's the blood of
Christ. And we're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ,
our substitute This is a blood that shed as a substitute for
sin. Peter says this is the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Now look back at Exodus chapter
12. What Peter's talking about here is the Passover lamb. That's
what he's referring to, a lamb without blemish and without spot. Exodus 12 verse 3. Now speak ye unto all the congregation
of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall
take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for an house. And if the household be too little
for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house
take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according
to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb
shall be without blemish. A male of the first year, you
should take it out from the sheep or from the goats, and you should
keep it up until the 14th day of the same month. And the whole
assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening. That lamb was a lamb without
blemish, without spot. They kept it up and watched it
for four days, making sure it didn't have any disease, any
spot, any sickness, any halt in its step. It was a perfect
lamb. They watched it to be sure it was. And then the whole assembly,
the congregation, killed it in the evening. They killed it.
They slit its throat. They drained its blood and they
roast its body with fire. And they took the blood, put
it on the doorpost and went in and shut the door. And they ate
that lamb. That Passover lamb was sacrificed
as a substitute for the firstborn in every house. That night in
Egypt, when the Lord passed through in every house in the land of
Egypt, somebody's going to die. There's going to be death. God's
judgment's passing through and there will be death. Either the
death of the firstborn or the death of that lamb, the substitute.
And everywhere where that lamb was sacrificed, his blood was
shed and blood applied to the doorpost, that firstborn lived
because a substitute died in his place. And that's a picture
of Christ, our sacrifice. He's the Lamb of God. John said,
behold, the Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the world. He's
the perfect, sinless Son of God. And he lived a public life. Thirty-three
years he lived in the community. People watched him. And even
in his mock trial, they couldn't charge him with sin. There was
no sin in him. And in the prime of his life,
he was taken and he was sacrificed. as a sacrifice for his people.
His blood was shed to pay the sin debt of his people as an
offering for sin. Just like that Passover lamb
died representing one son, the son in that house, Christ our
Passover was sacrificed for his sons, for all the sons that the
Father gave him, all of his elect. In Egypt that night and that
morning, that firstborn lived because the Passover lamb died
and its blood was applied. In all of God's elect, every
single one of them have eternal life because he died. His blood
was shed as payment for our sin and God the Holy Spirit comes
and applies it to your heart. And you live because he died,
the Passover lamb, without blemish and without spot. And we know this. Can you imagine
such a thing? Such a blessing? We know this. We're redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. Not our doing. Not our religious
activity. It's the blood. His blood. Nothing else could pay the price
and God wouldn't accept anything else but His blood. Look at Leviticus
chapter 17. He gave this in type and picture
clear throughout the Old Testament. Leviticus 17, verse 11. For the life of the
flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar
to make an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that
maketh an atonement for the soul. In Christ our substitute, he
didn't take the blood of bulls and coves. He took his own blood. and entered in once into the
heavenlies, having obtained eternal redemption. He redeemed His people
eternally. All of them. He took His own
blood. And the amazing truth of the
Gospel is that God's Son, perfect, holy, shed His blood for me and for
you. That's the amazing truth of the
gospel. He bought us. We're a purchased people. He
bought us with His own blood. Look in Acts chapter 20. We're
a purchased people. We read it there in 1 Corinthians
a little bit ago. You bought with a price. Here
in Acts 20 verse 28. Paul here is speaking to the
Ephesian elders and he tells them, you take heed therefore
unto yourselves and all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath
made you overseers. You feed the church of God which
he hath purchased with his own blood. It's the blood. It's the
blood. It's the blood. It's the blood.
It's the blood. That's our message. It's the blood. That's where
redemption is found. It's in the blood. And if you
look at Revelations chapter 5, this is our story. throughout time on this earth.
And at the end of time, the message is still not going to change.
Revelations five, verse nine. And they sung a new song saying,
thou are worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God. How? By thy blood
out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. He's redeemed
us with his Precious blood. Precious blood shed for sinners. That's a contradiction. Precious
blood shed for sinners. But that's what he did. And he
goes on here in verse 20 in our text. This Lamb, without blemish
and without spot, who barely was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.
Now the fall of Adam. Didn't take God by surprise.
God didn't put Adam in the garden and think, well, it's all finished
now. I've got these, you know, they're perfect and sinless and
this is wonderful, never change. And then Adam fell and took God
by surprise. He said, what are we going to
do now? No. Known unto God are all his
works from the beginning. He put Adam in the garden knowing
full well he's going to fall. But before Adam ever fell, there
was a sacrifice. The sacrifice of God's Son is
not an afterthought. God chose His Son to be the Savior
of the world before the world was ever created. Before there
was ever a sinner, there was a Savior. Before we were ruined
in Adam, there was a Redeemer. And Christ is the eternal Savior. He's the only way God ever intended
to save sinners was through the sacrifice of his son. He knew
that before he ever made the garden. The elect were chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. That's the way
God's always seen his elect is in the sun washed in the blood
of the land. And today we see in the gospel,
we see in God's word, Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Now look back in Revelations
chapter five again. That's the way we see him today.
We've seen that way today with the eyes of faith, don't we?
At the end of the world, we're going to see him the exact same
way. That's the way John saw him in Revelation 5, verse 6.
And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the
four beasts, in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it
had been slain. He's a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And after this world is destroyed
and wrapped up and put away, that's why he's still going to
be the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He will stand as
the sacrifice for sin, the one who was sacrificed for sins. That's the way God's purpose
has been eternally. But that was hidden for a long
time, wasn't it? And when he did reveal it to
the fathers, it was revealed in type and picture and shadow. But it's been made manifest to
you, Peter says, It's been made known to you. It's been made
so you can see it today. He's seen by you. He's manifest
in the Word. Christ, the Lamb slain, is manifest
in the preaching of the gospel. He's manifest to you because
the Lord has given you eyes to see. That's why he's manifest
to you. But now, who's the you he's talking
about here? I'm really interested in knowing. Is that talking about
me? I want to know that. Is that talking about me? How
do I know? He died for me. He shed his precious
blood for me. He rose again for me. How do
I know that? Who's the you he's talking about?
If you believe he's talking to you, that's who Christ came to
die, if you believe. Look at verse 21. He was manifest
in these last times for you who by him do believe God, that raised
him from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope
might be in God. If you believe God, Then Christ
died for you. It's as simple as that. It really
is. If you believe that the Father
sacrificed His Son, He killed His Son in justice for your sin,
then He died and the Father raised Him again because that precious
blood put away all of your sin. Then Christ died for you. That's
what Scripture says. Now, if you have faith in God,
God gave it, didn't He? Faith is the gift of God. You
do, Peter says, by him do believe in God, by his power, by his
gift, you believe God. If you believe him, that he died
for you, he was buried for you and he's risen for you. Send
it back to the Father, given all glory as the successful Savior.
Then Christ died for you. That's who he's talking to right
there. It's as simple as that. Now, verse 22, seeing you purified
your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit, unto unfeigned
love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure
heart fervently." Now, we know our souls have been purified
by the blood of Christ. When the Holy Spirit applies
the blood, you're pure. But Scripture here still says
you've purified your souls. Well, you've purified your souls
in this sense. You're the one who's believed
the truth. You're the one who's come to Christ. You're the one
who's obeyed the gospel and believed on Christ. Now, you did it through
the power of the Spirit. You didn't do it through your
own power. You did it through the power of the Spirit. But
you are the one that bleeds. And God says you're pure. Pure, sinless. It doesn't look that way, does
it? But that's what God says. That's the way God sees us. That's
the way we are made in Christ. Pure. Now, we're born the first
time with a soul that's polluted with sin. And it's not just dirty
on top like the countertop gets dirty and you wipe it off. It's
defiled through and through. Yet every soul that's been washed
in the blood of Christ is pure. I mean, completely without sin,
not even a taint of it. And it's not just the dirt's
been wiped off the top and put a new covering on it's dirty
still underneath. It's you're pure through and
through. completely pure, sanctified by
the blood of Christ. And the result of sanctification,
the result of being made pure and holy, is love of the brethren. That's the evidence of sanctification,
is love. Look at 1 John chapter 3. 1 John
3 verse 14. Here's another one of those things
we know. We know that we have passed from death unto life.
How? Because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. If you don't love your brother,
you're still dead. But everyone that God's made alive loves the
brethren. Look over in chapter 4, verse
7. Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone
that loveth is born of God. and knoweth God. He that loveth
not knoweth not God, for God is love. In verse 11, Beloved,
if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No
man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and his love is perfected in us. That is the end, the result
of sanctification every time. Love of the brethren. And Peter
says, now see that you do this. Love one another with a pure
heart, fervently. Love in truth, not just in word,
but in action, not just a show on Sunday, but in reality, fervently,
without stopping. In verse 23, he says, being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And he says, you've
been born again. You hear a lot in our day about
born-again Christians. This is a real popular phrase,
born-again Christians. I read a story this week about
a hotshot basketball recruit. I think he's a senior in high
school. Buddy, everybody's after him. But he came and visited
the University of Kentucky. This is why I was reading. I'm
interested in him. And he really liked his visit. Because the
athletic director at the University of Kentucky, he says, is a born-again
Christian like me. And I thought, well, that's good.
But there's not another kind. Was there some dead Christian?
Is there some Christian that has only been born once? Every
child of God. That's a Christian, right? A
child of God has been born again. If you're not, you're a son of
Adam. If you're a son of God, you've been born again. It's
more than just being born the first time of the flesh. Everyone
who believes in Christ has been born again. And children are
conceived by seed. In our first birth, we are conceived
by the seed of our Father, a sinful, corrupt seed. We inherited the
nature of our Father. We inherited the characteristics
of our Father through His seed. And the sin nature of our earthly
fathers passed to us, corrupted our souls through His corrupt,
sinful seed. But in the second birth, we're
conceived by seed too. It's the exact same way. But
this is the seed of our Heavenly Father. And in the second birth,
we inherited the nature of our father. We inherited the characteristics
of our heavenly father through his seed. The holy nature of
our heavenly father is passed to his children through his seed.
And the child of God has faith, has love, walks in holiness,
because those are the characteristics of our heavenly father that were
passed to us through his seed. The nature of our father has
been given to us in the new birth. Now, we still have that first
nature to the nature of this flesh, and that nature can do
nothing but sin because it was born of corruptible seed. But
the new nature that we received of our heavenly father can never
sin. It's incorruptible. It can't
be made to sin because it's incorruptible. It's been born from incorruptible
seed. The seed of our first birth was
corruptible. So we're corruptible. That's
why one day we're going to die and decay because we've been
born from corruption. But the seed of that second birth
has made us incorruptible in a soul that cannot sin and that
will never die, that has eternal life within glory. And that incorruptible
seed is the word of God. It's what you're holding in your
lap. It's the word of God. And that's why we make so much
of God's Word. That's why I can't do anything
but go verse by verse through the Word. This is the seed where
you find life. Eternal life is found in the
Word. It's incorruptible seed. But now, on the other hand, verse
24, all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man is the flower
of grass. The grass withereth and the flower
thereof falleth away. You know, in springtime, the
grass It's so green, it's lush, it's just brighter colors. The
flowers bloom so bright and beautiful and you just feel better in the
springtime. Everything's beautiful, the flowers
and the grass. Of course, you've got to cut
it twice a week, but it's pretty. This time of year, the grass
starts to turn brown. It doesn't grow nearly as fast. The flowers, they're not nearly
as bright. They're kind of drooping or maybe they're already dead.
If they're at my house, they're already dead. And flesh is the
same way. In youth, it's so lush and beautiful. It recovers quick. It bounces
back quick. But I'm telling you, it doesn't
take long until it starts to decay. It starts to wither. It
loses its strength. It loses its beauty. And pretty
soon, it goes back to the dust that it was made of because it's
born from corruptible seed. But verse 25, The word of the Lord endureth
forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. The flesh is so temporary, but
the word of God endures forever. It never changes. It never goes
out of style. It never fails to meet the need
of God's people. Over the course of history, you
think how fashion has changed and customs have changed. And,
you know, over the course of the last 500 years, the world
is a totally different place. And this word is still as precious
to God's people as it was 500 years ago, 1000 years ago, 1500
years ago. It still meets the needs of God's
people. It endures forever. It never
goes hostile. It never loses its glory. It
never loses its strength. It never loses its power. This
is the eternal gospel that's preached unto you. The message
never changes. We don't get smarter. We don't
think up a new way to say it. It never changes because God's
Word never changes. And if the message ever changes,
it's because it's not the gospel. If the message changes, it's
because it's not from God's Word, because God's Word didn't change. I promise you that God's Word
did not change. So if the message changes, it's
a message that's not from God's Word. I thought this morning as I was
going over my notes. This is such a happy day, we're
so happy to meet here in this building and just so thankful
for what the Lord provided. So thankful. And our prayer is
what Cecil prayed. This is the place our children
and grandchildren can come and hear the gospel and all we want
preserved for men. This is the witness that God's
given in our town. I'm so thankful for it. And I heard Henry say so many
times, he's preaching, he says, someday there will be a hotel
here. And I thought, what in the world? And I don't want to bring up
sad thoughts, but I'm telling you, You young people, if you're
here many, many, many years from now and this message changes,
you get out of this building. Just get out of it. If the message
changes, it's not the gospel. And I'm thankful that the Lord,
you know, that's a scary thing. Maybe I shouldn't have said that.
Never say something that's not in your notes. But the Lord's not going to leave
himself without witness. I'm thankful. I'm so thankful
the Lord preserves faithful men that preach the gospel to us.
And He will. We'll just continue looking to Him, and He will.
All right. Well, Lord bless you.