1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 18,
just a few verses today. And here's what the apostle tells
us. Forasmuch as ye know that ye
were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you. Who by him do believe in God,
that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your
faith and hope might be in God. Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading to us. One of the great disservices
done to men and women today by churches and by preachers is
dumbing down the gospel message. I have said before that the gospel
is not complicated. but it is profound. It deals with weighty matters,
matters of eternal importance, matters with serious consequences
for spiritual life and spiritual death. It is an important subject,
an important message, and it ought to be given its due weight. Every single person that you
and I know has an everlasting soul and preachers have a duty
to honestly address the needs of that soul. We used to speak about distant,
foreign, un-evangelised groups who had never heard the gospel. But I fear that there are many
today in our own lands, in our own communities, who are equally
ill-served by having had a potted gospel,
a pared down gospel, a dumbed down gospel, even to the point
of a corrupt gospel given to them instead of the full gospel
and the true gospel of Jesus Christ. And people often believe
that it is well with their souls though they've never even heard
the true gospel, far less believed it. And distilling the gospel
down to making one simple decision or presenting it as five steps
to faith or the gospel ABC might sound inclusive, might sound
helpful, but it ends up presenting a message which isn't good news
because it ultimately deceives the hearer by hiding the true
Christ and denying the finished work of salvation on the cross. Let me just repeat, you don't
have to believe in order to make the death of Christ effective. Christ's death accomplished exactly
what it was meant to achieve, whether you believe it or not. The power is in the blood, not
in the will of the individual. and Judgment Day will reveal
that. People who imagine that they
are saved because they've believed, as if they in their belief, they
in their faith have made effective the work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
have not understood the gospel, though that may well have been
what they were taught. We are blessed, says the Apostle
Paul, to receive the gospel not as the word of men, but as it
is in truth, the word of God. Listen, the word of God, which
effectually worketh also in you that believe. So may the Lord
provide us with access to the true gospel of God's free grace
in Christ and may that work effectually in our hearts to quicken and
to convert and to comfort us and to bring us ourselves and
those that we love ever closer to our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. I want to remind us again today
of some of those weighty matters of gospel truth. And again I
say, the gospel isn't complicated. There is a simplicity in Christ,
both in his person and his work, and in the message that he has
committed to his church. Nevertheless, We shall be blessed
and we shall be comforted and we shall be protected in our
souls against the challenges that we face in this life. The more that we know about the
work of Christ and the eternal plan of grace. The more that
we are familiar with what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for
us, the better prepared we will be to face the challenges of
this life. The more we know what our sovereign
saviour was ordained to do and has brought to pass, the better
we will serve the Lord and be comforted by him. Now by God's
grace, we have learned that we are sinners. We've been thinking
about that, how that by the fall of Adam, by him bringing his
race under God's judgment, we are sinners both by nature and
by practice. And what a terrible thing a sinner
is. How disgusting to God a sinner
is. How devious and proud and deluded
is a sinner. Our wicked heart tells us that
we're not as bad as we might be, and our darkened mind believes
it. so that it is not until the glorious
light of the gospel shines upon our understanding, it is not
until God himself illuminates our benighted souls that we truly
begin to understand our condition before God. And it's only when
we begin to understand our state before the holy God that we can
possibly begin to appreciate the true measure of our pitiful
and perilous situation. But the gospel teaches us about
our sin. and the gospel as it is preached
to us is used by God the Holy Spirit to bring us into an awareness,
not only of that one who is the way of salvation, but of our
need of a saviour. And it not only shows us our
need, it points us to the only solution for that need. Just
as Moses raised that pole in the wilderness with the brass
serpent at its top, we understand that there is a way of life,
a way of salvation that has been granted by God in the lifting
up of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. A few weeks ago we learned that
Noah found grace in the sight of God. And the Lord be praised. There is grace to be found in
the Lord Jesus Christ. There is hope for sinners like
you, like me, if God will show us his grace. We can take the testimony of
Noah and we can say, if the Lord God showed mercy to one man in
this wicked world, perhaps he will be merciful also to me. There is hope in the mercy of
our God. Last week we learned that God
had identified a people in his eternal purpose. He placed his
love upon this people. He identified a people from amongst
the fallen race of Adam to whom love and grace and mercy is shown
in Christ. by their being chosen to salvation
and sanctified in Christ according to God's covenant purpose. And these chosen people are variously
called in scripture, the elect. They're called the Lord's people. They're called his little flock.
They're called a remnant people, a holy nation. and many other
names by which they are identified throughout Scripture, throughout
the Word of God. David calls them the redeemed
of the Lord. Peter calls them strangers in
this world, a peculiar people. That word peculiar there, it
doesn't mean that we're odd, it means that we are valued,
that God has valued us. John calls us the bride, the
lamb's wife. And this group, this great congregation,
this people that are thus identified are a fixed number that no man
can number and yet who will comprise the Lord's people in heaven. a people whose names are written
in the Lamb's book of life, kings and priests, who sing to Christ,
Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof
for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. This is
the song of the Lord's people in glory, that Christ is worthy
because he has redeemed us by his blood from every kindred,
tongue, people and nation, brought us to himself by his own great
work and sovereign power. And it's this great work of redemption
that takes our attention today in these few verses from Peter,
from 1 Peter. Peter, in these verses, speaks
of the Lord Jesus Christ being foreordained before the foundation
of the world. These are truths, these are things
that are revealed in scripture. Before the foundation of the
world, the Lord Jesus Christ is foreordained to redeem God's
elect with his precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. This speaks of the purity of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks of his worthiness. And this gives us our opening
point today, because what I want us to see is that Peter is directing
us to understand the suitability of the saviour to fulfil this
great work on our behalf. Our Lord is a suitable saviour. And we'll go on in a moment or
two to think of the Lord also as a selective saviour and finally
as a successful saviour. But first of all, Peter shows
us that Christ is preeminently a suitable saviour for sinners
like us. Now I mentioned earlier that
there are things we must know concerning the gospel. It's not
enough to tell people to believe in Jesus if they don't know who
Jesus is. near where we're staying at the
moment, there's a big sign on the roadside which says, Jesus
is the answer. Well, that may be true, but what's
the question? What is the question that that
is referring to? The Ethiopian eunuch was a serious
student of scripture. But as he read Isaiah, he was
reading Isaiah 53, as he read Isaiah, Philip called out to
him, do you understand what you're reading? He was reading concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the greatest passages in the
Old Testament with respect to the revelation of Christ's redemptive
work. He was reading about the lamb
being led to the slaughter. So Philip began there. In Isaiah
chapter 53, he began at the same scripture and he preached unto
him Jesus. Why? Because it was needful that
this man who had immersed himself in the scriptures, who was travelling
back and forward from Ethiopia to Jerusalem in order to worship
God, learned about the true identity of the Lord Jesus Christ and
what he had done. We have to know that the Lord
Jesus Christ is a saviour suitable to our need. We are sinners by nature. We are sinners by custom. We
are sinners by practice. We are slaves of Satan. We are in bondage to sin. We are transgressors of God's
law. We are guilty already. We are
condemned. The Bible teaches us we have
no power or strength within ourselves to free ourselves from that condition
or to pay the debts, to pay the ransom that would be required
to free us or liberate us. We need help. We need one who
will ransom us from that prison condition. who will redeem us from our debt,
who will stand surety for all our obligations. This one that we need, he must
be a man who is fit for the task. He must be able to represent
me as a man. He must be without sin of his
own. He must be well-pleasing to God. He must be obedient in all things
and yet able to bear a world of sin and endure the full measure
of punishment in his own soul. He must be willing
to suffer as a substitute. He must be willing to endure
divine justice to the very last drop from God's cup of wrath
against my sin. God's holiness requires satisfaction
for sin. God measures and weighs every
transgression of man and no mere man can carry the burden of his
own guilt or bear another's sin or pay the debt owed to God's
broken law. Only the Lord Jesus was such
a one. And in the everlasting councils
of heaven, in the covenant of grace, our Lord Jesus Christ
was ordained. That's what Peter tells us. He was foreordained before the
foundation of the world, from the beginning of the world. In
eternity, he was foreordained to satisfy every need of that
people that were committed into his hands. The hymn writer says,
there was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate
of heaven and let us in. So the Lord Jesus Christ is a
suitable saviour. But we also learn that the Lord
Jesus Christ is a selective saviour. And this is of the very essence
of Christ's redemptive work. We need a saviour who is able
to save. not a saviour who will make salvation
possible and then leave the rest of the job for us to do. Then a work or a decision or
some God-pleasing act would be required from spiritually dead
sinners who are enslaved and captive to Satan. How would we
be able to make up that work, to fulfil that task, to do that
thing, if we are so dead in sin? An old preacher, one of the old
writers likened that situation to a well-meaning man who stands
outside of a prison and he shouts to the prisoners within, I've
got enough money here to pay the ransom of all who come out
and claim it. What good does that do? Such
an offer doesn't meet the needs of the convicts who are chained
in their cells. It's no good saying to them,
come out and get this ransom payment and you'll be free. Sinners cannot free themselves
to come to Christ for what they need. Christ must supply a work
to free us, to break the chains and to set us free. And that
is exactly what Christ has done. This is what shows us the suitability
of Christ as a Saviour. He redeemed all for whom the
father, all that the father had given, all whom the father chose
in election. and delivered into his hands
were redeemed by Christ. They were set free. The peace
with God was effected on the cross and their salvation was
secured and accomplished. This is a work of Jesus Christ
on the cross. All those placed into his hand
for him to be surety for them were efficiently and effectively
saved on the cross. Paul tells us, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Now think about that for a moment.
It was when we were enemies. It wasn't when we were doing
something acceptable to God. It wasn't when we were being
obedient to his commands. It wasn't when we were exercising
our free will and doing what He wanted us to do. It was while
we were enemies that we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son. And this shows that it was guilty
sinners who were justified by Jesus' blood and saved from wrath
by His death. The good news of the Gospel,
what makes the Gospel good news, is that the Saviour Jesus Christ,
by his death, has made peace with God for all the chosen people
committed to his care. God's holy law is honoured in
the death of Jesus Christ. God's justice is satisfied by
the blood of Jesus Christ. God's love accomplished its purpose
of grace and the elect, the little flock, the remnant people, the
nation made holy by the blood of Christ was brought to God
and presented to him as a saved people. by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ upon the cross. And this leads us nicely to our
last point. Not only is Christ a suitable
saviour, not only was Christ a selective saviour in so much
as he saved effectively the people placed into his hand at the elective
purpose of God, but Christ is a successful saviour. Peter tells
us that Christ was raised from the dead and given glory. And this is our hope, brothers
and sisters. This is the reason why we are
able to have comfort and a sense of wellbeing in our spirits and
our souls, because we understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is
a living saviour, a successful saviour. The resurrection of
Jesus Christ verified the success of his sacrifice. All for whom
Christ died were actually cleansed by the precious blood he shed
on the cross. All those ransomed were freed
from prison and united to Christ's body, the church. All the debts
of all that he redeemed were completely paid and settled. There is no outstanding claim
can be laid to their charge or demanded of them. Paul asks the
question, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
That is, those that are elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through the sanctification of the spirit
unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
That's what Peter says. Who shall lay anything? to the
charge of God's elect, because the blood of Jesus Christ has
paid all our debts. We have been reconciled to God. We are justified in Christ. We are sanctified in the Spirit. There's nothing left to do. And
the people for whom Christ suffered are heirs of a great blessing
and a spiritual inheritance won for them wholly and exclusively
by their successful Saviour. Now we've noted that there are
those who teach that Christ died for all the sin of all men and
women, making salvation possible for everyone, but conditional
on individual faith. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
such preachers contend, provides all men and women with the opportunity
for eternal life. but do you see the difference
between actual salvation and possible salvation? Do you appreciate
the distinction that is being made here in the scriptures?
Do you see who gets the glory when sinners are actually saved
at the cross by the blood and where that Praise ends up when
they are only potentially saved at the cross and then actually
saved by their own free will. See, this is why Paul explicitly
tells us that Christ, he tells us this in 1 Corinthians 1, Christ
is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Why? That no flesh should glory
in his presence. It cannot be that men and women
and boys and girls have any glory to themselves by an action which
in some way ingratiates them to God and claims the benefits
and the blessings of something that is potentially available. In that case, the glory goes
to the efficient cause. not the potential cause, but
the cause of the belief. And the Lord will not have that.
The success for salvation is Christ's alone. The redemption
is the work of Christ and the redeemed people that we were
thinking about earlier the redeemed people out of every nation and
every tribe and every tongue the redeemed people in heaven
cry worthy is the lamb that was slain not Worthy are we because we chose. Christ's words on the cross,
it is finished, have a much more triumphant meaning in the context
of accomplished salvation than simply a man coming to the end
of his life. Christ is saying this work is
done, the great transaction is accomplished. because the blood
of Jesus Christ, the precious blood of Jesus Christ, accomplished
all that it was intended to do. Let me say one more thing. I
mentioned at the beginning that knowing Christ was essential
to trusting Christ, that the revelation and declaration of
these truths in the gospel is designed to bless the elect. The gospel is used by God the
Holy Spirit to quicken and convert and comfort God's people whom
he has chosen in this world. We are blessed to have had this
gospel revealed to us. God's elect hear the truth and
they believe the truth about what Christ has accomplished
for them. God's election of a people and
their delivery into the charge and care of His Son before the
foundation of the world limits the extent of those for whom
Christ died on the cross. Christ was ordained Redeemer
and His blood, the ransom price, was for a definite and particular
people. The atoning work of Christ on
the cross is coextensive with the electing purpose of God. The number of the redeemed is
a limited number, matching the number chosen to salvation and
placed into Christ's hands in the covenant of peace. This is
the great work of the gospel and this is the work in which
the Father and the Spirit and the Son are agreed. When we hear and believe these
truths, they don't save us. Christ's death and blood saves
us. They don't make us righteous.
Christ's own righteousness makes us holy before God. They don't
even cause us to please God. It is the obedience of the Son
that pleases the Father. But what the gospel does is it
teaches us about Christ and the gift of faith enables us to believe
and trust and depend and thank the Lord for all that he has
accomplished for us in the purpose of God. The Gospel isn't an offer of
salvation. It is a statement of purpose
and a declaration of achievement by which the elect of God are
brought to know the truth and to experience God's love, Christ's
faith and the Holy Spirit's comfort. May the Lord feed our souls with
such a gospel today. Amen.