We'll take your Bibles and turn
back with me now to 1 Peter chapter 1. The message this morning is on
the subject and incorruptible redemption. He tells us down,
I believe I said in verse 18, knowing that you were not redeemed
with corruptible things. We're corruptible. So I know
I'm not redeemed by me. This world is corrupt. So I know I'm not redeemed through
the world. And I know that the elements
of this world, the gold, the silver, the property, whatever
it is that you might find to bring and sacrifice unto the
Lord, it's all corruptible. It's all corruptible. He's not gonna leave one ounce
of the most precious mineral that there is in this world.
Not one ounce of it will remain. The elements, he said, shall
melt with a fervent heat. There's not going to be one trace
of the serpent slime in this world when he's done. Not one
trace. We have an incorruptible redemption. Now I want to begin here. There
is nothing that the believer so fears as the losing of his
soul. I can lose a house and have and come back to have another. I could lose a limb and some
have and yet remain able to function in this world. But what would
it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lost his
soul? I don't have the words to tell
you how precious your soul ought to be to you. Your soul is eternal. It's eternal. And there's nothing
that a believer so fears as the losing of his soul. He's no longer
a deceived man. There was a time when I walked
in this world and lived in this world and worked and done all
these things, had a family, and I was ignorant of the things
of God. I had no light of God. I had no real understanding,
no real concept of things as they are. We're no longer deceived
men and women walking in darkness and ignorance, but we've been
made meek by God, the believer. been made me to be partaker of
the inheritance of enlightened sites and i know something now
of the depravity of this night i don't know at all i'm constantly
learning but i know something out there was a day i was totally
ignorant of it i thought you could reform the old man i thought
you could you could do some things in and better the old man. No,
that which is flesh is flesh. That's what the Lord said. I know something of the depravity
of my nature. None righteous, God said. None
good. All gone out of the way. Even
the apostle Paul cried, and this was years into his ministry,
The man who wrote nearly half the New Testament under the influence
of the Holy Spirit, and he cried, oh, wretched man that I am. He knew something of the depravity
of his nature. The scripture said the heart
is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? Who can know it? And we know that the flesh lusteth
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these
are contrary, the one to the other, so that we cannot do the
things that we would, either direction. The believer can't
be as evil as his flesh would have him to be, but neither can
he be as good as the spirit that's in him wants him to be. He can't do either one. It's
a constant turmoil, a constant battle. And then the believer
knows something about the true character of God. We're talking
about why a man fears losing his soul. He knows something
about the true character of God. God's just, infinitely, perfectly
just, uncompromisingly just. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. He said, yes, I keep mercy for
thousands. Yes, I'm gonna save men. But
you know this, Moses, he's showing Moses his glory, he said, you
know this, Moses, I will by no means clear the guilty. I'm not
gonna clear the guilty. Cursed is everyone who continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
And then I know this, God's righteous. perfectly righteous, infinitely
righteous. And he hath appointed a day in
which he'll judge this world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance to all
men in that he raised him from the dead. Not assurance unto
life, but assurance of death, assurance of judgment. He spared
not his own son. but delivered him up for us all.
You think there's something that's gonna cause God to bypass judgment? You're a fool. He spared not
his own son, and he's not gonna spare you. God's righteous, and God's holy. Holiness is all
God's attributes working in continual harmony without compromise. He's
able to function and move and do and work and be and all of
these things without any compromise in his character whatsoever.
And we can't go a second. Our character's all out of tilt,
ain't it? We can't survive a minute. I
can't come to a worship service and keep my mind tuned on Christ.
Not for an hour, not for 30 minutes, I can't do it. It wanders here,
it wanders there. I read things stated in the word
of God and it's right over my head. Right over my head. I can't
maintain any kind of harmony in my character, especially toward
God. But God maintains it all the
time and has for all eternity. God's merciful, but not at the
expense of his justice. God's gracious, but not at the
expense of his righteousness. And God is love, but it's a just
and righteous love. And the believer's fear, he fears
losing his soul knowing the exceeding deceitfulness of the spirit of
antichrist of which he's surrounded. I can't answer the phone without
talking to somebody who's under the influence of Antichrist.
I don't have a relative. I don't have a friend. All, all
under the influence of this spirit of Antichrist. Our Lord said
this in the last days and that's what we're living in. He said
in the last days shall arise false Christs and false prophets
and shall show great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were
possible, he shall deceive the very elect. We fear losing our souls because
many have made the same profession as we have and have lost their
souls. Judas obtained part of that ministry. That's what the Lord said. He
was the only one When the Lord said, one of you is a devil,
he's the only one that nobody else suspected was Judas. Demas, Paul said, hath forsaken
me. At one time he called him my
fellow laborer. Paul said, I keep under my body,
and bring it into subjection, lest by any means when I preach
to others, I myself should be a castaway. There's nothing,
I tell you as a preacher, there's nothing that I fear more than
having preached for years to others, trying to get others
to come to Christ, and then wind up finding myself a castaway. There's not a day goes by that
I don't think about that, Winston. And I know it's possible. When
you say God's elect on that, you don't know you're elect except
by your faith in Christ. And I tell you, when that faith
wavers, so does that hope. So does that assurance. That's
why we have to constantly meet and encourage one another and
be fed from the Word of God. That's why we have to do it. Believers hope for salvation. Romans 8, 24, I want you to listen
to this. For we are saved by hope, but
hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does
he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it. And as I said a while ago, we're
enlightened saints. We've heard, we've believed the
gospel. But we need and desire assurance. They need to be established in
the faith. They need the full assurance,
Paul said, of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery
of God and of Christ. And this is a big, big thing.
Big, big thing. You ain't gonna pick it up in
45 minutes. And this need is what I call
an appetite for Christ and an appetite for the gospel. Now make no mistake about it,
there's only one place the believer's appetite for assurance can be
satisfied, and that's in Christ. That's in him. You won't find
that assurance anywhere else. If you find assurance, and I've
had them, if you find assurance in an experience, When that experience
fades, so does that assurance. There is no assurance anywhere
except in Christ. It's not in our convictions.
It's not in our experiences. It's not in our determinations.
It's not in our godly walk. Assurance is all together in
Christ. And Peter tells us plainly in
chapter one, verses three and four, that we are begotten again
unto a lively or living hope. And he goes on to tell us in
the chapter I read to you just a few moments ago, he said, in
whom we have not seen, we love. I've never seen Christ, have
you? I wouldn't, somebody said, well, that's not him on that
painting. I don't know if it is or not. I've never seen him.
I don't know. Don't know what he looks like.
I've never seen him. Well, how do you know him? He'd
been preached to me, and he'd been revealed to me by the Holy
Ghost and through the word of God. We are begotten again unto a
living hope. And that hope is based on the
resurrection of a person, the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. Verse four, to an inheritance
incorruptible, incorruptible. Think about that. My inheritance
is incorruptible. Undefiled, can never be defiled. and that fadeth not away reserved
in heaven for you. Where's my assurance? It's at
the right hand of God. It's reserved in heaven for you
who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed at the last time. I'm kept by the power of
God through faith. Is faith precious? Oh, my soul. Without faith, scripture said
it's impossible to please God. All right, let me give you just
a few things here as we go through these scriptures. To have any
assurance based on the word of God I must have an incorruptible
redemption. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things, we know that. Believers
understand that. What are some of these corruptible
things, Winston? Your experience? That's corruptible. I had lots of experiences. I
walked down many aisles, knelt down at many mourners' benches.
made many professions of faith, was baptized more than once. Those things are corruptible.
They're corruptible. We were not redeemed with corruptible
things. And here in verse 18, he said,
which you receive by tradition from your fathers. And under
the Mosaic law, there was a precept concerning the redemption of
Israel in Exodus 30 verse 12, that was paid for by half a shekel. That was redemption money. To the poor, it was a half a
shekel. To the rich, it was a half a shekel. It didn't vary. It
was the same. And it was the shekel of the
sanctuary. And it was, like everything else
in the law, it was typical of our redemption in Christ. But
the legalists used these things and other things typical under
the law to deceive men into believing that they could save themselves
or redeem themselves to God, or at least help God out in their
redemption by their contribution of these things. With the Jews,
it was the half is equal. had no thought, had no understanding
of what it represented, had no understanding that this thing
was talking about Christ who was to come as our substitute
and representative. They didn't have any understanding
of that. It was just a piece of money, and they gave it. Well, you think about what this
world calls salvation. You could write a book on it.
All the things, all these corruptible things that they tie in with
salvation. But he said, you know better
than that. You was redeemed with the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without spot and without blemish. Corruptible things have no part
in the salvation of the sinner. What the sinner is wanting, he
cannot produce. Did you hear me? What you are
lacking, what you are wanting, you cannot produce. You can't produce salvation.
You can't produce righteousness. You can't produce sanctification.
You can't produce anything that God demands from the sinner. We have nothing with which to
satisfy divine justice. How we gonna satisfy justice?
You know what God says about his justice when it's executed
upon unbelievers? He cast them into a lake of fire
where they shall suffer forever. Without end. Think about that. Our history only goes back so
many thousand years. That's all we know about this
whole planet. But we're talking about forever. Man's gonna suffer
and suffer and suffer and suffer. And I don't believe hell's a
literal fire. It could be, but I don't believe
it's a literal fire. But just the terms that he uses
to describe it ought to make the hair stand up on your neck.
A pit of brimstone, a lake of fire, eternal suffering forever. No end to it. And neither angels nor men can
ever by their suffering redeem themselves from their sins. Christ alone has satisfied the
justice of God. Listen to this, Romans 3.24.
Being justified freely by his grace. Through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be the propitiation
for our sin through faith in his blood. Actually says, to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past, that is sins and days
before Christ came. Old Testament saints. through the forbearance of God,
and to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that
he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. In Isaiah chapter 53 and verse
11, it says, he, that is God, shall see the travail of his
soul, that is Christ, suffering on that cross, willfully subjecting himself
to the law, being made sin for us who knew no sin, hanging there
under the wrath of God on that cross to save sinners, to be
able to birth sinners. And God saw the travail of his
soul in his righteous sufferings, and he was satisfied. And people think they can come
up and write a check and drop it in a box and satisfy God. None but the God-man, our Savior,
could do such a thing. I don't know if I've ever told
you this story or not. I probably have. My memory's
not very good. But one Sunday morning, a family
in a small town It was a beautiful spring day, and they walked to
church. The whole family went. He had this little seven-year-old
boy, and he was toddling behind and, you know, skipping and singing,
and they all went down to church. But on the way home, the whole
countenance of that little boy changed. And he was lagging way
behind the family, and he was just kinda, you know, he was
just kinda kicking his feet, and his head was down, and he
was just walking real slow along. And they noticed something was
wrong. And so the daddy, he kind of eased up and went back with
him and started walking with his boy. And he said, son, he
said, is there something wrong? Something bothering you? No,
he said, I'm okay. He said, I'm not sick or anything.
But he said, I was just thinking about what the preacher said
today about the death of Christ And I just don't understand what
he said at all. And his daddy said, well, what
did he say that you don't understand? Well, he said, I don't understand
how the death of one man could atone for so many souls. I don't understand that. and trying to think of something
a young child might understand, the man walked with his boy for
a while and all of a sudden he spied a grasshopper right over
next to the sidewalk. And so he paused and he took
his son by the shoulder and he said, son, he said, you see that
insect down there? He said, how many grasshoppers
do you think it would take to be equal to the life of one little
boy. Huh? How many grasshoppers could
you smush to equal the life of one little boy? Oh, his son said,
all the grasshoppers in the world wouldn't be worth the life of
one little boy. And the father stooped down and
opened his Bible to Isaiah 40, verse 22. And he said, our savior
is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and all the inhabitants
thereof are his grasshoppers. That's how. It's not that he
died. It's not even how he died. It's who died. Who it was that died on earth. That's what makes salvation in
Christ sufficient. Who died? Who was born under
that law? Who become obedient under death? Who died to satisfy God? The gospel I preached unto you,
Paul said, which you have received and wherein you stand and whereby
you'll be saved. If you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, is that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures. And that he was buried and raised
again on the third day according to the scriptures. And all our hope of justification
is in the resurrection of Christ. That's what Paul's telling us.
We're begotten again unto a living hope That one in whom we hope
is not dead in a tomb over in Israel somewhere. He's seated
at the right hand of God. God raised him from the dead.
He's alive. And because he's alive, we're
alive. He's my life. And God also requires
a perfect righteousness, a perfect continual obedience from birth
to death. He requires it in motive, thought,
and deed. And the only hope for righteousness
pleasing to God is in Christ, because everybody else has already
sinned. We've already lost that race
from the get-go. A person gets to the age 14,
15, 16, whatever that age is, and begin to take some thought
for your soul. Well, I'm going to I'm going
to obey the law. Too late. You've already broke
the law. You see what I'm saying? They're
unrighteous. Unrighteous. And the only way
religion can get past that is to tell you why you're innocent
until you reach this age that they call accountability. Find
that for me in the scripture anywhere and I'll swallow it.
I can't find it. I can't find it. God's elect
are righteous because He put us in an eternal union with His
Son. None of our sins, and I want
you to hear what I'm telling you, the believers, the elect
of God, none of our sins have ever been charged to us. None
of them. We committed them. Didn't we? Sure we did. We committed
them, but they were never charged to us. They were always charged
to our substitute. Let me see if I can make good
on that. Over here in 2 Corinthians chapter
5, and we're talking about assurance
of righteousness in Christ. All the good deeds and sacrifices
and dedications and service that we could do can never, never,
give us any assurance of righteousness, because all have sinned. Now
listen to this, 2 Corinthians 5, 18. And all things are of
God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. I'm gonna
tell you how God reconciled sinners. Here it is, to wit, verse 19. that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not charging their trespasses unto them. How'd he do it? He charged their
trespasses to his son. When'd he do that? All eternity. All eternity. When he put us
in Christ. Why did he put us in Christ?
Why did God choose us in Christ? Religion, if they talk about
election at all, they talk about the Lamb's Book of Life, and
it's something that you put your name in by whatever it is you
do. Even though the scripture said
that Lamb's Book of Life was written before the foundation
of the world. But why did he choose us in Christ? Well, he
tells you in Ephesians chapter one. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him, that, huh, we should be holy. Now, you have
no other hope of holiness except being in him, huh? That we might be holy without
blame. Anybody here without blaming
themselves? No, no. That's why he chose you
in Christ, so you'd be without blame. Before him in love, that
is being loved in Christ, in Christ. You see what I'm saying?
This is reconciliation. He never charged his elect with
their sins. Their sins were charged to their
substitute. And being in Him, our righteousness
is imputed to us. It's charged to us. Listen to this. Of God are ye
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us. Christ is made
unto us. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. All in Him, Russell. All in Him. that according as it is written,
he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. And then in Romans
10, 14, he said, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. So in Christ, I have an incorruptible
redemption. I have an incorruptible righteousness. My righteous representative and
substitute is accepted and seated at the right hand of God. And
then thirdly, I have in Christ an incorruptible inheritance. Listen to this scripture, 2 Corinthians
1.20. All the promises of God. You go through the Bible, get
your highlighter. Every time God makes a promise,
highlight it. Highlight it. Just go all through
there. Highlight it every time. All the promises of God in Christ
are yea and amen. So be it. Unto the glory of God by us. And all the promises of God,
how great and wonderful, how merciful and tender. Oh, but
you say, I don't feel worthy. You're not. You receive these
things by grace. Well, I don't feel blessed. It's
not in your feelings. It's in His Son. It's in His
Son. Christ is a divine keeper of
all God's promises to His elect. And they're all yea and amen
and hymn. begotten again unto a living
hope, a divine person, a substitute, a representative head, a covenant
surety. And this hope is based upon the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And all our inheritance
is sealed in Him and He's taken possession of it and sits at
God's right hand as the surety of these things. He makes them
sure. An incorruptible inheritance and then Fourthly, we have an
incorruptible faith. We're kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
time. What if your faith was in your hands to keep? I can't
keep a paycheck. Can you? Somebody writes me a
letter and I forget who it was, forget their address, somebody
gives me their phone number, comes in here to visit and tells
me their name, and 20 minutes later, I don't know their name,
I have to ask somebody, who was that? And you want to talk about keeping
your faith? Oh my soul, we're kept by the
power of God through faith. Faith is the means, it's the
gift of God. He's the giver of faith and he's
the maintainer of faith. And how does he do it? Faith
cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. If you have
the faith of God to let, you're gonna gather in here. Every time
the doors open, every time you can, you're gonna come through
that door and sit down and listen. Because this is how your faith
is fed and maintained. Faith cometh, it didn't say it
came, it cometh. It continues to come by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God. Oh, my soul. It's an incorruptible
faith given by an incorruptible God to rest in an incorruptible
Savior. And then lastly, 1 Peter 1.23
says we're born of incorruptible seed. Huh? The seed of the gospel of Jesus
Christ is him. It's him. It's Jesus Christ as he set forth
in the word of God. And as I said in the beginning,
assurance is in Christ. As John declared, herein is our
love made perfect that we might have boldness in the day of judgment.
Because as he is, so are we in this world. We're not born of
dead letter theology or simply believing that this book is the
word of God. Believers do believe that. I
believe this is the word of God, don't you? I believe this is
the foundation of our faith. But that holy seed he's talking
about over here is the gospel contained and set forth and declared
in this book. To him, listen to this, to him
give all the prophets witness that in order that through his
name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of
sin. Through this man, Paul said,
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin. It's not some dead letter
theology. It's not believing that this
book is the inspired book of God. It's receiving the message
set forth in this book and seeing the glory of God as it's manifested
in His Son on every page. That's our hope. That's the seed
of regeneration. That's what a man has to hear.
And God enables him to hear it. And he puts that appetite in
him, he has to come back. He has to come back. And if he
don't, he'll lay it home. And in no time at all, begin
to fear the loss of his soul. He has to come back in here constantly. Constantly among God's people.
And they assure one another, our hope is secure in Christ.
I'm not gonna tell you how good you are. And some of you are,
compared to other men. Very good. Very good. Outstanding
citizens. But you're not that way before
God. Our goodness is Christ. And I
just come in here and I just continually try to assure you,
try to encourage you to come in here and take these things
to heart. Take these things to heart and
rest in these things. Oh, may God allow every one of
us to do that very thing for Christ.