1 Peter 1, verse 17. And if ye call on the Father,
who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's
work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. For as much 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. Amen. May God bless this reading
to us. Our thoughts this morning are
going to centre around the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
blood of Christ is a powerful idea and notion as we come to
the New Testament scriptures. And it is very clear from the
way in which the blood of Christ is presented to us that it is
seen as powerful and effective to cleanse sinners from their
sin. It is therefore the church's
privilege and the preacher's honour to think about the way
in which the blood is spoken of in the New Testament especially,
and to speak often upon it as that means of God's grace whereby
the redemption of his people, the redemption of the elect is
both won and established and secured and the ground of their
acceptance with God is revealed to them. Indeed, if we look at the scriptures,
we discover that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke often about his
blood. And the prophets of God, in the
Old Testament, they understood the significance of blood. And the apostles, too, brought
a message to us. Peter, James, Paul, that spoke
of the powerful and efficacious blood of the Son of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ. In Zechariah chapter 13 and verse
1, we read these words. In that day there shall be a
fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." So even back in
the Old Testament, amongst those prophets that were sent to the
people of Israel, the Old Testament people, there was an understanding
that a day was coming when the Messiah would be revealed and
a fountain would be opened for the cleansing of sin. The Lord
Jesus Christ, speaking prior to his death and to his disciples,
said, this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed
for many for the remission of sins. And so we see that whether
it's in the Old Testament or in the words of Christ, this
effect of cleansing, this remission for sin, is recognised as coming
from the shed blood of the Messiah. In Romans chapter five and verse
nine, we read, much more than being now justified by his blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through him. Now we often think,
don't we, of justification by faith, and that's not inappropriate. And sometimes we think about
justification by the righteousness of God or the righteousness of
Christ, and that's not inappropriate either. But here the writer Paul
is telling us that our justification has been obtained by the blood
of Jesus Christ. And I think what this reminds
us, and it's perhaps good for us just to recognise this, is
that when we come to understand the work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
when we come to understand God's way of grace, the new covenant
or the New Testament that the Lord was speaking about when
he says that this is my blood in the New Testament, that whole
work of salvation by which God recovers his people
is not a work that is to be dissected and diced and chopped up and
shaved and held up and analysed as if we can take all these different
components and remove them piece by piece, get a handle on them
and then understand the whole thing when we reconstruct it
and put it back together again. There is a place, certainly,
for looking carefully at the different aspects of salvation. But our salvation has been gotten
by the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he has done and all
that he has accomplished. And so when we look to the gospel,
when we look to the work of salvation, we see that it is multifaceted
and we see that the blood is a central aspect of what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done and accomplished. The testimony of
Revelation, the book of Revelation, suggests that the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ will be the church's continuing theme throughout
those endless ages. In glory they will praise their
Saviour, their Husband and their Friend. And their song will be,
we're told in Revelation 5 verse 9, it's a new song, And it is
this, that thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation. We will sing
of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for the rest of eternity. We will always have before us
the importance of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
salvation and deliverance of the people of God and the Church
of God. And that verse 9 of Revelation
chapter 5 that we've just quoted, thou hast redeemed us to God
by thy blood, it tells us that this work of redemption has been
a costly work. There was a price to be paid,
that's what redemption means. There was a price to be paid,
a purchase to be gotten. and that the redemption price
was the blood because we are redeemed by blood. Not by money,
not by property, but by blood. It is blood that has redeemed
us and brought us into a relationship with God. And it also tells us
that we have been redeemed by this blood out of all the nations
in this world, from every kindred, from every tongue, from every
people, from every nation. And that song, I believe, is
going to be a song both that recognizes the fact of Christ's
redemptive blood, and also the fact that it was purposefully
targeted on certain individuals and that the blood of Christ
when it was shed was particular in its scope and directed only
to those for whom he actually died. The verse gives a wonderful
testimony to sovereign grace and a definite particular redemption
because it reminds us of the answer to that key question,
that important question, what happened at the cross? What happened at the cross? And it is answered. We all need
to know what happened at the cross. We all need to know what
was taking place when the Lord Jesus Christ hung between heaven
and earth. We all need to understand, if
we are going to have any faith, if we're going to have any grasp,
any understanding of what it is that Christ accomplished,
then we need to know the significance of the shedding of his blood, There will be in this world no
general or universal redemption because the Lord Jesus Christ
shed his blood to redeem his people out of the nations, the
people, the tongues, the kindreds. He shed his blood to buy a people,
to redeem and purchase a people out of this world. And so it is not a universal
work that took place at the cross. It was particular, it was definite,
it was directed. We sometimes use the word limited. The atonement of the Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross was limited in its extent because the blood
was shed for certain individuals. The Lord Jesus Christ died and
gave his life and shed his blood for certain individuals from
out of this world. So the Son of Man came, he says,
to give his life a ransom for many. And the lifeblood of the
Lord Jesus Christ was the price that was paid for that redemption. The verses that we have here
before us in 1 Peter this morning are given to us by the Apostle
to confirm this truth and to open our minds, open our view
to further grasp the reason for our faith and our trust and our
confidence in God and those glorious promises which the Lord God,
the Father, has given to us in the gospel. Now I want to take
these verses this morning and just draw one or two points that
they teach us and that they reveal to us with respect to the shedding
of Christ's blood on the cross for his people. The first thing
is this, that there is judgment coming. We spoke about that to
the children a little bit, where we saw that the angels would
be sent out in a day to come in order to separate the tares
from the wheat, to enter into this world, to enter into the
church and separate out those that are Christ's from those
that are not. It's an interesting thing, I
was reflecting upon that for a little while and I read up
on one or two places and one of the old writers speaks about
the fact that the angels are going to collect the tares into
bundles before he throws them into the furnace. And the commentator remarked
that the suggestion had been made that these bundles reflected
the types of sins that the tears had been guilty of. So all the
murderers would be gathered together in one bundle. And all the adulterers
would be gathered together in another bundle. And all the thieves
and all the backbiters and all of those that had committed like
crimes would be bundled together by these angels as they discern
the tears and the wickednesses in the lives of men and women.
And they would all spend eternity together in their little groups.
That's a fearsome thought. That's a fearsome thought, that
in hell, all the murderers will be together. In hell, all the unfaithful will
be together. All the devious will be together. All the liars will be together. There is a judgment coming. And
whether we can discern from the words of a parable such firm
decisions or not, There is a judgment that is coming and the Lord has
promised it. In Hebrews 9, verse 27, we read
it as appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. I was going to call this judgment
impersonal. Because verse 17 of 1 Peter 1
says, So here is the father being spoken of as that one who is
going to judge without respect of persons. but it would be wrong to call
this judgment impersonal. The judgment will be personal. And we need to know that there
is a personal judgment coming in this world. We shall face God personally. We shall receive the judgment
for our sins personally. The retribution which will be
enacted on the souls of men and women by the Lord Jesus Christ
will be dispensed upon them personally. And it will be personally endured
for all eternity. That judgment will be enacted
by the Lord Jesus Christ, says Paul in Romans 2, verse 16, because
God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. But rather, it's not that this
work is impersonal. It's rather that it is impartial,
and there is a difference. because there will be no difference
made by God between people. All will be judged in righteousness. All will be judged with perfect
knowledge and understanding. Nothing will be hidden. Nothing
will be concealed. Everything will be opened. And
it doesn't matter whether you are a Jew or a Gentile. Doesn't
matter whether you've lived your life by a strong, rigid code
of practice or been dissolute. It doesn't matter who your parents
were or your nationality. I remember growing up hearing
people say, well, we live in England, we're a Christian nation. And I trust there are none here
today who imagine the same because you live in the United States. It doesn't matter our nationality. It doesn't matter our age or
our sex. Men and women, boys and girls
will be judged by God impartially. It doesn't matter how small we
are and insignificant as far as this world is concerned, or
how great and powerful we might have been in this world. Kings
will stand beside paupers and God will judge all men impartially. He won't have respect to their
persons in any way. the rich and the poor will stand
together, the high and the low, the wise and the foolish. Every denomination will be there,
representatives of every church group, those that have endeavoured to
live moral lives and those who have been immoral. and no regard
will be had to any outward appearance or any religious profession or
affiliation. And we need to be warned because
many in that day will claim to belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Many will shout out at that time,
what a clamour there will be. Many will cry out, bringing forward
all kinds of proof to legitimize and substantiate their claims
that we're your followers. We've heard you preaching. We were there when you were preached. We paid our dues. We wrote down
our name on the line. We took out our membership. We
were part of the club. And the Lord Jesus Christ says
in Luke chapter 13, verse 27, I tell you, I know you not whence
ye are. Depart from me, all ye workers
of iniquity. Now, I hope we can be honest
with each other this morning. And I hope that as we sit here
together in this place under the sound of some pretty solemn
words, some pretty solemn teaching that we can be honest with one
another. And I do believe that every honest
man and woman must admit that they are a sinner. Could there be one who would
deny it? Well, who then can be saved?
Who then can enter into the presence of God? He who testifies, he
who declares that he will judge the world in absolute, impartial
righteousness and holiness. Who then can be saved? Who then
can stand in His presence without fear? Who can stand in His presence
when all things are opened to the sight of Him who sees and
knows everything we've ever done, said, thought, or been motivated
by? There's a man in the book of
Job called Bildad the Shuhite. It's a fantastic name. And he
put it this way. How then can man be justified
with God? Or how can he be clean that is
born of a woman? Well, there is but one way. And here we move into the second
point that these verses direct us to think about this morning. One has come, called Jesus Christ,
into this world with the express purpose of dealing with the problem
of sin and substituting himself in the place of the people that
he loves. We've already spoken about the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we've already established,
I trust, that we all are accountable for our sin before a holy God
who will judge. Ezekiel chapter 18, verse four
says, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. And yet the message of the gospel,
the message that a faithful gospel preacher is authorised and entitled
to bring to sinners like you and like me, is that God has
made a way of escape. That while there will be impartiality
as far as judgment is concerned, yet in the person of Jesus Christ,
a way of escape has been provided. And God has devised and designed
a way of salvation. He is able to deliver from judgment. He has set in place a process
of redemption such that a payment properly made for someone else
will secure that person's liberty and release and redemption. if the blood of another is found
worthy to carry their sin and to pay the price of their judgment. Our God cannot overlook sin, but by grace and through mercy,
he has found a way to substitute a sin-bearer for the life, for
the ransom of others. One who will carry their sin
so that they don't have to carry it for themselves. One who will
bear their sin that they will not have to stand before a holy
righteous judge bearing their own sin. One who will pay the
price for their wickedness. so that they don't have to pay
that price themselves. And that person is the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ did at the cross. This is his great work. This is redemption. A gospel preacher of days gone
by in England was a man called William Gadsby. He was a hymn
writer and he was a preacher. And he wrote these words. In
his highest work, redemption, see his glory in a blaze. Nor can angels ever mention ought
that more of God displays grace, and justice. Grace and justice
here unite to endless days. And in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and in this work of the cross, that which was
accomplished when the Saviour laid down his life there at the
cross, was bringing together these two great aspects of God's
nature and character, His mercy and His justice, brought together
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ so that sinners might
find a way of escape. Peter calls the sacrifice, the
blood of Christ, precious blood. Why is it precious blood? Well,
Peter tells us it's precious because it's not corruptible.
It's not corruptible. And we might sort of pass over
that without really giving it too much thought, but that word
corruptible, it affects everything in this world. Everything in
this world is corruptible. Now, the apostle goes on to say
that it's not corruptible like silver and gold is corruptible. He says for as much as you know
that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold. Do you know why silver and gold
are valuable? It's because they endure. It's because they are rare and
precious and enduring. And yet Even silver and gold
that are passed around, they wear away, they fade, they scratch,
they ultimately are destroyed. They're corruptible. And when
we think about this world and we think about the nations that
have risen and fallen, about the great kingdoms that have
come and have gone, when we think about the accomplishments of
men, it doesn't matter what this world has produced so far. It has the marks of corruption. It has the marks of its own decay
within it. And it is coming to an end. This
whole world will disappear. The things that are material
will disappear. The metals, the stone, the rocks,
the hardest things that we know of in this world are all going
to just evaporate, just disappear. They will be rolled up like a
scroll. They are all corruptible. But
the blood of Jesus Christ is incorruptible. The blood of Christ
is incorruptible. And that is what has purchased
the redemption of his people. The Lord Jesus Christ talks about
the blood of the covenant. that covenant speaks of, you
remember we when we're having our communion service we say
this is the blood of the new testament, this is the blood
of the new covenant, it's the same word, it's speaking about
those promises that were made between God the Father and God
the Son and God the Holy Spirit in the eternal covenant of grace,
in the establishment of the ground and the means by which a deliverance
would be made for a sinful people, a people that God desired to
save, a people upon whom he had placed his love unilaterally,
unconditionally. He placed his love upon that
people and he forged a way of redemption. But what would be
the price to pay for the redemption of a people and the carrying
away of their sin? It had to be something incorruptible. It had to be the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ, God's son, and it had to be the shedding of
his blood, for without the shedding of blood, there is no remission
for sin, such as the offence against a holy God, that it takes
the necessity of blood being spilled, life being taken. So John, The Apostle John, in
1 John 1, verse 7, he writes, It is the blood of Jesus Christ
alone that cleanses us from sin. And people can try to live good
lives. They can try not to do things
wrong. They can try to pay penance or
to give something in order to be accepted by the church or
accepted in a group of people. But the reality is that the word
of God is clear. The only thing that we have to
hold before God is the blood of Jesus Christ. Let us never
try to approach God upon the footing of anything else, upon
the ground of anything else. Only the blood of Christ is an
acceptable offering to God in his holiness. The Lord Jesus
Christ became the Lamb of God that he might take away the sin
of the world. There was no other good enough,
the hymn writer said, to pay the price of sin. He only could
unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. And the Lord Jesus
Christ is a fit and proper sacrifice for sin. He alone, without blemish
and without spot, the perfect, holy Son of God, laying down
his life for sinners. His blood, precious, incorruptible,
shed as a substitute in the place of others to redeem them from
their sin. And then we are taught that there
is remission. There is judgment, there is substitution,
and there is remission. Our sins are sent away. That's what remission means.
They're carried away by our substitute. Don't know whether you've ever
had the misfortune to receive a letter from a creditor. Sometimes it's like the electricity
people or the water people or utilities, some way they send
you a letter and they say, you're overdue with your account. You
haven't paid your dues. And at the bottom of the letter
it'll say, please remit, so much money, please remit payment immediately
by return. That's what it says on the invoices.
Please remit payment immediately by return. Now what does it mean?
It means that as soon as you get this letter, you better be
writing your check and sending it off by return of post. because
they've waited so long that they're about to speak to a lawyer about
your overdue account. So you need to get it paid fast.
And that's a remittance. What you send back is your remittance. The payment gets made and it
gets carried to the person that has been offended or has the
overdue debt. The only way that we can make
payment to an offended God. The only remission that is possible
is the blood of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9.22 says, without shedding
blood, there is no remission for sin. And then in verse 28,
so Christ once offered to bear the sins of many. What was it
that made the Lord Jesus Christ a worthy sacrifice? It was his
absolute holiness and purity. He was without blemish and without
spot, and he has been freely granted, gifted, bestowed as
the price for the redemption of his people. 2 Corinthians
5.21 says, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. By the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, He who was without blemish and without spot
became sin, became blemished, became spotted, that we who are
sinners might be made spotless, holy, without blemish, pure. Brothers and sisters, That is
the gospel. That is the good news that comes
from God to men and women in this world. That is what this
activity is about here today. That's what gathering out in
this building is about. That's what coming in order to
hear the gospel preached is about. This message that a substitute
has been found. He has stepped forward in the
courts of God's eternal covenant purpose. One has stood up and
he has said, here am I, send me. This blood, this blood that
the Lord Jesus Christ took, this blood that was His, that coursed
through His veins, as He took upon Himself our humanity, as
He walked this scene of time, as He went to the cross, that
blood is the only possible, acceptable grounds for our approach to God. A great and eternal transaction
has taken place and it has been effected in the courts of heaven. Peace between God and sinners
has been reached because the offended God has willingly accepted
the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Thereafter, the Church of Jesus
Christ, those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of
Life, thereafter the Church of Jesus Christ on earth is beheld
as clean and pure in the sight of God. They are acceptable to God because
they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb. Revelation 7, 14. Hebrews 9.14 says, How much more
shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God? What have you in this world?
What have you in your heart? What have you to offer God? what
have you to clear your conscience of the wickedness that has been
perpetrated by you personally, except the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And for this cause, he is the
mediator of the New Testament, the new covenant, that by means
of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the First Testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. This is the gospel. Do you believe
it? Do you believe that this is so?
Do you believe that this is the only way of peace with God? Are you able, are you willing
to put your faith in Christ alone? Are you able and willing to trust
in the efficacy, the effectiveness of that blood exclusively to
gain you peace with God and a perfect righteousness before Him? How are we going to experience
these blessings? How are we going to be able to
enjoy these privileges that God has for his people in Christ? How does our conscience that
is guilty before God find cleansing and find peace with him? How
does the joy of sins forgiven and the peace that passes understanding
become our portion and become our experience. Friends, you can't earn it by
anything that you do. You can't earn peace with God
by anything that you do. You can't merit it. You can't
buy it with money, with gold or with silver. It's much too
precious for that. but you can receive it joyfully. You can receive it by the mercy
of God. You can accept it freely by the
gift of grace, and you can enjoy it eternally by faith, by simply
accepting the word of the gospel and trusting in the sure promises
of God. This is the blood of Jesus Christ
that cleanseth from all sin. This is the only ground of our
hope for eternal life. May the Lord apply that blood
to our hearts and souls and minds and these truths to our hearts
by his Holy Spirit. Amen. Closing hymn.