If you would turn with me to
1 Peter 1. While you're turning, I want
to tell you, there was a gentleman who once asked Mr. Spurgeon if the upcoming Sunday
he was going to preach to the lost or to believers. And he answered the sincere man
this way, he said, if I preach Christ, then I shall have a message
for both. The same gospel message that
saves the lost comforts his dear children. There was another time,
in way of introduction, that he said, it's my intent not to
preach about Christ, but to preach Christ to you. There is a difference. And that's the desire of every
true God-called preacher, to preach Christ and Him crucified. not just facts about the Lord
Jesus Christ, but Christ, what He's done for sinners. It's my intent not to preach
to you about Christ, but preach Christ to you this day. The only hope, dear friends,
that sinners have of being reconciled to God It's called a mystery
unless God himself reveals it to you. You can only see if God
gives you eyes to see. I know we say that a lot, but
it's true. You can only hear the truth of
Scripture if God gives you ears to hear. And you can only understand
and believe if God gives you a heart to believe and understand.
You see, salvation's of the Lord. That's the theme of our message.
And salvation is in Christ, Christ the God-man. And if you never believe it or
understand it, you're responsible. You stand
before God guilty, discharged. I want to take verse 18 and 19
as my text this morning, and I pray that God will give me
liberty with these two verses. First, I think it's important
to know whom The Apostle Peter is writing to here. Notice verse
2 of chapter 1. He writes this to the elect according
to the foreknowledge of God. God, before the foundation of
the world, chose a people and He gave them to His Son. And
His Son said, I won't lose a one. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. These verses, dear friends, are
written to the children of God. Yet, they are the words of salvation
to the lost. Words of salvation to the lost.
Verse 18, 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, Every child of God knows
that God did not redeem them with corruptible things. And
the word corruptible here means perishing. God didn't redeem
us with perishing things. No elect child of God has ever
been saved by things that perish. False religion. Traditions, ceremonies,
rituals, they're all corruptible and perishing things. Silver
and gold, they'll buy you earthly riches. Earthly, fleshly, perishing
things. But they can never, ever buy
you redemption. Redemption can't be bought. You
can't buy something that is free. It would cease to be free if
you could. But there's a price for redemption, and it's much,
much higher than perishing corruptible things. Well, I thought you just
said it couldn't be bought. Well, it can't, but there's a
price. It's free to you, but it costs God His precious Son. When Peter speaks of being redeemed
here with corruptible things, he's talking about the Judaism
of the Jews, their religion, and with all its vain religious
show and outward self-righteousness. And you don't have to read through
the Gospels very far to see the self-righteousness of the Pharisees
and those who kept or endeavored, I should say, to keep God's law
in this thing called Judaism. Oh, they were pretty on the outside. They wore the big robes. They
walked through the streets with their robes stuffed with prayers.
And people said, my, look at that righteous man. But they were not righteous.
They were self-righteous. There's a difference. Works will
never save a sinner. Righteousness, which is of self,
can never satisfy God's demand for perfect righteousness and
holiness. It can't. Really, self-righteousness
in order to be saved is fictitious. It's a fictitious thing. There's
no righteousness apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. None. There's none that are righteous,
no, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that understand it. The Scriptures go on and
on and are very, very clear about man's state before a thrice holy
God. There's only one way for a sinner
to be redeemed and reconciled to God, and it's found in verse
19. The sinner is not redeemed with
corruptible, perishing things, but with the precious blood of
Christ. As a lamb without blemish and
without spot. God's people are saved by the
precious blood of Christ, the Messiah. Like that of a sacrificial
lamb who was without spot or blemish. Now that word precious
there means of great value. Of great value. And Christ's
blood is of infinite value. In Isaiah 118, you don't have
to turn there. You're familiar with this passage.
Come now and let us reason together. This is God speaking. Come now
and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be white, purified as snow, actually done
away with. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool, white like wool, perfectly cleansed. Do you know what that word scarlet
in the Scriptures is derived from? I never knew this. If you
look it up in the concordance, it comes from an original word
which means worm, maggot. That's right. I couldn't believe
it. As I looked into it further, I found out that there was a
worm or is a worm of the scarlet worm species. And when the female scarlet worm
was ready to give birth to her young, she permanently attached
herself to the trunk of a tree, fixing herself so firmly and
permanently that she would never, ever leave again. The eggs were then deposited
beneath her body and protected until the larva, was hatched
and able to enter into their own life cycle. The mother would
die in giving birth to the eggs. And the crimson fluid stained
her body and the surrounding wood. And from the dead body
of this scarlet worm, the commercial scarlet fabric people of ancient
times extracted this color. That was what they used as the
coloring for some garments. And also the commentator that
I read on this said that scarlet and crimson were the firmest
of dyes and they were the hardest to wash out. They weren't easily
washed out. Our skin, our sins are like scarlet. Like scarlet. not easily washed. It took the precious blood of
Christ to wash us clean. What a picture this gives of
Christ our Lord dying on the tree, shedding his precious blood
that he might bring many sons unto glory. He became what we
were, that we might live through him, become what he is. Christ's
precious blood is the blood of one who is God. He's one who's
God, as well as man. And His blood was freely shed
in the place of His people. Now God's blood is much more
than a sufficient price for our redemption because of who He
is. He's God. God's blood was shed. Do you
get an idea of how horrific your sin is when only the blood of
God Himself would wash it clean? Oh my! His blood is precious
because it's precious to the Father and it's precious to the
believer. When that's the only thing that
can wash your sins clean, it becomes precious to you. I'll
tell you that. In Matthew 26, our Lord said,
this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. The only way that my sins can
be put away is if God Himself shed His precious blood for me. Acts 2028 tells us that his chosen
people are what? Purchased with his own blood.
Purchased. I've been bought with price.
You've been bought with a price if you belong to Christ. And
that price was the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans
5 verse 9 tells us that being now justified by His blood. We talked about that in the Sunday
school. Justified. Just as if I had never
ever sinned. Perfect. Just as though I'd kept
God's law perfectly. I stand before God, but it's
by His blood. And we shall be saved from wrath
through Him." Through Him is where our peace comes. Through
Him is where God's wrath is exhausted. Ephesians 2 13 tells us but now
in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes afar off are what made nigh by
the blood of Christ Far off strangers Now made nigh by the blood the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ Colossians 1.20 says,
"...and having made peace through the blood of His cross." That's
where our peace comes. We saw that this morning. Through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Through His blood. To reconcile
all things unto Himself. Hebrews 9.12 tells us that it
wasn't by the blood of goats and bulls, but by His own blood. He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Friends, if
you have eternal redemption, it's by His own blood. Well, let's just briefly discuss
the precious blood of Christ. I have just a few short points
and I'm done. First is Christ's blood, precious
blood, has redeeming power. Redeemed, that means to be purchased.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? Being
made a curse for us. For it's written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. You see, sin is so powerful and
it's so prominent in man that the scriptures say that it easily
besets us. Easily besets us. But it's laid
aside in Christ, isn't it? It's paid, it's washed, it's
cleaned, and we're redeemed. Sin has every child of Adam born,
serving it daily. We're conceived in sin, the Scriptures
say. We're born in sin. We're estranged
from the womb and we come forth what? Speaking lies. Sin is what
we are, not what we do. And you've heard me say that
many times. We sin because we are sin. We're sinners. While
sin controls our hearts, which are deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked," the Scripture says. And the thoughts
of our heart are only evil continually. Sin is so much of what we are
that it not only controls our hearts, but it controls our minds. The Apostle Paul said in Romans
7, I see another law of my members warring against the law of my
mind. and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. He said in chapter
eight, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, it's not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. You see, only
Christ's precious blood can make it so. That word carnal means
Animal nature. Man, outside of the Lord Jesus
Christ, his nature is like that of an animal. Well, he drinks
iniquity like water. And it comes from a Greek word
called sarx, which means the earthly nature of man, which
apart from the divine influence of God Almighty is always prone
to sin and to oppose God. How easy is it to drink water?
Easy. And we drink iniquity, sin like
water. Sin is what we are, friends,
not what we do, what we are. But the precious blood of Christ has delivered us and redeemed
us from sin. Our sin is forgiven for Christ's
precious blood was shed for us. Hebrews 9.12 says, almost all
things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding
of blood is no remission. There's no remission of sins
unless blood is shed. Our blood won't pay the debt that we owe. It took God's blood to do so. And our Savior who needeth not
daily, according to Hebrews 7, is those high priests to offer
up sacrifice first for His own sins." When the high priest went
in, he had to offer up sacrifice for his own sin before he could
the people. It says, first for his own sins
and then for the people's. He, Christ, did once when He
offered up Himself. Secondly, the precious blood
of Christ has atoning power. Atoning power. Romans 5 verse 10-11 says, For
if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved
by His life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement. Leviticus 17-11 says, For it
is the blood that maketh an atonement. for the soul. God's blood was
shed, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Atonement
means atonement, at one with Christ, at one with God. I was
once without God, without hope in this world. Now I'm adopted
into the kingdom of His Son and confident of my divine inheritance. Once without God and without
hope. I was once a stranger, now I'm a son. I was once lost,
but now I'm found. I've been received into favor
with God through Christ. Oh, the precious blood of Christ,
dear friends, has atoning power. And thirdly, the precious blood
of Christ has cleansing power. We sung, there's power in the
blood. Oh, if we walk in the light as
He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And what? The
blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. It doesn't say a few sins. It doesn't say many sins. It
says all sin. Child of God, if you are in the
Lord Jesus Christ, all your sin has been paid for. all past,
present, future. You have no sin. You stand before
God perfect as His precious Son does. I haven't ever heard any
better news than that. The blood of Christ His Son cleanseth
us from all sin. You know the amazing thing about
that verse is that now I want to walk with Him in life. He is the light. I want to be
with Him in Him. That's an amazing thing. I used
to give Him no second thought. This world revolved around me
and me only. Now I want to have fellowship
with my brethren. You know why? Because we have
Him in common. We love the same Lord. We trust in the same God. Oh
friends, the precious blood of Christ has cleansing power, washed
in the blood of the Lamb. The precious blood of Christ,
number four, has pleading power. Now I thought about this considerably. You remember when Cain slew his
brother Abel? God told Cain that the voice
of his brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. That's
what he told him in Genesis. And Hebrews 12, 24 says, and
to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood
of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. What
does that mean? I thought about it and read what
everybody had to write concerning it. You see, Abel's blood pleaded,
cried from the ground and prevailed. It was a cry of vengeance. And Cain was punished for what
he had done to his brother. But you consider this with me,
Christ's blood, it pleads and it prevails for us. And you know
what it's cry is? It's not vengeance. It's Father,
forgive them. Father, forgive them. And sinners are forgiven by the
precious blood of Him. Fifth thing, the precious blood
of Jesus Christ has preserving power. Preserving power. I'm so glad the salvation is
of the Lord. Do you know why? Because if salvation
was of me, or according to works of righteousness that I've done,
then there's a good chance that I'd lose it. But God's salvation
is one of preservation. That dreadful night in Egypt, God had promised to destroy the
firstborn of all the enemies of his people. The angel of wrath
sped through that city on a mission from God to kill every firstborn. What was it, I ask you, that
preserved some of those houses where he did not come? There
were some houses that he couldn't enter. What was it that preserved
them? Were the inhabitants of those
houses, were they better than others? Was it something about
them that made them better than the ones whom the death angel
visited? No. Were their dwelling places
more sternly built? Wow, that's ridiculous. Is there
anything that can deter or preserve God's wrath? There is one thing. There's one thing that can. Can
you see it there? It's the blood on that lintel
and those side posts, those two side posts of the door. Life is preserved. And God said,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. When I see
the blood, oh what precious blood, I wish
my words could better describe the precious blood of Christ.
I know this much, God's got to give you eyes to see it, hearts
to believe it, hearts to appreciate it. I can't. If I could, I would. that there
is preserving power in the precious blood of Christ. In the blood of Christ, there
is overcoming power. And I'm almost finished. In Revelation, we're told that
believers overcame Him, the wicked one. How? By the blood of the
Lamb. and by the word of their testimony.
And they loved not their lives unto the death." What do you
suppose the word of their testimony was? Or is? I know the one thing that I will
plead on that day I stand before Him. I will plead the precious
blood of Christ. I'm sure the plea is, we're covered
by the precious blood of the Lamb. Something else that I,
in considering this, I found quite interesting is in almost
every case where blood is shed, there's suffering. When severe wounds are inflicted,
They make the blood flow out. And a certain amount of blood
will most certainly cause death. You've heard that saying, they
bled to death. But in the case of our Lord Jesus
Christ, dear friends, the term blood brings before us all His
grief and anguish. You think of Gethsemane where
he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood which fell to the ground. Think of him there in Pilate's
judgment seat. It was called the pavement, is
what it was called in the scriptures. And there they beat him with
rods. One old writer said that they
took heavy vines from the trees and tied chips of bones to the
end of them and whipped the back of our Lord and just ripped out
the flesh. Oh, can you imagine? By His stripes, we were healed. By the precious blood which He
shed. What about the crown of thorns
that pierced his head? Have you ever just pricked your
finger with a thorn? It hurts, doesn't it? Can you
imagine a crown of thorns being made and smashed down upon your
head? Oh, the blood that flowed down
from his face. That blood was shed for his people,
for his chosen, his elect. Oh, he was beaten so badly that
the Scriptures say he didn't even resemble a man. He looked
more like a beast or something than a man. And then after all
this, Pilate brings him back out in front of his people, the
Jewish nation, and he said, Behold the man! Those are wonderful words to
you and I, are they not? This is the man, Christ Jesus. God must become a man in order
to redeem fallen man. Behold the man. But this was
God in the flesh. And do you know what His people
said? Here they bring Him out. He's
a bloody pulp. And they said, Crucify Him. Crucify
Him. Has God shown you? I ask myself
this often, have I truly, truly seen how precious His blood was
and is? If it's God's blood, I can't
fathom that thought. God shed His blood for a wretch
like me. Lastly, think of Him there on
Golgotha's Hill called Mount Calvary. There they pierced him. His hands and his feet drove spikes through his hands
and his feet. They pierced his side with a
spear and blood. Can you see it? Everywhere. But it was precious blood. It
was precious blood. Peter says we're redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ. Oh, may we never pass lightly
over that word blood. May every time we hear it, see
it, we think of the blood, the precious
blood of our Lord and Savior that was shed for us. Well, preacher, how do I know
that it was shed for me? Does it mean anything to you? Does it move you in any way? When we hear that word, blood,
may we always think of His precious blood. That blood which caused
God to pass over us in divine judgment and redeem us freely
by His grace. It's only by His precious blood.
When we hear that word precious, precious, remember that that
word had never had such a depth to it as it is used here. Oh, such a depth of meaning as
it does when it's put with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Precious blood. Now, one who has the certain
type of blood and gives it to another in order for them to
live. I know back years ago, I don't know that they had the
blood banks and all like they have now. And they used to have
people on a list and had your type of blood. And if someone
needed that particular type of blood, they would call you and
say, can you come get blood? And I suppose to someone who
needed a certain type of blood in order for them to live might
consider the ones whose type matched their blood precious.
for it very well may have saved their life. If my life depended upon your
blood and you were the only one that had that particular type
that could help me immediately, I might consider your blood precious. But it will never, ever, ever
compare to the precious blood that Christ shed for His people. purchase them, to redeem them,
to preserve them, to cleanse them from all sin, and give them
a perfect standing before God. If Christ was made to be sin
for His people, now you think about this, and this is the last
thing I'll say to you today. If Christ was made to be sin
for His people, and He was, then is it not reasonable to
think that He must take the punishment of sin that you and I deserved? That punishment of sin is death. Romans 6.23 says it quite clearly,
for the wages of sin is death. Death is what you deserve. It's what I deserve. But God in mercy and grace has
provided a way that He can be both just, His justice and His
law is fulfilled, and yet He's able to justify called sinners
by His grace. It's amazing. He's both just
and justified. The wages of sin is death, but
it doesn't stop there. But the gift of God, that's exactly
what it is, is eternal life. And does it surprise us that
the following words are through Jesus Christ our Lord? 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,
but you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. May God cause us to never forget
that and to cherish the thought forever and ever.