All right, let's turn to 1 Peter
again, 1 Peter chapter 1. Last Sunday I fully intended
to cover these 25 verses and the two messages I planned to
deal with. Last Sunday I had planned to
deal with most of the verses, but we only studied the first And I felt that it would be profitable
for us this morning, and I plan to discipline myself a little
bit better and see if I can't cover some more of these verses.
I think it will be profitable to continue this study as the
Lord gives to his preacher and to the congregation's understanding. In verse 10, you know, well,
let's read verse 9. the goal of your faith, the purpose
of faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of what salvation? The prophets. We're talking about
Moses and all the prophets. We're talking about the Old Testament
prophets. They have inquired and searched diligently into
this salvation, into the ministry and work of this Savior. They
prophesied of the grace that should come unto us. Moses and
all the prophets wrote of Christ. They wrote of his coming, of
his suffering, of his death, of his resurrection, of his exaltation,
and the redemption he would accomplish. If you go back in thought to
the book of Genesis, you'll find Christ presented there by Moses
as the woman seen. Presented there as Abel's lamb.
Presented in Genesis as the sacrifice that Abraham offered in the stead
of Isaac. And presented as the priest,
Melchizedek. Genesis is Christ. And then the
book of Exodus. You're familiar with the book
of Exodus. The key of Exodus is the Passover. And the key
to the Passover was the lamb. And it's the shedding of the
lamb's blood. The Lord said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. The blood maketh atonement for
the soul. That's Christ. He's the lamb. It's his blood that was shed.
In the book of Leviticus, we come on the building of the tabernacle
that stood in the wilderness. The Holy of Holies, where the
Shekinah glory of God was manifested, where the cherubim's wings overshadowed
the mercy seat, where the high priest, Christ is our high priest. See, we have a high priest that's
gone into heaven, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, let us come boldly
into the holiest of all, having a high priest who rent the veil.
But that old high priest, Avalon, and those who followed him, once
a year would slay a lamb and take its blood and go into the
Holy of Holies. No man, no person was allowed
in there but the high priest, and once a year, and not without
blood. But you sprinkled on the mercy
seat. The mercy seat covered the Ark of the Covenant, and
in that Ark was the law. the Ten Commandments on the tables
of stone, and Moses broke them. And the Lord told Moses, You
come back up here and I'll write it again. So I broke the Ten
Commandments. He wrote them in the stone, and
he told Moses, Put these tables in the ark. Cover the ark with
a mercy And the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies once
a year and sprinkle the blood on that mercy seat to make an
atonement, atonement, reconciliation. God's angry. Man's in trouble. We need to be reconciled. And
the whole book of Leviticus covers the activities and sacrifices
and ceremonies of that priest and that blood on the mercy seat. And Paul pictured up Romans and
said, God has set forth his Son to be a mercy seat, a propitiation
for our sins. Christ is our mercy seat. Christ
is our high priest. Christ is his blood's atonement. God said in Leviticus 17, 11,
it's the blood that maketh atonement for the soul. I have given you
the blood upon the altar to make an atonement, a reconciliation
for your soul. But the whole book of Leviticus
is about the book of Numbers. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
this is 239 books in the book of Numbers, the smitten rock.
That rock, Christ, that's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians, Christ
is smitten and afflicted, smitten of God and afflicted, the rock.
God said, I lay in Zion a stone, a tribestone, a deep cornerstone,
a rock. Then there's the brazen serpent
lifted up on the pole, and our Lord reached back and got that
story himself. He said, as Moses lifted up the
serpent, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, as whosoever
believeth on him. Then Deuteronomy, the cities
of refuge, Ruth, the kinsman-redeemer, Job, I know my Redeemer liveth. Tom, the Lord is my shepherd."
Just all the way through the Old Testament, Christ, to him,
give all the prophets witness, of which salvation, verse 2,
in the prophets' search, inquired diligently. I tell you, any man who diligently
inquires into who Christ is will find out. If you desire, Christ
said, to know my will, you'll know it. That's all it takes
is a desire. A willingness to search and an
unwillingness to be denied. That's right. A willingness to
search, and as Jacob said, I won't let you go until you bless me. You've got me on your hands,
Barney used to say. He said, you tell God that, you've
got me on your hands until you do something for me. Verse 11
says this, searching what or what manner, who or what manner. Searching who? The promise of
the Messiah, searching, trying to find out something about whatever
the Spirit of God is in them. I hear people say the Holy Spirit
didn't come until Pentecost. That's foolishness. Moses spoke
by the Spirit of God, Abraham spoke by the Spirit of God. It
says here, these prophets, they searched whom and what manner
of time, the Spirit of God, who was in them. That ought to settle
all arguments. He came in a special way. That's
like the Lord Jesus came at Bethlehem. Was he never here before? God hung a star up there and
sent the angels down to announce his coming. Wasn't he here before?
Abraham walked with him. Moses rode on him. But that's a special covenant.
And the Spirit of God came, I know that, in a special fashion, in
a special way, in a special announcement at Pentecost. But the Spirit
of God was here before them, or everything in this Old Testament
is of man. And he testified, what did he
testify? Of the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. And this is what these men searched
into, and this is what I tried to show to you who were here
Wednesday night, and it's worthwhile to note this carefully, that
these prophets were searching and inquiring into the sufferings
of Christ, the work of Christ. The redemption Christ would accomplish
and the glory that should come as a result of his work. It wasn't
their faith they were searching into. It wasn't their experiences
that they were recounting and giving to one another to see
if they had a good one. It wasn't their feelings. Feelings
come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving. Or even how much knowledge they
have of divine things. Don't you imagine that Abraham
in all those days wandering out there in the wilderness, don't
you know he had his high days and low days? Don't you know
he had his days when God was speaking to him and visiting
with him and revealing things to him of just mountaintop experiences? And then a lot of days God didn't
say a word to him. He just sat there and looked
at the sunrise and looked at the sunset. and go about feeding
his sheep, and doing those other things. Like David said one time,
is God clean gone? But they didn't search into their
faith all the time, and their experiences, and their feelings,
or how much knowledge they had of divine things. That didn't
occupy their thoughts. They knew they believed God.
They knew they believed God. The thing that occupied their
thoughts and their minds was what manner Would this man come, this Christ,
and how would he suffer in the glory of God that should follow?
My counsel is to everybody here who believes God, who loves God,
who loves the Word, to whom God has revealed himself, in whom
he has done a work of grace, look to Christ. Look to Christ. One man wrote a little poem one
time, and he said, I look to Christ. And the dove of peace
flew into my heart. I looked in my heart and the
dove of peace flew away. I don't know how theologically
correct that is, but nevertheless, you look in here, you're going
to have unrest. You look to him, there's the
rest. Look to Christ, learn of Christ,
learn of me, he said, and you'll find rest. The more you know
of the ministry and the personal work of our Lord, the more rest
you'll find. I guarantee that. Verse 12. These prophets who searched diligently
and inquired into the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
should follow, it was revealed to them that they weren't prophesying
for themselves. It wasn't to themselves, but
unto us. They did minister the things which are now reported
unto you, by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. When Abraham and Isaac and David
and all these prophets talked about the coming Messiah, and
they did, they knew that they would not see the fulfillment
of those promises. They knew that they would not
see the glorious promise. Let me show you that in Hebrews
11. They knew that they were prophesying for a time to come,
for a day to come, for the visit of the Son of God to this earth.
In Hebrews 11, verse 13, it talks about Abel and Enoch and Noah
and Abraham, and then it says in verse 13, these all died believing
God. They died believing God. not
having received the promises in fulfillment. They received
the promise itself, and even the pictures and patterns. God
gave them the promise. He gave Abraham a promise in
Genesis 15. He believed God, but he didn't
see the fulfillment of it. That's what that's saying. But
having seen the promise, verse 13, afar off, and were persuaded
of the promise, They believed God. And not only did they see
the promises afar off and were persuaded of this, but they embraced
them. They embraced these promises,
took them to their hearts, found joy and happiness in them. And
they confessed that this world wasn't their home, that they
were strangers and pilgrims on this earth, for they that say
such things declare plainness, that they seek Back to my text,
verse 12. These prophets, unto whom it
was revealed, that not to themselves, but unto us. Talking about New
Testament days. Did they minister the things
which are now reported unto you? By them who preach the gospel
to you. That's the apostles. They preach
the gospel to you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. These men, John said, we fought
him. Our hands have handled him, the word of life. We heard him. And this is the message we give
to you, our fellowship with the Father and with the Son, that
your joy might be full and your fellowship might be with the
Father and with the Son. We report these things to you. Then notice
this last statement, which things the angels desire to look into. These mysteries the angels desire
to look into. You and I understand some things
that the angels desire to look into. I'm not going to say they
don't understand them, I'm just going to say what he said is,
they desire to look into these mysteries of the gospel. Everlasting
love of God, eternal covenant of God, why God passed by the
angels that fell and chose men, why he passed by some men and
chose others. why God shows mercy to any man.
David said, when I consider the heavens, the sun, the moon, the
stars, the things I have made, what is man that is not even
mindful of it? And that God should die, come
to earth and suffer and die for us. The angels desire to look
into that. Philip Doddridge lived in 1700. He wrote this hymn about this
birth. which things the angels desired
to look into. One of my favorites, I want you
to listen to it. Angels saw the heaven-born child in human flesh
arrayed, benevolent and mild, as in the manger he lay. Praise
to God and peace on earth, the angels said, for such a The angels
in the wilderness, you remember they ministered to Christ when
he was tempted of Satan? Listen. The angels in the wilderness
beheld the tempter, Satan, spoiled. They knew him in any dress, but
in this battle he was spoiled. And the victor's head they crowned,
they joined to crown, while Satan fell and fled. before his frown. But around that bloody tree,
the angel's quest with strong desire, that awesome, awesome
sight to see, the Lord of life expire? That's a mystery. And could their eyes have known
it clear, in wonder and surprise they would
have shed it there. But around his sacred tomb the
angels, a constant watch, they kept. Until that blessed moment
came to welcome him that slept, they rolled away the stones And
all adored, with joy unknown, their risen Lord." Isn't that
beautiful? That's what that means. It's
too big for me. But it's things that God has
preached to us by the Holy Spirit and apostles and preachers, and
angels desire to look into. And with wonder gaze upon. Therefore, since we are favored
in person, what men like Abraham and Moses had only in promise,
think about that. Therefore, since we are blessed
with understanding and revelations that even an angel desires to
look into, let's gird up the lawns of our and be sober and
hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto us
at the revelation of Christ. Barnard used to say, hitch up
your britches and sit on your hands and get down to business.
That's what that was. That's what a fellow does when
he really means business, Bob. He hitches up his britches, sits
on his hands, picks up the brass, goes after it. That's what that's
saying in plain old backward language. Gird up the lawns of
your mind. Quit playing games. Be serious
and hope to the end, for the grace is to be brought unto you
at the coming of Christ. And as obedient children, listen
to this, not fashioning yourselves according to the form of lust
and your ignorance, live like obedient children. Live like
the children of God. Don't try to imitate the world. Who wants to be like them? Don't
continue in your old path, your former lust and your ignorance.
If you're going to imitate somebody, verse 15 says, But if he which
hath called you is holy, you be holy in all manner of conversation. Take as your example the Lord
Jesus, because it's written. Be ye holy for I am holy, he
said. That is our example, that is
the way of life. Not your way, not their way,
not the world's way, but his way. He is my example, your example. Verse 17 says, If you call on
the Father. Now, that says several things,
if you call on the Father. One, it says, if you call him
Father. If you say, Abba, Father, that
means you're a child of God. You and I call him Father. Secondly,
it means what it says, if you call on him, if we pray to him,
if we seek his help and mercy. And then it says this, if you're
called by the name, if he is your father, then you're a son.
So if you call him Father and call on the Father and you're
called by the name of the Father, spend your time, God has no respect
of persons, judges every man according to his work, so pass
the time, spend your time that he has given you here. The time
of your sojourn, it's my sojourn, the time I have here, the time
you have here. If you call him father, you spend
the time he's given you in this place in fear. Does that mean
fight? No. It means worship. It means
reverence. It means respect. It means regard
for his word. It means praise. It means humility. The same word is used over here
in chapter 3, verse 15. Just one page over, chapter 3,
verse 15. But sanctify the Lord God in
your heart And be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asks you a reason of the hope that's in you with what?
Meekness and fear. That's humility and fear. Now, look at verse
18. For as much as you know, this
is what I know and what you know, and everybody here with any understanding
knows, Peter takes it for granted, you know this. He's not accusing
you of not knowing it. He's going to base what he says
on the fact that you do know it. Let's read verse 18, verse
94. You know! You were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers. You know that. And you know this. You were redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot,
who was foreordained before the world, before the foundation
of the world, but manifest in these lifetimes." You know that?
I know that. Let's look at it a minute. There was a man by the name of
David Clarkson. He lived in 1621, 400 and some
odd years ago. 400 years ago, 1621, 1686, he died. This made me interested in what
he had to say. He was a pastor in England, Church
of England, and he was one of the 2,500 pastors in the great
ejection who was thrown out of his pulpit, out of his church. in 1662, because they wouldn't
conform. It's called the Great Ejections.
They wouldn't conform to the denomination. They wouldn't conform
to the rules and the orders handed down from the denomination. They
were independent preachers of God's grace. And 2,500 of them
were thrown out into the streets, out of their parsonages and out
of their homes and out of their churches. And some of them found
work here and there and yonder. And this man found work as a
teacher. And then in 1682, he became co-pastor
with none other than John Knox. John Owens, with John Owens.
He was the assistant pastor with John Owens. And when Owens died,
he became pastor of the church. And I want to give you what he
says about these verses. It's so rich and wonderful, the
reason I'm taking the pains to give it to you. He says redemption,
now listen, listen. Rediction in general, the word
rediction means to deliver one from captivity. You use that
word when you palm something, you redeem it. Something is sold
and it belongs to the buyer, it belongs to the person who
has it in bondage and captivity. You want it back, you've got
to redeem it. But you've got to redeem it with a price. You
know, I'll give it to you. You're going to have to pay for
it. Redemption always involves someone
in captivity or something in captivity and a price paid to
redeem it. That's just redemption. And Peter
says here, the price by which we are redeemed. For as much
as you know, you were not redeemed, you were not set free, you were
not delivered in captivity and bondage with corruptible things. like going to church on Sunday
and paying your tithe, silver and gold, and doing your little
duties, and wearing your uniform. These are corruptible things,
such as silver and gold or such as anything else having to do
with religion and rituals and ceremonies and duties and deeds
and works that were not redeemed. God said, if I was hung low and
asked you, You have nothing I want, God says. I want nothing. The
world is mine, he says. But we are redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ. We are redeemed not with silver
and gold, ties and offerings, but we are redeemed with a price
infinitely, infinitely more precious, the precious blood. Talk about their blood, it crashes
in. Something rare, a price so rare,
a price so valuable, a price so precious, it's the blood of
God. So Mr. Clarkson gives us five
monumental statements, five monumental statements. And here they are. How did we get in captivity?
Man, by his disobedience to God, fell into spiritual misery, darkness,
called in scripture, captivity. He came to set the captive free. Captivity. The Lord delivered
us into the hands of Satan. He holds us captive at his will. You read that scripture? Captive
at his will. And he uses our sins and evil
to increase our misery and to seal our captivity even tighter. Like he delivered the angels
that fell into chains of darkness, he delivered us into the hands
of Satan. You happy Quicken who were dead
in trespasses and sin had your conversation, children of wrath,
even as others, under the captivity and bondage of Satan. Secondly,
we cannot be redeemed from this death and darkness without a
ransom, a price. It's called in the Old Testament
a ransom. Let me read you a couple of scriptures
in the Old Testament. It's called a ransom in the book
of Job chapter 33. Listen to this. This price of
redemption called a ransom in Job 33 says, if there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one
among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness. Then he
is gracious unto him, and he says, Deliver him! Deliver him! Going down to the pit, I found
a ransom, a ransom for us. Psalm 49 uses that word. You'll find this most interesting
here, Psalm 49, Listen, you've got to listen
to this, you've got to watch it. Listen. Verse 6, Psalm 49.
They that trust in their wealth, silver and gold, boast themselves
in the multitude of their riches. None of them can by any means
redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom, for the redemption
of their souls is precious. And it stays just forever. Ransom
has to do with redemption, in the Old Testament. Now, in the
New Testament, the word is price. So let's look at 1 Corinthians
7, 6. 1 Corinthians 6. It's a price. In 1 Corinthians
6, it says this in verse 20. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20. It says, you're bought with a price. Verse 19 says, Well, no, you're
not. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in
you, which you have of God. You're not your own, you're bought
with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which he is. Look across the page at
verse 23. Chapter 7, you're bought with
a price. be not the servants of men." So redemption out of
captivity always involves a price, a price, a ransom. Listen to me. Where there is
freedom of any sort, freedom or change without a price, like men get religion and change
their habits and change their lifestyle and feel better and
look better and smell It's a deliverance without a
price. But it's not redemption. Illustration. Israel was delivered
out of Egypt, but they weren't redeemed. There was no price
paid. No price. So if you have redemption, you
might have a deliverance, you might have a change. silver and
gold, or works, but redemption demands a price, a ransom. And in this case it's the precious
blood. That's the third thing Mr. Clarkson
said. Thirdly, the price of our redemption
is the suffering blood of the Son of God. You're redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ. Ephesians 1, 7, in whom we have
redemption through his blood. Colossians 3, verse 17, in whom
we have redemption through his blood. Romans 3, verse 24, being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption within
Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through
his blood. Hebrews 9, verse 12, by his own
blood he entered in once into the holy place and obtained redemption
for us. I'm redeemed. I'm not just changed. I didn't change doctrines. I
could change thoughts. I'm redeemed. Who can lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? He paid for me. I'm his. Bought with a price. Deliver
him. I found a ransom, a suitable
ransom. Here's the fourth statement. That price our Lord paid is in
our stead and in our place, that substitution. That substitution, he paid it
in our place. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. The boy runs
on to the playing field in the football game. I'm coming in
for John. What is he? He's a substitution. He was made a curse for us in
our stead, 1 Timothy 2, 5. There is one God and one Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself
a ransom for his people in the stead of us. He took our place. The ransom discharged us from
all charges. The last statement, I'll close. This ransom was paid to God.
Some preachers preach that the price of our redemption was paid
to Satan. My dad used to say, that's Tommy
Rod. I don't know what Tommy Rod is, but it sounds good. That's ridiculous. Satan may
detain us, but he doesn't own us. He doesn't own anything.
The earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof, even the wicked
God made for the day of evil. Satan doesn't own us. He doesn't
have any claim on anything. He detains us. Our Lord didn't
make any payment to Satan. That's beneath the dignity of
God to even think such a thing. Some people, seeing that paying
the ransom price to Satan is absurd, a terrible claim, then
they say, well, he didn't pay anybody. He just metaphorically
accomplished a redemption. Kind of an example? He just died
in general? He didn't pay the debt to anybody
or for anybody. He just made it possible for
you to come down an aisle and get saved. Our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed
us with his precious blood, which he paid to God. It is against
God that we sin. It is his law that we despise
and Christ kept. It's his justice which brings
his wrath upon us. And Jesus Christ stood in our
stead before God's law and obeyed it and paid what we owed. He
stood in our stead before God's throne of justice and paid it,
and paid all that we owed. It says over here in Revelation
5, let me read this to you. You know in the Old Testament,
every sacrifice and atonement was made before the Lord. I told
you a while ago when the high priest went into the Holy of
Holies to put the blood on the mercy seat. Who was there? Only the priest with the blood.
But who else was there? God was there. And this was a
transaction between that priest and God. And when our Lord Jesus
walked the winepress alone, somebody else was on that mountain. When
Abraham went up there, Abraham and the Son were together. And
when our redemption was accomplished by Christ on Mount Calvary, he
paid the debt to God. to the law, to justice. Romans,
Revelation 5, verse 9, listen. And they sung a new song, saying,
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. Redeemed
us to whom? All right, let me read this,
and I'll close. Verse 18, "'For as much as you
know, you 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 a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who barely was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last
times for you.' for whom? For you who by him do believe
in God. That's for whom? You who believe
that God raised him from the dead and gave him glory, that
your faith and hope might be real and might be in God. The word of God is so clear,
isn't it? It's plain and clear when you let him speak, and just
go down the scripture, verse by verse, and let God speak to
his people through his words.