If you'd like, open your Bibles
with me to 1 Peter 1. I'm going to be as plain as I
can in dealing with the subject redeemed by his blood, redeemed
by his blood. Now there are many things, many,
many, many things about the living God and about his redemptive
glory that I do not know. I do believe that the older I
get, the more I realize how little I know about God and his glory. I know a great deal about Well,
I know a little bit about the history of the Church and the
inner workings of the Church and about revivals of the past
and present and about organizations and even about theology. I've
read a lot of books on theology. I know names. I know what to
preach. I can call the names of a lot
of men. I know what to preach. I'm acquainted
with a lot of missionary work today and a lot of preachers.
But I'm talking about a real experiential knowledge and understanding
of the redemptive glory of God. God and His glory. But I take comfort in this verse
found in Deuteronomy 29, 29 for you who are taking notes. You
don't need to turn to it. But it says the secret things
belong to God. And I'm going to leave them there.
The secret things belong to God. The revealed things belong to
us and our children. And I've got to somehow come
to some understanding of what is to be left alone and what
is to be searched out. What is the secret things? What
are the secret things and what are the revealed things? We know in part. Paul said we
prophesy in part. I know there's an exhaustive
concordance in there, meaning it has every word in the Bible
written in that concordance, but there's no exhaustive commentary. There's no exhaustive message,
I guarantee you that. I know in part, and I preach
in part, and I see through a glass so dimly and so dark and so hazy. Paul said, I'm not perfect. I
haven't arrived, I haven't yet laid hold of that for which I've
been laid hold of by Christ. But for getting those things
which are behind, I press toward the prize of the high calling
of Christ my Lord. And I say all that to say this,
there are some things about God's redemptive glory in Christ I
do know. and some things that are as clear
to me as the noonday sun. And I don't have to stand like
this young missionary's father and listen to someone talk about
the sovereignty of God and the elective grace of God and the
sufficient effectual sacrifice of Christ and the invincible,
irresistible call of the Spirit of God and the preservation and
perseverance of the Saints. and the infinite glory of God
in redemption, in the mediatorial work of Christ, and the power
of Christ, and say, I've been lying to people for 35 years.
I have not, because there's some things I know are so. I know
they're so. I'm confident of these things
as God lives, as God reigns, as this book is his work. The
first one is this, and if you notice, most of that scripture
I read to you a moment ago was one sentence. But here's the
first thing I know, verse 18. For as much as you know, you
were not redeemed with corruptible things. I know that. Now, I realize
that Peter's referring here to the Jews and their legalistic
ceremonies and traditions and so forth. I know that. I know
that's what he's talking about. He said, you're not redeemed
from Judaism. Now, you watch this Judeo-Christian
ethics. There ain't no such animal these
fellows are talking about. You watch that. I'm not under
Judeo-Christian ethics. I'm in Christ, in Christ. And those Judeo situations back
there were unbelieving, unsaved people, rebels is what they were,
that God had to keep in check. with an iron fist and laws. And
I know what he's talking about here. You're not delivered from
that legalistic, ceremonial, ritualistic, libidical situation by silver
and gold. But what I'm saying is this.
I know that you and I are not redeemed by the deeds of the
law. I know that. That men are not justified before
God by the works of religion. That I know. And it doesn't matter
what it is, you can talk about keeping the Sabbath day, you
can talk about tithing, you can talk about attending church,
you can talk about getting in a good Bible-believing fundamental
church and win souls, you can talk about being baptized, you
can talk about coming to the Lord's table, you can talk about
quitting drinking and cursing and spitting and smoking and
gambling and playing bingo and all these things, shooting pool
and all these things. That is not the way men are saved.
They are not saved that way. They're not redeemed that way.
Turn over with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter 3. Romans the
third chapter. And I've heard people say, well,
my dear old mother didn't go to church, but she was a godly
woman. Well, let me tell you this. If your mother was seeking
to be saved by her good works, she's lost. My dear old dad was
a good man, good man. My dad was a farmer, and he earned
his living with the sweat of his brow, and he was a dirt farmer,
and he worked hard, and he supported his family, and he did all these
things. His memory is sweet to me. I'm
glad it is. It ought to be. The memory of
our fathers and mothers ought to be sweet. But if he's looking
for redemption by his works, he's lost. And if you're here
this morning, and you're looking for redemption by your good deeds
and works now, you're just not saved that way. You're not redeemed
that way because in the first place, there's none good, no,
not one. We're not, as those who compare
themselves with themselves or justify ourselves in the eyes
of men, we stand guilty in the sight of God. Our love is not
perfect love. Our faith is not perfect faith.
Our deeds are not perfect deeds, and God can't be satisfied with,
accept, or live with anything that's not perfect. And we are
unrighteous before God. But here in Romans chapter 3,
the Apostle Paul came to this conclusion after describing the
Jewish ruin and the Gentile ruin and the pagan ruin. And he said
in verse 28, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law. without the deeds of the Lord. That's Paul's conclusion. When I come to the end of the
whole matter, I reach this conclusion, that a man is not accepted before
God, he's not justified before God, he's not redeemed before
God by anything that he does, anything that he gives, anything
that he knows. I know that. But I know this, we are redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ. What does the word redeem mean?
It means to buy back. It means to buy back that which
was lost, that which was forfeited, that which we no longer obtained
in our possession. When you go and redeem it, you
buy it back, you restore it, you pay a ransom. Let me give
you an illustration. Walter Gruber told this, some
of you may remember it, told it years ago. He said there was
a little Mexican boy who he and his daddy made a kite together.
And it was a very artistic kite. And he got some string and put
a tail on the kite and he went out to fly it and his string
broke and the kite got away. And he looked everywhere for
that kite, but it was lost. It was lost. And one day, he
and his father were in the next pueblo, the next village, and
they came by this little flea market sort of thing, and nearly
every store down there is a flea market. But they came by this
little flea market sort of thing, he and his father, and he looked
in the window and said, there's my kite. There's my kite. The people had found that kite
and had a price tag on it of three pesos. And he went in to
the store owner and he said, that's my kite you've got there.
And the man said, that's my kite, I found it. The boy said, but
I made it. He said, but you lost it. And it's not yours anymore,
it's mine. And if you want it, you gotta
buy it for three pesos. And so the little boy looked
up at his father, and his father handed him three pesos, and he
redeemed his kite. He paid a ransom and bought his
kite back. And on the way out, he said to
his father, he said, this kite is twice mine. I made it and
I bought it. And here is a son of God that's
twice the son of God. He made me and he bought me.
He redeemed me. And I'm not redeemed now. I'm
not redeemed by what I do. I've been baptized and I try
to set an example in this church of giving and of preaching and
witnessing and being faithful to the services and trying to
conduct my home and family in a way that will be an honor to
Christ. But I tell you, that's all rotten, filthy rags in God's
sight now. He will not accept any man's
person. He's no respecter of person.
He won't accept it. We are lost. And we've got to
be redeemed. Well, how are we redeemed? With
the precious blood of Christ. The word precious is used. Why?
It's priceless. Priceless. That little boy paid
free pesos for that kite. But I tell you, you're bought
with a price. And my soul, what a price. The
precious. The Bible uses words like this,
unspeakable gift. God's unspeakable gift. Words
like this, unsearchable riches. Infinite. Unexplainable. I thought about this. Why? He
calls this precious blood. You're not redeemed with silver
and gold. You're not redeemed with works
of the law. You're not redeemed by your deeds of religion. Don't
bring those paltry rags to God. We are redeemed, we're bought,
we're ransomed with the blood of Christ, which is precious.
You know why it's precious? Because it's God's blood. God's
blood. See, God doesn't have blood.
God's invisible. God's invisible living God. No
man has seen God at any time. God took upon himself flesh and
blood. He took upon himself the likeness
of our flesh, he was made in the likeness of our sinful flesh,
and shed his own blood, purchased the church with his own blood."
That's what the Word of God said. That's some of those secret things,
Mike, I don't understand. How God can die, but he did,
in the person of his Son, on a cross, in the body. This blood
is precious because it's the blood of the God-man. There's
never been a God-man before or since. He's the only one. Perfect
God, perfect man. The nature of God, the nature
of man in one. And then it's precious because
it wasn't shed but one time. I reject and resist any masses,
any reshedding of the blood of Christ, or even demonstrations
by people who claim that that is the actual broken body and
shed blood. When we take the Lord's table
and break the bread and drink the wine, we're saying this is
symbolic. We're not saying this is Christ's blood. We're not
saying this is his body in the sense that he's present in those
elements. He's not. They are simply elements. They're simply symbols. They
represent what he did one time. By one offering, he has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And we don't need crosses in
our lapel or around our neck or on our church. We don't worship
the cross, we worship Christ. We don't need symbols, invisible
signs, and all these reminders. You don't need to carry a cross
in your pocket that you can rub for good luck. If you do that,
you're unsaved, you miss God. That's exactly right, that's
idolatry. You might as well build your golden calf and go out and
rub it, because we worship a person. We worship God in the spirit,
we rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
We need no symbols of religion. Christ, we don't even need a
Christian flag. Christ is our banner. You say
you're stretching that. If I could stretch it further,
I would. If I could wean us totally, completely from any reliance
upon or rest in or regard for anything or anybody or any emblem
or any symbol or any visible religious relic, I'd do it. I'd
burn every one of them. I surely would. Because I tell
you this, it's look to Christ. It's look to Christ. And we worship
God in spirit and truth, John. The Lord told that woman at the
well, she said, our father's worshiping this man. That's why
I like to go worship God in the mountains, in the open air, you
know, where I can feel his presence. Go to Jerusalem and walk over
there. You know what a fellow did on
television Sunday a week ago? I told Arch one time, I said,
now you ain't seen nothing yet. Just wait a few more years. These
fellows are going to get more outlandish every day. I promise
you that. You ain't seen nothing. They're
going to keep trying a little harder. He offered a book. that he had written on how to
foretell the future from the word of God. That ought to sell.
A lot of fools will buy that, you know. And then he stood there,
and he had a little vial, a little glass vial about as big as my
little finger, about like that, and it was on a chain. And you're
not going to believe this, but I was sitting there watching
it blown up. And he held that chain with that vial on it. You
say it was water from the River Jordan. Oh, no. No, more than
that. He said, now you folks listen,
I have a friend in Jerusalem that went in the grave of Christ
and scraped up three fruit jars of dirt right off the floor of
Jesus' grave and brought it to America, and I've taken that
actual dirt from that tomb and put it in these little vials.
And you can have it for $15 or more donation. And you can wear
it around your neck and you can feel for one year the resurrected
life and power of Christ by wearing that dirt. And he said, the thing
for you to do is get one for your children or your little
girl to wear to school. She'll make better grades. You
believe that? I saw that. I tell you, the Africans
who are over there bowing before a witch doctor are near as pagan
because they don't have any light. That man has in front of him
a Bible that tells us not to do things like that. Idolatry. I know you do what you will. We are not redeemed with corruptible
things. Anything you can taste, touch,
anything that you can hear or see. visible, physical, material,
or whatever, we're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
Precious is the blood of Jesus who can have its worth unfold. Far beyond my understanding,
sweetly sung to harps of gold. Precious when the dreadful scourges
cause those sacred drops to flow. Precious when his blood atoning
made a full ransom for my soul. All right? Let me show you the
third thing I know. Verse 20, I know this. I don't apologize. I'm a Calvinist. That's a nickname. But that's
what I am. I'm a Calvinist. I believe the
salvations of the Lord. I believe salvations of the Lord
from Alpha and Omega. That's exactly why I don't apologize
for it, not one bit in this world, not one bit. And every true minister
of the gospel who's ever lived and preached the gospel, Whitefield,
Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Spurgeon, Edwards, Owens, Watts, Newton,
Cowper, all of them were Calvinists. Not that you follow a man, but
that's a short term for believing that the whole of the work, A
fallen sinner is lifted from his darkness and death and dunghill
to the light and life and throne of eternal glory, is of the Lord
and of him only. That's Calvinism. Salvations
of the Lord in his purpose, in his planning, in his execution,
in his application, in his sustaining power, in his ultimate perfection. And a man that does not preach
that does not preach the gospel. That's exactly right. Because
the gospel is the gospel of God, it's the gospel of free grace,
it's the gospel of his glory, it's the gospel of his soul.
That's the gospel. It ain't but one gospel. And
it says here, I know this, I know thirdly that he was ordained,
foreordained, before the foundation of the world. That's what it's
saying. What's that saying, Preacher?
Now, the foundations of the world, that goes back before Adam fell,
doesn't it? That goes back before Adam stood,
because he stood on the foundations. They had to be laid for it to
stand. That goes back before Adam was created. That goes back
before God Almighty even made the earth on which Adam dwelt.
or the trees from which he ate, or the springs from which he
drank, or the stars upon which he looked, or the sun under which
he lived, or the moon at night under which he slept. That a
lamb, a lamb, a sacrificial lamb, a sin offering for men, but there
weren't any men. And if there weren't any men,
there wasn't any sin. But here is a lamb Here's a lamb
slain, killed, his blood shed for sin before there were any
men or sin or world in which to sin. That means this, if you
got any understanding of words, if words mean anything at all,
But before God Almighty ever made this earth or put man in
this earth, Almighty God in his divine wisdom, in his divine
knowledge, in his divine foreknowledge, knew and permitted this fall. But before he ever permitted
this fall or created the man who would fall, he provided a
surety He provided a sacrifice, he provided a Redeemer for that
man. And when that man fell, the presence
of that Redeemer and that surety kept God from destroying him,
kept God from putting him in hell. And that's right, Mike,
that's what kept God from putting Adam in hell right there. He
put the angels in hell that fell. He reserved them in everlasting
chains of darkness the moment they fell. I saw Satan fall from
heaven like lightning, my Lord said, like lightning. He was
gone. And I'll tell you this, if there
hadn't been a surety and a sacrifice and a sin offering already in
the mind of God when Adam fell, he'd have been gone, too, and
Eve with him. Because Christ took not on himself
the nature of angels, but the nature of the seed of Abraham,
human beings. And you do what you want to with
that. You say, I just don't believe in predestination. Well, you've
got more problems than that. You don't believe in God, because
the God of the universe is a predestinating God. He's no accidental God. The cross wasn't an afterthought.
The provision of mercy was not an afterthought. Christ is the
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. I'll shake you
up a little more. He put our names in the Book of Life before
the foundation of the world. He wrote them there. God's unchanging. Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. God chose his people in Christ
before the foundation of the world, that's what it says. God
has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. That's just
so. A man can buck it and fight it and grit his teeth and say,
I won't have it. Well, you'll have it someday. Because God
is an electing God. He is a predestinating God. He
said, my will shall be done on earth as is in heaven. We're taught to pray that way.
I don't want my will to be done. I want God's will to be done.
And it shall be. He said, have I spoken and shall
I not do it? My counsel shall stand. I will
do all my pleasure. That's what God said. Now what
I want, I want to be on his side. I want to be on his side. Somebody
asked Abraham Lincoln, I believe it was, during the Civil War,
a little group of church members came in there to talk to Lincoln. He said, well, we hope God's
on our side. He said, well, I just hope we're
on his side. I don't know that it matters
if he's on our side. I hope we're on his side. And
boy, I do, because this is all he was. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
look at verse 20 again. He was ordained before the foundation
of the world, but he was manifest in these last times. Now, this
whole thing, let me show you something. Christ was the Lamb,
God's sacrifice and sin offering of the Lamb, was ordained, foreordained,
and determined, and set apart before the world began. But in
order to save his people, he had to come and fulfill what
was ordained. You see, he was the Lamb slain
in purpose, in plan, in the mind of God. But that which is purposed
and planned must also be fulfilled. So Christ came in literally and
actually died in a fulfillment of what was purposed. Now then,
I hear people say, well, if God chose us to salvation, we're
going to be saved no matter what. That's not true. That's not true. That's like saying, well, Christ
can redeem us even if he doesn't come because it's already been
purposed. No, he's got to come and die. He's got to fulfill
what's purpose. And when I say that God chose
us in Christ before the world began, he did, in his purpose,
in his plan, in God's mind, because nothing catches God by surprise.
But we've got to be brought to this place by the Spirit of God
where we repent of sin and where we believe the gospel and where
we do embrace Christ in saving faith. Now that's so. Turn to
2 Thessalonians 2.13. A thing is not accomplished because
it's purpose. It's accomplished when it's accomplished.
It's purpose, but it's fulfilled when it's manifested, when it
actually takes place. Look at 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians
2.13. Now listen. But we're bound,
Paul said, to give thanks always to God for you, brethren. Beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation." But that's not the end of that sentence. Through
sanctification. What's sanctification? It's to
set apart. It's to regard as holy. It's
to actually make holy. And that's done by the Holy Spirit.
But how is it done through the Holy Spirit? It's done through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. And
that's the reason Paul said, I know, brethren, your election
of God, because our gospel came not to you in word only, but
in power and the Holy Ghost and what you show. And our Lord Jesus
Christ was foreordained as the Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world, but he was manifest. He actually came to this earth
in these last times and died and died. And even so, I believe
that I was chosen of God before the foundation of the world.
And God Almighty hedged me about. He gave his angels charge over
me. During all of the dangers of my life, I was in 78 air raids
one time in 25 days. The ship behind us was sunk.
The one on the left over here, one of those suicide planes hit
it. The one on the right, our ship
was never, I was never touched. I stood on the conning tower
in the open in 78 air raids. It was never touched. Nobody
could touch me. You went on how many raids over
Germany? In a B-17, Cecil Roach flew a
B-17 World War II and made about 30 raids over Germany and came
back every time unscratched. I'll tell you why. You wanted
God's own. You wanted God's own. And the rest of you, all the
rest of you, you said, boy, I nearly lost my life. God's going to
preserve his own. He's going to hedge them about,
he's going to feed them, he's going to keep them, and they're
going to one day hear the gospel. And they may make a dozen, you
may, when I was nine years old I made the first profession,
false profession, that's what it was, as phony as a three dollar
bill, Ronnie, just like all the rest of you made your false profession.
Join the church and try to be a good little boy, serve God,
get to heaven, you know, by what you do. Not too many years ago,
I heard the gospel of substitution, of satisfaction, of sovereign
mercy. I heard it with these ears, and
I heard it with this heart, and I said, that's it! Tim James
told me about a lady sitting in church a few weeks ago, sitting
by her husband, and some preacher was preaching, and she was sitting
there. She reached over and hit him
on the leg, and she said, that's it! So everybody could hear,
that's it. I wish somebody would do that
around here. That's it! That's it. But I'll tell you
this little old, you do your part and God will do his, that
ain't it. That's not it. You make your decision for Jesus
and he'll take you to heaven when you die, that's not it.
But I'll tell you this, Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world in the purpose and plan of Almighty God, and manifest
in these last times, and a people chosen by his grace according
to his purpose for his own glory, and manifested through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. And I'll tell you this,
God will bring you to hear that truth in a strange way, in a
strange way. You was a lost Methodist, wasn't
you? Down in Cincinnati at a How did
you ever know when you went to Cincinnati to that state fair
that you were going to meet Christ? But he met a little old skinny
blonde down there named Becky. Bob did, and they got eyes for
one another, and well, God had eyes for you. And that's the
way he brought you to Christ, brought you up here to hear the
gospel. You couldn't have heard it down there. You couldn't have
heard it where you were going either. That's just fact. Ain't
nobody here a ghost of those synagogues, but you keep on going
to those places, you're not going to hear the gospel. You're going
to hear the gospel where a man will dare open this book and
read it and preach it just like it's written. And God brought
you to hear the gospel. And every one of you can recount
different ways that God brought you somewhere under somebody
to hear the gospel. The gospel, listen to me, which
puts God where he belongs on the throne, which puts man where
he is in the dunghill. which puts Christ in his rightful
place as sovereign, sufficient, effectual, redeemer and mediator
and keeper of his people who cannot fail. Now, that's the
gospel of the person and work of Christ. Any other gospel is
a half a gospel and it won't save a fleet. And I know he was
manifested. All right, last and I'll quit.
He was manifest, verse 20, in these last times for you. For
whom? For you! Well, who's you? Look at verse 21, "...who by
him," by him, "...do believe in God." It's by Christ that
you believe in God. You never knew God until you
met Christ. Now, you never knew God until
you met Christ. God's revealed in Christ. No
man knows the Father but the Son. He that has seen me has
seen the Father. And you don't see the Father
in a false Jesus either, in another Jesus. It's the Christ of the
Bible who reveals the Father. "...who by him," do believe in
God, watch it, "...who raised him from the dead, and gave him
all the glory." He's not going to share it with your soul-winning
pastor, not going to share it with anybody else. He's going
to give him all the glory. That your faith, and here's the
next thing I know, that your faith, And hope might be in him. Well, I know I'm saved because
I made a profession. Your hope's in the wrong place.
It ought to be in Christ and not in your profession. Well,
I know I'm saved because God heard my prayer. I'm sorry, your
faith and hope's not in prayer, it's in him. That your faith
and hope might be in him. I noticed when I was reading
John Flavel, that he gave just briefly four things about the
blood. He said the typical blood was
shed to deliver Israel from wrath. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Christ's blood delivers us from
condemnation, wrath, and judgment. The typical blood of the Old
Testament was shed to make an atonement, to reconcile the people
to God. That's what the blood was called,
Richard, the atonement. Where is our atonement? Christ's
blood. at one month reconciled. Thirdly, the typical blood of
the Old Testament was shed to cleanse and purify the unclean. They'd bring the leper and they'd
slay a dove and sprinkle blood on him and pronounce him clean.
When my Lord shed his blood, God pronounced me clean. The
blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin. Now, watch this
last thing. Flavel said the typical blood
of the Old Testament was shed to ratify and confirm the covenant
which God made with Israel. Well, let me tell you this. The
Lord wants a covenant. It's a testament, a last will
and testament. And when Christ died, listen,
a testament is not in force until a testator dies. I've got your
will in my desk drawer. It ain't worth a plug nickel
till you die. Isn't that right? Isn't that right? Why, absolutely. You've got to die. As many crooked lawyers as we
have today, it may not be worth much after you die, because you
won't live to enforce it. But my Lord died, and his will
is enforced, and he lives to enforce it. He's the administrator
of his own will. That's right, Cecil. You may
meet your administrator, but he's his own administrator, and
he gives it to whom he wills. Because he's on a throne, and
you come to a throne of grace. That's it. There's hope there.
Ain't no hope in all this religion. I'm getting so weary of it, I
don't know what to do. I'm getting so depressed, I don't
hear anything anymore that gives any glory to God, even the smidgen
of glory. But this does. give us ears to hear this glorious
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray it in his name. Amen.