Let us turn tonight to 1 Peter
chapter 1. I ended last Sunday evening with
verse 16, so let's take up with verse 17 and read through the
end of the chapter. And if you 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
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 with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you, who by him do believe in God that raised him
up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope
might be in God, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying
the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart fervently. Being born again not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass and
all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord
endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. In these verses, the Apostle
Peter continues exhorting, admonishing all of us who profess faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ concerning our conversation in this world. Tonight, rather than go through
these verses one by one, I'm going to speak to us on three
truths, three truths concerning God's children, which are mentioned
in these verses. Not in the order in which they
are mentioned, but three truths concerning every child of God. First, God's children are all
redeemed, verses 18 and 19. you are not redeemed with corruptible
things, but with the precious blood of Christ. So we could
read that you are not redeemed with corruptible things, but
you are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. And here are
two truths for us this evening concerning redemption. In this verse, The Redeemer is
identified with the precious blood of Christ. The Redeemer,
Christ. We know that he has three titles. He is the Lord, Jesus Christ. The Lord, of course, reminds
us of his deity, that he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Jesus is the name that he was given at his birth, which reminds
us of his humanity. And then Christ of his office,
the anointed of God. Every one of God's children,
every one of God's children here tonight, we are all redeemed
and we are all redeemed by Christ. There is no other redeemer. In Isaiah chapter 54 and verse
5, we read this about the Redeemer. For thy maker, who made us, who
created us, for thy maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts
is his name, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Now listen,
the God of the whole earth shall he be called. the God of the
whole earth. We know there's only one God,
only one true and living God who exists in the Trinity of
persons, and it is the eternal Son of God who is here as the
Christ, as the God-man, our Redeemer, the God of the whole earth, shall
he be called. No wonder the Apostle Paul spoke
about the church being purchased with the blood of God in Acts
chapter 20. We know that God is a spirit
and God doesn't have blood, doesn't have flesh. But as a God-man,
he became a man having both flesh and blood, that he was able to
shed his blood. And because he is one with The
Son, that is, He is the eternal Son of God. His blood is called
the blood of God. Redeemed. And that's the second
thing we see. The person of our redemption
is identified, the Redeemer is identified as Christ, and then
the price of our redemption is given here, the precious blood
of Christ. I want you to look back with
me to the book of Psalms for this verse of Scripture. I want
to speak a few words about it concerning redemption in Psalm
chapter 49. Psalm 49 in verse 8, For the
redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth forever. Word translated here, precious. For the redemption of their soul
is precious. It could have been translated
heavy, heavy. For the redemption of of the
soul is heavy. It is heavy. In other words,
it is too weighty a matter for the richest man in this world
to redeem his own soul. The redemption of the soul is
heavy. It's precious. If a man had all
the gold in the world, he could not accomplish the redemption
of his soul or the soul of any other individual. It requires a greater price.
The redemption of our soul requires a greater price. And that is,
as the Apostle Peter says, the precious blood of Christ. Now the rest of that text here
in Psalm 49 and verse eight, and it ceaseth forever. Means that it could never, it
could never have been accomplished apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other redeemer. There's
no other redemption price other than the blood of Jesus Christ
our Lord. In Psalm 130 in verse seven,
the psalmist said, let Israel hope in the Lord. Let Israel
hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there's mercy, and with
him is plenteous redemption. If you're ever troubled by your
sins, as I know I am sometimes, Satan or the flesh reminds you
of your sins and how great a sinner you are, just remind him, if
you're speaking with Satan, that no matter how great our sins
may be, the blood of Jesus Christ is greater still. It's more precious,
more precious. For with the Lord there's mercy,
and with him is plenteous redemption. The worst sinner who's ever walked
on the face of God's earth, the blood of Jesus Christ. If it
is God's purpose to redeem that individual, The blood of Jesus
Christ will accomplish it because His blood is precious. Now back in our text, this word
that we see, I said all of God's people, all of God's children
are redeemed. You are not redeemed with corruptible
things, but you are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. This word here redeemed in our
text, the noun form of this word is translated ransom in Matthew
20 and verse 28. The Lord Jesus said, even as
the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister
and to give his life a ransom for many. The ransom price for
our Lord's sheep is the blood of Jesus Christ. When something
is ransomed, then whatever it is that's ransomed is released. It's redeemed. That's what the
word means. I remember reading several years
back this famous singer. One of his sons was kidnapped,
and they demanded a ransom price, a very high ransom price, and
they sent along with the ransom demand, one of his son's fingers,
so that they couldn't doubt that they had his son. And the ransom
price was $1 million. And the man paid the ransom price. And his son was ransomed. He was set free. He came home. We can't hardly talk about redemption
and a ransom unless we recognize that those for whom the ransom
was paid are ransomed. Those who are redeemed are redeemed. To say that there are some that
He redeemed that die and go to hell, He didn't redeem them then. That's obvious. Those that He
redeems are redeemed. Those for whom the ransom price
was paid are set free. That's the very definition of
redemption and of ransom. We have a picture of the Lord's
sheep, all of his sheep. We were given, his sheep were
given unto him in that everlasting covenant before the foundation
of the world, and he received us As his sheep, he, our pastor,
our shepherd, he received us as members of his body. He is
the head of the body. He received us in that everlasting
covenant. And yet in our head, we fail. That is in Adam. And we fail
and we become enslaved. Remember he said to some in his
day when he was here in the flesh, If the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. But he's the only one who's able
to make a person free. By nature, all men are in slavery,
enslaved to sin, enslaved to Satan. He is a strong man who
keeps his house, guards his house, his territory. those who are
his captives. And the only way anyone is going
to get loose, be delivered from the power of Satan, our Lord
said, a stronger one must come upon him. And that stronger one,
that strong man, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He ransomed, he
redeemed his people from sin, from Satan, from the law. You
know, the law had us by the neck and it was saying, pay me, pay
me. It demanded payment because we
had broken God's law. We had, we had despised God's
justice, trampled upon God's justice, but we are redeemed. We're ransomed. with the precious
blood of Christ. And not only were we enslaved
to sin, Satan, God's law, but also to hell. Hell had our name. There was a place for us there,
but God ransomed us, delivered us. And death, eternal death. God interposed, if you please. There's a scripture in the book
of Job that reads like this. Deliver them from going down
to the pit. I have found a ransom. Deliver
them from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. From what I've read, the The people that owned slaves,
many of them at least, not all of them, but they would put their
slaves in a pit at night, a pit out of which they could not free
themselves. They could not get out of that
pit until the next morning when the master servant would come
and somehow extricate them from the pit, put a ladder down or
something. There was no way that they could
get themselves out of that pit, and yet The Lord here says, deliver
them from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. I have provided a ransom. And I say these words there of
the Lord, much like the words of Abraham when he and Isaac
left his servants and were carrying the wood and the knife and the
fire going up on Mount Moriah. where God had commanded Abraham
to take his son and offer him theirs, a burnt offering. And
Isaac said, my father, here's the wood and here's the fire,
but where's the lamb? Where's the lamb for the burnt
offering? And Abraham's words were, God
shall provide himself a lamb. Either they can be understood
of two different ways, right? God will provide himself the
Lamb. And that's what he did. He came
into this world. Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sins of the world. He provided himself that Lamb
to redeem his people. Or it could be understood in
the sense that God would be satisfied. He would provide himself a Lamb
that would satisfy His justice and set the servants of sin free. But that's something we see here
in these verses that's true of every child of God. We've all
been redeemed. The second thing that I point
out to us here is down in verse 23. All of God's children are
born again. Verse 23, being born again. To be a child of God, a person
must, he must, she must be born again. We're all born the first
time, which means that we have been born of the flesh. But our
Lord told Nicodemus, first of all, to see, to see the kingdom
of God, to perceive, to understand the truth about the kingdom of
God, a person must be. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The new birth enables a person
to understand the things of God. And then our Lord, in just a
few lines down, said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, even of the Spirit,
He cannot enter the kingdom of God. Just being religious is
not enough. Nicodemus was a very religious
man. He was a leader among the Jews.
Many believe he was a member of the Sanhedrin. That was the
top group among the Jews. Being religious is not enough.
You know, if being religious is all that God requires, then
Most everyone would be saved, wouldn't they? Because everyone
has a religion. He may make it up himself, but
everyone has some kind of religion. Being moral is not enough. Nicodemus, no doubt, was a very
moral man. But no, our Lord said, Nicodemus,
except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. And the reason is, a natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned. Except a man be born of water,
even of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. I know people have different
understandings of what is meant by the water. I know some people,
some men I've read after that believe that being born of the
water is our first birth, our natural birth. When a baby is
born, we're born of the water. The water breaks and the baby
comes forth. Being born of the water, but
then of the spirit. There's some men who believe
that's the way we ought to understand this. Others believe the water
stands for the Word of God. Others believe the water stands
for the cleansing that takes effect when a person is born
of the Spirit. But a person must be born again. He must be. And Peter here declares
that men are not born again of corruptible seed. Notice that
in the text, being born again not of corruptible seed." What
does he mean by that? Not of corruptible seed. You know that verse. Turn back
with me to John chapter 1. John chapter 1, verses 12 and
13. But as many, verse 12 of John
chapter one, but as many as received him to them gave he power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,
which were born not of corruptible seed, not of blood, not of corruptible
seed, not of the will of the flesh, not of corruptible seed. nor of the will of man, but of
God." Each of these three things here in this text that the Apostle
John tells us that men are not born by blood, and not born by
the will of the flesh, and they're not born by the will of God,
each of these things may refer to the corruptible seed that
Peter is speaking of. but of God. Being born again, back in the
text, being born again, not of corruptible seed. Anything that man can do is corruptible,
simply because he himself is corruptible. Not born again of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible That verse in John says, but
of God, born again, in our text here, by the word of God, which
liveth and abideth forever. The word of God. Now, the word
refers to the Lord Jesus Christ in John 1.1, doesn't it? In the
beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word
was God. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God. That is, by
God, or by the Lord Jesus Christ, or it may refer to the written
word. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. Some men say, well, this may
refer to God, the Word, the eternal Word, who does live forever,
or it may refer to the written Word of God, which lives forever,
which is true forever. Now, verse 25, if you look at
verse 25, it seems to me to favor the written Word of God. The
word that we read here, the word that we have in our hands tonight,
the word that we hear preached. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. Those who understand this to
be speaking of the living word, that is the eternal word, they
bring this truth out. that as God is ever living, that
which is produced directly by Him in the human soul, by the
instrumentality of the truth, may be expected to endure forever. In other words, whatsoever the
Lord doeth, it shall be forever, because He ever lives, then that
which is born of him will live forever. That is, if we understand
this as speaking of the eternal Word of God. It will not be like
the offspring of human parents, because we are mortal, and we are liable to death and
certain decay, but those who are born of the living word may
be expected to endure forever, even as he lives forever. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. So that's the second truth concerning
God's children. Every child of God is redeemed. Every child of God is born again. And third, Back in verse 17,
God's children are all sojourners. Sojourners. Look back in verse
17. And if you call on the Father
who without respective persons Judges, according to every man's
work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. And that's what
all of God's children, that's what we are doing. We're just
sojourning here. I was looking at this word sojourner
in the concordance, and God's people have always been sojourners,
God's people. They've always been sojourners
in this world. In Leviticus, God told the nation
of Israel, before they entered into the land of Canaan, he said,
the land shall not be sold forever, for the land is mine for your
strangers and sojourners with me. That's what he told the nation
of Israel. They couldn't sell their land.
They could pawn their land, remember? They would do that sometimes
when they got deeply in debt, and that's where the kinsman
redeemer comes in to play. But they couldn't sell their
property. When Ahab demanded of, I can't recall the man's
name, but he had that vineyard right next to the king's palace,
you know, and he wouldn't sell his land. And by law, He couldn't
sell that land. To be obedient unto God, he couldn't
sell that land. And you remember Ahab's wife,
Jezebel, she said, I'll get you that land. And she did, didn't
she? She hired some men to testify
that he had blasphemed the name of the Lord, and they stoned
him. And Ahab got that garden. There was a preacher in the South
years ago who had a sermon entitled, Payday Someday. Payday Someday. I think that sermon was preached
about 5,000 times. Payday Someday. And that was
his text. Yeah, Ahab got the vineyard,
but there's coming a payday someday. And as a moral governor of the
world, there is. People think they get away with
their sins, with their transgressions, but there's a payday coming someday. Also, I found in 1 Chronicles
29 and verse 15, David, he was praying and he said, for we are
strangers with thee and sojourners as for all our fathers. Our days
on earth are as a shadow, and there's none abiding. In both
of those texts, it's interesting, the word with, with. The Lord said, the land shall
not be so forever, for the land is mine, for you are strangers
and sojourners with me. And David, in his prayer, said,
for we are strangers with thee and sojourners. When the Lord
Jesus Christ came into this world, it was his world. He created
it. He made all things. He was in this world, but he
was a stranger in his own world. And when Mary and Joseph came
to Bethlehem, The night that he was to be born, remember what
they found, there was no room for them in the end. And that
was the life of the Lord Jesus Christ all the time that he was
here. All the time that he was here
in the flesh, 32 or 33 years, he was a stranger in his own
world. He was a sojourner here. And
all of God's children, that's what we are. And we make a mistake. We make a mistake when we get
so settled here in this world that we think that we're going
to be here forever. We're not. We're not. Remember that old saying, don't
put your stakes down too far. We may be leaving in the morning.
Don't put your tent stakes too deep. We may be leaving this
place in the morning. No, God's people are sojourners.
We're in the world. Our Lord said this in his prayer
in John 17, that his people are in the world, but we're not of
the world. We're not of this world. The philosophy of this world
is against God. Always has been and always shall
be. And God's people are not of this
world. Our citizenship. is in heaven,
the apostle Paul said. Our citizenship is in heaven.
And we are all like our father as we go through this world,
our father Abraham. We look for a city that hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. We're only sojourners
here in this world. But aren't you thankful tonight?
We know that When this house, this tabernacle is destroyed,
we have a building of God eternal in the heavens. May the Lord
bless His word to all of us tonight. If you will, Bill, come and lead
us in a hymn.