WHAT’S THE PRICE?
1 Pet. 1:18-20
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: LETTERS TO THE PASTOR
1. Dear Pastor, I would like to go to heaven someday because I know my brother won't be there. Stephen. Age 8, Chicago
2. Dear Pastor, I know God loves everybody but He never met my sister. Yours sincerely, Arnold. Age 8, Nashville.
3. Dear Pastor, I think a lot more people would come to your church if you moved it to Disneyland. Loreen. Age 9. Tacoma
4. Dear Pastor, Please pray for all the airline pilots. I am flying to California tomorrow. Laurie. Age 10, New York City
5. Dear Pastor, Please say a prayer for our Little League team. We need God's help or a new pitcher. Thank you. Alexander. Age 10, Raleigh
6. Dear Pastor, I liked your sermon on Sunday. Especially when it was finished. Ralph, Age 11, Akron
B. TEXT
1. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 1 Pet. 1:18-20
C. WHAT CHANGED THE OUTLAW
1. When evangelist John Wesley (1703–1791) was returning home from a service one night, he was robbed. The thief, however, found his victim to have only a little money and some Christian literature.
2. As the bandit was leaving, Wesley called out, “Stop! I have something more to give you.” The surprised robber paused. “My friend,” said Wesley, “you may live to regret this sort of life. If you ever do, here’s something to remember: ‘The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin!’” The thief hurried away, and Wesley prayed that his words might bear fruit.
3. Years later, Wesley was greeting people after a Sunday service when he was approached by a stranger. What a surprise to learn that this visitor, now a believer in Christ as a successful businessman, was the one who had robbed him years before!
4. “I owe it all to you,” said the transformed man. “Oh no, my friend,” Wesley exclaimed, “not to me, but to the precious blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin!” [Daily Bread, 10/1/94]
5. This morning we’re looking at the pricetag that bought our redemption. The title of this message is “What’s the Price?”
I. OUR EMPTY WAY OF LIFE
A. THE MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM
1. Peter starts by telling us that our life without Christ is “empty.” The Greek word mataios means “devoid of truth, devoid of success, useless, to no purpose.”
2. The study of your family's origin/genealogy is a very interesting thing. You may discover a horse thief or a bootlegger. If you go far enough back, you’ll wind up at a place called the Garden of Eden.
3. There we learn that our first parents heeded the hissing of a snake and committed high treason against God. This began a domino effect touching every man, woman, boy, and girl ever born.
4. That Original Sin didn’t just separate us from God, it put into us a sinful nature. Every person is infected with the “germ” of sin, a “bent” toward evil.
5. The Lord Jesus said, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:21-23.
6.“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jer. 17:9.
7. Dogs – rabies; Cows – brucellosis. There is no cure! The germ/ virus is so dangerous that the animals must be put down.
8. It’s the same with sin. It’s deadly. There is no cure. John 3:18 says we’re “condemned already.” The only way we can be saved is to die with Christ and to rise with Him in newness of life. Only a supernatural work can deliver us.
9. 3 THINGS SIN DOES TO US:
a. Power of Sin – enslaves /controls us (Rom. 7:19,23).
b. Impurity of Sin – contaminates/ corrupts
c. Penalty of Sin – alienates & separates us from God for all time.
B. ALL OUR EFFORTS FAIL TO CHANGE US
1. “Isn’t there some way we can get rid of our sin? NO. The only way to cancel out the moral evil of sin is either for you to die for your sin or a substitute may die for it. That’s why God set up the system of substitutionary sacrifices in the O.T.
2. But you say:
a. Won’t our lives, if we serve others, atone for it? NO!
b. If we give our money to the needy, won’t that pay? NO!
c. If we lose our life in a worthy cause, won’t that avail? NO!
d. If we follow the teaching of a great spiritual leader, won’t that cover it? NO!
3. Most folks think they’re pretty good people. Let’s suppose that a person only sins 3 times a day. Sounds like a pretty good person! But if that person lives to 80 years old (even giving them the 1st 5 years of innocence) that person will commit 82,125 sins in their lifetime! Imagine standing before God to account for over 80,000 sins!
4. David said in Ps. 40:12 that our sins are more in number than the hairs on our heads!
II. THE PRICE OF OUR REDEMPTION?
That’s why Peter said, “not with perishable things such as silver or gold that YOU WERE REDEEMED…” To “redeem” is to “buy back” something.
A. WHAT COULD NOT REDEEM US
WHAT ARE THE MOST VALUABLE THINGS IN THE WORLD?
(Business Insider Mag., 9/22/14) plus others:
1. Gold $24,000/pound
2. Diamonds $29 Million/pound
3. Da Vinci Painting $450 Million (Salvator Mundi)
4. Element Californium $12 Billion/pound
5. Anti-matter $45,000 Trillion/pound
6. BUT NONE OF THOSE WOULD AVAIL TO PURCHASE OUR SALVATION! They were of no or little worth to God. But the blood of Jesus is the most precious commodity in the Universe!
Jesus went into the Holy of Holies in Heaven 2,000 years ago and sprinkled His blood on the Mercy Seat. That blood is still fresh today, because it is still speaking (Heb. 12:24), still crying out for mercy!
B. WHAT MAKES THE BLOOD OF JESUS SO PRECIOUS?
1. IT’S THE BLOOD OF GOD
a. In Acts 20:28, Paul was saying farewell to the Ephesian Christians. He told the leaders, “Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with his own blood.” Here Paul calls
Christ, simply, “God,” and refers to the blood of Christ as the blood of God.
b. At the conception of Christ, Mary supplied the human side of the gene pattern, but the Holy Spirit miraculously designed the male side the be the genes of God.
c. This quality gave His blood its infinite efficacy and power to atone for the sins of the countless billions of humans at one stroke. Thank God for the marvelous blood of Jesus!
2. HIS WAS INNOCENT BLOOD
a. Five times the Bible declares that Jesus lived a sinless life during his earthly life. Even Pilate and the traitor Judas said His was innocent blood.
b. This means that when Jesus was suffered for us on the cross, His blood was untainted by sin. He was capable, since without sin Himself, to take on Himself the sin of others. This would not have been possible without his innocency.
3. HE WAS A WILLING SACRIFICE
a. Jesus stated that He willingly gave His life. Other sacrifices struggled to get away, but not Jesus.
b. Jesus said in John 10:17-18, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”
4. ACCEPTABLE BECAUSE APPOINTED BY GOD
a. There was no other sacrifice that was precious enough to outweigh all the sin in the universe, except that of God’s own Son. Isaiah 53:11 says that when God the Father saw “the travail of his soul”, that He was “satisfied.” Praise God!
b. As Peter put it, “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” – but the name of JESUS! That’s why no other religion – which are all man-made – can save you.
c. A Calcutta paper carried the story of how a Hindu came to the house of a missionary for an interview. In the course of the conversation, he said: "Many things which Christianity contains I find in Hinduism; but there is one thing which Christianity has that Hinduism has not." "What is that?" the missionary asked. His reply was striking: "A Savior!"
d. That’s why Buddha can’t save you, nor Islam, nor Hinduism, nor Confucianism – because God made His Son Jesus the Savior of the World! “No one comes to the Father except through Me” Jesus said, in John 14:6.
5. OUR SALVATION WAS NOT AN AFTER-THOUGHT OF GOD
a. Peter said (vs. 20), “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”
b. The Book of Revelation tells us that Jesus is the Lamb “slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). God wasn’t playing catch-up with our sins. When God decided to create us, He knew that free wills would give us the ability to fall, and so Jesus, out of love, volunteered to die to redeem us. What love!
c. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command” John 15:13-14. God would rather die than to live in Heaven without you!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. “The Broken Rope” is an exhibit in the Alpine Museum in Zermatt, Switzerland. It’s stout, it looks strong, but it failed at a critical moment.
2. Edward Whymper, a famous Alpine climber, and six others, scaled the dizzy heights of Matterhorn. On the way down, one of the men slipped, falling over the edge. The rope attaching the men then pulled three more men over the edge.
3. The top three men saw the pull coming and tightened the rope anchors, preparing for the blow. But the rope broke! The horrified trio watched the other four men plummet 4,000 feet to the glacier below.
4. When they met with the authorities, the broken rope was examined and they found it was NOT genuine Alpine Club rope. Those ropes are made to withstand the strain of over 2,000 pounds falling on them.
5. Genuine Alpine Club ropes are distinguished by a RED STRAND running through them. So it is with the true salvation that comes from God.
6. Many have entrusted their eternal souls to faulty substitutes and will find at the Great Judgment that these will not hold them. But those who trust in the Savior, Jesus Christ, who shed His blood for them, will find that it’s a salvation which saves to the uttermost!
B. ILLUS. 2, MARTIN LUTHER’S DREAM
1. One night Martin Luther went to sleep troubled about his sins. In a dream he saw an angel standing by a blackboard and at the top of the board was Luther’s name.
2. The angel, chalk in hand, was listing all of Luther’s sins, and the list filled the blackboard. Luther shuddered in despair, feeling that his sins were so many that he could never be forgiven.
3. But suddenly in his dream he saw a pierced hand writing above the list these words: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” As Luther gazed in amazement, the blood flowed from the wounded hand and washed the record clean. [W. H. Ford, Simple Sermons for Saints and Sinners]
C. THE CALL
1. Would you like to trust in Christ’s atoning blood this morning? Claim it for your own; it was shed for you.
2. Some Christians keep dragging their sins out from under the blood – torturing their consciences. Our sin is forgiven – it’s behind His back. Have faith in that blood!
3. He remembers it no more; it’s been cast into the sea of forgetfulness never to be remembered again. Let it go. Let’s pray.
D. THE LORD’S SUPPER
