Christ-Bought Reverence, Part 2

Once again, and I will make a valiant effort
to get through the passage that I purpose to get through last
week. We have just one point which
I have managed to manufacture again into three. And so we will
if you will bear with me as we delve in, I will purpose to get
us through this passage. As we pointed out in weeks past,
we are in this grand chapter, chapter 1 of 1 Peter, which is
all about salvation. The whole thing from almost the
opening word of Peter’s epistle is about salvation. Even Peter,
which we spent three weeks on, looking at his life, you can’t
even hear the word Peter without thinking of a life that is dramatically
changed by God’s grace. And so we began looking at this
great chapter, chapter one, all about salvation as we saw. We
saw in the opening verses unmistakable features of the church that characterized
salvation. Peter alluded to several elements
of doctrine there. We saw the blessings of new birth
in Christ beginning in verses 3 through 5, a passage which
ends with the very word salvation, a salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. But in that passage, it talks
about the process of new birth, regeneration, and in granting
us new life, God was motivated by mercy, restoring to us hope,
promising to us an inheritance. In verses six through nine, we
saw the anatomy and the end of Christian faith. What is Christian
faith and what is its purpose? Where will it lead? We saw that
Christian faith inherently, by nature, is a joyous faith. And it is a productive faith.
It is a faith that carries us through trials to glory. But
as we looked at that passage, we saw once again that it is
not a passage about trials. It’s about faith in the midst
of trials. And that faith that carries us
through trials to glory is the same faith that carries us through
obscurity to salvation. A passage which we mentioned
had to have impressed the Apostle Peter tremendously, as he saw
people who had never seen the risen Christ, placing their faith
in Him, walking by faith with Him. And yet, Peter himself,
who had come to faith in Christ because of his visual face-to-face
encounter with Christ and walked with Him for three years, even
yet denied Him. This kind of faith overwhelmed
and humbled even the Apostle Peter himself. In verses 10 and
following, 10 through 12, we saw that still the theme of salvation
is carried forward in glorious elements, as we called it, of
God’s revelation. God has given to us a message,
and it is a message, first of all, of salvation by grace in
verse 10, of suffering and glory in verse 11, and of Gospel mysteries
in verse 12. Things into which angels long
to look. Things into which the prophets
themselves sought deeply to know more of. Having introduced salvation is
not going to depart from that great subject quickly as we’ve
seen. And so he gives us in verses 13 through following through
the end of the chapter, our response to salvation. What should be,
what is the only reasonable response of the believer to this great
salvation by grace that has been given to us? In verse 13, we
saw that, number one, our first response is to be a grace-filled
confidence. We are to have confidence in
Almighty God, infused by His grace. Look at verse 13. Gird
your minds for action. Keep sober in spirit. Fix your
hope. Place it there and don’t let
it be moved. Fix your hope completely on the
grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
But there was a second. There was a second expected response
for the believer. Not only are we to have a grace-filled
confidence, we are to have a God-like holiness. God is the standard. That is the standard to which
we are called. And we are to be ever moving
in that direction. Look at v. 14-16. Do not be conformed
to the former lusts. He talks about the old life.
And he says that it should be just that. Old. Former. Don’t be conformed to the former
lusts, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves. Be separated unto Christ. Be
separated from the world. Be holy like God is holy. The third point, the third response,
which we began last week, is that we are to have a Christ-bought
reverence. We are to have a worship that
touches every facet of our life. Not just Sunday morning. Everything
that we do, our work should be different than the average man’s.
The way that we conduct our homes should be different than the
average person’s. We should have a Christ-bought reverence that
changes the face of everything that we do. And finally, and
we’ll take this up hopefully beginning next week, we should
have our fourth response should be a born again affection. We
should have a love for one another that supersedes any kind of earthly
love or fellowship or what have you that anybody has here on
the earth. It should be different. We’ll
get to that next week, Lord willing, but I want to go back. to our
third response. The third response that God expects
and demands and deserves from every believer. Every believer
owes God a Christ-bought reverence. We began to look at this last
week and we found it in verses 17 through 21. And I want to
go back and just review the verse. Read along with me, if you would,
silently. Where Peter writes, and if you
address as father, the one who impartially judges according
to each man’s work. Conduct yourselves in fear during
the time of your stay upon earth, knowing that you are not redeemed
with perishable things like silver or gold from your feudal way
of life and inherited from your forefathers, but with precious
blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For he was foreknown before the
foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times
for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who
raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith
and hope are in God. We began to look last week at
three motivations to a worshipful life. Three motivations to a
worshipful life. We are in this third response,
the third response that God deserves and expects. A Christ bought
reverence. And when you hear that little
title that I’ve crafted over the last several weeks, Christ
bought. That points us, and it must point
in your mind’s eye, to the cross and to the redemption that was
accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ. Redemption. That great, grand truth. That foundational element in
the doctrine of salvation. That’s how we came to be saved
is because of what Christ accomplished on the cross. Thomas Watson,
the Puritan, said that redemption was the greatest of all of God’s
works, as we’ll see in a moment. But we began to look and we found
that there was much more in this passage than we expected, wasn’t
there? We found three motivations to a worship filled life. First
of all, confidence in our father, pardon me, confidence in the
father and judge. The command was clear. Conduct
yourselves in fear. And we dealt with fear. It’s
not a cowering dread of God as this caricature of Him in the
Old Testament so often is portrayed. This mean and nasty God that
kind of flies off the handle at a whim. It’s not that at all. Fear here talked about as a reverence. It is a reverence that touches
every part of our life and invites God in and desires God to cultivate
a Christian lifestyle in every facet of our life. Conduct yourselves
in fear, Peter urged. Live in fear of God, a healthy,
loving fear. We were reminded that worship
is everything in our being in response to everything that God
is. And so in that sense, it should
touch every part of our life. But Peter says, and it’s a fascinating
turn of a phrase here, he says, if you address and we pointed
out, it’s not that Peter is doubting our salvation. He’s not doubting
the first century Christians. In a sense, you could say, since
if you address as Father, and in a sense, he says, we know
that you do. We know that you call on Christ.
We know that you consider God your Father and you call upon
Him. What a glorious privilege it
is for the saints, isn’t it? To go to the very throne room
of God. But he says, if you do that,
don’t forget that he’s also judge. He is the judge. He is the righteous
judge. And he will render to every man
according to his deeds. Peter says, don’t forget that.
That was point one. But there was a second thought,
a second motivator, if you will, to a worship filled or worshipful
life. Not only our confidence in the
father and judge, but our fleeting tenure in the world is a motivator
to worship. We get mired in this world. We
get stuck with all the world’s problems. We get muddled down
with all the controversies and things that go on and all the
distractions that the world has to offer. But Peter says, conduct
yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon this earth. And we looked at that word and
we found that it is a fleeting, it’s a passing visit. It’s a
very fleeting thing for us to be in the world We’re not living here. We’re
merely pitching a tent. We’re passing through. It pointed
to that old word translated in so many of the older translations,
sojourn. We’re just traveling. We’re traveling
on our way to heaven. So why get distracted here to
the point where we’re unable or distracted from worship? It’s precisely the godless living
that even the Apostle Paul pointed out was inconsistent with a life
that is touched by God’s grace. It’s just inconsistent. We are
not to be bound up in what John Bunyan called vanity fair. The
world throws at us all this nonsense and is a constant, if you allow
it, a constant distraction from worship. And we can’t allow that. Our time here is fleeting. It’s
passing. Our focus is on eternity and in heaven. And it is a grand
motivation to a constant frame of mind of worship or fear of
God, reverence. But there was a third and that’s
where we want to park today. The third motivation to a worshipful
life is our redemption in Christ. And that really is where we’ve
been headed all along, isn’t it? Even by virtue of the title,
a Christ bought reverence. That’s what we are to have. And what it points to is the
ransom price that was paid for our souls. I mentioned Thomas
Watson said that this was God’s greatest work. Listen to what
he said. Great was the work of creation. We’ve been saying about it today,
right? It was a great work. Great was the work of creation,
but greater the work of redemption. It cost more to redeem us than
to make us. Did you get that incredible thought?
All God had to do to create us was speak a word. And we were
there. Just like He did the whole rest
of the world. There it was. But to redeem us, God had to
send His Son. He had to be born of a virgin
and live for thirty years and conduct a ministry for three
more. And then suffer a brutal death on the cross and pay our
penalty of sin. Great was the work of creation,
but greater the work of redemption. It cost more to redeem us than
to make us into. Pardon me, in the creation was
the speak, but was but the speaking of the word, but in the other
was the shedding of blood. And we’ll see what kind of blood
in a moment. We’re in the context of conducting ourselves with
fear, living reverently and first Peter. 1.18 reminds us, it calls us to a
remembrance of something. Peter wanted his first century
believers, just like he wants us, to think. Think back for
a moment, he says. Conduct yourselves in fear, remembering
this, knowing this, verse 18, that you were not redeemed with
perishable things. Let’s park for a minute. Just
pause and look at this word redeemed. It means literally to buy back
by means of paying a full ransom. In that sense, our modern ear
could be hung up or confused by that word redemption, because
so often the only time we really use it in our modern day society
is when we cash in a coupon, right? 50 cents for a can of
soup and we redeem the coupon. And that is clouded our understanding
of this word. In the use of the word, typically
the idea was one of a substitute who would go and buy back something
or someone and you would pay someone the ransom price for
this thing held. The slaves, as it were, technically
belonged to someone, and so someone would go and buy the slave for
a price, or buy back the slave for a price, seen several times
in the New Testament. But as far as people, it’s a
pretty accurate illustration. Because there was a people who
was enslaved that God sent Christ to pay a price for. Sinners had
become the slaves of sin, John 8 says, and they could not break
free, no matter how hard they tried. And even if we had gathered
up a gaggle of us, a whole bunch of us, a million of us, and sent
them all to die for one person, it wouldn’t have paid the price
of that one person’s soul. But Christ was able to come and
to pay the ransom price. And now because of that, they
are free. That’s the nature of this word. Means to pay a ransom. You know the passage. It is the
very theme. If you had to pick one verse,
as my brother did a couple of weeks ago here when he preached.
If you had to pick one verse as a theme verse for Mark’s gospel,
it’s Mark 10.45. just as the Son of Man did not
come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom
for many.” Christ came for the purpose of giving His life in
place of, or in exchange of, as part of a transaction that
secured a people. What it refers to specifically
there is Christ’s atonement for His people. The ransom was originally
paid for a slave, but now here it is clearly used in a new and
technical way as the price paid for a people. It was a voluntary
act that Christ did. It was a knowing and a willful
act. Christ didn’t stumble into this
plot. Christ didn’t wander in and get caught in a trap. We see this theme played out
throughout the New Testament. I want to take you to a couple.
Turn to Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2, which verse
has been called or referred to as the gospel in miniature. The
gospel in miniature. Titus chapter 2. And in verse
11, it says this, The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation
to all men, not every person literally, but to all classes,
all kinds of people. Otherwise, all people are saved
and this whole point of preaching the Gospel, the whole point of
calling people to Christ is fruitless and useless and vain. God has appeared, bringing salvation
to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly
desires and to live sensibly and righteously and godly in
the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing
of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who
gave Himself for us. Why? That He might redeem us,
buy us out of this sinful condition in which we were locked. and
purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for
good deeds.” We were in this, what the Puritans used to call,
a servile condition. One Puritan pointed it out in
these terms. He said, this is the madness of a sinner. Those
poor, frantic persons that are lying ragged and bound in chains,
and yet imagine that they are kings. I’ll never forget one
day I was living in Dallas and I was sitting outside my apartment
one day and this guy came by and he had the most ridiculous,
fanciful stories. He had done everything and seen
everything and met everybody. I mean, the man was certifiably
nuts. And he pointed out, you know,
that he had flown on the space shuttle and he had met presidents
and walked with kings and accomplished things and invented things. And
he went on and on for 45 minutes. Finally, I literally just extracted
myself for the conversation was totally fruitless. But that’s
the mindset of people. It’s not just this crazy man. It’s these people that think
that all that they’re doing matters and makes sense and does something
and accomplishes something. Just like misery is liable to
the sentence of death and slavery to be subject to the dominion
of sin, he that is delivered from the one is likewise freed
from the other. You have people that are locked
in this world and it’s all that they see. The people, Peter’s
point is here, once we are freed from this sin, once we are freed
from this bondage, we must be liberated from the world as well.
Otherwise, we walk around like they do in some kind of a fantasy
world, lost and crazed. Titus here points to Christ as
the one who gave Himself for us for the purpose of redeeming
us, buying us out. Jesus Christ willfully accomplished
our redemption through His cross, through His death on the cross.
He took our place of punishment. He paid our price and because
he was sinless, he was not under the curse of death and his penalty
or his payment for our penalty was accepted. That is the gospel. And that’s why this passage has
been called the gospel in miniature. Luke chapter one speaks of this
as well. Turn over to Luke chapter one,
this redemption. Israel had long since, ever since
the prophets had announced a Savior who was going to come and to
redeem them. And they took those words literally. He was going to come and ransom
them out of whatever captivity they were in. And they took this
to be an earthly and political thing and they could not wait.
Because now they were in some of the most uncomfortable bondage
they’d ever been in by the Romans. And the heathen nations around
them that oppressed them And then comes an angel and announces
to Zachariah and Elizabeth that they were going to have a son.
And oh, did Zacharias, did he praise God? Look at verse 67. Zacharias was filled with the
spirit. This is just after he’s been announced that he’s going
to have a son, John the Baptist, remember? And Zacharias was filled
with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, you know what? The amazing
thing is, he doesn’t even thank God for his own son. The only
thing that he can look at is Christ, the Redeemer. Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and has accomplished
redemption for His people. This is what we’ve longed and
waited for. And He has raised up a horn of
salvation for us in the house of David, His servant. People, this is what they had
longed for. This is what they had yearned
for for 700 years plus, longing and waiting for God’s promises
to be fulfilled. And there it is. Zacharias sees
it for what it is. And he mentions redemption, this
glorious concept of redemption, this act of ransoming out a people
by a price. But it wasn’t a political ransoming.
It wasn’t a political price that was going to be paid. It wasn’t
this earthly conqueror that they were getting. The redemption
was spiritual. It was salvation through the
Lord Jesus Christ and nothing less. The Son of Man did not come to
be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for
many. There’s no doubt Jesus came to
set Israel and all of His people free from political oppression
in time. But earthly bondage was nothing,
paled in comparison to the bondage of oppression and sin and guilt.
And Jesus came to set people free from both, but primarily
from that. In fact, there have been many,
countless bodies of people who in times past have been freed
Spiritually speaking. Came to faith while they were
in a concentration camp. Came to faith while they were
in prison. Came to faith while they were in some earthly oppression
of some sort, of some human government. And yet, spiritually speaking,
free. Free as a bird. What are we ransomed from? Look
back at Peter, if you would. 1 Peter 1.18 You were not redeemed with perishable
things like silver or gold from your futile way of life.” He
takes us back to that sad theme of our former life. And he points
it out to us once again and he says, look, it’s old, it’s over,
it’s done with. Get on with your life. This is
a motivation to worship. This is a call to a new kind
of life. Get over your old life. And he
points out that it is vain, futile, It is self-deceiving. It promises
good, but it’s empty. It does not perform. And anybody
who claims or purposes to approach heaven by their own righteousness,
who thinks that the way that they can get in is by their own
good deeds, is totally and deceitfully deceived. They can’t get in that
way. You can’t get in on your own
good merits. It’s a futile way of life inherited
from your forefathers. It is unprofitable. It is insufficient
for righteousness. Self-righteousness and man-made
religion will not advance you into God’s kingdom. It won’t. What were we redeemed from? We
were redeemed from that wretched life that we used to wallow in. Listen to how one pastor characterized
this redemption that we enjoy. Of all the blessings which I
have received, surely the most inestimable is the gift of divine
redemption. I have been purchased by the
death of Christ. I was a poor lost creature sold
under sin when He opened my prison doors and let me go free. What
a great recollection is that, isn’t it? Don’t you remember? You could not escape those sins. You were in bondage to them.
You wanted desperately to be free. And suddenly Christ burst
through. He goes on. What a mercy then
was granted to me when I look at the sorrow and darkness which
I have escaped, at the misery from which I have been delivered,
at the glories which are laid up for me, at the love which
has accomplished all, how thankful I ought to be.” And you know
what? He nails it. It’s exactly what Peter is calling
us to. Consider your redemption and
live accordingly, is what Peter says. He pleads with us. Use this as a motivator. If you
call on God as the Father, remember that you are redeemed. And let
that be a motivator to a new way of life. One Puritan, Henry Law, said
it this way, God bought you with a price. God purchased you at
a high price. Redeemed ones are no more their
own. I mean, this is what astounds
us, isn’t it, about Christians? We’re just as selfish as we ever
were. Listen to him. Henry Law says,
redeemed ones are no more their own. Your time is redeemed. Use
it as a consecrated talent in His cause. I mean, haven’t we
used that argument before? Well, you know, I know that we
should be doing this, but this is my time. No, it isn’t. Not only that, your minds are
redeemed, he says. Use them to learn His truth and
to meditate on His ways and to make them armories of holy weapons. Your mind doesn’t belong to the
world anymore. Your mind belongs to God. He
redeemed it. He bought it. Your eyes are redeemed. Let them not look on vanity.
Close them on all sights and books of folly.” He says, don’t
look at all the nonsense that the world has to offer. And all
he was talking about was books. Heaven forbid that he would learn
about the television and all that it promotes, all that it
portrays and presents. Your feet are redeemed. Your
feet are redeemed. Let them trample on the world
and climb upward on the hill of Zion and bear you onward in
the march of Christians ill. Don’t go places you shouldn’t.
Don’t do things you ought not. Use your feet for God’s glory. Your tongues are redeemed. Let
them only sound His praise and testify to His love and call
sinners to His cross. Your hearts are redeemed. Let
them love Him wholly and have no seats for rivals.” Isn’t that
a beautiful image? You see, because what we really
do is we have a living room and we invite Christ in. Yeah, come
on in. We’ll even give Christ the chief seat. And then we invite
in all kinds of other guests. And He says, don’t do that. Love
Christ. Love the Redeemer. Love the One
who paid for your soul. Love Him with everything in your
being and serve Him and live accordingly. See, this title Redeemer, as
B.B. Warfield, one of my great heroes
in the faith, said, the title Redeemer gives expression not
only to the sense that we have received our salvation from Him,
but that an appreciation of what it costs to procure that salvation
for us. It is the name specifically of
the Christ of the cross. And whenever we pronounce it,
the cross is placarded before our eyes and our hearts are filled
with loving remembrance, not only that Christ has given us
salvation, but that he paid a mighty price for it. What price? What
price? What is the ransom price for
our souls? Peter can’t just mention it without
going into it in detail. And that’s where we’ll close
this morning. He says that you are not redeemed with perishable
things like silver or gold from your futile way of life. Perishable
is one of Peter’s favorite words. He uses it. He uses imperishable.
He knows what is lasting and what isn’t. And he says, you
know what? When God put the down payment
through your soul, He didn’t use money. He didn’t use something
that’s passing away. He didn’t use something so worthless
and so void as gold and silver. He used something precious. We don’t use that word anymore,
and when we do, especially if we’re men, people kind of look
at us funny. You know, that was precious. But it’s a beautiful
word. It’s a God-honoring word. It’s
a Christ-glorifying word. This word essentially has two
elements of meaning to it. It can mean costly in the sense
of value, that it’s precious. We speak of precious metals in
that way. The second way that it’s used
is that it’s highly esteemed or held in honor. And who holds
it in such high esteem? It’s God. Christ’s blood was
precious to God. Christ’s blood was highly valued
to us, but it was of infinite value to God because it was His
own sons. Repeatedly throughout the New
Testament, we have this concept of Christ purchasing, redeeming
with His blood. And there is a controversy that
is crept into the church totally unnecessarily that, you know,
is it literal blood? And do you have to be touched
by this blood? And you actually have people that believe that
there are vials of blood and you must at least touch the vial
of the blood. Acts 20, 28. Be on guard for yourselves and
for all the flock, which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers
to shepherd the church of God. This is the calling for pastors
and elders to oversee. And he points out that the church
is just happens to be that institution which he purchased with his own
blood. Christ paid that price. Ephesians
1 7 in him, we have redemption through his blood. Revelations
5-9, they, and I can’t wait to sing this hymn, can you? They
sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the book and
to break its seals, for you are slain and purchased for God with
your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
This concept of a blood payment is throughout the New Testament
and it always points to Christ’s sacrifice. Peter points out what believers
are not redeemed with. Silver and gold. But then he
goes on to point out what they are redeemed with. What was the
purchase price? And it was blood, but not just
any kind of blood. Christ appeared. He came to offer
a new and different sacrifice. Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews
in chapter nine speaks of this whole image of the Old Testament
sacrifice and the horrible image that is brought to mind through
that because of the horrible nature of sin. And he says that
when Christ appeared as the high priest of the good things to
come, he entered through a greater and more perfect tabernacle.
Just stay with me. Not made with hands. And not
through the blood of goats or cows, but through his own blood. Christ came and he made a sacrifice
in his own blood. And the writer of Hebrews says
that it was far superior to anything that had ever been or ever will
be offered. And he says, for if the blood of goats and bulls
and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify
for the cleansing of the flesh, and that was the Old Testament
approach. That was the purpose of killing
the sacrificial lamb was to sprinkle the congregation with the blood
of the lamb so that your sins would be covered. If that’s true,
if that is what cleansed them, then. How much more? Says the writer of Hebrews, with
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without blemish. To God. How much more will He
cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve a living
God? That blood there, the blood in
these passages doesn’t refer technically to the fluid in His
body, but to the whole theme of the redemption, His death
on the cross. That’s what it’s talking about. In fact, one person pointed out
that Scripture speaks of Christ’s blood three times as often as
it mentions the cross, five times more often than it refers to
the death of Christ. In other words, blood is the
main idea or the main way that the New Testament has in referring
to Christ’s redemption on the cross. And he did it by his precious
blood. What was the ransom price for
souls? It was Christ’s death on the cross. But I want to point
you to three just little facets as we close. First of all, those
are the bullet points, if you’re using your bulletin outline.
First of all, the ransom price was the sacrificial death of
a perfect offering. Christ was sinless. We’ve seen
it and dealt with it so many times. I’m not going to go into
it at length, except to point out one passage which had to
be in Peter’s mind, even as he penned these words. When Peter
said that you have been redeemed With precious blood as of a lamb,
unblemished and spotless, he had to think of that first morning
when he met the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you remember it? In John chapter
one, verse thirty five, again, the next day, John was standing
with his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked and he
said, behold, the lamb of God takes away the sin of the world.
Peter had to have that in mind. As he thought of Christ, his
Savior, who he had watched die. And he knew that that sacrifice
was perfect, he knew that that lamb, that lamb of God was perfect
and sinless and spotless. And he knew it, he knew that
God had accepted that sacrifice because it was on hand when God.
Put his stamp of approval on that sacrifice and raised Christ
from the dead three days later. Secondly, your second little
thought there. The ransom price was not only
the sacrificial death of a perfect offering, but it was decreed
from eternity past by God. This didn’t catch God by surprise
at all. Christ wasn’t ambushed. He wasn’t
lynched. He wasn’t caught off guard in
the least. The very purpose for which Christ came to serve, to
give His life as a ransom for many. When Peter says, you were redeemed
with precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the
blood of Christ, for he was foreknown before the foundation of the
world. This is all part of God’s plan. What? Peter, in the book of Acts, said
the predetermined. Plan of God. This didn’t happen by happenstance,
didn’t happen by accident, didn’t didn’t catch God off guard. Thirdly, the ransom price for
souls was not only the sacrificial death of a perfect offering decreed
from eternity past by God, it was fully revealed in the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is nothing more to wait
for, people. There is no further revelation. There is no further act or deed
by God. There is no other means to ever
approach a holy God. Except by his son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is paid. Look at what it says in verse
20 and be humbled by it. Be humbled by it. You were redeemed with precious
blood. And then he says, for he was
foreknown before the foundation of the world that has appeared
in these last times for the sake of you. No doubt, Peter wrote to those
first century Christians those words and they were initially
intended for them. But by proxy, they fall to us,
don’t they? What a great privilege we have.
That we live in the day and age when the Jews longed for to see
the Redeemer and to know the Redeemer who would pay our ransom. What a great motivator that should
be, people. to a life of worship, where all
of our life is sanctified and set apart to Christ, to glorify
Him in everything that we do. Not just to come and to sit for
35 or 45 minutes or two hours in worship. To turn everything
that we do into an act of worship because of the high price that
was paid for our souls. What a great motivator. What
a great God. Let’s pray. Our wonderful God, we pause and
bow before you and we are humbled again, just as Peter intended,
as your own Holy Spirit intended we would be. Lord, we’re humbled
by the reminder of the high price that was paid for us. And Father,
as we meditate upon that this week, May that be the motivating
factor that turns us to call on You to change our
lives, to worship You in all that we do, to bring You glory
in every area and facet of our life. Be glorified, we pray,
in Jesus’ name, Amen.