Ransomed Faith

Opening:

Good-morning again! It is a beautiful thing to be able to gather together and study the Word of God on the Lord’s Day.

Introduction of the Passage:

This morning, we will be continuing on in our study of 1 Peter. This morning we will be in 1 Peter 1:17-21. Just reminder as you turn there, last week we studied verses 13-16. These verses are a direct continuation of Peter’s thought. Peter called the Christians scattered due to persecution to be obedient children, not conformed to their lusts and passions, but holy because God, their Father, is holy. So we are picking up directly after that.

Reading of the Passage:

Would you stand with me if you are able out of reverence. For we are about to the very Word of God.

1 Peter 1:17–21 “17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 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.”

Behold, the Word of God. Let’s pray.

Prayer:

Our Father, we thank you and praise you for all you have done. Lord, we cannot fathom the beauty of this text, but this does not mean we should not try. Lord, how can we ever comprehend the sacrifice you made for our redemption? We humbly ask you for your help. Please open our minds and our hearts to hear what you said in your Word. Please aid us in this. We long to know the depths of the price paid for our redemption. We long to live holy lives in light of this salvation. Help us, Lord. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

Need:

Last week we saw the need to be clear, deep thinkers who are holy because God is holy. In continuing this thought, we have a great need. We are still sinful people. And if we are not on guard in our thinking, we are constantly tempted to commit a tragic mistake. We undervalue the death of Christ. If we are not on guard in our minds, we are tempted to underestimate the horrific nature of our sin against a holy God and we are tempted to undervalue the sacrifice made to redeem us. But Peter is warning the church against this temptation.

Text Idea:

Peter is telling the church that they are to fear God as their Father who judges perfectly, because of the unfathomably costly price paid for their redemption which brings them into relationship with Him.

Sermon Idea:

In the same way we must hear this call. We fear God, our Father who is a perfect Judge because of the incomprehensible price paid for our ransom in order to bring us into faith and hope in Him.

Interrogative:

How do we avoid this temptation to undervalue Christ’s death to ransom us? Peter gives us three steps in this.

Transition:

First, Peter brings up a rather confusing steps. Step 1, Fear God, our Father.

Step 1: Fear God, Our Father.

1 Peter 1:17 “17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,”

Explanation:

One of the chief needs for the church in our day is to recapture a right view of the fear of the Lord. Too long the church has abused this theology. Too long we have rendered this word in sermons, and even in some Bible translations as merely “reverence” or “reverent fear.” This is not what this word means. This word means fear, terror, panic. The Greek word used for fear in the scriptures and in this passage is “Phobos.” This is where the English word “phobia” comes from. It literally means to tremble in abject terror.

This is why when God came down on the mountain to give the Law, the people begged Moses not to let God speak to them. This is why God forbid the Israelites and their animals from even touching the mountain. To touch the mountain where God was, was to die. This is why when Uzzah touched the ark of the covenant, he died instantly. This is why the sons of Arron were struck dead for offering fire to God when they were not supposed to.

Illustration:

We do not serve a safe God. God is not safe. God is terrifying. To see God, is to die. To behold the presence of God is so terrifying that you wish you were dead. C.S. Lewis nailed exactly how we are to think of God in His books, the Chronicles of Narnia. In those books, Aslan the lion is a shadow of Christ. A mere picture. But all over those books, characters are terrified of meeting the talking lion. Their knees shake and they tremble. And Lewis constantly reminds us that Aslan is not a tame lion. He is not safe.

Argumentation:

But we have sadly attempted to tame God. We want a tame God who we need never be afraid of. But this is untrue. Our God is not a tame lion. He is dangerous and scary. He is a consuming fire. He is not safe. But He is good. And that is exactly what we see in this passage. We are to be afraid, but of who? God, our Father, the perfect Judge.

Peter is holding two concepts in tension. God is a loving Father. Peter is calling back to the Lord’s Prayer. Matthew 6:9 “9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” God is truly a loving and gentle and compassionate Father. He is kind and forgiving. He is gentle. A bruised reed He will not break. A smoldering ember He will not extinguish. God is gentle with us. He is a loving Father. But He is also a just Judge.

God judges rightly. You cannot fool God. You cannot hide sin. You cannot hide the motives of your heart. Romans 2:11 “11 For God shows no partiality.” God is a righteous judge. And a righteous judge does not leave the wicked unpunished. Peter is holding these two concepts in tension. God is loving, but just. God is our Father and our judge. 1 Peter 1:17 “17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds...” God, the Father of all those who are saved, will not leave wickedness unpunished.

Listen to Exodus 34:6–7 “6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.””

This a massive concept. How can God be loving, forgiving sin and be just punishing sin? Picture this. A judge is presiding over a case. A child murderer stands in front of them. Guilty on all charges. This person murdered children in cold blood and plead guilty to the charge. Then the judge releases them. He stands up and says, “I know you are guilty, but you are free to go without punishment.” Is that a just judge? No! Of course not. A just judge must punish wrongdoers.

Transition:

So how can God forgive sin and be just? The amazing part of the gospel is not that sinners go to hell. It is that anyone goes to heaven. So how does God forgive sins? This is step two in not undervaluing Christ’s sacrifice. Step 2, Know the ransom price paid for us.

Step 2: Know the Ransom Price Paid For Us.

1 Peter 1:18–19 “18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

Explanation:

Why should we be in fear of God? Because our sin is so great, the required price to redeem us what the death of God the Son, Jesus Christ. Be in fear, because Jesus Christ ransomed you with His blood. But what is a ransom?

Ransom:

The Bible uses the words ransom and redeem interchangeably. A ransom or redemption was a price paid to buy someone out of slavery or prison. Typically, it was gold or silver used to purchase a slave. It was the price a debtor owed in order to be free. And we are all debtors. Our sin is a deadly cost. We have sinned against the God of the universe. We have all committed cosmic treason against God. And what was the price paid to redeem us? How much gold could it possibly take to redeem sinners like us? No amount of gold would do. It took something far more valuable than gold to pay our debt. We could never pay. What would you offer for your soul? What do you have? You could have every drop of gold on earth, and it would not pay for even one soul to be redeemed. That is how great our sin is. You and I are helpless to pay the debt we owe God for our sins. But God, in unfathomable mercy, promised redemption.

Psalm 130:7–8 “7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. 8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”

Isaiah 52:3 “3 For thus says the Lord: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.””

God promised He would redeem us, but it would not be with something as worthless as gold. It would be with something more. God foreshadowed this with the sacrificial system. He told of it at passover. What was the price that redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt? It was the blood of a pure lamb.

The Sacrificial Lamb:

Exodus 12:5 “5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,”

The Lamb was slaughtered and it’s blood was painted over the doorposts. And when judgement came, God passed over the households washed with the blood of the pure lamb on the door. And this was to show what was coming. A greater Lamb was promised.

Isaiah 53:7 “7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

And Christ is this Lamb. Christ is the one who purchased us back. We could never hope to pay even a portion of our debt, but Christ stepped in and paid what we owed. He payed the blood debt demanded.

Christ, our Redeemer:

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 “19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Titus 2:14 “14 (Christ) who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”

Matthew 20:28 The very words of Jesus. “28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””

Christ, the Sacrificial Lamb:

And Christ is our sacrificial Lamb. He is the perfect, spotless Lamb of God. This is what John the Baptist said of Him.

John 1:29 “29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Or Hebrews 9:12 “12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”

Christ is our redeemer. He paid the debt we could never pay.

Illustration:

Argumentation:

And do not miss what Peter is doing here. The most valuable currency we have is that of pure gold and silver. Gold and jewels and silver are often thought of in our minds as being of THE utmost value. But Peter is saying that it is not with anything so worthless that we were redeemed. Gold and silver perish. They are temporary. And Peter is drawing a comparison. He is comparing gold to the precious blood of Christ. The blood of God the Son. The eternal second member of the Holy Trinity stepped into time and flesh. He took on flesh and dwelled among us for the express purpose of dying for our sins. And when you compare gold and silver to the blood of God, what value does that gold have? That gold and silver is of less value than dung you scrape off your shoe when you compare it to the blood of Jesus.

The single most valuable and precious substance to ever touch the earth was the blood of Jesus Christ. We owed a debt to God that we could never pay. The riches of the universe could not atone for even one sin. But in our despair and weakness, God Himself stepped in and suffered all the wrath reserved for us. He suffered and died in our place. He shed His blood in our place. Jesus Christ took the cup of the wrath of God and He drank it all. All of God’s wrath and hatred were in a cup and Jesus on the cross drank every last drop of that wrath. He drank it all. He suffered the fulness of God’s hatred toward sin for all of His sheep. Every sin was paid for. Every vile thought was atoned for. Every last sheep of God was redeemed. In that one moment, Christ finished the work. In that moment, the wrath of God was satisfied.

Transition:

How could we ever devalue the death of Christ on our behalf. If that were not enough, Peter continues. Step 3 in not devaluing the redemption we have is to see Christ, our only access to the Father.

Step 3: See Christ, Our Only Access to the Father.

1 Peter 1:20–21 “20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 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.”

Explanation:

First we must note that the plan of redemption was wrought before time began. Before creation began, before the foundation of the World, in eternity past, the Trinity founded the plan of redemption. If we are not cautious, we can think of Christ’s death as being plan B. Beloved, never be tempted to think this. God was not surprised when Adam and Eve fell. Even that horrific action was not outside of God’s divine plan. Christ is the Lamb of God from before all time began. God, in perfect unity, planned the redemption of the elect.

And look at that next phrase. “was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God...” I honestly cannot fathom that. Christ was made manifest for us who believe. God, in His great mercy, became a man for us. These words alone should cause us such joy and fear that we melt on the spot. Christ was manifest for us. It was for our sake that He did this.

I honestly had such a hard time writing this sermon. Seriously, this is likely one of the hardest sermons I have ever written. What can I possibly say to communicate this? Jesus Christ, came and died the debt we owed. He was revealed and manifest as Lord and God. Why? For us. It was for our sake. How can I ever write or speak any word that could even capture the wonder and beauty of that? Any words I write or speak will only muddy the water. I am abjectly incapable to communicate to you the beauty and majesty of this. And yet, in the fear of the Lord and the calling He has given me, I must try.

You and I are sinners. We have sinned against almighty God. We deserve worse than hell. We hated God. We were His enemies. But He stepped in, in complete mercy and grace, and paid our debt out of His own blood. But the grace of God goes deeper still.

Illustration:

Argumentation:

Christ did not just make salvation possible. When He died, He did not do half the work. He did not do 99.99999999% of the work. He did all the work. If He did not do all the work, we would be hopeless. As I said, all the riches of the universe would not be enough to pay for even one sin. He had to do all the work. Because you see, we still have a problem.

How can we believe in God? How can we, who are dead in our sin, have faith in God? Listen to this passage from Romans 3. Romans 3:9–18 “9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.””

The Bible tells us that we, in our lost state actively hate and despise God. We hate Him completely. We are utterly incapable of even placing our faith in Him. He is holy and we are utterly lost and sinful. So what hope is there. You see, if Jesus simply made redemption possible, we would be hopeless. It would be as if you paid the debt a criminal owed. The cell doors are unlocked. But that man is dead in his cell. Let me ask you this, what good is an unlocked cell to a dead man? None. You must first bring that man to life before they can embrace the freedom won for them. But Christ did not just make redemption possible. He brought us to life. He gave us faith. Listen again to the wording Peter uses.

1 Peter 1:20–21 “20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God...”

How are we believers in God? Through Him. Our very belief in Him is from Him and through Him.

Transition:

This ought to cause us such fear. God who is holy and just forgives sins by paying for them with His own blood and sacrifice. He pays our debt. This ought to cause us to tremble and cower in utter mind melting awe and wonder. We fear Him because of the price that was paid for our sin. We fear Him because the price was so high we cannot even comprehend it. We weep with joy because our sins are forgiven. But we tremble at the price that was paid. It is so high, that we are terrified to even consider it.

Conclusion:

We fear God, our Father who is a perfect Judge because of the incomprehensible price paid for our ransom in order to bring us into faith and hope in Him.

Visualization:

If we were to actually grasp this, if we could even catch a glimpse of this high price, holy living would no longer be a concern. Our lives will be holy because we see the absolutely astounding price He paid to redeem us.

Reiteration:

We fear God, our Father who is a perfect Judge because of the incomprehensible price paid for our ransom in order to bring us into faith and hope in Him.

Application:

And that is the application of this. Be amazed by the price paid to redeem you.

Action 1: Be Amazed by the Price Paid to Redeem You.

Christians should be filled with inexpressible joy and somberness. We ought to be rowdy cavaliers in the joy that we have in being free men and women in Christ. We ought to be filled with joy that bursts out our ears. But with that joy comes the sobriety and somberness of knowing the price paid for that freedom. Christ died in our place. The precious blood of Christ was spilled for you. So we lift our glasses high and toast in utter joy and celebration. We feast with abandon for the joy of our redemption. But we fast and weep over our sin, knowing the price paid for it.

But perhaps there are some of you who are not saved. Perhaps you are here and you have never turned from your sin. You are still a slave to your sin. To you, I give this. Repent and Accept the Redemption offered.

Action 2: Repent and Accept the Redemption Offered.

Perhaps you feel it in your soul. You say, “I am still a slave.” If that is you, I offer hope and a warning.

First,I offer you hope. Jesus died to pay the price you own for your sins. You cannot work to be free of your sins. No amount of gold or good works could ever atone for your crimes against God. Stop striving. Stop laboring in vain. You will never be a good enough person. But if you turn away from your sins. If you turn unto Christ, you will be saved. You can be brought to life. You can be forgiven. Stop trusting in yourself. Simply look to Christ. Call out to Him. Confess you are a sinner. Believe that He is God, that He died in your place. And you will be saved. You will be set free. You will be redeemed.

But now I offer you a warning. If you reject this offer, you are under the wrath of God. You will one day stand before God and answer for all of your sins. We are not all God’s children, no matter what you have heard. Only those who call out to Him in faith are His children. If you reject this offer, then you stand condemned. You are not redeemed. You a slave and a criminal.

I beg you, turn and repent. Confess you are a sinner. Accept the death of Christ on your behalf.

But in closing, I offer this last application. To those of you who are Christians, this means that you are trusting in Christ for salvation, I give this charge. Live out a ransomed faith.

Action 3: Live Out a Ransomed Faith.

I pray that the price paid for our sins puts you in awe. But I pray it hits dirt too. What do I mean? I mean this. You were formerly enslaved to sin. You were bound in chains and dead. But no longer. You are alive and free in Christ. Live as free men and women. Do not live a slave. You are free. Be bound to nothing except Christ. Do not think like a slave any longer. Live as one who is debt free in Christ. Live as one filled with joy and passion because Christ has set you free. The shackles are gone. Rejoice! Your sins are forgiven. Rejoice! What does this look like? Sing loud, laugh louder, work hard, be thankful, be free.

Appeal:

In short, go fight, laugh, and feast for the glory of the one who set you free. Let’s pray.

Closing Prayer:

Our Father, may we never take for granted the price paid for our salvation. May we always remember that the very reason we get to call you Father is that Jesus shed His blood to buy us out of death and slavery in order to adopt us as your sons and daughters. Lord, make this truth dear to our hearts. May we rejoice in fear and trembling because of the high price paid for us. May we see the terrifying price paid for us. May we rejoice that the price is paid. May we sing and laugh and rejoice as free men and women in Christ. We ask this in Jesus name, amen.

Offering:

Offertory Prayer:

Oh Lord, as we take up this offering, we ask that you would bless it. We ask that you would use this to further your Kingdom. We ask every penny would bring glory to your name. It is a beautiful privilege to give back to you who has given us more than we could express. Please bless it and use it, Lord. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

Benediction:

I leave you with the words of Colossians 1:21–22 “21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,”

Go in the freedom of Christ, paid for you with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.