The Purposeful Provision of God

God always has a purposeful plan. I see that even in the events of my own life over the past few weeks. Most of you know that I’ve been on sick leave the last couple of weeks. That is because when I saw a surgeon for a consult on one thing, he found another issue for which I needed surgery. A hernia repair (I accidentally told someone the other day that I had hernia replacement surgery!). Since, at the time, the hernia wasn’t bothering me, I wanted to wait until after Easter to have the surgery. But the Lord had other plans. Eventually the hernia started to cause pain and discomfort, and so I determined that I needed to go ahead and get it taken care of. The surgeon told me that I’d need to be out of the pulpit for two weeks as I recovered from surgery. And so I asked our brother, Phil Campbell, to preach for those two weeks. On Monday March 22nd, I was feeling so much better, and actually anxious to get back to work. I had actually contemplated the idea of talking Phil into letting me preach since I was so fidgety. But then on Tuesday our world was rocked by the news of Gail’s mother’s massive and multiple heart attacks.

Since it is appointed unto man once to die, God knew that my mother-in-law was going to pass on such and such a day, and that I would not be able to be in the pulpit that following Sunday. And He orchestrated things in such a way that I didn’t even have to scramble to find someone to preach for me.

As wonderful as God’s orchestration of things that effect our lives in a personal way, far more wonderful is His orchestration of His eternal purpose in the redemption of His people.

Please turn in your Bible to 1 Peter 1:17-21 as we consider The Purposeful Provision of God this Resurrection Day!

The Eternal Son of God came to earth as a man so that He could redeem His people from bondage to their inherited sin nature. This redemption was accomplished through His death on the cross, and validated by His resurrection from the dead. Therefore, His people should conduct themselves in a worthy manner.

Let’s read our text together.

1 Peter 1:17–21 NASB95PARA

If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life 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.

Let’s look first at the believer’s

Purposeful Conduct

Salvation is completely the work of God from beginning to end. In other words, God has provided everything that was needed in order for His people to be saved from His coming wrath. We who are believers in Jesus Christ are not saved because of anything we have done. We are saved because of God’s great and marvelous grace. We are saved through the channel of faith (and we must be careful to not make faith our own work which earns salvation). Our work has nothing to do with our salvation. And yet, we are saved for the purpose of doing good works.

Look at verse 17.

1 Peter 1:17 NASB95PARA

If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;

Note that:

The Father expects His children to be actively engaged in doing good works.

Phil’s messages over the past couple of weeks have spurred my mind on this topic. Both weeks he referred to a statement by Paul that Christ is our Passover. And so I looked up the context of that statement, and noted that it is actually mentioned in the context of believers doing good works.

1 Corinthians 5:6–8 NASB95PARA

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The good work referred to in this context is that of putting off the things which belonged to our old way of life before we were transferred from the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of Christ. God intends for His people to be purposeful in their conduct; their conduct is to reflect the truth that they are no longer sinners who are without hope and without God. But now they are saints — which means that are called to be holy.

Let’s turn our attention now from purposeful conduct to

Purposeful Redemption

Look at verse 18-19.

1 Peter 1:18–19 NASB95PARA

knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

First let’s notice

What We Were not Redeemed With

To redeem something is to purchase it, or to pay a ransom price. The focus of the Scripture is not on whom the price had to be paid, but on the actual purchase. Christ referred to Himself as the One who would ransom believers from their sins.

Matthew 20:28 NASB95PARA

just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Note that:

We are not redeemed with money.

Last week, while we were down in South East Ohio, (we were 30 miles from the Pittsburgh airport, and right across the river from West Virginia), our van broke down. Fortunately it was only a block away from a Dodge dealership when it broke down. In order for me to get the van back I had to pay a ransom price! At least, that’s what it felt like. After hearing how much it was going to cost I wondered if I should just by a new van!

Though my van could be redeemed with money, you and I could not be redeemed from sin and futility with money.

Let’s consider next

What We Were Redeemed With

Puritan Thomas Watson observed:

“Great was the work of creation, but greater the work of redemption; it cost more to redeem us than to make us; in the one there was but the speaking of a Word, in the other the shedding of blood. Creation was the work of God’s fingers. Redemption was the work of His arm.”

Look again in our text at verse 19.

1 Peter 1:19 NASB95PARA

but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

Note that:

Believers were purchased with the priceless blood of Christ.

As Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 6:20 NASB95PARA

For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Inherit in the concept of being ransomed from slavery and bondage to sin is the concept of substitution. We could not possibly provide payment for our sins in such a way as to satisfy God. Thus we needed a substitute who could.

The Demonstration of God’s Provision

Substitution was demonstrated in the offering of Isaac by Abraham.

Abraham, as we looked at last week, having already been justified by faith, was tested by God. The Lord directed him to offer his long awaited son of promise as a burnt offering. As Abraham and Isaac were journeying up the mountain to make the sacrifice, Isaac asked his father where they would get a lamb for the sacrifice (not knowing that he was to be the lamb). And his father replied:

Genesis 22:8 NASB95PARA

Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

As Abraham was about to slay his son, God stopped him, informing him that it was a test of his loyalty. Then we read:

Genesis 22:13–14 NASB95PARA

Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”

As Phil pointed out last week, this text is filled with typology which was ultimately fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Son of Promise was offered as a sacrifice foreshadowing the offering of the long awaited Messiah as a sacrifice

The ram was offered in the place of Isaac, just as the Lamb of God was offered in our place

Abraham figuratively received his son back from the dead just as Jesus was raised from the dead

The Foreshadowing of Redemption

Substitution was foreshadowed in the Passover lamb.

Exodus 12:5–7 NASB95PARA

Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

Exodus 12:12–13 NASB95PARA

‘For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

The Vision of Substitution & Redemption

Substitution is prophesied in

Isaiah 53:4–7 NASB95PARA

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

Isaiah 53:11–12 NASB95PARA

As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

So far we’ve considered the purposeful conduct believers are to have in light of Christ’s purposeful redemption of them as His own precious possession. Now let’s consider the

Purposeful Plan

One might be tempted to think that God’s offering of His only Begotten Son was a Plan B of sorts. But the Scripture is very clear that this was the plan of the Holy Trinity from before time began.

Look at verses 20-21.

1 Peter 1:20–21 NASB95PARA

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.

The first thing we see in this text is:

Christ’s Eternality

The statement that He was foreknown before the foundation of the world gives a hint of the eternality of the Son of God. In his commentary on 1 Peter, Wayne Grudem pointed out that:

‘foreknowledge’ was really an act of God in eternity past whereby he determined that his Son would come as the Saviour of mankind.

Next we see Peter referring to the importance of:

Christ’s Appearing in These Last Times

These last times began with Christ’s first advent, and continues on until His return. The write of Hebrews, as Phil pointed out two weeks ago, referred to these last day as being the time in which God spoke to us in His Son.

Christ is the One who spoke the Word and creation came into order. He was the Word who became flesh and dwelt among men. He is the radiance of God’s glory, and the exact representation of His nature.

Next in our text we see:

The Purpose for Christ’s Appearance

The purpose for His appearance was for the sake of believers. According to the author of Hebrews Jesus made purification for our sins through the shedding of His precious blood. Notice what our text says in verses 20-21:

“But has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God...”

Not only does the believer come to faith in Christ, but through Christ, who Himself is God, the believer comes to true faith in the Father as well.

Note that:

Apart from Christ there is no true belief in the One and Only true God.

Next in our text Peter mentions:

The Resurrection of Christ

Peter declared that it was God who raised Jesus from the dead. Not only did He raised His beloved Son from the dead but He gave Him the glory that was His from before the foundation of the world. In His high priestly prayer Jesus prayed:

John 17:4–5 NASB95PARA

I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

So far we’ve looked at the purposeful conduct of the believers in the light of the purposeful redemption and plan of God. Finally in our text we see the:

Purposeful Outcome

I’m not sure how much Abraham understood when he prophesied the God would provide a lamb. We know from other passages that Abraham believed that if he offered his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice, that God would raise him from the dead since he was the son of promise through whom Abraham would have as many descendants as the stars in the sky. Simply put, Abraham place his faith and hope in the promise of God. And that is the same outcome for which God purposed for those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ.

Look at the last phrase of verse 21:

“So that your faith and hope are in God.”

In order that we might have faith and hope in God, Christ was raised from the dead since He was offered in our place as the unblemished and spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Therefore, we should live in a manner worthy of the One who died for us.

My hope is the we who are believers will continually grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ and become more and more like the One who died for us.

My desire is that those who are not believers in Jesus Christ will be drawn to Him and be made alive in Christ as they embrace His death and resurrection as their only hope of salvation.

Let’s pray.

Dear Father,

We are so grateful for what You have done for us in Christ Jesus. You’ve purchased us as Your own precious possession through the death of Christ on the cross. You’ve buried us through baptism into His death, and raised us with Christ in His resurrection so that we should walk in newness of life.

Father, I pray for those who have not yet embraced the message of the gospel, that this would be the day in which Your Spirit would draw them to Christ. In His precious name I pray, Amen.

As we transition into the Communion celebration, let’s turn in our hymnals to

# 540

My Hope is in the Lord

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Cue pic of empty tomb

How appropriate it is that Easter should fall on the first Sunday of the month, which is the week in which we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NASB95PARA

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

Christ’s body was given for us when the Father put him forward to be the propitiation for our sins. Writing to the Romans Paul stated:

Romans 3:23–26 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

In view of this, I’m going to ask our brother Derek to give thanks for the bread.

And when He had given thanks, (for the bread), He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

Let’s eat this bread together in remembrance of Him.

We saw in our text this morning that our redemption was very costly.

1 Peter 1:18–19 NKJV

knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

I’m going to ask our brother Phil to give thanks for the cup.

Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 11:25 NASB95PARA

In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

Let’s drink this together in remembrance of Him.

1 Corinthians 11:26 NASB95PARA

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.