Bible Baptist Church

INTRODUCTION:

I am going to speak tonight on the wonderful subject of redemption (1:18, 19).
Redemption means "to deliver or set free by paying a price." We are told in I Peter 1:18 and 19 that the price for our redemption was not silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ.
There is a interesting story recorded in Acts 8. There was a certain sorcerer called Simon, who lived in the city of Samaria.
Acts 8:9 says he "bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one."
Acts 8:18 and 19 says that when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying, "Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost."
Our English word "simony," meaning, "the buying or selling of ecclesiastical pardons" comes from this story of Simon the sorcerer (Simon Magus).
Peter rebuked Simon and said, "Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money" (Acts 8:20).
Perhaps Peter was thinking of Simon when he wrote these words in his first epistle -- "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold" (1:18).
To this day, many people think they can buy their way into heaven.
But silver and gold cannot redeem us from the bondage of sin. Peter told Simon Magus, "Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God" (8:21).
I remember one night having to ask a troublemaker to leave our church. He complained and bragged about all the money he had contributed. Bro. Randy happened to be here during this fracas, and he said, "He gives hardly anything!"

I. THE COST OF OUR REDEMPTION (1:18, 19).

The price of our redemption was the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace" (Eph. 1:7).
The law condemned us, but Christ died on the cross to redeem us from the curse of the law. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Gal. 3:13).
Many people mistakenly believe they can be saved by obeying certain rules and regulations, but if that were possible why did Christ die?
The apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:21, "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain."
"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ" (Gal. 2:16).
The Lord Jesus Christ came into this wicked world to redeem us. He said in Mark 10:45, "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."
"Ransom" means a price was paid to deliver us from bondage. That price was the precious blood of Christ (I Peter 1:19).
First Corinthians 6:20 says, "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
That price was the precious blood of Christ (I Peter 1:19).
Our Lord's blood is "precious" (1:19). A certain preacher preached a message one day on the precious blood of Christ, and after the service, some old reprobate challenged him and said, "I do not believe that. There wasn't enough blood in Christ's veins to save one man, never mind the whole world!"
The preacher replied, "It is not the quantity, but the quality that counts."
The Roman Catholic church teaches that their priests have the power to redeem souls from their make-believe "purgatory," which they claim is an intermediate place between heaven and hell.
Today many Roman Catholics admit they do not believe in purgatory. They say they believe they will go straight to heaven when they die. (Though they give no evidence of being saved.)
They consider purgatory as some relic from the Dark Ages, which they would prefer to forget. Some Roman Catholics even believe that purgatory is no longer an official teaching of the Roman Catholic church. But it still is!
Despite popular opinion, purgatory is still an official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, and an essential part of the Roman Catholic plan of salvation.
The Roman Catholic church affirmed the existence of purgatory at each of the last three ecumenical councils: The Council of Trent (convened to attack the Protestant Reformation), and the Vatican I (1869-1870) and Vatican II (1962-1965) Councils.
The Vatican II Council described purgatory as a place where the souls of the dead make expiation "in the next life through fire and torments or purifying punishments."
According to Vatican II, "in purgatory the souls of those ‘who died in the charity of God and truly repentant, but who had not made satisfaction with adequate penance for their sins and omissions’ are cleansed after death with punishments designed to purge away their debt."
The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes purgatory as place of "cleansing fire."
Belief in the existence of purgatory is also expressed at every Roman Catholic Mass. During the "Liturgy of the Eucharist," prayers are offered for the dead. Usually the Mass itself is also offered for someone suffering in purgatory. The person’s name is announced or published in the Sunday bulletin. Each year, in fact, on the anniversary of the death of the last pope, the present pope offers Mass for the souls of his two predecessors who are, presumably, still suffering in purgatory.
All of this contradicts Scripture. First John 1:7 says, "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
There is absolutely no Biblical basis for purgatory. According to the Catholic church, every time a Roman Catholic sins, temporal punishment is credited to his account.
Acts of penance (confessing sins to a priest), suffering, and indulgences are ways he can debit this account.
Since sinners may not make full satisfaction for all their sins in this life, thereby leaving this world with unpaid for sins in their account, the Roman church teaches that purgatory is necessary to balance their ledger.
The Roman Catholic church says purgatory motivates Roman Catholics to live righteously. However, this is certainly not what the Bible teaches.
The Biblical way is to trust Christ, who not only saves us from the penalty of sin (hell, not purgatory), but also from the power of sin.
Our souls cannot be purified in a non-existent purgatory. First Peter 1:22 says, "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit."
The Holy Spirit regenerates us and sanctifies us and leads us.
It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to obey the truth (I Peter 1:22).

II. THE CHARACTER OF OUR REDEEMER (1:20).

"Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world" (1:20a). "Foreordained" (1:20) means planned before the creation of the world.
This means before Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, Christ had already been chosen as their Redeemer and ours.
That is why Christ is referred to in Revelation 13:8 as "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
When our Lord was praying to God the Father in John 17, He said this in verse 24, "For thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."
That is why Peter said to the Jews in Acts 2:23, "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."
These Scriptures affirm the preexistence of Christ. That is why our Lord said to the Jews in John 8:58, "Before Abraham was, I am."
His listeners understood what He meant, for the next verse says, "Then took they up stones to cast at him" (John 8:59).
"But was manifest in these last times for you" (I Peter 1:20b). The word "manifest" means "revealed" or "to make visible what has been hidden or unknown."
"God was manifest in the flesh" (I Tim. 3:16).
Our Lord said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9).
John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
Then John 1:14 says, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
First Peter 1:20 says Christ was manifest in these last times (church age) for us.
Notice the contrast: "before the foundation of the world" and "in these last times" (1:20).

III. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REDEEMED (1:21-25).

Last week I said God's people are to be sober (1:13), and obedient (1:14), and holy (1:15, 16).
We are to pass the time of our sojourning "in fear" (1:17), that is, in the fear of God.
This is only possible "by Him" (1:21).
By Him we believe in God (1:21).
By Him we live for God.
By Him we obey God (1:22).
By Him we walk with God.
How do we know God? Through Christ our Redeemer (1:20b).
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
Christ's redemptive work on the cross has once and for all opened up man's approach to God.
First Peter 3:18 says, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God."
We have been reconciled to God by the blood of the cross.
Romans 5:12 says, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
John Wesley said, "Without Christ we should only dread God; whereas through Him we believe, and hope, and love" (cited by D. Edmond Hiebert).
God's redeemed children have been regenerated and purified and sanctified by the Holy Spirit (1:22, 23; cf. 1:2).
We are born again by the Word of God (1:23). The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to transform a sinner into a child of God.
There are three incorruptible things mentioned in this chapter:
·        "an inheritance incorruptible" (1:4)

·        "the precious blood of Christ" (1:19; cf. 1:18).

·        "the word of God" (1:23).
In I Peter 1:24 and 25 Peter quotes Isaiah 40:6-8.
Isn't it wonderful to know that "the word of our God shall stand for ever" (Isa. 40:8).

CONCLUSION:

We have barely scratched the surface of this glorious subject -- redeemed by the blood of the Lamb (1:18, 19).
The songwriter said: "And I know, yes, I know
Jesus’ blood can make the vilest sinner clean."
In 1833 Charles Darwin went to the South Sea Islands looking for the so-called "missing link." As he studied the cannibals who lived there, he concluded that no creatures anywhere were more primitive, and he was convinced that nothing on earth could possibly lift them to a higher level.
He thought he had indeed found a lower stratum of humanity that would fit his theory of evolution.
Thirty-four years later he returned to the same islands. To his amazement he discovered churches, schools, and homes occupied by some of those former cannibals. In fact, many of them wore clothes and frequently gathered to sing hymns.
The reason was soon learned: Missionary John G. Paton had been there proclaiming the Gospel!
Darwin was so moved by their transformation that he made a generous contribution to the London Missionary Society.
Darwin never did find his "missing link."

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