Ransomed!

The writer to the Hebrews referred to it as in these last days God has spoken to us through his son Hebrews chapter 1 verse 2. John the apostle changes it a little bit and he says this is the last hour.

We're not just talking about days, times hours. Imagine then, beloved, from the planning and providence of God, you happen to be living in the final days of human history. The last era. The last epic.

The last days. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart. Of course, the crucifixion of Jesus was a horribly wicked act, perpetrated by evil men. But we must never forget that the death of Christ was God's plan. Jesus went to the cross willingly because of what his death would accomplish for us. The Gospel isn't about golden streets and pearly gates. It's about the riches of Christ's sacrifice, won through suffering and obedience. Today, we're looking at what Jesus' death accomplished for us. Stephen Davey is back in 1 Peter with this lesson he's calling simply Ransomed.

Let's get started. Take your Bible and turn to 1 Peter if you would. Peter tells his original audience, notice in chapter 1 at verse 18, just the first word, knowing it could be rendered for you know.

What we're going to talk about is stuff you already know, but I want to rehearse it for you and remind you because it'll be beneficial to you. Now, what exactly are these deep and beneficial truths? Well, four different ways to look at the Lord and his sacrifice. And the first way that Peter describes our Lord is, first of all, as our liberator.

Our liberator. Now, let's go back to verse 17, which we studied on our last session at length, but let's read it again and kind of get a running start. If, remember that means since, since you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each one's service for that home country, conduct yourselves in fear during your stay on earth. Now, let's pick it up where we left off, verse 18. Knowing, you know this already, but let's remember it together, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold.

Stop there. The one you're reverencing with holy fear, remember that means holy awe, in light of the coming bema in which he will decorate you for service to the country. And it will be more significant decoration than a congressional medal of honor. But live in light of that. And in the meantime, remember that you were redeemed. That verb to redeem in this text was used in Peter's day for the ransoming of prisoners of war. It was the price paid to redeem a slave and give him his freedom. And Peter makes it clear that the ransom was not gold or silver perishable things. That isn't going to do. All the money in the world isn't going to be sufficient to purchase one person out of spiritual bondage and slavery to sin and death.

You just don't have enough money for that. And that gold and silver is as good as scrap metal compared to the price of one, just one eternal soul. It's going to take something far more valuable than gold or silver to break the chains and open the prison door and redeem the sinner out of darkness and into a marvelous light. See, gold and silver is perishable. Now we tend to think of gold and silver a little differently. I mean, we pass it down, right?

At least I've heard people do that. Pass down gold and silver from one generation to another. But Peter isn't evaluating your redemption, your value against 60, 70, 80 years of market value. He's evaluating your redemption in light of eternity. And in light of eternity, silver and gold are incidental.

I mean, gold will be so common, as you know, it's going to pave the streets in heaven. And the implication then is don't live for something. Don't pursue something.

Don't just dream about that. Don't pursue something that one day you will walk on in heaven. Now, if we turn Peter's words into a positive statement here, you can read it to mean that the believer is redeemed, not by perishable things, but notice further, he's also redeemed from futile things, inherited futility. From your futile way of life, he writes, inherited from your forefathers. The word futile refers to earthbound. They're worthless in the light of eternity because they only matter on earth. Earthbound commitments that have nothing to do with God or the glory of Christ. You inherited all this futility, he says.

It'll never, even if it's all combined together with all the money you have, redeem you. Paul describes, by the way, the unbeliever with the same word in Romans 1, where he writes, knowing about God, even though they knew about God, they didn't give him glory or thank him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were dark in Romans 1 21. Paul encouraged the believers living in Ephesus to no longer live as the unbelievers do in the futility, the earthbound manner of thinking.

Ephesians 4 17. In other words, the unbelieving human race spends its energy and its passion chasing after empty, meaningless goals that will have no significance when compared to eternity. See, your life matters on earth only when your eternal life is settled in heaven. If your eternal life is not settled in heaven, you're really not ready to live here on earth.

And whatever you do live for will one day vanish. Now, Peter goes on to show us Jesus Christ, not only as our liberator, but secondly, as our substitute. Notice verse 18 again, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your feudal way of life, inherited from your forefathers. Now notice verse 19, but with precious blood, as if a lamb on blemished and spotless, the blood of Christ, you were ransomed, you were freed.

You could translate it and the payment price was not gold or silver or every futile effort you inherited from your forefathers. It was blood, blood. You know, the liberals believe that we follow what they call a gory gospel, that we believe in a cross that one former evangelical pastor, now a liberal, said is nothing less than cosmic parental abuse. Why blood?

Why this substitution? Well, God made it very clear in the beginning as he gave Moses these wonderful words, the life of the creature is in the blood and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves. It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. Leviticus 17 verse 11, see the entire sacrificial system began and pointed toward the final sacrifice. It began as Adam and Eve fell and God took those animals and killed them and gave Adam and Eve their skins as atoning covering and that began the process, the pictures and the types and the shadows of Christ who would come. And by the way, Peter writes here that Jesus was, notice, like that lamb. In other words, the ultimate and final sacrifice for sin was the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament looked toward it and we in the New Testament looked back to it. Jesus shed, Peter writes, precious blood. The word could be rendered costly.

In fact, it would be impossible to define its value. Now, Peter's drawing from two Old Testament passages here, Exodus chapter 12, clearly the freedom from slavery as the Israelites languished in Egypt. God came and delivered to them the instructions for their liberation. They were to kill a lamb, splatter blood on the frames of their slave hut doors. All who did were safe behind that blood.

When the angel of death came in as God's final act of judgment against that idolatrous world, taking the lives of the firstborn. If you were behind the door marked by blood, you were safe and the angel passed over you, giving us the Passover. Isaiah would be another text, chapter 53, the messianic prophecy of a suffering servant we know as our Messiah who would come approaching death as a silent lamb and in his suffering give us healing. Imagine then the stunning significance of that Old Testament baptizing prophet named John who sees Jesus coming toward him and he says, Behold, look, the Lamb of God, everything we've been looking toward, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Is he qualified to do that? Yeah, Peter adds here in this text, he's truly unblemished, spotless. You could understand that he is perfect inside and out, qualifying him as our full and final sacrifice. Jesus Christ then is our perfect unblemished substitute, which allows him to be able to shed his blood in our place, paying the penalty for our crimes, which we could never pay for.

Why? We're not unblemished. Anybody here unstained by sin? We're not qualified to die even for our sin. See Jesus died to death. We could not die in order to pay a debt.

We could not pay. He shed his precious blood. Now let me do something that'll take a couple of minutes and we're going to go over time because of it, but I want to tie two verses together very, very quickly. In fact, if you'll hold your finger here and turn to Acts chapter 20, I want you to see verse 28 and you might write into the margin the reference of 1 Peter 1, 19, where it refers to our substitute shedding his blood, Christ shedding his blood, and notice what he says in Acts chapter 20 verse 28. Now in this text, Paul is saying farewell to the elder team. He's leaving Ephesus, and we typically look at this text as a text given to elders to take their responsibility in guarding the flock, but I'm going to focus on the last phrase, which we often overlook. Paul said to them, be on guard for yourselves and for all of the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, notice, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.

Shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. To talk about the blood of Christ is to talk about the blood of God, God the Son, who took on physicality, who took on flesh and blood so that he could die physically. God doesn't die, the God-man could. God the Father doesn't have blood, or the Spirit, God the Son, took on blood, flesh and blood, so he could shed it, and the shedding of the blood of Jesus is tantamount to the shedding of the blood of God, equally divine. To talk about Jesus is to talk about God. By the way, this sacrifice back in 1 Peter was not only accomplished by God the Son, but you notice God the Spirit and God the Father were all involved in the plan, too.

Notice how Peter slips in that little phrase, which we also overlook. Verse 24, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world. In other words, just as God chose the redeemed from eternity past, that's chapter 1, verse 2, remember? The elect are chosen by the foreknowledge according to the foreknowledge of God. Now, here in verse 20, the death of Christ, the shedding of Christ's blood was according to the foreknowledge, the foreknowing of the triune God. It was part of the plan of our triune God from eternity past. If you have a hard time understanding how God can choose the elect from eternity past, well, that isn't all. Jesus Christ, God the Son, chose to die in eternity past, and in the mind of God it was accomplished, crucified before the foundation of the world.

So what does this mean? Well, it means that the crucifixion wasn't an afterthought. It wasn't plan B.

It wasn't the last minute fix. The triune God wasn't saying as they watched their newly created world and Adam and Eve, and they watched them, oh, please don't bite that, please don't eat that, and oh no, now what are we going to do? No, the sacrifice of Jesus was part of the triune God's plan from eternity past, which means, go a little deeper, what this means is the crucifixion was not only foreseen, it was arranged. It was not only foreseen by our triune God, it was arranged by God. The crucifixion was not an accident.

It was an appointment that had been scribbled into the calendar in eternity past before time began. So Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost, and the creation of the New Testament church is taking place, and he's reminding his vast audience that all the wicked men in the nation of Israel hammered his hands and feet to that cross. Peter goes on to say further, he was delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. Acts 2, 23.

Imagine Jesus knew everything we would do all the way back through eternity past, and he still chose to create us, even though it would require his death. Jesus is shown here as our liberator, as our substitute, thirdly as our savior. Notice the latter part of verse 20, but he has appeared in these last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God. He has appeared in these last times.

That participle can be rendered. He became visible. It indicates that moment in history when God, the Son, took on flesh and appeared on earth. Of course, we know it is the incarnation in the form of a baby.

We've been singing about it today. He appeared in these last times. This is a reference then to that period of time marked by his first coming and ending with his second coming. People ask me, Stephen, are we living in the last days?

Yeah, it's been about 1,900 years from now. When he came and it'll be, if he came tomorrow, about almost 2,000 years when this ends or shortly thereafter. Now, Paul calls this period in human history the last days. People ask me, are we living in the last days? Yes, the last days started when he came.

2 Timothy 3, 1. The writer of the Hebrews referred to it as, in these last days, God has spoken to us through his Son, verse chapter 1, verse 2. John the Apostle changes it a little bit and he says, this is the last hour. We're not just talking about days, times hours. Imagine then, beloved, in the planning and providence of God, you happen to be living in the final days of human history, the last era, the last epoch.

We call it the last dispensation, as it were, the last days. And if John the Apostle thought it was the last hour, imagine how many minutes must be left before the last one ticks away. Notice, however, the personalization of the Gospel of Christ. Peter writes, he didn't just appear for no reason at all. He didn't just appear so we could have some Christmas carols to sing about and a nativity scene to look at.

No, look, notice. He did this for the sake of you, for you. This is the crux of the Gospel. It isn't enough to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. The demons believe that. It isn't enough to believe that Jesus died on the cross.

They were there. It isn't enough to believe in heaven. Satan's still having access to God where he accuses you before God and he comes down here and he accuses God to you, right? They know all this. They believe all this. But the devil will never say, Jesus died for me.

Where would he ever want to? See, the question is, is Jesus your liberator? Is he your substitute? Is he your Savior? One of my recent appointments with Greenhouse New members who are going through the class, which I have the privilege of meeting with, has couples, if they're married, I met with a couple of weeks ago and the woman said to me something and I'm sitting there going, you know, I really ought to share that with the congregation. That moment when she went from death to life and was born again, that she had heard the Gospel throughout her life and thought she was okay, but realized at that moment she'd never personally asked Christ to save her. She said a man was preaching and he had everybody turn to John 3.16 and she said, you know, I knew that verse. In fact, I knew it by heart, but he said, no, I want you to put your name in there.

Can you do that? It isn't just that for God so loved the world. The devil believes that. That he gave his only begotten son.

The devil believes that. That whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. He knows that's the Gospel.

But have you put your name there? If I were to put my name there and I've thought about that since, it would read, for God so loved Stephen that he gave his only begotten son. That if Stephen believes in him, trusts in him, Stephen will not perish.

Stephen will have everlasting life. Have you ever called upon the name of the Lord to be saved? Or just believed a lot of truth that even the demons believe.

And it causes them, James says, to shudder with the reality of it. See, this is the amazing personal offer of the Gospel of lost sinners. It must be personalized in the heart of faith toward the God of grace. Paul will write that in his own testimony, by the way, in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. He'll say, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Is there a me in your testimony?

Or is it just the world? I notice further Peter writes, who through him are believers in God. This is the very personal and yet very exclusive claim of Christianity who, you could circle the words, through him. Not through anybody else, but through him.

Not through anything else, but through him. His sacrifice, his substitutionary, atoning death, only through him you become genuine believers in God. And I've had people say, maybe you're saying, I don't like that part.

That's too exclusive, that's way too narrow, that's too defining. I'm going to get to heaven my own way, I'm doing the best I can, and I think I'm a pretty good fellow. My own plan, my own efforts, my own will. I remember asking a man, do you think you're going to heaven?

Yes. Why do you think you're going to heaven? Because I want to go. I will go.

Reminds me of C.S. Lewis who wrote in the mid-1800s, there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who say to God, thy will be done, and those to whom God says, all right then, have your will. You must have a liberator, a substitute, a savior, fourth, and finally the Lord is pictured here by Peter as our victor. Verse 21, the latter part, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, returned him to his glory. Christ's resurrection is the exclamation point of the gospel. Without it, nothing would be ratified. It was that signal sent throughout the universe that the sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf and mine was accepted. It was accepted.

It was sufficient. So that Paul can write, we in Christ are overwhelmingly conquerors. Do you feel that way?

Probably not. But in light of eternity, you are an overwhelming conqueror. The kingdom of Christ says one. And so now notice, verse 21, the end of it, your faith and hope are in your best efforts.

Oh, wait. Your faith and hope are in how strong you feel in your faith. Your faith and hope are in God. Your faith is not in your faith.

That's gonna feel strong one day and very weak the other. It is the object of your faith that matters. And he says here, it's in God. If there isn't anything you can offer from your own futile efforts to redeem yourself, you're too poor.

And all the gold and silver you got is just pavement. If there isn't anything you can say or do that will clear your name, that can unstain your family record, your crimes are too great, your sins are too many, and we add to the mountain every day. We have to have someone to take our place, someone qualified to shed blood to atone for us, to pay for our crimes and then rise in victory as Christ did, back to his glory, and he promises his disciples before he ascends, oh, by the way, I am going to prepare a place for you. It's how personal this is for you. Your liberator, your substitute, your savior, your victor came to clean up your name and to give you an opportunity in fact with your new name to live for his glory and when this last age is over, he's going to open for you the gate of heaven.

How? By faith and personal trust, having been redeemed by his precious blood which you have personally applied by faith in him to your own mountain of sin. Jesus Christ is your liberator, your substitute, your savior, and your victor. You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. You can learn more about Wisdom for the Heart by visiting wisdomonline.org. That site is filled with valuable resources to equip and encourage you in your walk with Christ.

If you ever miss one of these broadcasts, you can go online to listen. There are books, commentaries, Bible study guides, and many other resources as well. You'll find all of that at wisdomonline.org. I also encourage you to install the Wisdom for the Heart app to your smartphone. Once you do, you can take the teaching you hear wherever you go.

You'll find the app in either the iTunes or the Google Play Store. Wisdom for the Heart is also on Facebook and Twitter. We'd love to hear from you and learn how the teaching of Wisdom for the Heart is blessing you. Our email address is info at wisdomonline.org. It would be encouraging for us to hear from you today. Be sure and tune in next time. Stephen will have another lesson from God's Word, so make plans to join us at this same time right here on Wisdom for the Heart.