Let's read together from the first epistle of Peter and those verses that were concentrating on this evening, being from verse 18 to verse 21. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you are redeemed from the empty ways of life, and it down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believed in God who raised you from the dead and glorified him and so your faith and hope are in him. This evening I want to look at those first verses that we read there from verse 18 down to the end of verse 19, for you have the great apostle Peter, recanting for us what is the very centre of our faith. Last week we saw the absolute importance in the Christian life for the fear of God to be a part of us. Godly fear, not a damaging psychological type, but that which necessarily and carefully opens our eyes to see God as he is, and causes our hearts to tremble, and before him to be able to appraise who we are and where our lives are, and to see how we might worship. And to be made aware of the danger that we are in, if we don't worship this living God as he has provided the means and the manner. Now this evening I want to move to the place where the fear of God early appropriate begins to have its focus in the sense of all that comes as we look at Jesus Christ, because here in these verses we see the centre of everything that is being spoken of as being the Lord and concentrated in the picture that is given to us there of the Lord as the Lamb of God. That is the death of Jesus Christ for his people. And this evening I want to look at the four aspects of the death of Jesus Christ as the great apostle Peter makes it aware to us in these verses. And there are four great things that he tells us that are important if we are going to be able to understand how to worship God. You see, there is no true worship of God, no true praise, no reverend attitude to him, but does not deal with the reality of the death of Jesus Christ. And if you don't get that right, if you are unable to see who he is and what he has done upon the cross, if we are unable to understand that, then you can't really worship the living God because you don't understand what it is that you are worshipping him for. It is because in the gift of the Lord Jesus he has given to us that perfect redemption. Well no, here you have four main thoughts presenting them to us in these words. And we would divide them up in this way. These verses speak first of all about the problem that our race and that you and I have. Peter is dealing with a subject that is enormous in its ramifications. He is dealing with one aspect of it in particular here. He is talking about the universal defilement that you and I are a part of. Here is the problem of the world. What is it? It is this that you and I have been defiled, but there is a part of our life that is touched and what part of that and we say it is a total part of it. Now you see, the whole death of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, the sacrifice for our sins, is caught up with this initial idea, this great concept that says, why is it that he has died? Well the question of why he has answered when we say it is because the whole world has a problem and the problem is sin. And the problem, the universal problem of our race is that we have every one of us been touched by it and not just that some are good and some are not so good, not that some are nice and not so nice, but that in every part you and I have been defiled. So that there is that which we are able to look upon in our inward man and our inward woman and say, there is no good thing in me and you have ever understood the great apostles you try to ask that question and say, well, that is not true. I know that I am good at some points of my life. I am not so bad here, I am not so good there, but there are good qualities about me, I am not all bad. Now what is it saying? Well the doctrine here that is taught says this, it is not that you are as bad as you can be. It is not that you are so bad that every part of you is so completely fallen, that you can't be any worse than you are, you are a totally degenerate and corrupt people. And you say, well, that is not who I am, I am not as bad as I could be, just watch me. I could be much worse. You know, it says this, that there is not a part of your life or of your nature or of your mind that has not been affected by sin, so that when we talk about the fact that every part of us is universally contaminated, we aren't saying that we are as bad as we could be, we could be murderers, we could be much worse than we are. But there is no part of us that has remained free from the sin that has snitten this world and touched us. Not our reason, oh, we pride ourselves so often that our logic and our reason are good things and that they are uncontaminated and we say, well, it has to be logically true and it has to be reasonable and but our reason is elevated as that which is uncontaminated and it is not true, our reasoning. If it does not begin at the place of the reality of God, it is a correct reason. And it is a worldly reason and it is not true. It is why we are able to go out at night and see the stars in the heaven unless we are able to say straight away that they point to the hand of God. And the natural man sees that which is simply scientific, sees that which is the phenomenon and does not understand every part of us reason or emotion or love and the capacity for any of these things is in great peril because we have been touched by sin so that there is no part of us and this is very important to understand there is no part of us that God looking down from heaven can look upon and say that is clean and I can deal with it. No part of our life, no part of our thought untouched by sin so that when God looks upon the creation that He needs, when He looks upon you and me He cannot see that which is uncontaminated but only that which is polluted and the apostrophe to use is two ideas here. To understand this universal contamination of sin and there is a first of them here when He talks about slavery you were ransomed outside of the scripture. This word is used only in terms of ransoming prisoners who were taken in war or ransoming slaves who had people give them enough money to buy them out of slavery when the Apostle Peter says you were ransomed or you were redeemed he is talking about the fact that every one of us is a slave to the sin that has contaminated our life universally with us a slave to it. We can't divide it, it musters it, it's broken us and unless we are redeemed then our sin is going to affect us until our price is paid then we are bound, we are enslaved all we are imprisoned that is that we are subject to it but the second idea is this it is that we are in bondage the bondage which is universal and which is sad afflict our whole human race and says Peter it is a moral and spiritual defilement caused by sin and there isn't anything that anyone can do about it, gold and silver have no capacity to touch it and it's a slavery more terrifying than Egypt's control over Israel it is a slavery that ultimately crushes us, meriton drives us further and further away from God no here is very important principle for us to understand Peter is telling us that we are touched in every part of our life by this sin no let me go into a digression here and this is not part of the sermon but I'd like you to listen to it anyway there is is a very important notion that touches the nature of our evangelism you see so often we stage our evangelism in the vague hope that what we are going to say is going to reach the point of contact that is untouched by sin find that part of the individual that is untouched by sin and we can address our evangelism to it and either we can reason them into the kingdom of God or else we can play on their emotions so that they want to leap into the kingdom of God or that we argue them to a stand still and there's nowhere else for them to go but the kingdom of God and our evangelism is geared to find the weak spot that sin hasn't touched knows as the apostle if every part of every man and woman ever made sin's Adam is completely touched by sin your evangelism is not going to confess them that's not wrong to evangelize but be very clear we are true as people committed to evangelizing and proclaiming Jesus Christ but he does tell us this but our evangelism starts at the place where we pray God sent his spirit to touch a heart because if God doesn't create the response in the individual if God is not the author of the salvation then there is none because we're never going to break through the sin and all our arguments and all our clever dispositions and all our sermons and all the nutty ways we have of being able to touch people I'm never going to touch their hearts and there's the problem of sin using and there's God deals with it you and I don't have the capacities even though we're redeemed we don't have the capacities to deal with it only he does and that's why evangelism is not a matter of technique it's not a matter of saying well we belong to this program and we've got these great ideas and we've got false spiritual laws of five of them or seven of them it's not a question of that a question of God touching rights and evangelism comes at the place where you and I are convinced that God is smiting a life and we being obedient to him proclaim Jesus Christ with all our power knowing that God has gone before us and that he's opened the way well here's the first thing that the Apostles talks about it's the nature of our world it is that we are a fallen people that the problem of the race is a universal one well then as we come on to this verse we see not only are we are redeemed people which implies this bondage this slavery there is also a second thing that he next clear and that is the poverty of our riches we are redeemed not with corruptible things such as silver and gold now Peter is not here to give us a treatise on the nature of money what he's concerned to show is the sensual superficiality and the absolute inadequacy of anything that human currency can produce or purchase you may be able to buy freedom for slaves in the marketplace but all your money and all the things that you gain all your knowledge and everything that you have acquired through this wealth it cannot buy this little from death we're bound to him now here is Peter being very clear about the great need for the master you remember when Peter stood at the gate beautiful and he was first with that pathetic tragedy of the man who was blame from birth Peter said silver and gold of our none and they're going to give you arms but such as I have I give unto thee in the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk and he did man left to his feet healed by Peter's Lord the disease disabled body healed not by the gold and silver of the temple but by the power of Jesus Christ by the name that guarded given to him now this time as Peter is dealing with the affliction of mankind he is aware that it is not simply a matter of a disablement that is physical but a moral and spiritual disablement so that we're unable to see God and see our great need of him neither silver nor gold can touch can snap that solitary link that holds us bonds in bondage to sin there's nothing by way of contrast he tells us obedience to the truth has done so having received and obeyed the truth which is the gospel you have purified your soul he says you have heard me to consider that the real problem of the race to see the actual poverty of riches all our riches won't bias the presence of God and his peace they will not bias his grace and his forgiveness and his glory and Peter wants to say those things out front so that the world with all that he offers is recognized as being important to give the things that matter to the life of God in your soul and mind but then he comes to the third thing and it's with this that we will carry for just a few moments because it is the center on the substance of this verse and it's this it's the preciousness of the remedy of our ransom who is Jesus Christ you are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ like as a lamb with a block with a blemish and with a spark destined before the foundation of the world but manifest at the end for your sake my dear is Peter coming to the heart of the matter he's telling us that Jesus Christ is the answer and that he is precious he is precious for two reasons as he points them out here he is precious because of the superiority of his person the background from the Old Testament is clear there's a sin which needs to be given payment for and in the Old Testament a lamb was always chosen and slain so that it's blood would symbolize the cleansing of sin now what Peter is saying about the lamb who is Jesus Christ is that he is superior to all the sacrifices ever made to take away the sins of the world to wash away up and cleanse us from our sin here is Jesus because he is guarding God he is the lamb provided by God not by human hand not by garnishing but by God and this is what the Lamb of God is all about it is God's provision for our sin it's God stretching down from heaven looking at us in our need and meeting that need as he gives to us in his son the perfect redemption and he is anointed isn't that exactly what he's being said here he is anointed there's a divine authority it wasn't that Jesus came by chance it wasn't that he came into the world as the last resort he was anointed by God and appointed by him that he might be the bearer of your sins and minds he was the very lamb ordained before the foundation of the world and he was given the die for our six because God had ordained it that way are you saying why is it that God could not have redeemed us in some other way we do not know and we don't need to know we only know this that God did it this way that he chose that by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ we should be cleansed from our sin and he was anointed by God to be that but more than that he was appointed in that way he was appointed listen the precious blood of Christ is a lamb without blemish and without spot he died as the character of a lamb now in Old Testament sacrifice you find that in the temple there were two lambs slain every day of the year and four lambs slain on a Sabbath and two other lambs added to that on special holidays and that in Israel 105 lambs were killed every year 105 lambs were slain so that we would see the sin being taken away now here you have the lamb of God who comes at as it were the completion of this sacrificial system the lamb he was too great for the types present to represent he was without blemish he was without spot and all the types so all the appearances in the Old Testament of the blood that was shed there point to him alone but point out to the fact that he is superior to any other sacrificial system that is offered there he is beyond it and above it the Old Testament sacrifices had to be free from every suggestion of blemish because the Lamb of God which was represented there had to be entirely free of contamination and I suggest three areas that we see that demonstrated as pointing to the character of Jesus Christ and be sure here that what Peter is trying to do is to say Jesus is the spotless Lamb of God and he wants his people to see how precious that sacrifice is oh it's easy for us glibly to say we're saved by the blood we're washed in it we're saved by the cross of Christ ah says Peter in his first epistle and in the first chapter to them that believe he is precious why is he precious because he's the Lamb of God he was slain for your sex what are the qualities of his being a lamb what mixing without blemish and without spot well here it is and he gives to us three indications in these verses of what it is first of all his blamelessness before men there none of the gospel writers ever set out to prove that Jesus never committed a sin every one of them by their gospel narrative proves it as a matter of fact they always point to the impeccable behavior of the Savior in every changing scene and drama of life he's blameless when he's dealing with the difficulties of life when his enemies come upon him he's blameless when they charge him with blasphemy he's blameless when they are sorting with soldiers he's blameless when they lash his back he's blameless when they lift him on the cross to die he doesn't rail and he doesn't rank he doesn't scream and murder he doesn't cause rebellion Jesus in all things is the lamb blameless and without spot that's not said yet but again he is blameless and without spot in the compassion that he showed showed to his people showed to his enemies there's a perfection of everything that he did there's an underlying attitude that takes us to the deepest level of our Lord's life he was not only superficial but in the depth inwardly he had a compassion upon those that lay hands upon him and slew him he is the lamb that we worship the execution that took place on Calvary's brow was in the hands of Roman soldiers who were callous they had seen many people murdered they were cold there was a granite detachment that could stand out a mile they man-handled him and yet Jesus on the cross has clavus for gifts in order what they do he is precious precious because he was a lamb passion even to those who unjustly man-handled him and bruised him and again we see the perfection of our Lord Jesus displayed in the relationship to his friends those who were closest those who knew him best testified this one thing of him that he was without or Jesus died as a lamb that was prepared God's own son incarnate that's why he's precious and Peter wants us to understand that and he wants us to understand that our evangelism our proclamation our worship centers around knowing who this man Jesus Christ is as God and when we know it then and before no other time can we truly worship him as he is and there is no true worship that does not deal with the Lamb of God who is slain upon the cross for your sins and mine the Lamb with that spot and blend oh well there is a fourth thing and with this we need draw to a conclusion and it's this not only is he precious but he is powerful or what he did none other could do says the greater apostle he bought us back from death itself no there's been a great question that seems to have beset every generation of theologians who was the ransom paid to there have been very many theological answers I'm not going to bore you I will simply outline some of those theories that have come down who did God pay the ransom of Jesus Christ to repay it to the devil who held the world enslaved by sin who held Jesus Christ by his nation nations upon the cross of Calvary was this the ransom that God paid to the evil to buy you and me back no no why because it was not Satan that put Christ upon the cross it was God's Ford or Jane and the ten minute council that led Jesus there it was no accident it was not half as it was bands of evil that would put there certain has no control that God does not first give so we went bought back from Satan from his power not at all do you know that runs into a terrible heresy that he imagines that in some way God and Satan are equal to coexistence low equal powers struggling for the soul of man at nonsense there's only one God in his glory that's dualism that does nothing to do with Christianity at all God is God there's no ransom paid to Satan God has not been contaminated by the evil one not have dealings with him no ransom was paid to him for you and for me was it paid to this world to buy us back out of a corrupt and of all the nature some of suggested that this was the case a man called Abbalard suggested that the ransom of Jesus Christ was this it was given to the nature and the order of the world that we might be able to be redeemed from out of it and that's not true that is to pay something to an inanimate part of the creation and God had made it he was not going to give any a ransom back to it who was the ransom paid to our it was this it was paid to his own justice because God had established his own command and he established his own law that there was no punishment that we could escape except death and none other was good enough to meet the legitimate requirements of the law God's law God's just his God's absolute way and God himself and he did not set aside his law he gave his son to bear the full penalty of the world and its sin upon his shoulders and to die in your place and mine and so our ransom was paid and it was paid back to the law that held us in bondage the law that says it was the law of death God redeemed us from the curse of the law the law that told us we were sinner told us that we violated the commands and held us in bondage the law that could only oppress us and crucify us and kill us it was told this God gave his redemptive power and the fact is that Jesus died and he died and such was his death the view and eye were freed from the guilt of the past from the stain and the blood of our sin that we might stand before him at people holy and pure and cleansed a ransom was paid by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ you know it's become a part of our life but we shunned the blood theology circle I was once categorized as one of those blood theologians were all long ago to have been extinguished in this world not modern to talk about the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and indeed we shrink away from the things that talk about that blood because we find abhorrent pictures there and yet you know however much the abhorrence might be for those hymns that Isaac what's rot there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from in manuals veins and sinners plunged beneath the flood lose all their duty same you know I remember a teacher of English at school telling me that was a horrible hymn and the imagery was dreadful to be plunged beneath blood to be cleansed and of course it is it offensive to us is exactly what we don't want to do and yet it is precisely and exactly what God has given to us is the only way to be cleansed and it's the offense of the cross that we turn up our nose and we say we want nothing to do with that we're not cultured like that we're not barrega that we shrink away from the very blood of the Lord by which we're cleansed and we become ashamed of that which is God's gift to us and we draw away from it because we're sophisticated that's how precious it was that's how true it is there is no salvation unless we're plunged beneath the flood of blood drawn from the veins of the Savior that is who are dead don't decry that imagery it's biblical it's true it points to the fact it's hard to take but it reduces us in our own thinking there is no other way but that one it is the power of God armed toward redemption and you and I find no other power heaven and name and through the death of Jesus Christ our Lord our says Peter for them that believe he the Savior is precious for them that believe he is the Lamb of God oh we could go and we see in that passage and I could keep you here all night looking at the elements but made up the fact of our Lord's nature here for a day before the foundation of the world obedient even unto the will of God revealed completing us under the power of God demonstrated all those things are true in this emphasis but while Peter gives all those things he points to the central fact he draws them around that key idea of the blood of the Lamb that cleanses and we worship when we see and believe and know that it is he who has done it all that's right I'm as precious Lord the power of the death of our Savior has been a great triumph we are freed from the sin that has beset us we know that the penalty of our sins has been taken away we are emancipated to live now for you and to enjoy your freedom and your grace come come causes to enter into that never to despise that which you have given even our Savior he who was both modeled in life and much more the Lamb in death cause us to stand in him that we languish no longer in slavery knowing no longer the bondage of this world but knowing that we have seen the power and the thrall of this world broken by him who has lifted high or as a still worshipping to know even Jesus our Lord and our Savior amen