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Peter 1:1 17 and if you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each man's work conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your living as
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strangers knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your fule way of life inherited from your forefathers but with the precious blood
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as of a lamb unblemished and spotless the blood of Christ for he was forn before the foundation of the world but has appeared in these last times for the
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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 us
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pray our father again we ask that you might teach us by your spirit you might open our ears that we might hear
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we might be among those who listen to your voice listen to the will that you display in your
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word listen to the counsel the exhortation of the Apostle Peter that we might live as children of
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there has been for some time I don't know quite how how long maybe it goes back um more than decades maybe centuries at least in American Christianity or Christian
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circles there's a conscious desire to create uh what one writer called the antiseptic Church um the Friendship of evangelism
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the common ground with the community the friendly friendly Friendship with Community approach to church so we have manicured Lawns we
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have Immaculate buildings with spotless paint and shiny floors and mallik food courts to attract the
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unbeliever and along with this trend there's an absence there's an absence in many churches of any reference either in the
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singing and or in the preaching to preaching to sin to any mention of blood to the Cross specifically the idea
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another writer that idea of blood and crucifixion is seen by the non-Christian as a very a turnoff to what they have heard some
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of crucifixion is a very nasty very nasty thing it is not something that we like
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to think of the shedding of blood on a tree on a cross and even as far back as the century before Christ Marcus Cicero
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wrote let the very mention of the Cross be far removed not only from a Roman Citizen's body but from his mind his eyes his
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ears I I I think some Churches want to to say that to their pastors and their teachers let the very idea of the
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blood be far from our congregants bodies their hearts their eyes their mind their ears but Peter takes no such precaution
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in his word he adds this to the the motivations to a Godly holy fear and he teaches us I think In this passage not only the
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necessity of necessity of blood but certainly the preciousness of that blood and we'll look today mostly at
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that idea of the necessity of the blood because the preciousness of the blood while it would take years to
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explain how precious the blood of Christ is we will look at that idea Lord willing next week but here Peter gives us a a what
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the garans call a causal participle in verse 18 He says knowing knowing could be translated for as much
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as you as you know he's telling them you cannot pretend ignorance on this issue this is something that you know and it's an appeal to the
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elementary Christian elementary Christian beliefs in verse 16 to God's holiness you shall be holy for I the Lord am Holy in verse 17 he says if you
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call the one father the holy one who called you is your father also recognize that he is your judge judge but he judges with righteous
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judgment to which Peter now adds an appeal I think to the most profound emotions of the human
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heart love and fear love a love that sees the price of God's love paid to redeem
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us but also Fe fear a holy fear a fear of despising God's love in redeeming
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us the scriptures tell us that the life is in the blood we see that through the Old Testament we see that in the recognition of the shedding of blood
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blood was a central part of God's Plan of Redemption it was a central part of his plan for his own glory and and for Humanity's
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salvation think of the Israelites as they would go to the temple on a daily basis would they not see a lot of blood we we read in the scriptures of all of
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the the bringing of the sacrifices and how the priest would kill and spill the blood of those
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animals Blood on the altar Blood on the sides of the Altar and spilling down around it in the bowls that were placed around the
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altar the writer to the Hebrews in chapter N9 says of Moses Moses sprinkled both the Tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with blood and according
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to the law one may almost say all things are cleansed with blood and without shedding of blood there is no no
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forgiveness so Peter says knowing this knowing this knowing this that you were not redeemed with perishable things but with Precious
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Blood I think this section as we've already discussed from verse 13 through 21 could be tight under the rubric of be
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what you are but I think I would title this section 18 and 19 under the rubric of live what you know you know these things it's a
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negative assertion in verse 18 followed by a positive statement of fact in verse 19 but the subject is the
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same it's as if Peter asked this rhetorical question how can a sinner be drawn to the holiness of God that's where he was in verse 15 and
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16 but what is the answer in 18 and 19 the answer is redemption they knew that they had been
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delivered from what they deserved the guilt of sin the condemnation required of sin the
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punishment and the death for sinning against a holy God to redeem the idea is a ransom price
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ransom for the life of a a slave perhaps to be set free by a payment of a ransom and the idea of redemption in the Old Testament has the idea of a price uh
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to bring someone out of bondage bring someone out of tyranny but but here the emphasis I believe is on on a de the
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definition of redemption or Ransom as being to be delivered to be delivered signifying a
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Liberation and as many would have it it's it's not a metaphor it's not a figure of speech that is is is indicating something that's not literally
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true the the blood blood he is speaking of here is a fact it it is real it was shed and it was shed for you and for
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me and Peter begins on again on the negative side he he tells us what cannot redeem us what cannot pay that Ransom price and he says silver and gold you
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were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold
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and by implication everything that is perishable everything that is the word corruptible things The Ransom payments quite often
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to free slaves was silver or gold coins we we see that in the in the shekele the the things that were required of them of
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the temple tax it was silver or gold coins but what were they delivered from what is Peter saying you were delivered
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from a kind of bondage you were delivered from autal way of life inherited from your
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forefathers there is the ancestral and hereditary influence I think in these words we see the word forefathers it was an an influence associated with and perhaps pointing to their prec
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Christian existence it it means the source of the influence which their old way of life exercised upon exercised upon them it meant a manner of Life handed
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down to them by tradition of their forefathers it's interesting to me that the idea of the being handed down uh
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quite often appeared from in all the the commentaries that I looked at the idea of handing things down but they go on several of the commentator to say it it
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is like the their forefathers are no longer living and that but that Dead
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Hand seems to still grip many people even even after their conversion it's as if that Dead Hand the traditions of their forefathers the things that they took as being this is
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what we ought to do and this is how you live life this is how you worship God has chained them to that old way of
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life one of the commentator said that he had spoken to some missionaries who who who were baffled when they went in and felt as if they had had some conversions
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among those to whom they evangelized and they commented that that quote ancient religion the tradition of their forefathers had a
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strength that made their converts unable or very difficult to subvert the old
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Customs they were having trouble leaving those things behind in order to focus on their walk with
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Christ and these things these the old terms would be as he explains it here this fule way of life could could be was called vain conversation it's how they
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live their life they call it a a conversation but these vain conversations are not just open wickedness it does include that but the idea is that it it is a
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life that is useless that it is profitless that their mode of living doesn't do anything for them it's empty
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frivolous trifling and trifling and self-deceiving because they think they're living a reality but they're actually living an unreality and there is a promise of
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good but that life is unable to deliver on that on that promise in short we might say that these things do not lead to a life of Faith
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but a life that is unserviceable to the honor and glory of God the feal way of life inherited from their
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forefathers but then there is the positive the great bot and verse 19 but with Precious Blood you were redeemed with precious
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blood blood and Redemption go together the idea here is a substitution giving one for another by way of Ransom and it's precious because it is costly the the reality of the fact of
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this precious blood is beyond man's comprehension it's greater than all the
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things that we as humans deem to be precious because it's Excellency and its
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value the price that God paid is beyond our beyond our understanding Paul says in his word the man humans are sold under sin as a
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slave shut up under their the condemnation and curse of the law and the ransom the cost that was
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due to a righteously incensed judge as a satisfaction for that sin must be
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must be paid but we cannot we don't have have the means we have silver and gold but they are not enough we have perishable things but they will not
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do we cannot redeem ourselves of the debt that is owed the price is too high our payment is too
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meager in the Old Testament a man might for debt owed be Redeemed by a Kinsman according to the flesh one who was called a goel or a
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Gael not sure how to pronounce the Hebrew but who is Our Redeemer who is our goel who can make the appropriate payment who can make
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that which silver and gold will never amount
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to Peter tells us it is he whose blood blood was as of a lamb unblemished and
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tell us that we don't know exactly what portion of the Old Testament Peter might have in mind here many people immediately go to the
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Passover Lamb the one that was to be the perfect sacrificial lamb in Exodus chap CH 12 but there is the General Old Testament law requirement of sacrificed
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animals they had to be without blemish or perhaps there he's referring to Isaiah 53 where the servant of the Lord is being led as a lamb to
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slaughter and does not open his mouth but before his shearers is dumb the Greek and I believe that New American Standard has it right
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here with Precious Blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless it doesn't say like a lamb unblemished and
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spotless it is a sense of reality the lamb was the one slain in the sacrifice and the idea behind
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unblemished the Old Testament references this is the acceptable sacrifice as far as I can determine it means an absence of physical defect no
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injuries no skin infections no broken bones but he adds a word that is not in the Old Testament in the description of
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the sacrificial animals and that is spotless it it doesn't have an Old Testament reference to sacrifices and it probably means
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undefiled or morally Pure or the fact that Our Redeemer our lamb has never met with
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sin that he is sinless and therefore in the words of Peter
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combined that there can be only one he is as a lamb led to slaughter yes but only one who is unblemished and
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spotless the sacrificial lamb making atonement by the substitution of his blood for ours the application is not some lamb
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but one lamb who is both without blemish and without and without defect as the commentator lensy writes the point is that Christ is the great
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original the types are only imperfect copies and here in Peter's writing he writes but with Precious Blood as of a
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lamb unblemished and spotless the blood of Christ it's an unusual position for him to put Christ at the end but Christ is the final
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word Peter and this exhortation with the blood of Christ place last to make it clear to us that it is opposed to those things
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Christ and it leads us on eventually to verses 20 and 21 to a greater understanding of the relationship between the Redeemer and
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redeemed and again the Old Testament goal that close relative who would redeem family members or possessions comes in in Isaiah 41 we hear the Lord
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declare this I will help you he says to Israel and your Redeemer your goel is is the Holy One of Israel God in Christ is
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goel as one of the commentators wrote his blood is given for our blood God's Redemption breaks not only the chain that binds us to Future Doom it breaks the chain of the Dead past that chain of
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the Dead Hand handed down from our forefathers that feudal way of life before we knew Christ that chain has been broken by the blood of Christ he
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contrasts all these different things for us does he not the tradition of the forefathers versus the good news of a new life in Christ from the
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Father the The Emptiness and the hollow the Friv frivolity of the old life versus a life of Faith and Hope in God
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22 or 20 sorry 20 sorry 21 the 21 the meaninglessness of the old life versus the ultimate meaning of life
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God but the blood of Christ in the words of Octavius winow link Justice with mercy and Holiness with love Christ's blood must and yes did
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satisfy the righteousness of the Divine Law but also make it honorable and glorious to save sinners like
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us and that my friends is Precious Blood it is Precious Blood because we read in Acts chap 20 it it's God's
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blood in Acts 20 when Paul is instructing the elders he he uses this phrase to encourage them Shepherd the Church of God which he purchased with
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his own blood again as winsel writes this it is which stamps the atoning blood of the savior with such dignity and virtue it is the blood of Jehovah
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Jesus the high cost of redemption was to John Calvin a stimulant to practice Holiness he wrote for to him who repudiates or despises the grace of the
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Gospel not only his own salvation is worthless but also the blood of Christ by which God manifested its value
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it is precious blood and Peter some some called this Peter's accidental connection remember in the in Acts
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chapter 3 Peter and John were going along to the the temple and there was a man who was helped by his friends to lie
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in the path and he would beg for alms and Peter looks at him and says
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silver and gold I have none but what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene rise and
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walk I think Peter here to his readers and I think to us also gives us what he does
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have silver and gold he has none they are perishable things
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but he gives us a reason to be holy as children of obedience the blood of
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Christ as the commentator Andrew fet wrote Holiness is the natural fruit of redemption because he by whom we are redeemed is he for whom we are redeemed
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let us pray Our Father we we thank you for these things we thank you for the power of your
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word we thank you for the courage and the strength that you gave to the apostles to write and to preach and to
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proclaim the blood of Christ that by which we are are redeemed the only way we could be redeemed your plan your
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purpose father yes there are those who shrink back at what we say but father let us never be ashamed of the pr
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precious blood of Christ in his name we pray amen please rise for the benediction from Hebrews chapter 9
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for if the blood of goats and Bulls and the ashes of a heer sprinkling those who have been defiled Sanctified for the cleansing of the flesh how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit
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offered himself without blemish to God cleanse your conscience from dead Works to serve a living God Amen
