The Apostle Peter, writing to persecuted saints of
his day, reminds them that they have been
born of God as children into God's family,
and the new birth that they have been
given includes within it a hope.
The hope, the settled assurance that has been
given to them through the gospel, is that
because Jesus Christ lives, they shall live also.
Peter is directing their attention away from the
burdens, the trials, the circumstances in which they
find themselves to the destiny that God has
put before them.
For as long as they live in the
midst of enemy's territory, they can expect to
be assailed by the enemy.
Peter reminds them that this is not their
destiny, for they have been begotten unto a
living hope.
This hope is enjoyed in the midst of
the present circumstances of life.
This hope was given to them to sustain
them, that they might live with joy, that
they might live in faith, they might live
with confidence.
But as Peter moves on in the first
chapter of this epistle, he reminds these persecuted
saints that the new birth that they have
received from the Father places a great obligation
upon them.
They have been begotten not only unto a
living hope, but they have been begotten unto
a holy life.
And as we come to that portion that
occupies our attention this morning, 1 Peter 1,
verses 14-20, Peter lays upon them this
obligation, verse 14, as obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lusts in your
ignorance, but as he which hath called you
is holy, so be ye holy in all
manner of conversation.
You will observe that Peter's exhortation rests upon
the fact that they have been born into
the family of God.
He says to them, as obedient children, one
becomes a child of God in only one
way, that is, by personally receiving Jesus Christ
as one's own Savior.
When one receives Christ as a personal Savior,
the miracle of the new birth takes place,
and as wonderful and marvelous as the fact
of human birth, so miraculous and marvelous is
the fact of a second supernatural birth.
The one who receives Jesus Christ as a
personal Savior becomes a child of God by
that birth, the same way your child became
your child by the fact of a natural
and human birth.
And because there is a change in the
circumstances of life in the womb and life
in the world in the physical sense, so
the Apostle Peter says there is a change
from life before one became a Christian and
life after one became a Christian, or before
the new birth and after the new birth.
And viewing those for whom Peter has a
shepherd responsibility, he reminds them, first of all,
of this great fact that they have experienced
the miracle of miracles, the miracle of the
new birth.
Now, because of that fact, an obligation rests
upon them.
The obligation can be summarized simply to be
like their father, to be like their father,
for the father delights and desires to reproduce
himself in his own children.
He has given them his own nature, that
his nature should live his life through his
children.
And the Apostle Peter, to try to get
this great fact across to these believers, takes
them in their thought back to the experience
of their forefathers when they were still in
the land of Egypt, and he wants to
remind them of that great fact of their
ancient history, the facts associated with the exodus
out of Egypt, in order that he might
apply history to their experience to teach them
spiritual truths through what happened to their forefathers.
He reminds them that when God gave the
law to the children of Israel, it was
with these words, being holy, for I am
holy.
This quotation comes to us from Leviticus chapter
11 and verse 44, which, when we read
it in its original context, is set in
the midst of the laws concerning diet that
God gave to the children of Israel.
But Peter, in his mind, is going back
to that actual experience of the reception of
the law at Sinai, and he is reminding
them of all that God did to the
children of Israel when they were bond slaves
in Egypt.
Back in the book of Exodus, the whole
divine dealing with the nation Israel is traced
in detail, but there were certain steps that
we can see.
You turn, for instance, to the first verse
of the 11th chapter of Hosea, and Hosea
says, out of Egypt have I called my
son.
Hosea is referring to Israel's experience when they
were bond slaves in Egypt.
They had no hope of deliverance.
Their servitude had gone on for hundreds of
years, and from any natural expectation, it would
continue on for hundreds of years, for who
could rebel against the might of Pharaoh?
But when they were there as bond slaves,
God called Israel, and God's call offered them
a deliverance, and it was not until they
responded to the call of God and set
their faces away from Egypt toward the land
of promise that there was any deliverance that
was offered to them.
God called Israel, and then when God said,
in effect, to an oppressed people, as our
Lord said later, Come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest, the nation said, We
believe God.
We believe that God would not deceive us,
and if he said we should go into
the wilderness, we can believe him, and we
must go.
It was when God called and Israel answered
that God redeemed the nation.
I go back into the fifteenth chapter of
the book of Exodus, and there I read
this significant word in verse 13.
Thou in mercy hast led forth the people
which thou hast redeemed.
Thou hast guided them in thy strength unto
thy holy habitation.
The significant words there are, the people which
thou hast redeemed.
We are reminded this morning that when God
called a people and offered them deliverance, God
provided the Passover land, and the blood of
the Passover land must be placed on the
lintels in the doorpost of the house, and
then those who were within that house must
put themselves under the protection and the safety
of that shed blood.
When God passed through the land and saw
the blood, the death sentence was lifted, and
those within that house were protected from divine
judgment.
That was a redemption which God provided through
a sacrificial land for those who would believe
God.
On the next morning, when the children of
Israel left Egypt and headed toward an impassable
sea, they were leaving Egypt because of a
blood redemption.
They were leaving Egypt in faith that God
would open up the way in which they
should go.
They were trusting God for every physical and
spiritual provision, for they took nothing with them
to sustain themselves in the wilderness.
God called them.
God redeemed them.
When we turn again to Isaiah 43, the
prophet, centuries later, is still looking back to
this glorious fact of a redemption that was
provided.
In Isaiah 43, we have the word, "'But
now, thus saith the Lord that created thee,
O Jacob, and that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee.
I have called thee by thy name, thou
art mine.' And then, because God had called
and they had obeyed, and God had provided
redemption and they had believed, God promised preservation
to the nation that left the land and
to their children after them.
So that Isaiah, looking back to God's call
and God's redemption, says, "'When thou passest through
the waters, I will be with thee, and
through the rivers they shall not overflow thee.
When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt
not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee, for I am the Lord thy
God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior.'
Now, when the children of Israel had obeyed
God and had believed God and came out
into the wilderness of Sinai, God laid an
obligation upon them."
We turn into the book of Leviticus, as
we suggested a moment ago, in Leviticus chapter
11, and there in the heart of the
regulations which God gave to the nation.
Leviticus 11, verse 41, we begin our reading,
"'Every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth
shall be an abomination, it shall not be
eaten.
Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth
upon all four, whatsoever hath more feet among
all creeping things that creep upon the earth,
then ye shall not eat, for they are
an abomination.
Ye shall not make yourselves abominable, that is,
unclean, with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither
shall ye make yourselves unclean with them that
ye should be defiled thereby, for I am
the Lord your God.
Ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall
be holy, for I am holy.
Neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner
of creeping things that creepeth upon the earth,
for I am the Lord that bringeth you
out of the land of Egypt to be
your God.
Ye shall therefore be holy, for I am
holy.'" There at Sinai, where God revealed His
holiness through the law to the children of
Israel, God said to the Israelites, "'There are
certain things you can eat, and certain things
that you cannot eat.
I am making a distinction between what is
clean and what is unclean, and you must
observe to eat what is clean and to
refrain from eating what is unclean, because if
you eat the unclean, you will become unclean.
And I am holy, therefore I require conformity
to my regulations and my restrictions, for I
am a holy God."
Now, what was the problem?
The children of Israel had grown up in
Egypt.
The customs they knew were the customs of
Egypt.
The diet that they knew was the diet
of Egypt.
The practices that they knew were the practices
of Egypt.
The gods that they knew were the gods
of Egypt, and their life was molded by
the environment in which they had grown up,
in which they had been schooled and trained,
and according to the customs and practices and
beliefs of the society in which they found
themselves.
But, Egypt had unholy gods, and unholy practices,
and unholy law, and unholy diet.
God said, "'I have redeemed you.
I called you, and you believed me, you
obeyed me.
I redeemed you when you believed me.
Now I'm calling you out from that whole
environment, that whole atmosphere, that whole system of
thinking and living, and you can no longer
do what you used to do, and eat
what you used to eat, and believe what
you used to believe, because I redeemed you,
and I am holy, and brought you to
myself as mine own.
Therefore, be ye holy as I am holy."
The nation was called, they obeyed.
The nation was redeemed, they believed.
Then the nation was separated from their own
manner and pattern of life, because they had
been redeemed.
Now, will you turn again to the first
chapter of 1 Peter, and see how Peter
uses this experience back in the wilderness?
For, he says, verse 15, God has called
you.
He's talking to that generation that had heard
the gospel, the generation to whom Peter and
the other apostles and evangelists had witnessed.
God had called them, and God had said
to them in that day what he said
to a nation in bond slavery in Egypt,
"'Come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.' And they obeyed God.
They turned to Jesus Christ, they responded to
the call that God gave to them."
With what result?
Verse 17, "'Ye call on the Father.' Christ
called them through his death to himself, and
they in turn called upon him.' And the
call is an act of faith.
It is not a work, it is simply
believing the offer of salvation that Jesus Christ
makes to sinful man.
So, God called them as he called Israel
in Egypt, and God provided a redemption for
them.
Verse 18, "'Forasmuch as ye know that ye
were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain manner of life
received by tradition from your fathers, but with
the precious blood of Christ.'" What kind of
a life did we receive from our fathers?
Going all the way back to Adam, we
were born into a world of sin.
We were born sinners with a sin nature.
That was the tradition, the kind of life
we received from our fathers all the way
back to Adam.
And when we were in sin and uncleanness,
when we were separated from God, when we
were lost, God provided a redemption.
It was not a redemption for good people,
for rich people, for successful people, for nice
people.
It was a redemption for sinners.
God provided, and the apostle reminds his generation
that as Israel had been called when they
were bond slaves, so we were called when
we were bond slaves to sin.
That when we had no righteousness, no merit
to offer to God, God provided redemption.
For we could no more redeem ourselves from
sin than Israel could redeem themselves from slavery
needed.
But God, knowing our inability, provided redemption for
us.
But with what were we redeemed?
The apostle is thinking back into the Old
Testament to the fact that there in God's
old order there was no redemption apart from
blood, no redemption apart from sacrifice of a
life.
Israel was not redeemed from Egypt because of
the material wealth that they had.
Do you remember the night before the deliverance
from Egypt, God told the Israelites to go
to their masters and to collect all their
back wages?
And the Israelites went out of Egypt and
enriched people because they carried with them the
accumulated wages of years in gold and silver
and jewels.
But it was not the material wealth that
they carried in their hands that redeemed them
from Egypt.
They were redeemed because an animal blood covered
their sin.
And if God could not redeem a people
from physical bondage without shedding of blood, who
could conceive that God could or would redeem
a sinner from sin without the shedding of
blood?
He reminds these people that they were not
redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and
gold.
For silver and gold, you realize, come from
the bowels of the earth, and this whole
earth was cursed because of Adam's sin.
The faith in God said, cursed be the
ground for thy sake, and as valuable as
that jewel on your finger is to you,
it is an accursed thing because it comes
from an accursed earth, and as much store
as you set by your silver and your
gold in the sight of God, it is
an accursed thing because it comes from an
accursed earth.
You cannot offer to God that which is
a curse for your salvation.
What could redeem the sinner?
That upon which men set store does not
necessarily have any value in the sight of
God whatsoever, but God provided a redeemer and
provided a redemption.
That redeemer is his own son, and the
redemption is through the shedding of the blood
of his son.
So, Peter reminds them that just as they
have been called, and God asks for obedience
to the call, and just as God provided
a redemption for Israel in servitude, so God
has provided a redeemer for men in servitude
to sin.
And that redemption, verse 19, is the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot.
Precious blood.
And the blood of Christ is precious because
of the one who shed his blood.
It is not precious because you esteem it
highly.
It is precious blood because God esteems it
highly.
It is precious, first of all, to God,
and can be precious to a believer or
to a sinner only because it is precious
in the sight of God.
The value of the blood of Christ is
not the value that you put on it.
The value of the blood of Christ is
the value which God puts on it, and
God said of the blood of Christ as
it dropped from his wounds to the ground
at Calvary, this to me is precious blood
because my son is precious to me.
And that precious blood was spilled in order
that God might provide a redemption for sinful
men, and as God called Israel while they
were in bondage, God calls you.
And as God provided a redemption for Israel
when they were in servitude, so God has
provided a redemption for you.
There's nothing you can ask, there's nothing you
can bring because Jesus Christ's blood totally matters
by God.
But because we have been called, because we
have been redeemed, God says, Be ye holy,
for I am holy.
You were born in this world.
You accepted its patterns, its standards, its practices,
its habits.
You were a worldling by virtue of your
natural birth, but as God took Israel to
Sinai to separate them from that old life
because they had been redeemed, and God said
to them, there are certain things you can
do and certain things you cannot do.
So God takes the one who has been
called and who has been redeemed by the
precious blood of Christ and says, Now I
give you a new standard.
Don't look at the world and see what
the world does and conclude that you can
do it.
You look at me, what you see in
me, that you do.
Be ye holy, for I am holy.
Men still refuse to believe God.
The news that Christ died for the sins
of the world seems to the worldling to
be so simple.
The good news that Christ will completely save
an individual who does no more than to
trust Jesus Christ for his salvation seems to
be too easy.
But God asks you to take him at
his word that the one who does nothing
more than to believe God's promise and to
trust Jesus Christ for salvation, that one is
redeemed by precious blood.
Let me ask you this directly and personally.
Have you personally received Jesus Christ as your
Savior?
Have you ever received Christ the same way
you receive a gift when the gift is
offered to you?
You simply extend your hand because you believe
the offerer meant what he said when he
said, This is for you.
And you extended your hand, you took it,
and your only response was, Thank you.
God offers you a faith, and if you
by faith will take Jesus Christ as your
own personal faith, you're redeemed.
And all God asks of you is, Thank
you for Jesus.
It's our privilege as God's children to gather
around the table of the Lord.
This table was provided to give us a
memorial of Christ's death, and the memorial of
his blood that was shed.
And as we gather to fellowship with him,
may it be to remember the one who
shed what God calls precious blood, in order
that we might have forgiveness of sin.
We were called to life, we were called
to hope, we were called to holiness.
May the Spirit of God, our Father, direct
our thoughts into these truths of the Word,
and as we remember again the one whose
body was broken and blood was shed, that
we have been redeemed, but not with a
curse of things, but with blood that is
precious in the sight of God.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.