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Pastor Skip Heitzig guides us through First and Second Peter in the series Rock Solid.
We are in First Peter, chapter 1, in a series we call
Rock Solid; First Peter, chapter 1. Let's pray. Lord, I
thank you for your people, those who have gathered. We're
mindful of those who were unable to gather for whatever
reason is going on in their lives and pray a
special blessing on them, but I pray that you would
meet here with us today, that we would have a
fuller understanding of the depth of your love for us.
I pray we would be impacted by what we hear and by
what we read. Lord, I pray that it would be
so transforming to us that we would look at other
people around us the way you see them, in Jesus'
name, amen. How does the world value people?
What is the standard that the world uses to say,
"You are valuable?" Well, typically you know the answer. Typically
it's either outward beauty, or personal wealth, or accomplishment, status.
Because that is true, that's the reason we find ourselves
comparing ourselves with other people. "Are they more beautiful than
I am; less beautiful than I am? Do they have more or
less finances than I have? Have they accomplished more than I've
accomplished?" And because that is true, we
are constantly giving worth and value to ourselves based upon
the value and worth of other people on that scale.
According to one survey only 13 percent of American women
consider themselves to be pretty, 28 percent of American men
think themselves to be handsome; 94 percent of American men
would change something about their looks if they could, while 99
percent of American women would change something about their looks
if they could. Follow-up question: How does
God value us? Well, a very, very different set of
standards. God looks at us through a different lens. The
Bible says that, "God has chosen the foolish things of
this world to confound the wise; the powerless things of
this world to confound the mighty, and the things that
the world despises, God has chosen." There's a billboard campaign,
I've seen it in several cities, it says, "We Buy
Ugly Houses." I like that sign. It's just one of
those campaigns, marketing campaigns that was done right.
Because you look at it, and then you look at
it again, and you never forget it. "We Buy Ugly
Houses." It was the brain child of a man named
Ken D'Angelo who decided that he would look for properties
that are run down. He would fix them up, resell
them to investors, or to first-time home buyers, and also beautify
the neighborhoods around him. "We Buy Ugly Houses." Listen, God
has been in the business of buying "ugly houses" long
before any real estate investor ever came along. Look at
chapter 1, verse 18. "Knowing that you were
not redeemed [or bought, purchased] with corruptible things, like silver
or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from
your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as
of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed
was foreordained before the foundation of world, but was manifest
in these last times for you who through him believe
in God, who raised him from the dead and gave
him glory, so that your faith and hope are in
God." That is God's plan---to buy up and the
transform ugly houses, broken lives, those with an "aimless conduct" that
they have received. That's God's plan, and you and I
fit into that plan. How's that plan working out? Some
of you will remember back to a TV series many
years ago called the A-Team. It's since been made into
a movie. Anybody remember the A-Team? Okay, so the head
of the A-Team---it's this Special Forces, ex-Special Forces guys. The
head of it is a guy named Hannibal Smith. And when everything works
out the way he's planned it, at the end of
show his catchphrase is, "I love it when a plan
comes together." So does God. And God has a plan,
and I want to share with you out of this
passage five aspects of God's plan for us that include
your preciousness, your predicament, your price, your predestination, and your part
in this plan. Let's look at your preciousness.
Notice it says in verse 18 the word "redeemed." Just
look at that word; that's the keyword of the whole
passage. "You were redeemed." The word "redeem" means to set
free by paying a price. It's a term that comes
from the slave markets of the first century when somebody
would go in where people were put on parade in
chains, and a price would be given to set that
slave free, for that slave to come home, or a
new owner, or to go out on his own---to set
free by paying a price. It also was
a Greek term, a technical term for paying money to set a
prisoner of war free. Now, the fact that money would
be spent in this transaction shows that the owner places
value on the slave, places value on the prisoner of
war. So the idea, the term "redemption" infers value. In
other words, simply put, you are precious to God; the old
house is worth saving. God redeemed you. The
love of God---what's the most famous verse in the Bible?
John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son." Does not say, "For God
was so ticked off at the world he sent his Son to punch
everybody out." He loved the world. The essence of God's
character, besides holiness, is love. Twice in First John it says, "God
is love." So easy to say; so hard to believe;
I'm convinced most Christians have a hard time really believing and experiencing
that God values them and that they are precious to
him. Dwight L. Moody that pastor-evangelist from
Chicago in the 1800s once got out his concordance and looked
up every single reference to God's love. And at the
end he said, "There is no truth in the whole
Bible that ought to affect us as much as the
love of God." The reason we struggle with it, with
God loving us the way we are, is because it's
so foreign to us. God's love is so diametrically different
from human love. Human love is object oriented, it's discriminate;
that is, "I see something I like and I get
it for myself." That's human love. It
is based on the object: object oriented, it's discriminate, and
I would add a third characteristic, it's temporary. "I like
it today, will I like it tomorrow?" Or if I'm
a child, "I like it now, but in ten minute
will it like it?" That's human love. God's love is
different. God's love is subject oriented, not object oriented. It's based on him,
not the object. It's subject oriented, it is indiscriminate, and
it is eternal. So it's very, very different. It's based
on God's character. There was once an
American tourist, who was in Paris, and she went into
a little trinket shop, and she bought a bracelet. It
was very inexpensive. It was cheap. It was a few
dollars, twenty-something bucks. It had amber and different things in it, but she liked it, and she took it home. When
she was trying to go back to the United States, they stopped her
at customs and looked it over and demanded that she
pay a pretty hefty tax, duty, to get back in
the country, which raised a red flag. She took it to
a jewelry shop to get it appraised. The jeweler looked
it over and said, "I'll give you twenty-five thousand dollars
for it now." Took it to another jeweler shop, offered
her ten thousand more---"Thirty-five thousand dollars now." So she said, "Okay,
so what's up with this little bracelet? Why do you
think it's so valuable? I didn't spend much for it."
The jeweler said, "Come closer," gave her the magnifying glass.
And on the back of that little trinket bracelet was
the inscription, "From Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine." That's why it
was so valuable. It wasn't valuable because
of what it was made of, necessarily, or the era
from which it came, or even that it was given
to Josephine, it was based upon the subject that gave that.
It was based on the identification of a famous person
named Napoleon Bonaparte. Your value comes from the fact that
you are loved by the God of this universe. That's
your preciousness to God. Scientist have discovered what
they say is the most precious substance in the all
the universe---it's very rare, used only for research purposes---called antihydrogen.
It makes things like plutonium, gold, and diamond seem like
dirt in comparison. The estimated value of antihydrogen, the price tag---one
thousand seven hundred and seventy-one trillion dollars per ounce. To
get our little minds around that, that's 1-7-7-1 followed by
twelve zeros, dollars per ounce. But there's
something far more valuable than antihydrogen---you; you; you are. You,
to God, are more precious than anything that he would
pay the big bucks to get you. Before we get
to that, we have a little bit of a problem, which
brings us to the second aspect of this plan; and
that is, your predicament. Notice what it says in verse 18.
You were redeemed "from your aimless conduct received by tradition
from your fathers." You know what "aimless" means; it means
without aim, or, better put, the wrong aim.
You were aimed in the wrong direction. You were going
the wrong direction, and consequently your life was empty, unsatisfying, vain,
tasteless, you might say. And this is true of even
the most prominent and wealthy and famous people. I was
reading an article about Elvis Presley. The week he died
he was in a hotel room in Las Vegas, and
he wrote a letter. And parts of the letter, he
said, "I feel so alone sometimes," which is curious because
years before that he had actually written a song called
"Heartbreak Hotel." Remember that song? [impersonating Elvis] "Well, I
feel so lonely." [laughter] He said, "I feel so lonely."
And what was sad to me is that he actually
became the caricature in the song that he had written
about. He was in a hotel; he died that week,
he said, "I feel all alone sometimes." Actor George Clooney
said, "I'm lonely. I can't sleep. I've used *** even
though I hated it." But long before
the "King of Rock and Roll" or that actor, there was another king named Solomon
who summed up his whole life by saying, "Vanity, vanity,
all is vanity," or "Emptiness, emptiness, everything I've tried in
life is empty and tasteless." That's aimless living. That's exactly
what Peter is writing about here. Jesus said, "What will
it profit a man if he gains the whole world
and loses his own soul?" Solomon did that. That's the
futility of an unredeemed life. But look
closer. "Your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers."
When I first read this, I was around eighteen or
nineteen when I first remember reading this passage, and it
was as though Peter was writing directly about my life.
I came from a very traditional church background. I received
a tradition from my fathers, a church tradition. I wasn't saved,
but I had a tradition. And since then I have
met many people who say, "I was raised in the
same tradition," or, "These are the traditions I was raised
with." So that when we were younger
we would ask things like, "Dad, mom, why do we
do this?" "It's our tradition." "Yeah, but is it right?"
"But it's our tradition." Now, you might say, "Well, what's
wrong with people's traditions?" Nothing, unless you are trusting in
those traditions to save you, then it's wrong. They may
be good, but a good thing can become a bad
thing if it keeps you from the best thing. That's what
Peter's writing about here. You know, basically
there are only two approaches to God. You might say there are only two religions in
the world. If you studied world religions in college, and you studied all
the different nuances between this country and that country, and
this belief system and that, you might leave that class
and think, "Boy, there are so many different ways people
have to believe." I beg to differ. Let me give
you the Cliffs Notes to that class. Let me give
you the irreducible minimum to that religions class.
There are only two religions in the world, only two
ways to get to God, two approaches: number one, the
religion of human achievement; number two, the religion of divine
accomplishment. You could take every single world religion and place
it in the first category, human achievement---people believing that by
their traditions, their practices, their sincerity, their good works, they're going to
make it to God. That's the religion, the approach of
human achievement. But the only way that
God says he will be approached is the second category, and that's the
approach, or, if you will, "religion," for lack of a
better term, the religion of divine accomplishment. It's not what
you do; it's what he's done. It's not what you
work toward; it's the work he has given and done
on the cross. It's not what you earn; it's what
you receive. That's how you get redeemed. Now, that takes us
to the third aspect of this plan, and it's your
price. What did you cost? What is the price tag
that God was willing to pay to get you to heaven? Look at verse 19,
"With the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot." That's how valuable you were.
If a young man walks into a jewelry store with
his fiancée, and he wants to buy a diamond ring,
which is always a mistake to do it together.
And here's why: because the first question the jeweler is going to
ask the young man is---what?---"How much are you willing to
spend?" It's a trick question, [laughter] Because she's standing there and she is
going, "Yeah, how much are you willing to spend? How
much am I worth to you?" Because he's thinking in
his mind, "That Cracker Jack ring looks mighty fine." [laughter]
And she's saying, "Not gonna happen." The Hope
Diamond is the most expensive diamond in the world, $250
million it's estimated at, 45-carats of a blue-hued gemstone. Well,
he might feel, "That's what she's worth to me." Dude,
you'll never be able to even come close. Don't even
think about it, but you do have to set a
price. You know what you cost? Everything; you cost, we cost
the very life blood of the Son of God, and
God was willing to pay it, and Jesus was willing
to go through it. It's why Vance Havner
the one-time Senate to the United States chaplain said, "Salvation
is free, but it is not cheap." God gave his
very best. Years ago Alan Shepard one of America's great astronauts who walked
on the moon, one of the few men who did,
was interviewed. And he was asked, "When you were up
in space looking back at the earth, what thoughts were
going through your mind?" Listen to his response: "It's a
sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that
your safety is determined by the lowest bidder on a
government contract." [laughter] Whoa, that's a whole different
way of looking at a space travel. "I am here
and will get back based upon the lowest bidder on
a government contract." Listen, when God purchased your soul, he
didn't go for a lowest bid, he paid the highest price---the
precious blood of Jesus Christ. Why is it so precious? Why
is it so precious? It's so precious, because Jesus Christ
is the only person who never sinned, never sinned, lived a
perfect life, never committed a sin. Notice
what it says, "He is without blemish and without spot." Blemish
is an inherent defect; a spot is an acquired defect. That's
imagery to simply say he was not born in sin,
he did not commit a sin, without spot, without blemish. Now,
most of you know that in the Bible, in the
Old Testament especially, lambs were used for redemption, lambs were
used for substitute. So that you wouldn't die, a lamb would die.
It goes all the way back to Genesis, chapter 4, when
Adam and Eve blew it; God took the skin of
animals and covered them. And most scholars believe it was a
skin of a lamb. It would feel good, lamb's skin.
In that case, it was one lamb for one person.
As time goes on in the Exodus of Egypt, in
the Passover, they were to take the blood of a lamb and put it on
the lintels and doorpost of their homes. In that case,
it was one lamb for one family. As
time went on, in the book of Leviticus, chapter 23,
on the Day of Atonement the high priest would dip the hyssop in blood
of a lamb and sprinkle it on the mercy seat,
and the whole nation would be atoned for. So, you have
one lamb for one person, one lamb for one family,
one lamb for one nation. Then you get to the
New Testament, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming to the
Jordan and says, "Check it out!" "Behold, the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world."
Now it's one Lamb for one world. And the reason
his blood is so precious is because it is the
only antidote to the sin virus for the whole world---the
precious blood of Jesus Christ. Joseph Parker said, "An extreme condition
demands an extreme remedy. Until you see that you are
doomed and damned apart from Jesus Christ, you will never
truly count his blood precious in your sight." It's precious
in God's sight; is it precious in your sight?
Consumer Reports, you've all heard of that, they put out
a great little book called How to Clean Practically Anything. A
very practical book, How to Clean Practically Anything, and solvents
are given for different substances. For example: glycerin will remove
ballpoint pen stains, boiling water is all you need for berry
stains, vinegar will take care of crayon stains, ammonia will
handle bloodstains, alcohol will take away grass stains, hydrogen peroxide
will remove magic marker stains; bleach, mildew stains; and lemon
juice will eradicate rust stains. But there is
nothing in the book of how to get rid of sin stains. But
there is in this book. There is in this book. In
First John, chapter 1, "The blood of Jesus Christ God's
son cleanses a man, a woman, from all sin." That's how you get rid
of sin stains---the precious blood of Christ. Now, folks, something
on my heart, and I've noticed it for years, the
blood of Jesus Christ is being depreciated by many people
and many churches will want to make it absent. They don't want to mention
the blood of Christ. They want lots of happy songs---"You're
okay, I'm okay." But even seeking to remove any reference
to the blood; there are churches who have a concerted effort
to remove from their hymnology, their song books, any reference
to the blood of Christ. Because for a long time
now people are saying, "We don't want another bloody religion."
"We don't want this old-fashioned gospel blood dripping places."
One female theologian by the name of Delores Williams said,
and I quote, "I don't think we need a theory
of atonement at all. I don't think we need folks
hanging on crosses and blood dripping down and weird stuff
like that," close quote. Ah, she is so wrong, and
here's why. I'll give you an example. I'll give you an
illustration. True story: Years ago two trains collided that took
the lives of several people. One was a commuter train
filled with people. The commuter train stalled on the railroad
tracks. A ways off, but coming toward
the commuter train was a high-speed freight train. Because the
first train stalled, a conductor was sent out with a
flag to wave the second train down to get it
to stop. The train came around the bend, but was
still moving at a pretty good rate. Though it had slowed
down, it did not stop. And just before impact the
conductor in the freight train jumped out and saved himself.
The trains collided, body parts strewn everywhere, people died, trains
like pretzels were spread all around the countryside---high impact.
The investigation that followed brought a court case. In the
courtroom the conductor of the freight train was brought in to ask
why he would jump out of the train to save
himself, but didn't stop the train. And he said simply,
"I saw the flag, but the flag that was waved
was a yellow flag, which in the train business means
slow down; it does not mean stop. I saw a
yellow flag, I slowed down, I didn't have enough time,
I bailed out last minute, and there was a collision."
So they brought the flag in that he wove, and
that was Exhibit A. Indeed this flag that was one
time bright red had faded due to sun damage over
time and now had turned a dirty yellow. The church
that at one time had a bright red gospel, that
gospel has faded and it saves no one. And we
do people a disservice, in fact, a worse disservice than waving
the wrong kind of a flag for a commuter train;
when we don't tell people the truth about hell and
heaven and how to get to heaven. That kind of
a gospel will save no one. The
blood of Jesus Christ needs to be front and center,
because it is in the Bible; over three hundred times the word
"blood" is mentioned. If you don't like a bloody book, get
a different one than this. It is mentioned three hundred
times. Blood atonement is centerpiece in this book. We need to need
get back to that truth of the great, old hymn
written by Robert Lowry in the 1800s. "What can wash
away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What
can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of
Jesus." That's the price. Look at the next
verse. Verse 20 tells us a fourth factor in this plan;
and that is, your predestination. "He indeed was foreordained," there is
it is. "He [Jesus] was foreordained [preplanned] before the foundation
of world, but was manifest in these last times for
you." Let me paraphrase it: You were never an afterthought
to God. It's not like you came along and God said, "Oh, yeah,
what am I going to do with you?" You were
never an afterthought; you were a forethought.
A lot of people think that God was first the
Creator and then he became a Redeemer because things changed.
So, he created the heavens and the earth, and it's like, "Oh,
this is cool. This is good." And then Adam and
Eve came along and they botched it up so bad
that God said, "Oops! I didn't see that coming. I
gotta do something now," and then he became a Redeemer.
Not so. God's redemption is as eternal as his power.
Jesus Christ in Revelation 13 is called "the Lamb that
was slain from the foundations of the world." It
was always God's plan. You were always God's plan. You
were never an afterthought. He thought about you in advance
and he sent Jesus in the nick of time to
save you. Somewhere in the counsels of eternity God the
Father said to God the Son, "You need to go
down there. You're going to have to save them." It
was all part of the plan. And for you to
be here right now and hear this message is also
part of God's plan for your life, which leads us
to the fifth and final part of God's plan; and
that is, your part in it, your part.
Verse 21 tells us, "Who through him," that is, you.
"You who through him believe in God," that is, through
Jesus Christ you have come into a relationship with God.
"Who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that
your faith and hope are in God." In other words,
your part is the believing part, it's the faith part.
You can't work for it. You can't buy it; it didn't
come from silver or gold. You can't work for it; it didn't come
from the tradition of your forefathers. But you can believe it;
you can receive it. You don't have
to clean up your life. You know, so many people that
I meet with---I've heard this for years. Have you ever
heard this? "Yeah, I know I need to come to
God." Or they'll say things like, "I know I should
come to church, but I gotta work on some things
first. I got clean up my act first." What part
of "redemption" are we not getting here? You don't clean
up anything first. First of all, you can't clean up
your life enough to be good enough for God, so give it up.
Don't come and clean up your act first, you come
as you are and let God clean up your act.
He's in that business. He catches the fish, then he cleans them. He doesn't say,
"Fish, clean up first, and then I'll catch you." Most
fishermen know that. [laughter] You get the fish, then you
clean it. You come as you are; you believe. Now,
if you're thinking, "Oh, good, good, good, good, because I
believe." Well, let me ask you how you believe and
what you believe. Because a lot of people will say,
"I believe God exists out there somewhere." Okay, but
that's not what we're talking about. The idea of here
believing in God, believing in Jesus, do you lean on
him? Are you trusting him? Now, that's personal because he's
a person. Not, do you believe a God lives out
there? You know, it's one thing to talk about the
greatness of a parachute, it's another thing to jump out
of the airplane. "Parachutes are great. I love parachutes. They're
wonderful things. I believe parachutes exist." Cool. Will you take
one on your back and jump? You
know, in that business, by the way, there's a saying
that says, "Always pack your own parachute." That's the saying,
because, you know, you don't know if anybody else is going to
pack it like you are. That's true, but they live
by that. The very first time you jump, you do
not pack your own parachute. You cannot pack your own parachute;
you don't know how to pack your own parachute. When
you first jump, you hold on to an instructor who has
packed a parachute. Why would you do
that? Because you trust that he knows how to pack
a parachute. Will you trust Jesus to pack a parachute
for you? That's faith. That's faith. Redemption is appropriated by
faith and some of basic things for you to believe in
are implied in this text: you must believe in his death,
you must believe in his resurrection, and you must believe that
he is Lord, his ascend to glory. He died, he rose, he's
Lord of all---that's faith in Christ, and that's personal. So whether
you think you're pretty or handsome or ugly, you are
valuable to God. In all the gyrations
you go through life in---"Am I good enough?" "Am I
pretty enough?" "Am I handsome enough?"---just know that behind the
scenes you've got a God who says, "You are worth everything,
and I gave everything to purchase you to myself." And
no sin is too great, no life is too evil,
and no one is too good. We all come exactly
the same way. We all must be redeemed. And religion can't redeem you,
tradition can't redeem you, money can't redeem you, sincerity can't redeem you, but blood
can, his blood. A woman lie dying in her home,
and a parish priest came to visit her. And he
thought, "This woman needs the last rites," that "everybody who
dies in my parish needs the last rites." And so
she saw the priest come into the room, not knowing him, he said,
"What are you doing here?" He said, "I have come
to give you absolution. I have come to forgive you." And
she said, "Show me your hands." And she looked at
his hands and said, "You, sir, are an imposter. For
the one who forgave my sins has nail prints in his hands. I'm
redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, a Lamb without
blemish and without spot." Are you? Is that who you
trust in? "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus
blood and righteousness." Father, we close this time
together with that thought, with that truth ringing in our
ears. The plan that Peter has so beautifully and simply
laid out includes the fact that we are valued by you. But we're messed up;
our lives without you are aimless---wrong direction. But you were
willing to pay the ultimate price, because we're that valuable
to you that you would give your very best, the
precious blood of Jesus. You were willing to pay that
price. And it was something you planned long
before we ever showed up, and our part is to
latch onto that plan, to believe, to put our faith
and hope, our trust in the living God who can
raise the dead and can give us life. And I pray for
anyone here this morning who may not personally know that. They've heard it, they've sung it even,
but they're trusting in their works, they're trusting in their
religion, they're trusting in the church they grew up in. They're
trusting in their own sincerity, or what their parents taught
them, rather than personally trusting in Jesus Christ alone.
Some have strayed from that and need to come home.
I pray, Lord, you would buy that house and restore it.
As our heads are bowed, I'd love to be able to
pray for you if you're willing to give your life
to Christ or come back to him. I need to
know who I'm praying for. I'd like you if you
desire to receive Christ right now, just raise your hand up so I can see it. Raise it up high enough so I can see,
if you don't mind. Just raise it up and keep it up for just a moment. And you're saying, "Pray for me." God bless you.
"Pray for me, I know I need to give my
life to Christ." Anybody else? Raise it up. God is
speaking to you, raise up your hand. He's been dealing
with you and calling you for some time. He was
willing to give his blood for you. You just simply
raise your hand and say, "I'm willing to receive that
gift." God bless you, toward the back. Anyone else?---In the very
back. Any others?---Yes, sir. Thank you, Father, thank you for your love that reached down today, right here, right now.
Thank you that we have seen just in this acknowledgment of a few what Peter wrote about, that
he was foreordained back then, but manifest now for you.
Lord, I pray for each one. Behind that hand is
a life, and a set of needs, aspirations, ambitions, hopes,
dreams, fears. I pray, Lord, that as you've convinced them
of their need, and hopefully of your love for them, that
you would change these hearts that bear the image of
redeemed hearts, fix up the house, beautify it.
If you raised your hand, would you simply say to
the Lord right now: I give you my life, Lord.
I admit I'm a sinner. I'm asking you to forgive
me. I believe in Jesus, that he died on a
cross and shed his blood for me. And I believe you raised him
from the dead, and that he's alive right now. I turn
from my sin, I turn from my past, and I
turn my life to you as Savior and as Lord. Help
me, help me to live for you, in Jesus' name, amen.
For more resources from Calvary Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig visit calvaryabq.org.