For our Lord's Supper meditation this evening, you can turn to 1 Peter, the book of 1 Peter in chapter 1. Just to introduce while you're finding yourself there, Peter is explaining and enlarging upon the doctrines of Christianity for primarily a Jewish audience. He's also additionally exhorting them to walk in holiness. As Henry says, in the faithful discharge of all personal and relative duties, to shut the mouths of adversaries, to shut the mouths of the enemies of the gospel of Christ, they are to walk after a pattern of holiness.

As God is holy, so too are his children to be. As well, Peter is putting them in readiness for persecution and suffering, making them fit for the opposition that they would certainly endure in the lower world. The immediate context in 1 Peter 1, specifically verses 13 to 21 that we're going to read right now. Peter is exhorting Christians to live in holiness before a watching world, and he brings the price of their redemption to the fore in order to bolster, in order to make that exhortation weighty, in order to insert some weight into the exhortation for Christians to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ Peter brings before them the precious blood of Christ Jesus, the Lord.

So let us read 1 Peter 1, beginning in verse 13. Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Because it is written, be holy, for I am holy.

And if you call on the Father who, without partiality, judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed 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 the 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. Amen. Well, let us go again to our God in prayer.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we rejoice in this, the reading of your scriptures. We thank you for what you have set before us in 1 Peter, the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that we have not been redeemed by corruptible things, but our redemption came at such a cost, even the blood of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we pray that you would help us now as we as we contemplate these things, as we study these things in the Holy Scriptures, that we would rejoice in you, our God, that we would rejoice in our Christ who shed his blood perfectly upon Calvary's tree, and that we would sing the praises of amazing grace. And we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Introduction

Well, the Bible has a bloody theology. The Bible has a theology of blood. We don't need to travel too far in Revelation before we realize the significance of blood, that blood carries a central theme in Holy Scripture. Before their expulsion from the garden and after the fall, we see God shedding blood to offer Adam and Eve covering.

We read in Genesis 4 of Abel bringing that respectable, that respectful sacrifice before God, the firstborn of the flock. Fresh off the boat, we have Noah building an altar to God and sacrificing animals upon that altar. We have Abraham and Isaac and the ram caught in the thicket. We have mosaic Israel and the paschal lamb. and the instituted sacrifices.

We have a theology of blood brought before us in the Bible, and all of those things have a designed, we may say, inferiority before the superior theology of blood, that crowning instance of the theology of blood that is brought before us in holy writ, that being the precious blood of Jesus Christ. As we come tonight to observe the Lord's Supper, What are we called to remember there but the breaking of the body and the shedding of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so tonight we're going to consider simply the precious blood of Christ from 1st Peter 1 and notice again our text 18 and 19 specifically knowing that you were not redeemed 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." A beautiful text of Holy Scripture. You see, the Christian doesn't shy away from those antiquated notions of blood and sacrifice, because they are the heartbeat of Christianity.

There may be those with delicate sensitivities, even within professing Christendom, that like to distance themselves from talk of blood and sacrifice. That stuff is precious to the soul of the Christian. Spurgeon says at this particular point, the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Introduce our meditation this evening.

Would you have me silence the doctrine of the blood of sprinkling? Would any one of you attempt so horrible a deed? Shall we be censured if we continually proclaim the heaven-sent message of the blood of Jesus? Shall we speak with bated breath because some affected person shudders at the sound of the word blood, or some cultured individual rebels at the old-fashioned thought of sacrifice?

Nay, verily, we will sooner have our tongue cut out than cease to speak of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. For me, there is nothing worth thinking of or preaching about but this grand truth, which is the beginning and the end of the whole Christian system, namely, that God gave His Son to die that sinners might live. See, the Christians hold precious the blood of Christ. And this is brought before us in this text from 1st Peter.

And so

Three Considerations Introduced

we want to look at it under three considerations, 1st Peter 1, 18 and 19. And those three things are this, the vanity of bloodless redemption, the vanity that necessitated blood redemption, and the exclusive and infinite value of the blood of Christ for redemption. So

Vanity of Bloodless Redemption

first off from this text, we want to notice the vanity of bloodless redemption. Notice what Peter writes here. knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold. Remember what Peter is doing here. Peter is exhorting them to holiness.

He had previously written, verse 13, therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who called you is holy. You also be holy in all your conduct because it is written, be holy for I am holy. You see, Peter wants them to have Christian obedience, Christian ethics, Christian works and Christian deeds that are performed proportionately to the price of their redemption. And so he holds before them first negatively what their redemption does not come by.

Verse 18, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold. Peter stresses the rejection of an earthly or a cheap redemption. They were not redeemed by corruptible or perishable things. You see, our redemption is so high and so heavy as Christians.

What a folly it is then, isn't it, for anyone claiming the banner of Christ, claiming to fly the banner of Christianity and saying that we can in some measure or in some spot be saved by works, whether in whole or in part. because of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. You see, our works are perishable. Our works are corruptible. Any earthly means of redemption is valueless, especially in light of the reality of what our redemption truly comes by, the eternal value and the eternal merit of Jesus Christ, the Lord. knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold.

You see, Peter brings before them two things that are very high in value, silver and gold. Probably in view is silver and gold coinery, coins that hold a high value for purchasing, for the purchase of redemption, perhaps, after earthly manners of purchasing redemption. Silver and gold have a great value even in our day. You see, like we sang tonight in that hymn 129, fair is the sunshine, fair is the moonlight and all the twinkling starry host.

Jesus shines brighter. Jesus shines purer than all the angels heaven can boast. You see, silver and gold hold an earthly value, but they are blackest darkness compared to the eternal glory. The redemption wrought by Jesus Christ the Lord.

The vanity of bloodless redemption. You know what vanity means, hopefully, don't you? The emptiness, the valuelessness of something. There is emptiness in anything.

Anyone who would come and seek to communicate any sort of religion, any religion at all, that does not find At the heart of that religion, redemption by the blood of Christ, it's vanity, it's valueless, it's emptiness. There is, of course, only one religion, true religion, the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ, that which comes to us in our Bibles, the religion of Christianity, properly and truly considered. The vanity of bloodless religion, though, again, for anyone to fly the banner of Christianity and say, well, yes, you know, Christ, yes, Christ came to to save sinners, but you see, that's not enough. We need to do X, Y, and Z.

We need to observe A, B, and C. It's to do cosmic violence to the finished blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is as if to argue that there is anything to be added to the finished work of Christ is as if to sew fecal stain patches upon the pure white robes of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Filthy, dirty, vanity is anything that is put in place of or added to the redemption wrought by Jesus Christ, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold.

Notice this language of corruptible or its opposite, incorruptible, Peter has already used in his epistle in 1 Peter 1 and verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance, notice, incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Pastor Butler instructed us this morning in the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. What we have in the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, among many other things, is an inheritance incorruptible.

You see, earthly inheritances will be given to you, and they may be lawful, of course. They are wholesome in affording you things in this lower world. If your parents or your grandparents die and they leave you an inheritance of silver and gold, you can provide food for your families, you can manage your estate, and you can You know, enjoy all manner of wholesome enjoyments in this lower world. You see, they hold no eternal value.

They hold no eternal merit. They hold nothing of significance when held up against the glory of Christ and redemption by his precious blood. An incorruptible inheritance is what we have in Christ. So we are not to seek to be redeemed by anything corruptible. in its nature.

James 5, 3. And you can turn there with me because we see the folly and the madness of earthly gain and things of earthly value put in place of the infinite value of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice in James 5. James 5.

And notice the striking language here. Verse 1. Come now, you rich, weep and howl. for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten.

Your gold and silver are corroded and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. There is nothing inherently wrong with silver and gold. But you see, when silver and gold is your all and all and Christ is your nothing, Your riches are corrupted.

Your silver and gold are perishable. They're corruptible. The vanity of bloodless redemption. Peter brings this forth in writing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold.

Vanity That Necessitated Blood Redemption

Notice, secondly, the vanity that necessitated blood redemption. If you're finding your way back in 1 Peter 1. Secondly, the vanity that necessitated blood redemption, he writes, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. It wasn't corruptible things.

It wasn't earthly and cheap things that redeemed these from their aimless conduct received by tradition from their fathers. What is the vanity that necessitated their blood redemption that will follow in verse 19? It is this phrase. Their aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers.

We want to notice firstly and more generally that

Life Without Christ Is Aimless

life without Christ is aimless. That is, it is purposeless. That is, it is useless. Calvin puts it this way.

The whole life of man until he is converted to Christ is a ruinous labyrinth of wanderings. The old boys had a mastery of putting phrases together, stringing words together that in an entertaining way even communicate the despair, the reality, the glory of various situations. In this case, again, the whole life of man until he is converted to Christ is a ruinous labyrinth of wanderings. So what then is the vanity that necessitated blood redemption?

It is exactly that. that the recipients of this letter, that all of us by nature are trapped, are lost in a ruinous labyrinth of wanderings. And we bounce about, we stroll about, we wander about aimless and purposeless, useless in our travels until we close with Christ, until we know his redemption, until we're found safely in the folded wings of amazing grace. The vanity that necessitated blood redemption is simply the sinfulness of man. Generally speaking, we need to observe that life without Christ is aimless.

If you're here tonight and you don't have Christ, you are aimlessly wandering through life. Again, Peter's language here, aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. Generally speaking like we're going to get to specifically speaking because Peter isn't necessarily being general here But it is a wholesome observation that we need to see that we are redeemed by wandering purposelessly through life following after sin following after Iniquity we're son we're sons of our father the devil doing the desires of our father when we're outside of Christ and We're walking after the prince of the power of the air, walking after the flesh, walking after disobedience, all manner of sin and iniquity. The vanity that necessitated blood redemption is that we would have everything else save for Christ.

Aimless walking is Christless walking. Purposeless walking is wandering without the captain of our salvation. without the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. What a horrible place to be, pursuing or seeking after the passing pleasures of sin and not having the surpassing treasure of Christ. If you're here tonight and this stuff is bouncing off your heads and you want to have nothing of it, you've fixed your neck and your head in such a way and maybe you've cracked a little bit of a smile so I think that you're with me, but you're far from me.

You're here for whatever reason, and Christ isn't yours. He isn't precious to you. Know that you are not walking with a purpose or with a use, but rather you're aimless in your wanderings. You're trapped like a rat in a labyrinth of ruinous wanderings.

Christ is the answer. Being found in Christ, having redemption through him is the answer. But

Vain Tradition and Ceremonial Abuse

secondly, and more specifically, That Judaic religion at the point of vain tradition and the use and abuse of ceremonial law is primarily in view in the phrase, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. You see, if Peter is writing to primarily a Jewish audience, then when he's writing about tradition from your fathers or aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, then he has in view what Gil elaborates upon, meaning not the corruption of nature, which is propagated from father to son by natural generation. So when Peter is writing aimless conduct received from your fathers, he's not speaking about original sin. meaning not the corruption of nature, which is propagated from father to son by natural generation and lies in the vanity of the mind and is the spring and source of an evil conversation. Though the saints, as they are redeemed from all sins, so from this that it shall not be their condemnation, not Gentile ism. which lay in vain philosophy, in idolatry and superstition, and in evil and wicked conversation, encouraged by the example of their ancestors, fought Judaism, and either regards the ceremonial law which was delivered by Moses to the Jewish fathers, and by them handed down to their posterity, and which was vain as used and abused by them and was unprofitable to obtain righteousness, life and salvation by and therefore was disinhaled by Christ who has redeemed and delivered his people from this yoke of bondage or rather the traditions of the elders which our Lord invades against.

All of that to get to this point. Turn with me first to Galatians 1. Notice what we find there at the point of aimless conduct received by the tradition of their fathers. Notice in Galatians 1, Paul refers to his own ruinous labyrinth of wanderings, if you will.

In Galatians 1 at verse 13, For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. and I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers." You see, Paul reports concerning his former conduct, he says. What was it? Well, he was, if we can paraphrase and insert Peter, he was walking aimlessly after that same conduct of his father's, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of his fathers, he writes. There is an exhortation, a commandment, an admonition, strong words spoken by God in the book of Ezekiel at this very point.

And you can turn there with me to Ezekiel 20. Notice the same thing that we have there. In Ezekiel 20 and verse 18. Notice what we read.

But I said to their children in the wilderness, do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols. I am the Lord your God. Walk in my statutes. Keep my judgments and do them.

Calvin, interestingly on this, writes, this makes greatly against such who think it a very heinous sin. to relinquish the religion of their ancestors, or that in which they were brought up. But if this does not appear to be according to the word of God, the statutes and judgments of our fathers should stand for nothing, yea, should be rejected." Perhaps many of you, like me, have the experience of coming out of a tradition flying the banner of Christianity that has many things that are not properly conversant with biblical Christianity, that do not properly follow from biblical Christianity. And I got to tell you, God saves you. God convicts you.

And it's difficult to divest yourselves of those things. But you see, we are not to be lost in the ruinous labyrinth of wanderings of false religion and bad religion. Again, Calvin, because we have this family patriotism, if you will. God convicts us of some certain truths and it takes us 17 years to leave a tradition that has kept us in a measure of bondage, kept us in a measure of untruth.

Calvin, again, at this very point, and hopefully you see how this connects to 1 Peter 1.18, This makes greatly against such who think it a very heinous sin to relinquish the religion of their ancestors or that in which they were brought up. But if this does not appear to be according to the word of God, the statutes and judgments of our father should stand for nothing, yea, should be rejected." Christ came in such a manner, not to bring peace, but to bring a sword, to set Father against son, and son against mother, and et cetera, et cetera. We are to hold with a white knuckle grip the stuff of a bleeding Savior and set aside, jettisoning all things that are of unbiblical tradition and irreligion. Getting back to 1 Peter then, the vanity that necessitated blood redemption is this ruinous labyrinth of wanderings, this aimless conduct received by tradition from the fathers.

Jesus Christ himself in the gospel accounts, Matthew 15, brings this to bear when he says to the unbelieving Jews of his time who were heaping unbiblical traditions upon good biblical truth. He tells them that their traditions are the tradition of men that render the truth and the law of God of no effect. The vanity that necessitated blood redemption, of course, is generally sinful and aimless wandering, but any irreligion flying the banner of God that would seek to steal away from the glory and the exclusivity of the blood of Christ for redemption. Which place we go now?

Exclusive and Infinite Value of Christ's Blood

Point number three, the exclusive and infinite value of the blood of Christ for redemption. Notice 1 Peter. 1, 18 and 19, reading it all again, knowing that you were not redeemed 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. The exclusive and infinite value of the blood of Christ for redemption, but with the precious blood of Christ. as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

The Blood Called Precious

Notice first, Peter calls this precious. He uses the word precious. This indicates the high value of the blood of Christ, doesn't it? To Peter, it's precious.

Is it precious to you? Let's stop for a second Consider Peter's use of the phrase here, or the weight that it would have for Peter. Peter writes here, the precious blood of Christ in 1 Peter 2, 7, he would write, therefore, to you who believe, he is precious. Think about Christ to Peter here for a moment.

Do you know that some of the heaviest words of Holy Scripture It can be found in my mind, Luke 22, 61, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter. The reason is this. A text comes when Peter has denied his Savior three times. He's called down an oral curse, if you will, upon himself.

If what he is saying is not true, I do not know this man. He does it three times. In the book of Luke, Verse 61 of chapter 22, we read, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter right after he denied the third time. Ooh.

What a weighty moment. What happens after that? Peter weeps bitterly. The gaze of the Sovereign One, the God-man, just landed upon his eyes after he denied Christ three times.

Yet what happens after the resurrection? You see, in the back of Christ's mind, if you can speak this language, in fact, in the fore of Christ's mind, if I can use that language, post-resurrection when he comes to Peter, what's in the fore of his mind isn't, oh, how that wretched Peter denied me three times. What is it that's in the fore of his mind? The words that he spoke to Peter.

Peter, Satan has sought to sift you like wheat. but I have prayed for you. Your faith might not fail. Jesus comes, his precious Jesus, and instead of beating Peter over the head, instead of giving him a three-hour sermon on repentance and forgiveness and obedience, he loves Peter. He gives him broiled fish and honeycomb, and he says, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, feed my sheep.

Anybody can say, precious blood of Christ, Christ, to those who believe, is precious. It's Peter. Oh, what a glorious Savior is Jesus Christ the Lord. And Peter, using this language of precious, no doubt had that in his mind, his personal relations with the Savior.

But what is peculiarly in view is the blood of Christ. Notice, of course, that it is the blood of Christ that is precious. It is not Any other blood that is the price of redemption, but the blood of Christ alone, thy blood, O Lamb of God, thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within. Words of Bonar, the other stands and no other works save thine, no other blood will do.

And that's true, isn't it? Only Christ's blood is precious. Only Christ's blood can truly bring redemption. That's why it is That's why it is brought in view here in its exclusivity and in its infinite worth as the price of redemption.

So therefore, because you have been bought by such a price, live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. The precious blood of Jesus Christ, and it is precious, isn't it? Because of its infinite value and its power. It's atoning efficacy.

The blood of Christ is precious because it perfectly does that which it was intended to do. Cast away any strange and superstitious notions of some mysterious and ethereal power to the actual physical blood of Christ. Our language uses of such things manifold superstitions and gross idolatries. We are not to have some Protestant doctrine of the blood of Christ that is tantamount to bees carrying off Romish wafers into beehives and worshipping the so-called flesh of Christ.

The blood of Christ is not some sort of mysterious and ethereal liquid. Its efficacy and its power is seen in what it is. It's securing the sacrificial and substitutionary death of all who believe. There is blessed doctrine and blessed, understandable theology to the blood of Christ.

It is precious because our Christian minds come to our Christian Bibles and we see that the blood of Christ secures propitiation. It secures justification. It secures expiation. It secures our covenantal benefits, our peace with God, and our cleansing from the guilt of sin.

The blood of Christ is precious to us because before we, by faith, believed in the Lord Jesus Christ outside of the efficacy and the power of that blood, we were all lost in that ruinous labyrinth of wanderings. The precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is brought to our souls by amazing grace, and we know then the atoning efficacy of His work. What does that mean, kids? The atoning efficacy of His work?

We use big words from the pulpit. That simply means that He perfectly secured by His sacrificial death the salvation of a multitude of sinners. No man can number. If you, children, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you have that atoning efficacy.

Christ shed his blood for guilty sinners, and if you believe on him, he's precious. He's precious to you. Is Christ precious to you? It's a question you need to ask yourself.

There's a lot of things that can be precious to us. Some people like to collect painted porcelain chickens. And they have a really large collection of these things. And they're very precious to them.

They're set up on shelves and, you know, they're dusted off. And you go on to eBay and Amazon and try and find, you know, finish your series of, you know, roosters or whatever it is. I remember when I was young, I liked to buy models of fighter jets and I'd see if I could get the most realistic looking gunmetal grey by using different paints and stuff. Spending hours on these things.

Things can be precious to people in that way. You see, multiply things of earthly value only that can be precious to people and we need to see, brethren, that if they If they are followed after and purchased and held with some weird measure of cherishing to the exclusion of holding fast to Christ and seeing him as our all in all, then we'll follow painted porcelain chickens to the pit. It's Christ alone who is precious. It's Christ alone who has this infinite worth in the realm of redemption and the scope of salvation.

In the economy of God's glorious plan of salvation, there is only one thing that has infinite redeeming value, and it's the blood of Christ. Is he precious to you? Again, verse seven, therefore to you who believe he is precious. Brethren, hopefully that's true of you.

That you hold Christ precious. Hold him dear. You cherish him. Again, the hymn that we sang this evening.

Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature, son of God and son of man, thee will I cherish, thee will I honor, thou my soul's glory, joy and crown. Is he your soul's glory, your soul's joy? Do you cherish him? You know, brethren, we are to be like we don't have when we won't until we see him in glory.

We never have seen Christ with our eyes. our physical eyes. And yet we all are to be just like that Thomas who stood before his resurrected glory, gazing at the print of the nails in his hands, gazing at the wound in his side and his feet. We are in a Thomas-like rapture to cry out, my Lord and my God, daily to cherish him, daily to honor him, daily to hold him dear. The precious blood of Jesus Christ

What the Precious Blood Secures

Very briefly, some of those things that we would want to rehearse in a rehearsal of the precious blood of Christ, Ephesians 1 7, redemption, forgiveness in him, in Christ, you have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Remember the Bible's theology of blood. The blood. of Christ is everywhere in the scriptures. And you see there that the theological concepts and that might just sound mechanical to you, but it's a blessed two word phrase, theological concepts and truths in the scriptures that multiply at the point of the blood of Christ.

Redemption and forgiveness. Ephesians 1 7, Hebrews 9 12, Revelation 1 5, Revelation 5 9 and 10. In him, we have redemption through his blood. Propitiation Christ by his blood shedding is set forth as a propitiation for the sins of his people.

That is a wrath bearing sacrifice. Romans 323 in first Peter here as well, we read he himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Wrath bearing sacrifice, brothers and sisters, the blood of Christ. Justification, isn't it interesting?

Romans 5 9, you can turn there as we do near an end in Romans 5 9. Notice what we find there. The point of justification in the blood of Christ, because you see our theological parlance. Is normally such that when we talk about justification, we talk about being justified by faith.

The Bible also talks about justification by grace and justification by blood, for notice Romans 5 9. Much more than having now being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Christ, by his blood shedding, completed the whole course of his obedience, which is the ground of our justification. His precious blood, covenantal benefits in Ephesians 2, 12 and 13.

What does Christ's blood do? But it brings those who were strangers and foreigners to the covenants of promise to covenant benefit reality. Those who once were a far off are brought near by the blood of Christ. We have peace with God, according to Colossians 1 20.

And this comes at the point of the shed blood of the Savior. The language is glorious. For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. You see, blood, sacrifice, it comes to the sensitive, unregenerate ear and it scandalizes them.

That's what the Bible says. To those who are perishing, the cross of Christ is foolishness. It comes as a rock of offense, a scandal. They hear blood and they think violence.

They hear blood and they don't think peace, but the Bible clearly brings before us that blessed reality that Christ upon the cross shed his blood and in so doing made peace between God and sinners. That glorious truth. The blood, the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And brethren, we're cleansed by the blood. of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hopefully these words of Holy Scripture come to the ears or when you're reading them, they come to the mind. And they warm your heart and they lift your soul. The first John 1 7. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin.

The blood of Jesus Christ is precious to us, brothers and sisters, because of all those things we have just said and because now it cleanses us from our sin. That language is such that it carries the weight of a thoroughgoing purification and purging. The language is used in the gospel accounts when John the Baptist announces that this coming Christ would thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. used in Hebrews 1-4 when it says, he himself purged our sins and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. The precious blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin.

You see, brethren, when the guilt of sin weighs you down, the gaze that you are to have at that point is not inwardly at yourself. When the guilt of sin weighs you down, you don't look inwardly to see the motions of the spirit and to see those things that might help to lift up your day. Oh, but you know what? Yeah, I did that.

But over here I did that. And the gaze doesn't go inward. It goes upward. And with eyes of faith, you look upon the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

You say the precious blood of Christ. Arise, my soul, arise. Shake off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears.

We're going to take the Lord's Supper in a number of minutes here. And brethren, you take the Lord's Supper not in remembrance of how great you've been. Oh, preacher, you say that every time we take the Lord's Supper. Yes, because it is the human heart can find itself landing upon our good works and our good deeds when we come to the Lord's Supper.

The Lord's Supper is a remembrance of the once for all perfect and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a remembrance of the blood of our Savior. The blood of our Savior cleanses us from the guilt of sin. Your way down, look not to yourselves, but to a bleeding Savior.

And upon the heels of such a gaze, upon the heels of such a looking, then this is true of what we find in 1 Peter. Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and rest your hope solely upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. the exclusive and infinite value of the blood of Christ for redemption.

Lamb Without Blemish: Types Fulfilled

Finally, before we move on to the observance of the Lord's Supper, notice under the exclusive and infinite value, the amplification of the significance of Christ's blood. You see, he says, he writes rather, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. It's enough to be sure to write but with the precious blood of Christ. But this is amplified by, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot.

Why? Because it highlights the perfect holiness of Christ. It's without blemish and without spot. In contradistinction to silver and gold, in contradistinction to anything corruptible in this earthly world, He is without blemish and He is without spot.

It highlights the perfect holiness of Christ, but you see it portrays the death of Christ as a sacrifice that fulfills the types and the shadows of Old Covenant religion. The language is that Christ is a lamb without blemish and without spot. Hopefully as Christians, hopefully as taught and stable Christians, you come to a text like this and you say, oh, yeah. Exodus chapter 12.

Take a lamb. God commands. In remembrance of the upcoming exodus, take a lamb and post up and put its blood upon the doorposts and the lintel, the destroyer will not come and take you. The Lamb of God, the Paschal Lamb.

Hopefully you read this language and you think, oh yeah, Isaiah 53, verse 7. It's brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearer is silenced, so he opened not its mouth. You see, those old covenant sacrifices pointed forward to Christ. And I want to close with this, this point of connection Calvin writes.

The celestial perfection and purity of Christ was shown forth by this visible perfection of the Lamb. He's commenting on Exodus 12, 5. The Lamb. The celestial perfection and purity of Christ was shown forth by this visible perfection of the Lamb.

What a, what a colossal irreverence it was then, brethren, in the Old Covenant, to grab blind and lame sacrifices and to bring them before God. Why? Yes, because of the holiness of God, but because of the one to whom those sacrifices pointed. If the perfection of these physical sheep was clear to the eyes, then it was to speak concerning the celestial perfection of Jesus Christ.

So to offer up, blemished, and spot full sacrifices to God was to do violence to the anti-type, the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Application: Hold Christ Precious

As we come to the Lord's Supper, as we observe the Lord's Supper in a few minutes, hopefully you, believer, come to the realization that not just on a on a Sunday, but each and every day, Christ is to be precious to me. While we can collect our painted porcelain chickens and put together a model F14, the thoughts that ought to be upon our hearts when we arise in the morning and the thoughts that ought to be in our hearts when we put our heads to bed at night, the precious blood of Christ. Precious blood of Christ to you who believe He is precious. But you notice what that text says in 1 Peter 2.

But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. If you're here tonight and you don't know Christ, hear the words of Spurgeon. Turn those eyes of yours to the full atonement made, to the utmost ransom paid. And if God enables you, poor soul, this morning to say, I take that precious blood to be my only hope, you are saved and you may sing with the rest of us now freed from sin.

I walk at large, the Savior's blood's my full discharge. At his dear feet, my soul I'll lay, a sinner saved in homage pay. We come to the Lord's Supper now. We remember our Savior.

Believer, hold him precious. Unbeliever, we pray that you would close this night by saying Jesus is precious to me. Having everything else save Christ precious to you prior to that, we pray God would cause you soul to stir with high and burning remembrance of a Christ that gave himself for guilty sinners.

Closing Prayer

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the saving work of Christ. We thank you for his precious blood and we rejoice in what this text discloses to us concerning the infinite value, the exclusive value of the precious blood of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you so much for what he did on behalf of all of his people.

We thank you for what he did on behalf of all those you had given unto him and we pray that you would help us now as we go to the Lord's Supper to take it with joyful hearts and yet in a manner that is solemn because it is such a weighty and a high remembrance of such an act and such a glorious salvation. We pray that you would help us, as was Peter's end in this epistle, to consider the high price of our redemption and to therefore conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of that redemption. Go with us by your spirit into this upcoming week that we might not give occasion to the enemies of the gospel to blaspheme your word, but rather that we would be salt and light in this lower world and that we would conduct ourselves in a manner that would bring honor to you and adorn the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's in the name of the Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray.

Amen.

Scripture References

• Genesis 4
• Exodus 12; 12:5
• Isaiah 53:7
• Ezekiel 20:18
• Matthew 15
• Luke 22:61
• Romans 3:23; 5:9
• Ephesians 1:7; 2:12-13
• Colossians 1:20
• Hebrews 1:3; 9:12
• 1 Peter 1:3; 1:13-21; 1:18-19; 2:7; 2:24
• 1 John 1:7
• Revelation 1:5; 5:9-10
• Galatians 1:13
• James 5:1; 5:3