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good evening to everyone welcome back to free grace baptist church before we begin our worship this evening just a reminder that it is the the first lord's day of the month so we will be observing the lord's supper this evening after the preaching we will read from first Corinthians 11 and observe that blessed ordinance of our Savior well let's turn in our Bibles then as we begin worship this evening you can turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah 53 that's our scripture reading for this evening a fit text to read as we engage this evening and observing the Lord's Supper Isaiah 53 the word of the living and true God who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground he has no former comeliness and when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him he is despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hit as it were our faces from him he was despised and we did not esteem him surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted yet he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement for our peace was upon him and by His stripes we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before it's Shearer's is silent so he opened not his mouth he was taken from prison and from judgment and who will declare his generation for he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people he was stricken and they made his grave with the wicked but with the rich at his death because he had done no violence no or was any deceit in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bloop to bruise him he has put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong his days in the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand he shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities therefore i will divide him a portion with the Great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors Amen will stand with me we're going to sing our first him which is 133 and your Trinity hymnals let's stand and sing 133 together please be seated let us pray Heavenly Father we rejoice now in this evening that we have this opportunity to gather together as the Saints of Christ in the house of God to worship our triune God and we pray that you would help us now father to hallow your name we pray that we would have lips that genuinely joyfully and earnestly seek to give you praise and honor we pray that you would have us those who are having hearts that are genuinely seeking to worship in spirit and in truth or we never want to come with weariness to the house of God we never want to call it a weariness to come into this place and we never want to come into this place bringing blind and lame sacrifices but we do want to be true Christians gather together joyfully in the name of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ to worship our blessed God and we do pray that you would help us in this now we thank you for the forgiveness of sins by Jesus Christ our blessed Savior truly we know that we only have the forgiveness of sins by the shed blood of such a Christ and we rejoice in that we thank you that you did send him into this lower world the sinners to save we rejoice in so great a salvation we pray that you would help us Lord now to be rejoicing in that knowing that we do not that we have not been saved by works of righteousness which we have done but according to your mercy you saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the spirit we thank you for so great a salvation again god and we would ask that you would cause our souls to arise and high praise of so great a god and so great a christ we thank you Father that again that we can worship you here in spirit and in truth we pray that you would be with preacher this evening is he opens up the word help him Lord God to proclaim the things of your word rightfully with courage and conviction that Lord God that the preaching of the word tonight would be unto the strengthening of saints and the salvation of sinners we do pray that the the spirit would be active in this place tonight Lord God in such an endeavor that you're gathered Saints would be encouraged by the word instructed and uplifted and Lord God that those who had came in these doors outside of Christ woodley would leave singing the praises of our great redeeming King we would pray father that you would be with those this evening unable to join us whether due to travel an illness whatever it may be Lord God those who are yours be with them and strengthen them encourage them where they find themselves where you find them and Lord we pray that you would just cause your Saints weather here tonight or away from us to be rejoicing in the Savior to be singing the praises of their God and to be seeking to live their lives in this lower world in a manner worthy of your gospel we do pray God that you would be with your persecuted Church we do know that there are so many Lord God on earth who own the name of Christ who are suffering such persecution and such such hatred at the hands of those who oppose your truth and we do pray that you would uplift each and every one of your persecuted Saints a weather in prison whether gathering in villages or or homes whether hiding wherever they may find themselves lower thee we pray that in the midst of active persecution you would cause them to rejoice in Christ and find fresh courage in their Savior and their redeeming King they might know that you are a God of all comfort who is with his people and we do pray that you would watch over our dear brothers and sisters we would pray again God that you would deal with those who would seek to persecute our brothers and sisters your people we do pray that you would take them out of the way if they would remain in opposition and rebellion that you would take them out of the way that you would bring temporal judgment upon them knowing of course that an eternal judgment awaits them we do pray nevertheless that you would intercede on behalf of your Saints and it caused those who oppose your Saints to be taken out of the way and that you would save some Lord God we long to see even many more Saul's and this lower world those who oppose the Church of God and seek to destroy it our by grace brought into the kingdom of the son of your love we do pray that you would come upon those wings of Amazing Grace and save many who are your enemies that they might be worshiper of the living and true God we would ask God again that you would now be with us we longed Lord God to to be true in worship we longed to be genuine and joyful in our worship and we long to worship you in a manner that is consistent with biblical truth so do help us by your spirit to now do so and we do pray Lord God that you would save sinners tonight that you would cause each and every one of us Lord God to go into this upcoming week by your grace and for your glory to live in light of such a glorious gospel and it's in Christ's name that we pray amen well let's stand and sing this time we'll sing in the same book 129 is the him now let's stand and sing 129 together you please be seated for our Lord's Supper meditation this evening you can turn to first Peter the book of first 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 a persecution and suffering making them fit for the opposition that they would certainly endure in the lower world the immediate context in first Peter one 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 waiting in order to 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 first 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 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 father's 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 threw 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 what you have set for what you have set before us and the first 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 are God 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 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 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 that 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 design 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 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 father's but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot the 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 the heartbeat of Christianity there may be those with delicate sensitivities even within professing Christian dhum that light to distance themselves from talk of blood and sacrifice that stuff is precious to the soul of the Christian the Spurgeon says at this particular point the precious blood of Jesus Christ a introduce our 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 rebel at the old fashioned thought of sacrifice nay verily we will sooner have our tongue cut out than ceased 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 in the end of the whole Christian system namely that God gave his son to die that sinners might live see the Christians Christians hold precious the blood of Christ and this is brought before us in this text from 1st Peter and so we want to look at it under three considerations first 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 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 in 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 if Ollie it is then isn't it for 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 weather and 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 in 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 it probably in view is silver and gold coin Airy 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 but you see like we sang tonight in that him 129 fair is the sunshine fair is the moonlight and all the twinkling star rehost Jesus shines brighter Jesus shines purer than all the angels heaven can boast you see silver and gold hope 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 value lessness of something there is emptiness in anything it anyone who would come in 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 its 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 XY and z we need to observe a B and C is to do is 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 sow 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 first 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 we have Jim a 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 and affording you things in this lower world if your your parents or your grandparents died 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 and incorruptible inheritance is what we have in Christ so we are not to seek to be redeemed by anything corruptible in its nature james 53 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 five James five 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 in all in Christ is your nothing your riches are corrupted your silver silver and gold are perishable their corruptible the vanity of bloodless Redemption Peter brings this fourth in writing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold notice secondly the vanity that necessitated blood redemption if you're finding your way back in first 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 father's 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 necessitate their blood redemption that will follow in verse 19 it is this phrase their aimless conduct received by tradition from your father's we want to notice firstly and more generally that life without Christ is aimless that is it is purposeless that is it is useless the 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 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 aimlessly purposeless useless in our travels till 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're you don't have Christ you are aimlessly wandering through life again Peters language here aimless conduct received by tradition from your father's 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 purposeless Lee through life following after sin following after iniquity where son where sons of our father the devil doing the desires of our Father when we're outside of Christ we're walking after the Prince of the power of the air walking after the flesh walkin after disobedience all manner of sin and iniquity the vanity that necessitated blood redemption is that we would have everything else save for Christ's aimless walking is Christ 'less walking purposeless walking is wandering without the captain of our salvation without the king of kings and the Lord of lords 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 and this stuff is is is bouncing off your heads and you want to have nothing of it you've fixed your neck in your head in such a way and prep 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 secondly and more specifically that Jude Judaic religion at the point of vain tradition and the use and abuse of ceremonial law is prime merrily in view in the phrase from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your father's you see if peter is writing to primarily a Jewish audience then when he's writing about tradition from your father's or aimless conduct received by tradition from your father's 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 father's 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 but Judaism and either regards the ceremonial law which was delivered by Moses to the Jewish fathers and by them handed down to their posterity in which was vain as used and abused by them and was unprofitable to obtain righteousness life and salvation by and therefore was dissing Auld by Christ who has redeemed and delivered his people from this yoke of bondage or rather the traditions of the elders which our Lord in vaise 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 father's you see Paul reports concerning his former conduct he says what was it well he was if we can paraphrase an insert Peter he was walking aimlessly after that same conduct of his father's being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of his father's he writes there is an exhortation a commandment and 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 father's 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 Kelvin interestingly on this right this makes greatly against such who think at 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 yay 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 but you see we are not to be lost in the ruinous labyrinth of wanderings of false religion and bad religion again again Calvin because there are strong we have this you know we have this family patriotism if you will God convicts us of some certain truths and might you know it takes us 17 years to leave a tradition that has kept us in a measure of bondage kept us in a measure of of untruth Calvin again at this very point and hopefully you see how this connects to first Peter 118 this makes greatly against such who think you to 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 yay 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 etc etc 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 and unbiblical tradition and irreligion getting back to first Peter then the vanity that necessitated blood redemption is this ruinous labyrinth of wanderings this aimless conduct received by tradition from the father's 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 that render the truth and the law of God of no effect the vanity that necessitated blood redemption Redemption of course is generally sinful and aimless wander 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 point number three the exclusive and infinite value of the blood of Christ for redemption notice first 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 father's 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 notice first Peter calls this precious uses the word precious this indicates the high value the blood of Christ doesn't it to Peter it's precious is it precious to you let's stop for a second consider Peters use of the phrase here or the weight that it would have for Peter Peter writes here the precious blood of Christ and first Peter 27 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 can be found in in my mind Luke 2261 and the Lord turned and looked at Peter reason is this a text comes when Peters denied his Savior three times he's called down a 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 at verse 61 of chapter 22 reread and the Lord turned and looked at Peter right after he denied the third time 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 and speak this language in fact in the four of Christ's mind I can use that language post-resurrection when he comes to Peter what's in the four of his mind isn't oh how that wretched Peter denied me three times what is it that's in the four 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 and Christ to those who believe is precious it's Peter 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 Oh Lamb of God thy blood alone Oh Lamb of God can give me peace within words of bone are the other stands and no other work saved I know 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 has brought into you 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 in its power its 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 terious and ethereal a 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 its securing the sacrificial and substitution ery death of all who believe there is blessed doctrine and bless it 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 can serve it secures expiation it secures our coven ental 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 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 you 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 that 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 is precious be precious to you is Christ precious to you it's the 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 have a really large collection of these things and they're very precious to them they're just set up on shelves and you know they're dusted often you go onto eBay and Amazon and try and find you know that finish your series of you know roosters or whatever it is I remember when I was young I like to buy models of fighter jets and I see if I could get you know the most realistic looking gunmetal gray by using different paints and 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 and and and purchased and held with some weird measure of cherishing to the exclusion of holding fast to Christ and seeing him as are 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 as this infinite worth in the realm of redemption and the scope of salvation in the economy of of God's glorious plan of salvation there is only one thing that has infinite redeeming value in its the blood of Christ is he precious to you again verse 7 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 the him that we sang this evening fairest lord jesus ruler of all nature son of god and son of man v will i cherish thee will I honor thou my soul's glory joy and crown is he your souls glory your souls July see do you cherish him you know brethren we are to be what we don't have and 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 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 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 very briefly some of those things that we would want to rehearse in a rehearsal of the precious blood of Christ Ephesians 17 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 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 iced Redemption and forgiveness Ephesians 17 Hebrews 9 12 revelation 15 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 59 you can turn there as we do near an end in Romans 59 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 59 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 coven ental 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 far off are brought near by the blood of Christ we have peace with God according to Colossians 120 and this comes at the point of the shed blood of the Savior the language is glorious for it please 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 a year and it scanned Eliza's 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 of 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 Blessid reality that Christ upon the cross shed his blood and in so doing made peace between God and sinners a glorious truth the blood the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and brethren were cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ hopefully these words of Holy Scripture come to the years or when you're reading them they come to the mine and they warm your heart and they lift your soul the first John 17 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 it is such that it carries the weight of a thorough going purification and purging the language is used in the gospel of counts Gospel accounts when John the Baptist announces that this coming christ would thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor used in Hebrews 14 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 in wordly it yourself when the guilt of sin weighs you down you don't look inwardly to see the motions of the Spirit to see those things that that you know might might help to lift up your day oh but you know what yeah I did that but over here I did that and the cake the gays 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 arrives shake off by 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 be no preacher you say that every time we take the Lord's Supper yes because it is the human art 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 in upon the heels of such a gaze upon the heels of such a looking then this is true of what we find in first Peter therefore gird up the loins of your mind be sober 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 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 with blemish and without spot why because it highlights the perfect holiness of Christ without blemish and without spot in contra distinction to silver and gold in contra distinction 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 lament and post up and put its blood upon the doorposts in 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 as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers silent 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 in 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 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 of 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 Tut the antitype the Lord Jesus Christ brethren the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as we come to the Lord's Supper so we observe the Lord's Supper in a few minutes hopefully you believe her come to the realization that not just on it on a Sunday but each and every day Christ is to be precious to me while we can collect our painted porcelain chickens and and put together a model f14 the thoughts that ought to be upon our upon our hearts when we arise on them 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 the precious blood of Christ to you who believe he is precious but you notice what that text says in 1st Peter too he 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 Bloods my full discharge at his dear feet my soul la 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 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 his people we thank you what he for what he did on behalf of all those who 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 in a manner that is solemn because it is such a weighty and a high remembrance of such an act in such a glorious salvation we pray that you would help us as was Peters 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 and it's in the name of the Savior Jesus Christ we pray amen well turn in your Bibles to Matthew 26 if you will instead of going to first Corinthians 11 will go to Matthew 26 there we see Christ initiating an dog your ating setting up the Lord's Supper it was a last supper of sorts but it was also a first supper of sorts and that now the remembrance is set upon the true Passover Christ Jesus our Passover was sacrificed for us Matthew 26 in verse 26 specifically and notice there we have the words of institution of the Lord's Supper that will repeat in a moment but but some words before we engage in the observance of the Lord's Supper remember what it is what we are doing here at the Lord's Supper in the Lord's Supper there is no sacrifice made for the quick and the dead but only a remembrance of that once for all sacrifice that Christ did we do not we are not magically changing the elements you see we remind this of you might remind us every time it's good to rehearse and it's good to understand the true and the biblical and the Protestant doctrine of the Lord suffer the bread remains bread and the wine remains wine we do not engage in any papas wizardry whereby somehow the bread is blasphemously changed into the actual body and divinity of Christ and the line has changed into the actual blood of Christ these things are as our confession says repugnant to the scriptures but also to common sense and they are the source or the ground of manifold manifold superstitions and gross idolatries the bread remains bread and the wine remains wine these are consecrated emblems if you will though of that once for all sacrifice that Christ rendered upon Calvary's tree this is for believers only the Lord's Supper is to be taken by those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ been baptized and so unbelievers are not to take it is to do violence against the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ to take in an unworthy manner such as that so if you're an unbeliever here tonight and yet you just want to feel like part of the crowd that isn't a reason to take the Lord's Supper if you're an unbeliever do not take come and talk to us afterwards come and talk to me afterwards about what it is to take the Lord's Supper and and if you can take it the the question that you need to answer first isn't why can I take the Lord's Supper is who is Jesus Christ is see the Christ the Son of the Living God and do you believe in him so this is for believers only a reminder as well that taking in an unworthy manner is also to take if you are believer but harboring unrepentant sin remember it's not a three-month prescription though of going off into the mountains and in a season of repentance before you can take again right now if you're harboring sin repent of your sins you know you have forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ if you have said in your mind tonight not to take and yet still remaining with heart with sin that you're harboring why are you why are you doing that repent of your sins know that you have forgiveness in Christ and take the Lord's Supper do not take if you are harboring but if you are harboring sin unrepentant repent know the forgiveness and the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ that the glorious cleansing of the guilt of sin and and take the supper the juice is in the outer ring if I can have the brothers come up now and and and pass out the bread we're going to sing for our first him this evening we're going to sing hymn number 178 so you can stay seated we'll sing hymn number 178 you you you you Matthew 26 at verse 26 we read and as they were eating Jesus took bread blessed and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said take eat this is my body let us pray Heavenly Father we rejoice that we can now observe this ordinance given to you are given to us by you to be observed in your churches until you come again we thank you for what it represents and presents before us it is that blessed picture of the gospel and we thank you now as we take this bread that we can remember your body broken for us we broke your law a breach after breach and for that Lord God you took in your body breach upon breach and we thank you for that blessed truth that you took upon yourself the wrath of God in our stead blessed words of first Peter that you bore our own sins in your own body on the tree that we having died to sin might live for righteousness a bless us now as we take and might we be filled with a burning remembrance of our Blessed Christ and it's in Christ's name that we pray amen let's take together remaining seated could ask the brothers to come up and pass the wine can turn in your hymn books to 186 a reminder that the juice is in the Outer Ring let's remain seated and sing 186 together you you you Matthew 26 following take eat this is my body we read in verse 27 then he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying drink from it all of you for this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins but I say to you I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's Kingdom and when they had sung a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives amen well let us pray Heavenly Father we rejoice now we can take the second part of the lord's ordinance the wine we rejoice in again in what it represents the blood of the new covenant the blood of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ the precious blood of Christ that takes away the sins of the world and we do pray that you would help us Lord God to rejoice in this truth that we would see in the precious blood of Christ our Redemption and in nothing else for we have not been redeemed by corruptible things like silver and gold but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot we pray that you would help us now as we take that our souls would be rejoicing in such a Christ and it's in his name that we pray amen let's take together well we can all stand together now as a congregation and sing 157 you can stand with me and excuse me 175 and stand and sing that together you you now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest and by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations according to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience to the faith to God alone wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever amen Heavenly Father we pray that you would go with us now we pray that we would all count because it is possible with you the blood of Christ precious we pray that we would all be rejoicing in such a Christ and in such a salvation and therefore seeking to live our lives in a manner worthy of such a calling we pray that you go with us now help us to live for your glory sake help us to live in light of a savior and help us daily to adorn the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord and we pray in his name amen please be seated we'll have a brief time of prayer when the piano is finished you're free to go