[0:00] Let me again invite you to 1st Peter, 1st Peter chapter 1. And as we open the Word of God again this evening, let me take just a moment to once again pray.
[0:19] O great God in heaven, we do pray for your blessing upon your own holy word. Grant to us hearing, ears to hear. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
[0:33] Well, we have gathered once again in God's good providence to hear the Word preached. But we do not gather this evening only for the salutary benefits that the people of God derive from worship.
[0:50] We do not come only because of the important occasion we have to once again worship God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
[1:03] But we do come this evening to hear God's Word preached in earnest and loving anticipation of the Lord's Supper. And I trust that this evening that you are gathering together with us for that anticipated meal.
[1:20] That whether you partake of the Lord's table this coming Lord's Day or sometime in the future, that there is a sincere desire in your own heart to commune with the eternal Christ.
[1:36] And it is my desire this evening that you be more fully able and profited to have communion with the living and resurrected and glorified Christ and the Lord's Supper.
[1:51] And so as we consider God's Word from 1 Peter this evening, I want to begin with a question from the larger catechism. The Westminster Divines asked the following question in question 174.
[2:08] What is required of them that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in the time of the administration of it?
[2:19] And you can immediately see, I believe, the practical implications of that question for us this evening. The Divines go to answer that question in part by saying, It is required of them that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, that during the time of the administration of it, with all holy reverence and attention, they wait upon God in that ordinance.
[2:49] Diligently observe the sacramental elements and actions. In other words, you are to be watching what is occurring and what is going on. And to heedfully discern the Lord's body per the instructions of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
[3:10] And this evening, I want us to affectionately, prior to the table itself, to meditate on Christ's death and sufferings by looking at the particular words that we've read in our text this evening, particular those found in verse 19.
[3:39] In that small but all-important phrase, with the precious blood of Christ.
[3:49] In this treatment of these words, Octavius Winslow wrote, It would seem impossible by any illustration or argument to overestimate the intrinsic value of Christ's atoning blood.
[4:09] There are some things in religion of which we may be certain, entertain rather a too exalted and exaggerated conception.
[4:23] For example, we may have too high a view of the church of Christ, exalting it above Christ himself. We may hold too exaggerated and too exclusive views of church ordinances, displacing and magnifying them, substituting their observance for vital religion, for a change of heart, for faith in Christ, exclusively for justification.
[4:51] But no such danger lies in our study of the blood of Christ. Here our views cannot be too high, our contemplation too profound, our hearts too loving and adoring.
[5:08] And so I want to consider this evening first, the necessity of the blood of Christ for your redemption. And as we gather together this evening, and as we think and contemplate and consider the words of the Apostle Peter before us, and that actual table of the Lord in the coming days, if it says anything to us, and if it says anything at all, it says to us that the blood of Christ being spilled in behalf of sinners is a biblical, a theological, a Christological necessity for sinners.
[5:46] It is a necessity. It is an absolute necessity for your redemption this evening. If you are to believe in Christ at all, if you are to be saved at all, the blood of Christ, the shedding of Christ's blood is necessary.
[6:05] And there, of course, goes in our own day who would deny the necessity of this spilled blood. There are people in our country and in the so-called church itself who deny the necessity of said spilled blood.
[6:24] They deny the substitutionary atonement of Christ and thereby deny the shed blood of Christ. And if the substitutionary death of Christ has no other meaning, if Christ did not die in the place of sinners, it would, in fact, be the greatest travesty and miscarriage of justice, of death, ever to be carried out.
[6:54] That one so holy and pure as the Lord Jesus Christ to die, if not for sinners.
[7:04] It is necessary for the precious blood of the innocent, in other words, to be spilled for the guilty. It is necessary for the precious blood of Christ to be spilled for sinners by the one who himself knew no sin.
[7:23] But the scriptures are clear. In spite of those detractors of this grand and glorious truth and the necessity of the spilled blood and of the atoning work of Jesus Christ, the scriptures are clear about that necessity.
[7:37] We read of the necessity, of course, in that book of Leviticus in chapter 17 in particular, where God himself establishes the necessity.
[7:49] The law there given in Leviticus 17 was given as a reason for the people of old not to actually eat blood. And what is God's reason for this?
[8:00] It is clear. Man needs to be cleansed. He needs an atonement. And God tells us there in chapter 17 of Leviticus in verse 11, the life of the flesh is in the blood and I take it.
[8:17] Blood, I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls. for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul.
[8:29] And it is the writer of the book of Hebrews that brings this umbrella concept to bear upon us as New Testament believers as well when he tells us that the blood of Christ is the one who makes the greatest atonement for his people.
[8:48] In Hebrews chapter 9 it is clearly articulated for us, is it not? The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us without any equivocation, without any evasion from the issue, without any aborning of its implications, without any fudging of the principle that there is this fundamental principle in the atoning work of Jesus Christ, in the redemption that Jesus Christ offers to his people, that there must be the shed blood of a sacrifice, that blood must be spilled.
[9:31] The author presses upon each of us today, each of us this evening, the necessity of this blood. We need it.
[9:42] You and I this evening, we need it because we are indeed sinful creatures. I suppose if I were to ask anyone here this evening if you were a sinner, you would affirm the truth of that statement unequivocally.
[9:58] And therein lies the need. Therein lies your need and my need this evening. If the supper itself says anything, it tells you and I that we need the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse us from our sins.
[10:18] Is that not what he says to us? This is the blood of the covenant when he gives it to us in that cup which we must drink with him.
[10:31] It is a necessity. We must be cleansed and it must be done with better sacrifices than those of the old dispensation of the Old Testament.
[10:42] It must be done with things other than the blood of bulls and goats and calves. They had their place for sure.
[10:53] They had their purpose for certain. But the writer to the Hebrews reminds us it is not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats that it should take away sins.
[11:09] And of course the point of the writer of Hebrews is that Christ is now that better sacrifice. The Lord Jesus himself is the sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world.
[11:23] But there is one supreme difference well there are many actually but certainly this supreme difference between this sacrifice and those of the old dispensation and that is that Jesus Christ himself acting as your high priest and mine is not only the offerer of the sacrifice but he is the sacrifice itself.
[11:54] You and I need this blood sacrifice and for what purpose? Why did the Lord Jesus Christ offer himself as a living sacrifice and a dying sacrifice in our behalf?
[12:10] Our catechism gives a wonderful answer doesn't it? The point of the writer here is that it is to satisfy divine justice and to reconcile us to God and in making continual intercession for us as he fulfills the role of priest.
[12:28] Christ. So not only is it a necessary sacrifice but it is necessary that it be Christ's blood. No other blood will suffice.
[12:42] See he has himself appeared to put away sin. Those old sacrifices that we remember those old sacrifices of which we remember and read about within the context of the Old Testament were purely meant to point us to the living Christ.
[13:01] The one who himself would bear away the sins of his people not every year as the high priest had to do not one time after one time after one time for years and years but one time only in behalf of his people would he do so.
[13:21] He is that perfect sacrifice and so by way of application to some degree this evening we must understand with the apostle Paul that we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace and I wonder this evening do each and every one of you understand and know that not simply from a knowledge perspective I dare say that again if I were to poll the members of this congregation today you would have the right answers you would understand what it takes to be redeemed but the question I'm asking this evening is do you have the redeemer in personal possession who has died not just for the sins of the world or the sins of the person with whom I sit but has died for me the necessity of the blood for our redemption but secondly this evening I want to consider the preciousness of the precious blood of
[14:42] Christ for your redemption what makes Christ's blood precious well there are many answers and there are good books on the subject some of which I have used but I only have time to consider two or three this evening and the first one that I want to point out the first thing that makes Christ's blood precious is that Christ himself is precious as the God man we are talking about the eternal son of God who takes upon himself flesh and blood the only begotten of the father who comes into this sin sick world in due time born under the law at a perfect and opportune time the Lord Jesus Christ's blood is precious because he is the God man he is the only one in that condition that can take away as the lamb of
[15:49] God as the sacrifice for our sin our sin there is always this delicate balance to be struck when speaking of the person of Jesus Christ there is of course one error to avoid and that is over emphasizing the deity of Christ and thus falling into one heresy and there is of course the error to other error to avoid and that is over emphasizing the humanity of Christ and thus falling into a different heresy and I trust this evening that as we consider this point that we strike that balance of the God man who came into the world to see the God man in the totality of his personhood as the Jesus as the Christ who redeems us by his own precious blood to strike the balance because the church frankly is littered with heresies that have fallen into one extreme or the other but listen to Peter as he writes in the second chapter of this epistle words that I trust are precious to us this mean evening as we consider these precious blood of Jesus when Peter writes in the second chapter in verse 7 unto you therefore which believe he is precious the person of Jesus
[17:23] Christ the God man is precious but of course there is a qualifier isn't there he's precious to those who believe and I cannot but help ask here too by way of application do you believe you see it is only by faith in Jesus Christ and faith alone which you will ever see Jesus as precious we can talk about the precious blood we can talk about his precious love and his precious redemption but until you believe he will not be precious Jesus in the totality of his personhood must therefore be precious we do not have Christ by peace meal
[18:24] I often say to those to whom I preach and minister the word of God that in my preaching of the gospel I do not offer you and I do not offer you this evening repentance I do not offer you this evening faith I offer you Christ you see it is Christ that saves and it is Christ that you must have you must have the totality of his person in order to comprehend and understand that he is precious Jesus Jesus in the sum total of who he is is the eternal son of God Jesus in the complete person is the one who became man and continues to be both God and man in one person but two distinct natures forever that is the one that I set before you this evening and who is precious he is precious because he is the
[19:30] God man and if first Peter says anything to us this evening it says to us that the blood of Christ is precious because of the dignity the value the worth and the esteem that the Lord Jesus Christ as the God man has within himself he is a divine he is the God man Octavius Winslow again writes precious to our hearts as God precious as man precious as both united in one inconceivably and eternally precious is he whose name is wonderful to his believing saints his personal alliance with our nature his condescending stoop to our humanity is not the least endearing feature to the heart of his believing saints we have claimed for the son of
[20:33] God absolute deity we also claim for him perfect humanity flesh real and substantial yet holy harmless undefiled and separate from sinners was he made a humanity identical with his people in all but its original and actual sinfulness he knew no sin Jesus blood is precious tonight to the believer because Jesus the God man is precious but the second thing that makes Christ's blood precious is that it has flowed from arteries untouched and untainted by sin itself isn't that our trouble this evening we as creatures we as those who have been drawn from the dust of the earth with our first parents fell into sin and transgression lost original righteousness our recipients are the due recipients and should be the due recipients of
[21:51] God's rightful and just displeasure and wrath our problem this evening is patently clear we need but look across the spectrum of society and see just how clear it is if we do not even there we know our own hearts we need a savior who knows no sin the Lord Jesus Christ is precious because his blood flowed from a humanity upon which not a breath of pollution had fallen again the writer of scriptures the scriptures tell us we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin he is holy and entirely unlike us in this matter have we thought enough about it
[23:01] I wonder you see he is without any of the sins we can imagine much less the ones we have committed to their childhood he never committed one sin in the whole of his teen years he never committed one sin in the whole of his adult years he never committed one sin you'll remember the story when Jesus as a young lad was separated from his parents after a trip to Jerusalem and even after his parents looking for him for three days and they said to him son why hast thou thus dealt with us behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing even after Jesus replied to them saying how is it that you sought me wist ye not that I must be about my father's business that even within that context even in that situation when we might have paused to wonder he did not sin there was no sin to be found in him and therefore he is precious first Peter again chapter 2 and verse 22 recall refers to him as the one who did no sin neither was any guile found in his mouth or in first John chapter 3 and verse 5 and you know that he was manifested take away our sins and in him is no sin because he is like a lamb Peter tells us in this very passage Jesus is precious because he's like a lamb unblemished perfect an acceptable sacrifice for you and me this evening the third thing the third thing that makes Christ's blood precious is that Christ's blood is precious to the experience and life of the true believer if you're sitting here this evening and these words concerning the preciousness of Christ have no real interest to you you need to check your heart because indeed when the day is said and done the preciousness of Jesus must be precious to you and me personally we must by faith relish relish love and be blessed by the preciousness of the blood of Christ to our experience yes the blood of Christ is precious because of its intrinsic value and worth yes it is precious because he has never sinned yes it is precious because he is the God man but is he precious is his blood precious to you this evening because it has effect in your life because it has you have personal experience of its preciousness washing away flooding over your sin sick soul and washing away the stain that condemns to hell the sin that will send us and plunge us to the depths of the lowest earth if not for
[27:00] Jesus Christ here the point is that the blood of Jesus is precious to the actual ongoing day by day experience of the believer it is precious to the saints because it is the blood as the writer to Hebrews refers to him of our great high priest the priest par excellence the priest that is above every priest that has ever been conceived in the mind of man he is the great high priest and his blood is precious to us because he is our mediator he is the one that intercedes for us he is the one who dies in my behalf in behalf of every believer in Jesus Christ his blood is precious because of my personal experience with the Savior not some theoretical individual that we read about in the books of Scripture not some theoretical and historical person that we recognize lived upon the earth but that one who through personal possession by faith died for me is the blood of Jesus precious to you this evening by personal experience you see there was no personal relation between the sacrifice and the priest under the
[28:41] Levitical dispensation wrote one author but here Christ the reality transcends the figurative we see in the blood of Christ the blood of the one who stands to us in the various and tender relations of a priest a shepherd a friend a brother a kinsman and a redeemer and the question that must come to us again this evening does Christ stand in that relationship to you tonight is he your brother is he your kinsman redeemer is he a friend does he shepherd you is he your priest does he stand between you and God this evening you see Christ's sacrifice is declared to be a propitiation through faith in his blood do you have faith in the precious blood of Jesus you understand this idea of propitiation that he takes away he absorbs the wrath of God in your behalf through faith in his blood you see it is the Lord
[30:10] Jesus Christ what else do we read in scripture much more than being now justified by his blood are you justified tonight by his blood saved from wrath through him there is a what I call a theology that runs around in many today it is called justification by death it seems that wherever you go if you just simply die you'll go to heaven you'll be justified unbelievers all across the world they speak that way but tonight I ask you have you been justified by Christ have you been justified by his blood because you see without that you don't just die and go to heaven you're not justified by death the scripture here is clear much more than being now justified how by his blood you see the blood of Christ is precious because it is precious to us experientially just a few words of application here this evening let me just simply ask you what is precious to you we all have precious things don't we we all possess precious things things of real value but there is no salvation for you no salvation for the soul but in the atoning blood of Christ whatever things you may possess that are precious you must have the blood of Christ but in another way let me ask you this what might present to your mind this evening things that are precious within the context of the church we've already spoken we've mentioned the inadequate esteem or the improper esteem that some people put in some things what about baptism is it more precious to you than the blood of Christ here it is nothing it's important yes what if the sacraments as a whole are they precious they derive their value from the preciousness of Christ this evening what about works of human merit they derive nothing in your behalf it is the preciousness of Christ this evening that we must give our attention to the preciousness of his blood spilt in behalf of sinners maybe you're here this evening and you you actually feel yourself a sinner a lost sinner maybe you would with the apostle Paul say that you are the chief of sinners and you're filled with some sorrow and grief over your sin even a self-hating attitude and maybe you feel conviction that you are unworthy and hell deserving may I suggest to you this evening that our remedy here is the precious blood of Christ
[34:11] for indeed these things are true of each and every one of us tonight we are unworthy we are hell deserving we are sinners by nature and Jesus blood was shed for sinners maybe you're here this evening and you're a very religious person but you readily admit that you have not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ alone by faith for salvation and may I suggest to you this evening that you are more than qualified to receive the precious blood of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins because Christ died for sinners he died for those who esteem him not he died for those who have transgressed his holy law he has died for sinners and so the remedy for our problems this evening our sin problem is the precious blood of Christ do remember my friends that it is an open and flowing fountain that no sin no backsliding however great and aggravated dare interdict or intercept your approach flee my friends immediately in faith to the blood and wash and be clean let's pray together