Jack Graham - Jesus Paid It All
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Take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of 1 Peter. And the title of this message is «Jesus Paid It All». The last time we were together in 1 Peter, we read the scripture which says, «Be holy», God says, «Be holy, for I am holy». Now, how is that possible? How can a sinful man have a relationship with a holy God? There is a great chasm caused by our sin, a separation between sinful men and women and holy, holy God. So how can we possibly be holy? Well, God has given us His Word to promise us that if we turn to Him and trust in Him and what He has done for us, then He will redeem us and save us from this terrible situation that separates us from Him. I want to talk to you today from this passage, about what are my favorite words in all the Bible. Put it up in big, bold letters. Redemption.
The word redemption is at the core of everything we believe as Christians. The redemption that we have in Jesus is at the very heart of the Gospel. The redeeming love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of all the names of our Lord; We call Him Savior; we call Him Master; we call Him Friend, but He is Redeemer. It’s a word that in some ways I think has been lost a little bit in our vocabularies. Even in the church. Redemption. It’s such a great word. So look at verse 18 of chapter 1 of 1 Peter: «knowing that you were redeemed (or ransomed, same word) from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times».
These are the last times. It started at the birth of Christ and from Christ’s First Coming to His Second Coming, these are the Last Days, the last times, the last epoch in history as we know it. So «in these last days», I love these words. Mark them in your Bibles, «for the sake of you», For you, for your sake, «who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God». Redemption! What is that big word, important word mean? Simply put in the language of the New Testament Lytroo, it means to be set free by paying the price, to be ransomed, to be redeemed. Slaves were redeemed and bought back by their masters. When you are redeemed, you recover something that is lost. That’s what it means to be redeemed. But in redemption it is not something that we can do for ourselves. You can’t redeem yourself.
«Oh, he totally redeemed himself». No, in a human sense there may be validation in coming back after a loss. But in terms of our salvation, there is no redemption apart from what Christ has done for us. It is His gift for us on the cross and by His blood. So we are praising our Redeemer because we’ve been set free. We were on the slave market of sin and we have now been bought by the precious blood of Jesus. We were on our way to danger. We’ve watched as rescuers have moved into Southeast of our United States and churches are working and Christians to the recovery of so many people in rescue; so many people think that was redemption that is taking place. It means to pay a debt. That’s why I’m calling this message «Jesus Paid It All». I’ve said it so many times: He paid a debt that He did not owe because we owed a debt that we could not pay. Never in a billion years. Jesus paid it all!
Peter, no doubt, was thinking back in his own spiritual history as a Jew, a practicing Jew, and this past week, yesterday, in fact, was the Day of Atonement. On the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, the tenth day which was yesterday, beginning on Friday at sunset, ending at sunset yesterday, the Sabbath- the Day of Atonement. Set aside in the Bible in the Old Testament as the high and holiest day in all of the year, in all of the life of the Hebrew — the Day of Atonement. It was on that day atonement was made for the sins of the people. You say, what does that mean, atonement? Well, you can see in the English word at-one, at-one-ment, atonement. It means that because of the forgiveness that God provides through the blood.
«For without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin». But because of the blood, the high priest would go into the holy place on the Day of Atonement. They would even put a rope around his ankle, lest in the presence of a Holy God, he were to die, so that they could at least drag him out. But this was how special it is. This is why in Jerusalem today, the Western wall, the retraction wall of the ancient world is closest to the Holy of holies, where the Temple was. And inside the Temple and the inner courts of the Temple was this holy, holy place in the very presence of God. The Shekinah Glory of God was present in this holy place. So on the Day of Atonement, that one day, the high priest would go in with the sacrifice to sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat and all the sins of the people of that day were forgiven. But now we know because of what Christ has done, He is our High Priest according to the book of Hebrews. And no longer the sacrifices of doves and bulls. Because He’s the Lamb of God.
As John the Baptist said, «He takes away the sin of the world». And now our High Priest has forever entered into the presence of God. And with one hand Jesus took Holy God and with the other hand sinful man, and at one with God. We are totally and completely reconciled to God. How? Because we are blood-bought, we are now heaven bound. That would be a good place for an Amen. We are blood-bought and now heaven bound. Jesus is the pure and perfect and eternal sacrifice for our sins. And so Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement points to the Messiah who is Jesus our Lord, who is the connector. He is the bridge between Holy God and you and me, sinful man. So what is the purpose of this redemption? Let’s talk about that first. The purpose of Redemption. Look again at verse 18. It says: «knowing that you were redeemed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers».
Futile ways. We’ve been redeemed from empty lives. That word futile there. It’s obvious what that means. It means we were living vain lives. Some people live vile lives for sure, but most people live vain lives, lives that are going nowhere. God made you on purpose for a purpose. God has a plan for your life. And yet so many have never discovered God’s plan and God’s purpose for their lives, therefore, they live life going nowhere. When Simon Peter was preaching on the day of Pentecost and he preached Christ and the resurrection, what I’m preaching to you right now. And at the end when the people ran to him, convicted by the Holy Spirit and said, «What do we need to do to be saved»?
Peter told them to repent and then to be baptized as a testimony of their faith. And then he says, «And with many other words», sounds like a preacher, right? And with many other words he said, «Save yourselves from this crooked and perverse and untoward generation». That word untoward, that’s the authorized. That means a life that is going nowhere. Save yourself by coming to faith in Jesus Christ, because without Him your life is a zero. It’s headed nowhere! Solomon tried living life without God on His own terms. He tells his story in the book of Ecclesiastes. It’s his story of seeking satisfaction in his life. And King Solomon, he first tried wealth, and he had a lot of wealth. He made a lot of money. Elon Musk kind of money. He was wealthy. But he said I had all these things but vanity of vanities, all is vanity, he said. None of this means anything.
Jesus said, «What does it…» You say «Well, I’ve done really well in life. You know, I’ve made a lot of money. I know where I’m going», «What does it profit man», Jesus said, «if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul»? So he tried wealth. That didn’t work. He tried work and he built a lot of projects. He did many mighty things, building his community, but all his work, and he was successful in his work, and yet he said, «Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Nothing plus nothing equals nothing». That’s what he’s saying. It’s a big fat zero. He tried women and he had a lot of women and all the sex he wanted but it didn’t satisfy. Gave him pleasure but not fulfillment in his life. And after he tried all these women he said, «Vanity of vanities, all is vanity». He tried work and wealth and women.
Oh, and he tried wine. He drank a lot of booze. He drank a lot of wine because people whose lives are going nowhere need to live on substitutes. And so he tried to substitute. He tried to feel better or maybe just to numb himself against the emptiness that was in his life. You see, without God, you’ve got a hole in your soul. There is an emptiness and a need that only God can fulfill. So that is what Peter is saying here. He’s making it plain to us that you were redeemed out of this from a life going nowhere but to hell, you have been redeemed. And then redeemed from guilt, because we’re all guilty because of sin and the results and the catastrophe and the wreckage that is life by sin. He’s telling us what we were here. You were slaves to sin. You were on the chopping block of slavery. You were a slave. You were in bondage to your sin because you were guilty of high treason against God Almighty. And yet, you were redeemed from your guilt. Every sin and every stain removed. «Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow».
So that is the purpose of redemption, to fill the emptiness of our life with His own presence. To remove the guilt and the stains. This redemption is not to see… watch this, look back in verse 18. It says, «You will ransom from the futile ways inherited from your fathers». Why do you do what you do? Why do we live the way we live? We inherited it from our parents: from our fathers, from our mothers. But not only that, sometimes we inherit religion and rituals and relics and none of these things redeem. All the religion in the world, all the relics that you may worship, all the rituals that you may practice the traditions of your father. Too many people have a hand-me-down religion rather than a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
This past week I went over to Cleburne, Texas where my sister-in-law, my sister-in-love, the widow of my older brother Bob is living and has lived for forty years or so, fifty years. She’s moving so we’re clearing out her house and I went over there to help her do some things. There was a trunk that was in storage. And that trunk, the trunk itself, I don’t know, must have been, it looks like it’s a hundred years old at least. It’s been passed down in our family. My brother had it. And in there were a lot of things from the past. It was an incredible adventure for me. I found some wonderful treasures in this trunk. To go through the lives of the Graham family. My parents and even my grandparents. And even a lot of things, you know, we just throwing away, newspaper clippings from Conway, Arkansas and glasses from my grandmother, my grandfather. Just a lot of things. My mother put a lot of these things in this trunk and passed it on to Bob, and now I’ve inherited this.
So we’re going through it. And again, so many wonderful things and treasures that we enjoyed: photos, of course, and we found, I found precious to me, some love letters that my dad had written my mom. And to read those, and that was, of course, heart-touching for me. But what I found so often in that treasure house, that trunk was church bulletins. A lot of church bulletins, worship guides we called them, that my mother and perhaps my father had just saved for some reason. Maybe special occasions. But it was clear from this family as you looked through this trunk, that we were church people. That we went to church from generation to generation. Not just church, Baptist church. I was a good little Baptist boy.
In fact, my baptismal certificate from 1958 was in that trunk. My mother had saved it. I have it now. And I’m so grateful that the traditions of my family were passed along to me and we had those in our trunk. But you know, faith is not passed along in a trunk of memorabilia. Our faith is passed along from faith to faith, from person to person. I’m so glad that I have a faith tradition in my family. But the faith tradition of our family does not save us. We’re not saved by what we have done or our religion. You cannot be saved by a hand-me-down religion. And unfortunately, some of you don’t have faith in Christ personally. Somebody handed you down religion but do you know Jesus? Do you know Christ?
The price of redemption is the precious blood of Jesus! That’s what he says, that we are ransomed not with perishable things like silver or gold. That is, we’re not saved by human things. Salvation is not bought; it is given. We cannot redeem ourselves. One of the things that I found in this old trunk was some S&H Green Stamps. How many remember green stamps? Ha, ha, well from the 1940's all the way to the late 1970's it was loyalty kind of thing with grocery stores and other kinds businesses, if you bought product, you would get stamps. And those stamps, you would lick them and put them in a little book, a stamp book. And when you collected enough stamps, when you bought enough groceries or anything, you put your stamps in there and then you fill up your stamp book and you could go to the redemption store. The S&H Green Stamp.
If fact, if you go to Mama’s Restaurant where I eat often, there’s a big S&H Green Stamp sign in there. You go to the redemption store and you can use your stamps to purchase stuff in their catalog. I bought my first baseball glove with S&H Green stamps. But you know, there’s no redemption store, even a church, where you can buy your salvation. You can’t collect enough, do enough, buy enough, save enough in order that you would be forgiven. This is in Christ and Christ alone. And Peter makes it plain. You cannot save yourself, you cannot save yourself! It is not with how we buy it or how we try it in order to live the Christian life. Rather, it is what Christ has done! And it’s all in the blood.
In Leviticus it says life is in the blood, not in the flesh, but in the blood. If you go to the doctor, especially if you’re going to do a physical, no doubt, they’re going to take your blood because they can see so many things in the blood, whether trace of disease or illness or infection or health. Life is in the blood. It’s one of the great reasons that we can believe the Bible because in the ancient world and certainly right up to George Washington. I was reading about George Washington just yesterday and when you had an infection in George Washington’s era, they would bleed you. They’d take the blood out! In fact, there’s some evidence that George Washington was bled to death, poor guy, because people thought the way to get rid of infection was to bleed you out of the infection. Well, now we know that the circulatory system means that life is in this blood.
The Bible said that way back in Leviticus! But not just physically, more importantly, spiritually. Here is salvation: His blood for your blood. His pure blood for your polluted blood. This is how we are redeemed. And this is not an accident. It’s why he points out that our Savior, our Redeemer was a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Do you see that there in the Scripture? The cross, the blood was not an afterthought or an accident but in the infinite mind and heart of God. In fact, you see it in the Bible. Someone said cut the Bible anywhere and it will bleed, because in all the Scriptures there is this principle: without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. And therefore, there is a scarlet thread of redemption that runs through the Bible.
The story of Jesus and His blood. It starts even in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned and God took the life of an animal to cover their sins, the blood was spilled and the furs of those animals covered their bodies from their sin and their nakedness as they now realized they had broken God’s laws. That blended in to flow all the way to Mount Moriah when Isaac said, «Here’s the wood, here’s the sacrifice, but where is the lamb»? God provided a lamb caught in the thicket as a substitute for Isaac. It flowed into Egypt and on the doorpost of the Israelites on the day of Passover, Jesus, the Passover Lamb. It flowed through the Levitical system and all the shedding of blood and the sacrifices of animals.
It flowed right into the words of the prophets: Isaiah 53, «All we like sheep have gone astray but the Lord laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all». The Messiah came to live and die so that we can be forgiven. Goes all the way, I could take you all the way through the scarlet thread of redemption in the Bible. This holy thread, this royal red river of redemption that is running through the Bible. It goes all the way to heaven where in the presence of God we see a Lamb, as though the Lamb was slain on the throne, and we’ll be singing with the saints and the angels, «Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb». This is how we are redeemed! It is the price that He paid. He paid the penalty and the price for our sin.
That’s why we sing, «There is a fountain filled with blood drawn Emmanuels veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains». The proof of our redemption is in the resurrection, for it says in verse 21: «We became believes who raised Him from the dead, God who raised Him from the dead». Apart from the resurrection, the cross would have been a cruel tragedy; it would have been a murder, a martyrdom. But because God raised Him from the dead, God accepted the pure and perfect sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God. And that proves that this blood is sufficient, it’s supernatural to save us. And then there’s on final thing: that’s the promise of this redemption.
Look in verse 21 briefly with me. It says: «who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead, gave Him glory (He’s now glorified) so that your faith and hope are in God». Now we live in faith. I trust in God. And we live with a daily and eternal hope. This is the promise of redemption. And it is the promise of eternal life and salvation in the Lord. It is because He has paid the price in full. He’s done what only He could do, what we can never do for ourselves. He has redeemed us. He has redeemed us. «Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb». Yes, «Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, (but praise God, hallelujah to the Lamb,) He washed them white as snow».