JESUS PAID IT ALL
1 Pet. 1:18-20
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: “4 worms in Church"
1. A minister decided to add a visual demonstration about the evil habits of modern society.
2. Four worms were placed into four separate jars.
a. 1st - put into a container of alcohol.
b. 2nd - put into a container of cigarette smoke.
c. 3rd - put into a container of chocolate syrup.
d. 4th - put into a container of good clean soil.
2. At the conclusion of the sermon on evil habits, the Minister reported the following results:
a. 1st worm in alcohol . . . . . .. Dead.
b. 2nd worm in cigarette smoke . . Dead!
c. 3rd worm in chocolate syrup . . . Dead!.
d. 4th worm in good clean soil . .Alive!
3. So the Minister asked the congregation, "So, my friends? What did you learn from this demonstration?"
4. Maxine, sitting in the back, quickly raised her hand and said, "As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!"
5. That pretty much ended the service!
I. THE PROBLEM OF DEBT
A. WOMAN WAS $50 BILLION IN DEBT!
1. In June 2021, Maddie McGivern got the shock of her life when she woke up and checked her bank balance and she was $50 billion in debt. [Newsweek, 3-4-22]
2. She called Chase bank and said, “Hi, I have a $50 billion deficit in my account, and I'm not sure why. I wish I could say I bought the city of Los Angeles, but I didn’t.” The Chase Rep said, “May I put you on hold? I've never seen this before.” Maddie said, “I was like, oh."
3. What if Maddie had actually owed that much? Could she have ever paid it back? We all know that it would be impossible. And yet, that’s the negative balance of every one of us in our “moral perfection” account.
B. OUR ENORMOUS DEBT
1. The Bible says in Rom. 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” It doesn’t say how far we “fall short,” but Jesus put a number to it in Matthew 18:24 as owing 10,000 years of work (one talent of gold was equivalent to one year’s wage). If interest were added, our stated debt could easily have amounted to $50 Billion!
2. So, we DO owe a debt similar to Maddie McGivern. How can we ever pay it off? We can’t! The Good News is, God He has made a way out for us.
C. ORIGINS OF OUR DEBT
1. It all started at a place called the Garden of Eden where our first parents rebelled against God. That Original Sin didn’t just separate us from God, it put into us a sinful nature. Every person is infected with the “germ” of sin, a “bent” toward evil.
2. The Lord Jesus said, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly” Mark 7:21-23.
3. Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and BEYOND CURE. Who can understand it?” (17:9). If dogs get rabies or if Cows get brucellosis, there is no cure! The virus is so dangerous that the animals must be put down.
4. It’s the same with sin. It’s deadly, like cancer. The only solution is to kill it. There is no cure. John 3:18 says we’re “condemned already.” Sin enslaves us. Contaminates us, and separates us from God.
D. ALL OUR EFFORTS FAIL TO CHANGE US
1. Most folks think they’re pretty good people. Let’s suppose that a person only sins 3 times a day. Sounds like a pretty good person! But if that person lives to 80 years old (even giving them the 1st 5 years of innocence) that person will commit 82,125 sins in their lifetime! Imagine standing before God to account for over 80,000 sins!
2. David said in Ps. 40:12 that our sins are more in number than the hairs on our heads!
II. THE PRICE OF OUR REDEMPTION?
Peter said, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” 1 Pet 1:18-20. To “redeem” is to “buy back” something.
A. WHAT COULD NOT REDEEM US
1. Peter said that the things humans value – silver, gold, etc – could not pay-off our debt. A rock or a piece of metal has no power effect on moral failure.
2. “Isn’t there some way we can get rid of our sin? NO. The only way to cancel out the moral evil of sin is either for you to die for your sin or a substitute may die for it. That’s why God set up the system of substitutionary sacrifices in the O.T.
3. But you say:
a. Won’t our lives, if we serve others, atone for it? NO!
b. If we give our money to the needy, won’t that pay? NO!
c. If we lose our life in a worthy cause, won’t that avail? NO!
d. If we follow the teaching of a great spiritual leader, won’t that cover it? NO!
4. BUT NONE OF THOSE WOULD AVAIL TO PURCHASE OUR SALVATION! They were of no or little worth to God. But the blood of Jesus is the most precious commodity in the Universe!
Jesus went into the Holy of Holies in Heaven 2,000 years ago and sprinkled His blood on the Mercy Seat. That blood is still fresh today, because it is still speaking (Heb. 12:24), still crying out for mercy!
B. WHAT MAKES THE BLOOD OF JESUS SO PRECIOUS?
1. IT’S THE BLOOD OF GOD. In Acts 20:28, Paul called the blood of Christ, the blood of God. When baby Jesus was conceived, the Virgin Mary supplied the human side of the gene pattern, but the Holy Spirit miraculously designed the male side to be the genes of God. So His blood has infinite efficacy and power to atone for the sins of the countless billions of humans at one stroke. Thank God for the marvelous blood of Jesus!
2. HIS WAS INNOCENT BLOOD. Five times the Bible declares that Jesus lived a sinless life. So when Jesus suffered for us on the cross, His blood, untainted by sin, was capable of bearing the sins of others. Only His innocence made this possible.
3. HE WAS A WILLING SACRIFICE. Other sacrifices struggled to get away, but not Jesus. He said in John 10:17-18, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”
4. ACCEPTABLE BECAUSE APPOINTED BY GOD.
a. There was no other sacrifice that was precious enough to outweigh all the sin in the universe, except that of God’s own Son. Isaiah 53:11 says that when God the Father saw “the travail of his soul”, that He was “satisfied.” Praise God!
b. A Calcutta paper carried the story of how a Hindu came to the house of a missionary for an interview. In the course of the conversation, he said: "Many things which Christianity contains I find in Hinduism; but there is one thing which Christianity has that Hinduism has not." "What is that?" the missionary asked. His reply was striking: "A Savior!"
c. That’s why Buddha can’t save you, nor Islam, nor Hinduism, nor Confucianism – because God made His Son Jesus the Savior of the World! “No one comes to the Father except through Me” Jesus said, in John 14:6.
5. OUR SALVATION WAS NOT AN AFTER-THOUGHT OF GOD
a. Peter said (vs. 20), “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”
b. The Book of Revelation tells us that Jesus is the Lamb “slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). God wasn’t playing catch-up with our sins. When God decided to create us, He knew that free wills would give us the ability to fall, and so Jesus, out of love, volunteered to die to redeem us. What love!
c. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command” John 15:13-14. God would rather die than to live in Heaven without you!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: Finding an Octavo
1. 1620 was a memorable year for Brazil. This is the year it officially became a Portuguese colony. To the utmost delight of the colonists, the first diamonds were discovered at the river Jequitinhonha, in the tropical region of Arraial do Tijuco about a hundred years later.
2. We can all imagine how these Portuguese took all the necessary measures to protect their newfound wealth. The region became inaccessible to the public, with armed guards everywhere!
3. Slaves were brought from Africa to work in the diamond mines. Any slave caught stealing would be beaten in public and branded by a red-hot iron. After all, these diamonds belonged to the Portuguese royalty!
4. These slaves were not, however, completely without hope. If a slave found a diamond, he would stand up, clap his hands and hold the precious stone between his thumb and forefinger.
5. The supervisor would show up and place the stone in a pan half-filled with water, suspended from a rafter. If the precious stone was an “octavo”, a diamond weighing 17.5 carats, a garland of flowers would be placed on the head of the slave, and he would be marched in a procession to the administrative office where he would be given a new set of clothes, as well as his freedom.
6. From that time on, if he so wished, he would have the opportunity to work in the diamond mine for a salary.
7. We can imagine that this hope drove these poor slaves to never to give up. And so they slaved away, day after day, hoping that one day they would find an “octavo” and be truly free.
8. Thank God, finding Jesus is finding our Octavo! We’re set free and are made citizens of heaven!
B. THE CALL
1. Hymn, Jesus Paid It All
1 I hear the Savior say, "Thy strength indeed is small,
Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in Me thine all in all."
CHORUS: Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,He washed it white as snow.
2 Lord, now indeed I find; Thy pow'r and Thine alone,
Can change the leper's spots; And melt the heart of stone.
3 For nothing good have I; Where-by Thy grace to claim;
I'll wash my garments white; In the blood of Calv'ry's Lamb.
4 And when, before the throne, I stand in Him complete,
"Jesus died my soul to save," My lips shall still repeat. Chorus
2. How many want their sin-debts wiped away by the blood of Jesus? Raise your hands. PRAYER.
3. THE LORD’S SUPPER
4. BAPTISMAL SERVICE
