And begin to read at verse eighteen. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a land without blemish and without spot. We've early was foreordained before the foundation of the word, but was manifest in these last times for you. Who by him do believe in God that raised him from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God? Seeing you purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto the unfainted love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. Being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of God, the word of the Lord, endures forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guise and hypocrisies, evil-speaking, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby. So be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming is unto a living stone disallowed of God, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. I believe that's all we'll read at this time, and we look to God and trust and for his benediction upon the reading of his precious word. We've been looking at this epistle now since Lord's Day morning and suggesting that perhaps we have the key verse in chapter two, verse eleven. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims that you have seen from presently last at war. So, we've mentioned that in Ephesians, there we're called in verse twenty that we're no more strangers, but here we're described as strangers and pilgrims. The difference being that in the Ephesian epistle we're seen in heavenly places, and in this epistle we're looked upon as being in the world. passing through a wilderness scene. As strangers, we're away from home, and as pilgrims, we're in route to the celestial city. Now, this is indeed a very precious book, and brought with so much teaching that should build us up and encourage us and strengthen us, because it was from this viewpoint that the writer penned it. He was writing to those that had lost everything, and he brings before them the fact that they had possessions that they can never lose. And so the first thing he unfolds to them is the fact that they have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that faded not away. It's wonderful indeed to know that we have things that we can never lose. Now, these dear believers, there's no fault of their own. Just because they had accepted Christ as their Messiah and Savior, were persecuted and scattered and had to find a new home in all of these places that are mentioned at the beginning of the chapter. We have looked at the pilgrim's possessions. Last night we looked at his salvation and then the things that accomplish salvation. Tonight we will be looking at the pilgrim's redemption, also his regeneration, and then the luscious food that God has provided for the nourishment of his inner man and the new life. Now, Brother Bill, in his prayer, gave thanks to God for the wonderful Word of God. It's nice to have this book. be a lonely, dirty world to we, pilgrims, that we didn't have this book to guide us, this book to lead us, this book to instruct us, this book to uphold us, this book that unveils to us a wonderful future. For it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as he is. Now at the conclusion of the meeting last night we were looking at verse fourteen and also verse fifteen and sixteen. These are the things that should characterize us as pilgrims. First of all, our lives should be characterized by obedience. It speaks here of obedient children, or it could be rendered children of obedience. Now then, the next exhortation is concerning holiness. And we pointed out that the word holy comes from the same root as sanctification, also the word saint. Not only... are we saints by the sovereign act and choice of God, but he would want us to manifest our simply character, being holy, for I am holy. God is holy, and it would be his desire that we might manifest that characteristic in our lives. We'll be looking just a little farther down at another characteristic. Literally, it's the essence of God's being. And it's something else that God wants His people to exemplify in their lives. In the measure that we do these things, we're fulfilling the purpose and design for which He saved us. Now it's true He saved us to bring us to heaven. But on the other hand, He has left us here. And having left us here, He wants us to shed forth His glory, to display His honor. And as we will be noticing tomorrow night, we have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light to show forth the virtues of Him who have called us out of this darkness, And out of the night of this word. Now we come this evening to this beautiful, this delightful text that reminds us of our redemption. And now for the second time we meet the word precious. The word precious. Found seven times is one of the key words in this epistle. However, there are other words such as suffer and suffering. But we have pointed out already that over against suffering, we have the word glory. And these two are placed in juxtaposition the one beside the other. And if we want to have glory, then we're going to have to experience some suffering here. I think I should quote that text. We've forgotten that. Must I, I mean that verse of the hymn, Must I be carried to the skies in flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas? We've been hearing through the reading of this article by Brother Brooks how these people in another area of the word have suffered for the name of Christ. How joyfully and willingly a girl would go forward and die because of her love for the person of the Lord Jesus. He shed His blood for us. And I think though we may never be called upon to do it, we ought to be willing to shed our blood for Him. I once read some years ago about a little girl that lived in a poor neighborhood. And in the kindness of God and in the providence of God, she was guided into a mission and heard a beautiful message on the text, The Blood of Jesus Christ, cleanses us from all sin. And she took in the message and said, left rejoicing in the knowledge that her sins had been cleansed away by the precious blood. She went on to prove it in manifest that she was truly born of God. However, it was her unhappy lot to live in a home where she had a drunken father, and when he was under the influence of drink, he was absolutely merciless. All went well to one evening. He came home drunk. And he asked this little girl if you'd go to the saloon at the corner and get him a bottle of whiskey. And the little girl said to him, She said, Daddy, I would like to do anything for you. I want to obey you. But I'm saying now, I've trusted the Lord Jesus, Christ is my Savior, and I can't do anything like that. And he lifted the poker and hit the child and made a deep gush in her head. Being a poor family, no money, it wasn't taken care of. An infection set in, and in a few days she was at the point of death. One day she said to her mother, She said, Mother, bring me those white pieces of cloth that you used the evening that Daddy hit me on the head. And she said, Bring scissors. That's an innocent little girl. And then she asked her mother to cut out all the blood stains. She said, Christ has redeemed me by his blood. He has saved me. And I'm going into his presence. And I would like to show him. that I shed my blood for Him. And so it was delightful to hear that story of another this evening that was willing to have their blood shed in love to the person that died on Congress Cross for their sins. Now this word precious has a thought of cost in it, and that's from the standpoint of value. And it also has the thought of esteem and honor. And certainly it represents cost. And the blood of redemption is worthy of the highest esteem and honor. Now this is something that the world today depreciates and deprecates. despises. And even long ago an outstanding man in the Orient said it was such a, it was an insult to society and should never be mentioned in public. But thank God because of whose blood it was, then the price paid. And not only that, but because It's worthy of honor and esteem. We love it. And we love to sing about it. And I'm thankful that we're still singing these precious songs that speak of our redemption, which is suggested in this chapter. You will not appear to come to the end of this chapter. We have redemption. And then resurrection is suggested. And then our regeneration. Now, the blood is indeed most precious. And we sing that. Precious, precious blood of Jesus shed on Calvary, shed for rebels, shed for sinners, shed for me. It's precious because of whose blood it was. And because it represents the life of one who was not only man, but he was God. In him we have the precious combination of absolute deity and perfect Godhead. Absolute deity and perfect manhood. And he gave his life and his precious blood upon the cross of Calvary to atone for our sins. We thank God not only for the fact that because of who He was and the value it represented, has it satisfied the throne of God, met the demands of God's righteous and holy throne, but bless God, it meets our deepest need. It purges our sin. It takes away our guilt. And you'll forgive me if I once more quote, Some verses of the hymn that I have always lost. What is the foulest thing in earth? Be think thee now and tell. It is a soul by sin defiled, and only fit for hell. What is the purest thing in earth? Come tell me if thou know. To that same soul by Jesus cleansed, made whiter than the snow. God's eye of flame that surcheth all, and finds thee in heaven unclean. rest on that soul with full delight, for not one spot is seen. Oh, how precious is that, atoning blood, that not only meets every demand of God's holy throne, propitiates his throne, meets his claims, magnifies his honor, but meets the deepest need of poor lost sinners on the way to eternal destruction. Isn't it a tremendous thing when we think of it that it cleanses us from all sin? Those sins that were so ugly and so vile and so hateful and that wicked, wretched, enemy of God, the word of God, and of we as people often bring sins before me that I committed as a boy. I have forgotten them, but Satan remembers them. And he brings them before my mind. And you know, it's so nice to be able to point them to the word of God and tell them, yes, but the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us from all sin. Ah, the chorus is delightful. Gone, gone, gone. Yes, my sins are gone. Buried in the deepest sea and in my heart a song. Praise God. My sins are gone. I don't know how it was with you, dear child of God, but well do I remember when I used to think of them. And then that someday I was going to stand before the bar of God and face them. And they were going to be seen those ugly, hideous things in the light of His purity and holiness. And you know, I shrank the curve, but that fear is all gone. Gone forever. And those sins are being put away from all of us who believe as far as the east is from the west. precious because it provides for us a purging, a cleansing, because according to Hebrews, it also is the grounds upon which we can come into God's presence. It's on the grounds of the blood that we approach God. And I think in coming to God we should Remind him of that, that we come on the grounds of the death of our Lord and Savior. Two brethren were preaching and one of us leading the singing. He asked the other brethren to pray. Brother said, Our Father, which art in heaven, we come to thee. He was a drunken one immediately and he said, Brother, You didn't come to God in the right way. You should come to God in the name of the Lord Jesus in the grounds of his blood. And if this one brother didn't give the other a rascal. But you know, about a week later, this other brother was preaching when another drunk stumbled in, and he misquoted the text. And when he was true, the judge said, Brother, you didn't quote it right, this is what it says. So here was a drunk man, and he knew how to come to God. Knew that it was only through Christ and his atoning death that we can approach the majesty and the presence of our glorious God in heaven. And yet the other one knew the Scripture and could quote it perfectly. Now this will only add to their condemnation if they die in their sins or if they have died in their sins. It could have been that these men in one time had grown up in Sunday school and heard the Word of God and learned these truths. Now... Then we want to notice here the next thing is our regeneration. First of all, it's our redemption. And keep in mind, dear child of God, that this thought of redemption has a practical application. We are bought with a price, and we're not to be the servants of men. We're not to be the servants of men. we have been at a tremendous, at an infinite cost, redeemed. The word redeemed, as we so often use, it signifies to be list or set free by paying a price or paying our answer. And from the moment that we come into the blessing of that redemption, we cease to be our own, though, alas, and to our shame. We do act as though we did belong to ourselves. But we don't. We belong to him. And he has bought us, he has redeemed us, that we might indeed serve him and do his will. Now, then he goes from this point onto the next... precious truth, regeneration. But you'll notice in verse twenty he speaks of this one whose blood has provided for redemption and cleansing for all who put their trust in him. Having been a lamb set apart by the Trinity, in the concept of a past eternity, to be a sacrifice for our sin. So it's good to remember that our salvation, our redemption is no afterthought of God. It originated in God's counsels before every time had a beginning. And of course, as mentioned here in our text, end time manifested and it goes on to speak of his returrection and shows that it's through His death and resurrection that we come to God, that we believe in God. Apart from this, we would not be this evening in the position we are as believers. It's through this wonderful and precious redeeming work of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are able to ascend in indissoluble relationship with the living God and be known as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that very precious? That's very wonderful and I'm sure we can thank God for it. Now be done to say, seeing, ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth. The purification spoken of here relates to that once and for all purification that we receive when we experience what it is to be born again. It's in that perfect tense, and it signifies not only something that has happened, but something that has a permanent result. So, thank God we have been purified. We have been purged from our sins. And Paul in writing to Titus expresses it and describes it in this way, the washing of regeneration. The washing of regeneration. You remember the incident in... John chapter thirteen. There we have the Lord Jesus and he laid aside his garments and he deemed to do a very lowly service. And I can appreciate Peter. Peter shrank from the Lord washing his feet. And when he expressed his feeling about it, the Lord said, Now Peter, if I don't wash your feet, you have... no part with me. Now, he didn't say, you have no part in me. He said, you have no part with me. Well, then, a dear teacher went to the other extreme, and he decided to let him give him a complete bath. And then the Lord Jesus answered him by those words, he that is, they, needed not to wash save his hands and his feet. Two different words. When he used the word wash, I used the word they, but the word in John's Gospel Thirteen is washed. It's washed. And that's what it means. The marching points that out. It's to have a complete bath. And that's what's being spoken of here. It's a complete bath. But then in the second time, where he speaks, washing the hands and the feet, that is in the limited sense. We only need one bath. We only need to experience regeneration once. But then, of course, there is need for that practical cleansing, for certainly in going through this world, we contract defilement. And it's so wonderful to be able... to come to the Word of God and read it and apply it and get that practical cleansing. But here, it's the eros participle, and that means having done or having been a permanent Word. It's a once and for all cleansing. It takes place the moment we exercise saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we never need to have that bath of regeneration. But we do need cleansing. You remember in connection with the priests in the Old Testament, in Exodus twenty-eight and twenty-nine, before they were consecrated and inaugurated into their service. they were backed, they, and then they were anointed. But after that, all it was needful was to apply the water from the labor as they went in to the presence of God. So that we never need to be fully cleansed again, but we do need to apply the water of the Word and in this way keep ourselves clean so that we may live in fellowship and in communion with God. Now, closely linked with that you'll notice that we have the thought of regeneration because it seems that these two verses are very, very closely related together. But it shows that one result of having had this work of regeneration, this washing of regeneration, that there should be love toward our brethren. Seeing He have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto the unfainted love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. See that you love one another with the pure heart firmly. So that our love is to be real, it's to be genuine, and it's to be warm. Some people are so cold in their love. We ought to express it in a way that our believers, that our fellow believers know that we really love them and that we really appreciates them. Now that love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost the moment we believe and we're born again into God's family and in being born again not only do we receive divine life but we receive God's nature and the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us then he sheds abroad this love and one evidence of a person being born again is that he loves his brethren and his sisters. We ought to love one another. The Epistle of John says that we don't love our brethren whom we have seen. How can we love God whom we have not seen? There's so much said about this in the Word of God. A whole chapter taken up with it. the love that's spoken up here so beautifully displayed before us in all its variety of qualities. There's eight things it doesn't do in I Corinthians thirteen and there's eight things it will do. You see, when you come to God's word there's a negative and there's a positive. So people don't like anything of a negative nature. But the word of God teaches negative truth and it teaches positive truth. In the verse, a quality of love is found in I Corinthians thirteen. Love suffer of long. It's positive there and it's kind. But then following that we have eight negative things. Things that love won't do and things that love will do. Love doesn't brag, doesn't boast. Instead of a man one time He was a self-made man, and he worshipped his maker. Self-made man, and he worshipped his maker. Now, love will keep us from boasting. And love is a very essential thing in the functioning of an assembly. We need love. And if love is scarce and not being shown, then I tell you... Things can go wrong, and our assembly can become unhappy, and there can be all kinds of distresses and troubles. This is why the Word of God has so much to say about love, but in the other hand, of course, it doesn't mean that we love at the expense of God's truth. God's love, like every other attribute of his being, is pure. and we should never love at the expense of the truth of God. Now, he goes on to speak of our being born again. Being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. You see, our first birth is a natural birth. In that birth there's the seeds of death and corruption. But you know in our new birth there's the seeds of life and incorruptibility. That's suggested in verse twenty-three and in verse twenty-five. If we contrast the two in the first birth, in the new birth there's the seeds of death and corruption. For as by one man sin entered into the word, and death by sin, and so death has passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. For that all have sinned. And so we commit to the word with the seeds of sin in us, and that sin brings death and corruption. But oh, thank God for that regeneration. Then new birth by the incorruptible word of God, in it is the seeds of life. The life that we get when we're born into God's family is eternal life. I remember the fill I got when they thought came before me, it's a never-aging life. A never-aging life. Way back when... My girl was younger. She could worry about me having wrinkles in my forehead. Well, there are more today. We have a life that's aging and a life that gradually decays. We have pains in our knees and we have pains in different areas of our body and the older we get, the more the increase. Thank God for this life, this new life within. It doesn't age. It's a never-aging life. And you know, when we get home to heaven, we'll be eternally young. I believe I told you before that I said down in Mount Boothexus many years ago that we'd never look any older than thirty-three. Of course, there was a dear mother in Israel there, and I loved her, and She challenged me at the door. She said, Brother John, chapter and verse for us. Chapter and verse for us. I said, Sister, I don't know if I give you chapter and verse, but I'm going to quote you a verse and see what you think about it. And I quote under that second verse in John's Epistle, Chapter three, that it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Now I said, humbly speaking, when he left this scene, he was only thirty-three in some months. Have I any grounds for it, my sister? She said, John, that satisfies me. That satisfies me. So I got her satisfied. So isn't it nice of a men to have a life that will never end? And a life that never ages, a never-aging life. Sure. We're aging. We can't keep from it. But we're going to a place where the dew of eternal youth will rest upon our heads. Oh, when we think of all the Lord has done for us, what he has brought us into it. Surely we ought to live for him. We ought to love him more. We ought to serve him better. Honestly, brethren, just I'm ashamed of Because I feel that if someone had lived under me and they had rendered me as poor service, I had rendered to God, I had rendered them long ago. Oh, His patience, His goodness, His kindness. But may we have grace for the little while that we have just to live and please the one that loved us and died for us and deserve a little better than we have been deadly. Now then it's the food of the pilgrim. But first of all, we're to lay aside these things. Now the food is described as milk. The sincere milk is the word. And someone has suggested that this list of things here, malice, guile, hampers, enemies, and evil speaking, these are the things that curdle the milk. That's why we're to get rid of them. Lay these things aside all that I believe. Hateful things. called malice, were to lay it aside once and for ever, and then that guide. You remember what the Lord Jesus said, Nathaniel, a man in whom there is no guide, no deceit, no unreality. Why are we to leave these things aside? Because God has saved us in order that He might reproduce Christ-likeness in us. And these things... pender God's work. So we're to lay them aside and we're to feed on the sincere milk of the Word. The unadulterated milk, as newborn babies, is this desire. And this Word means to desire earnestly. We ought to have a hunger for God's Word. A real hunger for God's Word. We ought to love it. We ought to be in it more than we are. and feeding on it and nourishing our soul with a view that we might grow thereby. And most every other version renders it this way that we might grow onto salvation. See, there are three aspects of our salvation. We have been saved. We're being saved and there ought to be progress in our present salvation. The Holy Spirit working in us through the word changing us morally into his likeness. And of course, when the Lord comes, we'll have our salvation in its completeness, changed in a moment and like it forever. And what a day, what a moment that will be when at last we see Him whom we love and adore. I'm going to stop abruptly at this point because every night this clicks off. Has it clicked off yet? Now, all these other nights I've been going too long and it has been clicking off, so we're going to close in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for the blessings of this day and for the privilege of being assembled in this capacity. We thank you that seeing a number here this evening shows that there is a love of the Word of God and an interest in it. We pray, our Father, that not only that we would be hearers of the Word, but that we might be doers, so that we might fulfill the design and purpose for which God has saved us. Thank thee for thy kindness in allowing us to serve thee here in this Word for so long. Others, Lord, have been taken suddenly, yet some of us have been spared, and we pray that our years might count and that we might of a life that will adore the doctrine of God our Savior. Pray for the sick ones. Put thy healing hand upon these whose names have been mentioned and recover them to their wanted health and strength again. We do rejoice in the fact that we have a God that hears and answers prayer. And we pray for our beloved brethren and sisters that the God of heaven who is a wonderful God and a mighty God and a healing God that he might heal them. and restore them to their families and to the Christians and to their service for God again. Father, with thy blessing, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. While we sing a chorus, we want to leave the music. I'm glad I'm a Christian. I'm proud, I'm a Christian, I'm trusting the Lord, I'm greeting my Bible, believing your word. The fact is forgiven, just when I am free. And the life I'm hidden in heaven is waiting for me. I think we can sing it better than that. I'm glad I'm not risen, but I'm trusting the Lord. I'm reading my Bible, reading each word. But I'm just forgiven from sin and grief. And the election in heaven is waiting for me. Thanks for coming.