At What Cost?

The message this morning again is entitled At What Cost? At What Cost? The gospel story really begins even before creation itself. As God tells us here, up on the screen in first Peter one eighteen through 20. There, Peter writes, for as much as you know, that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, the silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who was fair, verily, foreordained before the foundation of the world, It was manifest in these last times for you.

You see, God knew what choice Adam and Eve would make. And the price that he would have to pay in order to redeem them, to redeem his fallen creation from their sin and from its penalty in hell. And yet despite all of that, God gave them a choice anyway. A choice to trust him, to love him, or to rebel and disobey him. Knowing the cost that he would have to pay to redeem them from their sin.

Going back to Genesis chapter three, God told Adam and Eve in clear and uncertain terms. What would happen if they ate that forbidden fruit? And yet they did, bringing both physical and spiritual death to pass upon all of humanity to follow. Romans five and six and Revelation 20 says, wherefore, as by one man, that's Adam, sin entered into the world and death by sin. So death passed upon all men for that all have sinned.

For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the Lake Of Fire. You see, there is a real place called the Lake Of Fire. There are consequences both now and in eternity for sin. God told Adam and Eve about those. He told them in the day that they ate of the fruit of that tree, they would surely die.

And yet, rather than trusting him, they trusted the word of the serpent. Adam, the actions of his wife, ate of the forbidden tree. And so as Romans five twelve says up there, death passed upon all men. For all we like Adam have also sinned. But as Romans six twenty three points out, the middle verse up there.

For the wages of sin is death but the what? The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God has had a plan. He has a plan. He hinted at that plan in Genesis three fifteen.

When he said to the serpent, the one, the seed of the woman would one day bruise his head. That seed of the woman is none other than Jesus Christ. He expounds upon this promise in Isaiah 53 and elsewhere throughout the Old Testament. It should not have come as a shock to the Jews that before the Messiah could reign, he first must suffer. Because it is written in their Old Testament scriptures.

Jesus said to the Pharisees and the scribes of his day, if you believe Moses, you would believe me because he wrote about me. Let's read Isaiah 53 together, if you would. You just follow along as I read. Isaiah fifty three one, who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he, that is Christ, the Messiah, shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground, he hath no form nor comeliness, that is beauty, and when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, We hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely, he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet, we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet, he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgement and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet, it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

He had put him to grief. When thou shalt see make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities and will stop there for a moment.

Let's pray once more. Lord, we thank you for your word. Lord, this tells us a story in advance this morning from Isaiah 53. The story of the suffering, the humiliation, and death of the son of God upon Calvary's Cross to suffer in our place, to take our punishment, to pay our penalty, to pay the price for our sin that should have been ours. A price that we could not pay.

But a a price that he and his righteousness could. Lord, I pray if there's one here today that's never trusted you as savior. That they would humble themselves today. That they would come be saved. And Lord, we pray for Christians today Lord, that we might seek to glorify you, who gave your life, shed your blood for us.

That we might recognize the price that you paid for our redemption. That we might glorify you in our body and our spirit. Which are yours. May you be exalted and magnified today in our presence. Lord, we do pray.

Amen. What was the cost which had to be paid to redeem us? That is to to buy us back, to set us free from Satan's sin and the lake of fire. The price, God's only son. Jesus Christ, his death, and the shedding of his blood on Calvary's Cross.

Jesus is the price. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. I'm going to take just a few minutes this morning and look at that price that Christ paid. Now, when we think of the price that he paid, we immediately jump to the cross.

But it didn't begin at the cross. Actually, began an eternity past. As God made this decision, to make man knowing he would rebel. At the price of his own son. And it takes us to the day of Christ's incarnation and birth in Bethlehem according to the scriptures.

It says in Isaiah 53 and verse two, it says, for he shall grow up, that is the Messiah, Jesus, before the Lord as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. You ever seen a root poking up out of dry ground? It isn't pretty. A plant trying to grow that doesn't have any water. No form nor comeliness.

When we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. The Christ humbled himself Leaving behind the glories and majesty and praise of heaven to become just a common ordinary creature. A common ordinary man. In Philippians two five to seven, it says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation.

What does that mean? What means he left his reputation? His glory, his majesty behind. Took upon him the form of a servant, not the master, not the king, not the Lord, but the servant. And was made in the likeness of men.

Just stop for a minute and think about the price which Christ paid just in leaving his place of power and majesty in heaven as creator and Lord to become a humble creature. Of earth. Rather than giving orders, he took them and obeyed them in all things. Rather than receiving the worship of angels in heaven, he came into the world as an unknown. As it were thought a carpenter's son.

Born in a little village in Judea, raised in an even smaller town, in Galilee. Not to mention the fact that he was born in a stable. Because there wasn't any room for him. In the end. That's how our savior, the Messiah, the king of kings, and Lord of lords, came into the world.

Just like Isaiah 53 said, wasn't anything special about him. It didn't seem. He was just a carpenter's son. Born in a stable. His only human worshipers at the time of his birth were his own human parents and some lowly shepherds.

You say, but what about the kings? Remember those, pastor? Well, yeah. It was probably about a year later before before they showed up. Imagine for just a moment that you were a prince or a princess You were extremely well-to-do.

Looked up to by many and then in a moment, everything you had. Was taken away. Your name, your money, your power, prestige, gone. And you were reduced to being a pauper. What's a pauper?

A beggar Sad to say there's beggars out here on this corner nearly every day. They have received a few of our tracks and a few hamburgers from Checkers. But it's sad to see people reduced to being beggars. Well, just for imagine for a minute that was you. And imagine for a moment that you grew up in a palace that you had it all and now you were a beggar.

How would you handle it? Many during the great depression found themselves in similar situation. Their businesses, their riches, all gone in a day. You know how many of them handled it? They jumped off the top of buildings and took their own lives.

Because they couldn't handle it. And yet our savior did this for us. Willingly. He left the throne of heaven. He left the majesty and glory behind.

He left the power. He left the riches. Be born in a baby in a stable in Bethlehem to be unknown to be nothing special unnoticed by the world. That's how he grew up. The first thirty years of his life on this Earth.

He and taking upon himself human flesh not only became subject to the laws placed upon humanity but also the limitations and necessities and even the temptations of the flesh. Not only did he leave all of those things behind but he was limited to one place, one time. One of the things we say about God is that he is what? Omnipresent but Jesus was a man in a body. Though in constant communion with the father who was not so limited.

Jesus for a time was. He got hungry. He got tired and thirsty and sleepy. He suffered pain both of a physical and emotional nature. You know, we think about physical suffering and how difficult it is.

But some of the suffering that we go through that hurts the most. Is emotional. Not physical. Jesus suffered in both ways just like we do He was tempted by the devil to succumb to the desires of his flesh To overstep his boundaries as a humble creature before his father in heaven. Satan said, if you're hungry, why don't you turn the stone to bread?

After all, you're aren't you? That wasn't God's will. Jesus replied, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that preceded out of the mouth of God. Hebrews four fifteen tells us, for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are. Yet without sin.

I don't understand how the God of heaven can be tempted but the Bible says, he was as a man. And yet, he did not yield. He did not give in. He overcame sin for us. We give in, we yield, far too often.

But he conquered sin for us. He had to deal with it. The Bible says, he had to deal with it like like we do. He understands. He, the God of heaven, became a man.

Christ during the last three years of his adult life, adult life on Earth did not have a place to truly call home. Most of us today have a home. Jesus didn't really have a home for the last three years of his life. He traveled from town to town, sometimes mobbed by some who were curious. Others that wanted something.

Food, healing demanding of his time Some were genuinely fathers of followers of faith and believed in him. Others were phonies. Others were hypocrites. Some even sought to take his life. And yet, he served them with his life.

He gave of his time. He gave of his energy. He gave of his life to minister to their sorrows. He took upon himself their burdens. It says in Isaiah fifty three three, it says, he was despised and rejected of man, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely, he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows. Jesus as he ministered and later as he would suffer on the cross. Felt and bore our griefs and carried our sorrows.

They were not his to carry. They were ours. It wasn't his fault that we sinned. It was ours. But yet he carried those sorrows.

Matthew eight twenty. Jesus say it unto him, the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not wear to lay his head. John one ten eleven, he was in the world. The world was made by him and the world knew him not. He came unto his own and his own received him not.

Though he took of his time to teach them, spent days and days healing them to the point of exhaustion. He spent much of his time training his thick headed disciples. We're in a lot different than many of us. With little appreciation from those to whom he ministered and many of whom would turn on him in the end. He did it anyway.

He like Joseph of the Old Testament was rejected by his brother. Falsely accused If you look back in Genesis, find several things about Joseph as he suffered from the sins of others His dad's choice to father children by four different wives. Cause a lot of trouble for Joseph. His brother's jealousy which led to hate and eventually nearly murder of their brother. His master's wife who turned on Joseph lied and had him thrown in prison for refusing her advances.

The life of Joseph just seemed to go further and further down But the Lord had a purpose in his suffering. His suffering. At the hands of his brothers who should have loved him. Cared for his family, his master whom he served faithfully. And yet threw him in prison.

Jesus came unto his own, his brother. His his creatures, his creation, specifically the Jews, the Hebrews, his people. They didn't recognize him. They rejected him. They even falsely accused him.

They falsely accused him of lying. About who he was. Therefore, they also accused him of blasphemy. They accused him of aiding and abetting the devil. When he cast out demons rather than serving the Lord.

They falsely accused him of breaking the law of God when he healed people on the Sabbath. They falsely accused him of breaking the laws of Rome and trying to mount an insurrection before Pilate. They falsely accused him of declaring he was going to destroy the temple. When he was talking about his his own body and raised it again in three days. He was rejected.

He was not esteemed for who he was. Falsely accused. Despite all of these accusations which were brought against him, it says here in Isaiah 53, that he opened not his what? He opened not mouth. He didn't speak in his own defense.

He did speak a few times during his trial but never to defend himself or get out of his trouble. Only to declare the truth even though the truth was not what they wanted to hear. He did not stir up others against his accusers. A matter of fact, when Peter took out his sword and cut off the high priest servant ear, Jesus told Peter, put your sword away. This is not the way it's supposed to be.

And he healed that servant's ear. He did nothing to free himself from the hands of his enemies which he could have done in a moment. A thought or a word could have taken their life or brought him down off that cross. But he kept his mouth shut because the Bible said he came to die on that cross to suffer there for our sins. He was beaten whipped, humiliated till he was hardly recognizable as a man.

In Isaiah 52 verse 14, the chapter before, It says, as many as were astonished or astonished at thee, his visage, his image, his face was so marred more than any man in his form more than the sons of men. They whipped him repeatedly with something similar to a cat of nine tails. Whipped with several strips of leather with metal or glass in the end of each one. They would take and they would hit him with it. And those leather straps would go around and then those pieces would dig in.

And then the person with the whip would yank it loose and tear the hide, strips of hide from his body over and over and over and over again. So, there was little hide left. Just a bloody mass. They beat him with their fist in his face while they mocked him and said, who hit you? Put a crown of thorns and pressed it down into his temple, into his scalp.

I've seen the thorns in Israel. I brought some back with me that were likely the ones they used. The thorns are that long. And extremely sharp. They put a robe upon him and a scepter in his hand and they bowed before him and mocked him.

Pilate even put a sign on the top of his cross. Said the king of the Jews. To mock both him and the Jews. They forced him to carry his cross in such a state through the streets of Jerusalem until his body could no longer bear the weight. He was wounded.

Therefore, our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. By his stripes, for the blood poured forth, we are healed. Christ took physical and emotional abuse like no other and then he died. Humiliated and terrible agony on the cross as he shed his blood there and gave his life for ours. It says in verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. God poured it all on his son. Allowed him to suffer. With the weight of the sins of the world on his back. Verse eight, says, he was cut off from the land of the living and for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

Verse 11 says, that he that is God shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. That should have been me. I can't imagine it being me but it should have been me. He didn't deserve that abuse. He didn't deserve that suffering.

He didn't deserve to carry that weight. It was mine to carry. But he took my beating and my whipping and his blood was the blood that poured forth that day. It was my cross that he carried. It was my humiliation that he bore.

On that cross. Philippians two eight says, and founding himself in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross. Galatians three thirteen, it says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. Being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.

And hang on a tree he did. For a cross is nothing but a tree. A pole, the cross piece on it, fashioned in some way or another. To hang the person there on. Like a scarecrow in a field.

In a public place, in public view like a public hanging. So that everyone would see that passed by. A man virtually naked hanging on a cross. He must have been a terrible criminal to deserve. Such a death.

We today, if we have the death penalty at all, it's it's a shot. It's quick, fairly quick, painless, but not so in that day. It was didn't take place in a little private room. You know, it took place in a public square. As the nails were driven through his hands and feet and then he was hung up on a cross.

Nearly naked on a hill just outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem and a main crossroads so that everyone could see who walked by and mock and disdain. A wretched creature hanging on a cross. Every breath brought excruciating pain as he pulled on up on those nails to his hands and wrists in order to breathe. This form of execution often took days to bring death. Because Jesus was so badly mutilated before he was ever hung there.

It was only a matter of hours before he died. And there he hung where I should have hung. In agony and humiliation, cursed for the sins of the world and suffering for our iniquities. As his blood flowed down the cross, as his life left his body. He cried out, father, forgive them.

For they know not what they do. He crowned out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? As if for a moment in time, the son felt disconnected from the father. As he bore my sin and yours upon that cross. And then he cried before he gave up the ghost and he said, it is finished.

It is finished. What was finished? The price for our redemption. Was paid. A horrible price.

For one who did not deserve it. For one who didn't have to suffer it. Just a few hours before in the Garden Of Gethsemane. Knowing what was coming. Luke said, he did sweat as it were great drops of blood.

As he cried to the father, and said, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will. But thine be done. You see, he suffered just the same on that cross as you or I would have. Physically He felt the pain and the sting of the whip and in his humanity He didn't want to suffer but he did it anyway Sometimes, we suffer in ways that are very painful We don't choose it.

He did. For us. As he paid our ransom, the price for our escape from the chains of sin and hell. And if we will but look to him in faith, as the Israelites look to that serpent on that pole in the wilderness, years before. If we'll but look to Christ, his shed blood the cleansing and redemption, the price of sin that he bore.

His innocent blood, his righteous blood, shed for us for the remission of our sins. If we'll but trust in him to save us to give us eternal life, to forgive us he will. For that's why he died. And that's why he came. First Peter I didn't get it up on the screen.

It says this, for Christ hath also hath once suffered for sins. The just for the unjust. That he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the spirit. Why did he suffer that day? He suffered for me.

He suffered for you. That he might bring you to God. See, we're separated by our sin, by our iniquity from the Lord but Jesus Christ bridged that gap as he paid that price on the cross for us. As he shed his blood for the remission of our sins, so that you could be brought back to God. If you will but repent and believe in him, surrender to him as Lord and savior then you can be restored in your relationship with God forever But if you haven't done that, the Bible says you are still in your sins and though Christ paid the price for the sins of the world, that is not accounted to you, not accredited to your account in heaven until you come before him in humility and faith and bow to him as savior and Lord and receive his gift.

Have you done that? Are you sure? If you haven't, you can. You can today. If you have, then be reminded of this from first Corinthians six.

You are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are his. What price did Christ pay? To purchase us from a life of sin and a punishment in hell? His life, his blood.

He gave his all. It is but our reasonable service that we give our all for him. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you Lord. For the price that you paid.

What a terrible price it was. For Lord, that is how terrible our sin is. It is an affront to a holy God. It is rebellion and wickedness. It is we who have mounted an insurrection as humanity in step with the devil against the God who created us.

And yet, even when we were sinners, you died for us. But God commended his love toward us and that we were while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to come to you once again. Know you as savior and Lord. Lord, to serve you with our life that you abide at such a a terrible price.

Confess our sins daily and honor you with the days that you have given us. In gratitude and in faith and in love. And Lord, we pray if there's one here today that is yet to receive you as savior. That as we give this hymn of invitation today, they would come. And be saved.