I think it was maybe Easter that David and Joshua played that that, melod medley together, both both tunes to When I Survey. So I wanted him to play that again. And both both he and I were scheduled for specials this morning, so I thought, well, we'll just combine them. So and sing and get the trombone all at the same time. So first Peter chapter one is where we'll start, this morning.

And then we're gonna skip over here in a moment to Isaiah 53. So first Peter chapter one. If you've been coming to Sunday school, we studied first Peter and second Peter. So first Peter still might be a little familiar to you, I hope. We're gonna start out reading verses 18 through 21 this morning.

First Peter one eighteen through 21. For as much as you know that you are 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 lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Dearly father, thank you Lord for this day that you've given us.

Thank you Lord for your word. Thank you Lord for Jesus Christ, our savior. Thank you Lord for the opportunity to look into it today, to preach it, to to sing about it in song, and to praise and glorify our Lord and savior. May you be honored in all we say and do and if there be one here today who is yet to receive Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior of their life, we pray that this might be their day of salvation. In Jesus name, we do pray.

Amen. Have you ever heard the saying to everything there is a cost or nothing is free? And for the most part, these statements are true. Nothing really is free, particularly our salvation. Sometimes, Christians and particularly Baptists and others like us who preach salvation by grace alone are accused of teaching that the redemption of the human soul from sin and hell comes at no cost.

But that's not true. We don't preach that. Salvation is not without cost. Particularly to the one who offers it. Who performs it who has made it all possible Salvation is John pointed out in John 111 through 13 is not the work of men but the work of of God.

Let me read that for you. Actually, I have it up here on the screen as well. It says, he came unto his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him, that is Jesus, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, that is born again spiritually, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of but of God. The first birth, the physical birth.

Can you claim credit for your birth? The answer is no, you can't. You were created in Adam and Eve long, long ago. You can't claim credit for your second birth either if you've been born again because that, as much as your first, is the work of who? It is the work of God.

Something performed and accomplished by God for man cannot save himself no matter how hard he may try. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, the Bible says. All our righteousness or good works are as what? Filthy rags in his sight. And I've used the illustration before from that verse.

If you take a a grimy, oily, nasty rag and you just got done changing your oil in your car and you see, hey, there's a spot on my window. Oh, I got a rag in my hand. I'll clean it. Is that oily, nasty rag going to clean up the spot on your window? No.

It's just going to make it what? It's going to make it bigger. It's just going make a bigger mess. Humanity trying to please God apart from Jesus Christ, we just make a bigger what? Mess and we've seen it throughout history.

Religion has not solved man's problems. It hasn't. Good intentions haven't solved man's problems. Education, advancement, achievement, technology hasn't solved man's problems. We're still killing each other.

We're still going to war. We're still committing atrocities. Man cannot save mankind. Only God can save mankind. You cannot save you.

Only God can save you. But at what cost? At what cost can God save you? Not your cost, but his cost. Because it it's he that's doing the saving.

It's he that's that's pardoning. It's he that's paying the ransom. It's he that is paying it's it's him that's paying the debt, not us, because we have nothing with which to pay. Our gold and silver, as Peter mentioned here in first Peter one, are worthless. They cannot buy our salvation.

They cannot buy our redemption. Our good works are not good enough, but the precious blood of Christ is. A lamb without spot and without without blemish. The picture there is from the Old Testament. When they sinned for the sin offering, they had to bring a lamb.

And they brought the innocent lamb that was without spot or blemish to the priest and they handed the lamb to the priest and then they put their hands on the head of the lamb to signify the transfer of their guilt and sin onto that innocent lamb, and then the lamb was slain and its blood was shed to pay the price for their sin so that it might be covered. Not entirely forgiven, but covered until the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world died on the cross of Calvary for our sin, and that's Jesus Christ. For salvation and pardon and forgiveness and redemption comes at a great cost and that cost Christ paid on Calvary. As was foreordained, it tells us in verse 20, before the foundation of the world, that we who believe in God, believe in Jesus might have hope whether otherwise was none. First Peter three eighteen says this, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just or the unjust.

Who's the just? That's Jesus. Who's the unjust? That's me. That he might bring us to God, that he might reconcile parties that were separated by mankind's disobedience and sin.

That he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but quickened or made alive again by the spirit. Let me explain. God created Adam and Eve knowing what choice they would make and what price would have to be paid to redeem his fallen creation. And yet he created them anyway. And yet he gave them a choice anyway.

It was necessary. It was necessary for beings created in the image of God to have a what? To have a choice whether they would choose to serve God or serve self and sin and Satan. He created beings with personal volition, A choice to choose their own path even if it'd be a terrible choice with devastating consequences and devastating they were. Not only for man, but also for who?

For God. Going back to Genesis chapter three, God told Adam and Eve in clear and certain terms what would happen if they ate of the forbidden tree, and yet they did, bringing both physical and spiritual death to pass upon all humanity to follow. Romans five twelve says, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have what? For that all have sinned. The problem is not just Adam and Eve's sin.

The problem is also our sin because we continue to follow in the ways of our ancestors without remedy in ourselves. For as hard as we might try, we can't fix it. We can't go back and erase what we've already done. We cannot pardon ourselves. We cannot pay a debt that we have absolutely nothing wherewith to pay.

We cannot redeem and ransom ourselves from sin and Satan. Only Jesus could do that. Romans six twenty three says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is devastate there are devastating consequences to Adam and Eve's sin but also to ours. But there is a way of escape.

It says in Revelation 20, and death and hell were cast in the lake of fire. This is the second death. But whosoever's name was found written in the book of life was not, what, cast into the lake of fire. How do you get your name written there? Join a church.

Get dunked in water. Give enough money in the offering plate. Be nice enough to your neighbor. Is those those the answers? No.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done. But according to his mercy, he saved us. You see, Adam and Eve didn't have a plan. When they picked the fruit off that tree and ate it. But God did.

God already had a plan. The plan involved a sacrifice on his part. Turn if you would to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. We're gonna read several verses from there.

It's just a little past halfway in your Bible after Psalms and Proverbs. You come to Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 53. See, before God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden, he already gave us a a hint at what he was going to do, what his plan was when he said to the to the serpent that I will I will, I will provide the woman with a seed, a a descendant, and that descendant will crush your head. Who is uniquely the descendant, the seed of the woman?

Only one, Jesus Christ. Because he was the only one that was born without a human father. The descendant of Eve and born of the Virgin Mary. God had a plan. In Isaiah 53, he explains a little more of his plan.

He reveals it in this passage. He says in verse four, surely he, that is the seed of the woman, surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet, we did esteem him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. We, in other words, those who looked on that day, the majority of them blamed Jesus. For what happened.

Verse five, but it wasn't his fault. He was not to blame for he was wounded for whose? Our transgressions. That's a word another word for sin. He was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities, our rebelliousness. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. That which would bring peace, he bore. And with his stripes, we are healed, made whole. All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way. And we we made our choice way back there in the Garden Of Eden. Adam and Eve made their choice and it wasn't a good one. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him that is Jesus, the iniquity or the sin of us all.

Look down if you would to verse 10. Yet, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief when thou shalt 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 the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore, will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bear the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. That's all about Jesus, the seed of the woman, the servant of the Lord who came and he suffered. He paid the price, the debt, the ransom so that he might pardon us for we're sold in the slave market of sin, held captive by Satan. Before the foundation of the world, God had a plan, and the plan was the death of his son. John three sixteen, 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.

He came not into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Why did Jesus come into the world? He came into the world to save your soul. He came in to pay the price that you could not pay because you did not have the wherewithal to pay it because we're sinners, but he was not. Just a couple things about Christ before we we conclude today.

Let's actually couple four. I guess that's more than a couple. Number one, what does it mean the price that he paid that he gave his only son? Well, it begins with Christ humbling himself, leaving behind the glories and the majesty and the praise of heaven to become a creature. One of us and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

He made himself of no reputation. He took upon him the form of a servant. He was made in the likeness of man. God left glory, God the Son, Jesus Christ, and He became a baby in a manger. What's a manger?

By the way, that's a feeding trough. It's not a nice, cozy, you know, crib. 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 humbled creature upon the earth. Rather than giving orders, he took them. And he obeyed them.

Perfectly. Rather than receiving the worship of angels in heaven as they flew around the throne as Isaiah revealed crying, holy, holy, holy. He came into this world as an unknown carpenter's son. He was born in a little village in Judea. He was raised in a smaller insignificant town even in Galilee.

Not to mention being born in a stable because there was no room for him in the end. His only human worshipers at the time of his birth were his human parents and some outcast shepherds that nobody really listened to very well. Imagine for just a moment you were the wealthiest person on the planet or that you were a prince or a king and everybody looked up to you, and then in a moment, all of it was taken away. Your name, your money, your power, prestige, gone. And you were reduced to a pauper, a beggar, nothing.

How would you handle it? Well, during the depression, many people handled it by jumping out of windows at the top of skyscrapers. Christ chose it willingly. He gave it all up willingly. He, in taking upon himself human flesh, not only became subject to the laws placed upon man, but also the limitations and necessities and even temptations of the flesh.

He was limited to one place at one time. He got hungry. He got tired. He got thirsty and and sleepy. He suffered pain, both physical and emotional.

He was tempted by the devil to succumb to the desires of the flesh. To overstep his his place and to turn stone to bread. When it was not the will of the father in heaven. But he refused. He was tempted of Satan for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness while he ate nothing.

And he won. But he was tempted. But he suffered. In Hebrews four, it says, he was in all points tempted like as we yet without sin. That's what Jesus came down to from heaven And he knew it when he left.

Number two, Christ during the the last three years of his adult life on Earth didn't have a place to call truly call home. He left his home in heaven and he came down to Earth and when he left home, he left home. He said in Matthew eight twenty, The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nest but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. He traveled from town to town sometimes mobbed by some who were curious by others who were demanding of his time and power. Some who were genuinely followers of faith and yet many who sought to take his life.

He took up his time to teach them. All of them. He spent his days healing them. All of them. He spent much of his time training his thick headed disciples who were much like us, had a hard time understanding with little appreciation from those to whom he ministered, many of whom would turn on him in the end.

The people of his own town nearly took his life because he claimed to be the Messiah. And they said, We don't believe that. We're gonna take you up to the top of this hill and throw you off. We'll be done with that. But God stopped them.

And yet he did it tirelessly to demonstrate his love for them, to demonstrate his identity as their Messiah that they might receive him. But they won. For the most part, they refused. He came unto his own and his own received him not. But did he quit?

Did he give up? No. He kept healing them and he kept teaching them and he kept enduring. He could have gone back to heaven anytime he wanted to. But he didn't.

At what cost? But he wasn't done yet, was he? Christ, like his Old Testament type Joseph, was falsely accused. He came unto his own and his own received him not. Joseph's brothers didn't didn't have great regard for their brother either, did they?

Joseph suffered considerably, but not for his own sin, but for the sins of others. His dad fathering children with four women and showing such favoritism brought difficulty into the life of a young man named Joseph. His brother's jealousy which led to hate and eventually nearly murder of their brother. His master's wife who turned on Joseph and lied and had him thrown in prison for refusing his advances. Joseph suffered.

But like Christ, he didn't suffer for his sins, but he suffered as the result of the sins of of others. He was falsely accused like Jesus who was both misunderstood, rejected, and falsely accused, and even convicted. Isaiah points out that they who called for his crucifixion and observed that day esteemed him stricken stricken for his own sins when in reality, it was for theirs and ours, he was slain. Jesus was falsely accused of lying. He was falsely accused of blasphemy.

He was falsely accused of aiding the devil. He was falsely accused of breaking the law of God. He was falsely accused of breaking the laws of Rome. He was falsely accused of mounting an insurrection. And then at the end of all the false accusations, he was convicted and hung on the cross.

And yet despite all of this, he did not speak out in his own defense. Like a lamb to the slaughter, so he opened not his mouth. Also, Isaiah 53. He did not stir up others against his accusers. He didn't fight back.

He did nothing to free himself from the hands of his enemies, which he could have done with one thought, with one word. He could have called 10,000 angels, but he didn't need 10,000 angels. But as the song says, he died there alone for you and me. Beaten and whipped, humiliated till he was hardly recognizable as a man. Mocked as a king, as a crown of thorns was pressed down into his head, forced to carry his cross until his human body gave out.

At what cost Did he buy your salvation and mine? Was it free? No. Finally, Christ took that physical and emotional abuse like no other and then he what? And then he died on that cross humiliated and in terrible agony.

On the cross, he shed his blood and he gave his life. He became obedient unto death even the death of the of the cross. Romans five eight says, but God commendeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He paid the price for us. He paid the debt we could not pay so that he could pardon us from our sins, not because we were innocent, but because we were guilty.

And therefore, someone had to pay. And Jesus said, let it be me. And he took my hell on the cross. The nails were driven through his hands and feet as they hung him on a cross nearly or completely naked on a hill just outside the walls of the city at a main crossroad, crossroad. So, the most passers by would see him hanging there.

And disdain him. Every breath bringing excruciating pain pain. There he hung in agony and humiliation, a curse for our sins. For as it's written in the Old Testament, cursed is he that hangeth upon a tree. He was accursed as our curse was placed on him and he took our punishment upon himself.

As his blood flowed down the cross, as the life left his body, he cried, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. As the price was being paid, he screamed, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? As if for a moment in time, the son was abandoned of the father as he became sin for us. And then he cried, it is finished. What was finished?

Why did he mean it is finished? The price of our redemption was finished. The price was paid to redeem us, to rescue us from the chains of sin and hell. If we will but look to him in faith, who shed his blood on the cross of Calvary, The only means to wash away our vile sin and make us whole in the eyes of God. The lamb of God who took our sin upon him for he has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we in turn might be made the righteousness of God.

We could not change ourselves but he can. We cannot change our eternal destiny, but he can. But at what cost? His life, his suffering, his death? That all who believe might have hope.

Today, I stand here and I can say, I don't just have hope. I have certain hope. I have assurance from the God of heaven who sent his son to die for me. I don't know why, but he did. To pay my price for my sin on the cross, to redeem my lousy soul.

Because for some reason, it was of some value to him And what or what how it did cost him. But you must believe and you must receive. To as many as received him, that's who? That's Jesus. As your Lord and savior, his pardon, his offer to forgive your sins to be your Lord, to choose a new path, a different one than than Adam and Eve chose in the Garden Of Eden.

In Adam all die, but in Christ shall all be made what? Alive. This morning, you can choose a new path if you will receive the gift of God through Jesus Christ your Lord, if you will humbly surrender to him as your Lord. If you will put your faith and your soul in the hands of Jesus, he promises you heaven, forgiveness, and eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

He that believeth on him is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned already because he has not believed the name of the only begotten son of God, John three eighteen. Thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be what? Say, words of who? Words of God, not mine.

But he's the only way. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but by me. And if you think by sitting in a pew this morning, you're gonna make it to heaven, you're deceived. If you think if you get up here and you let me dunk your head in water, it's gonna get you to heaven.

You're confused. If you think that you're going to get to heaven by being better than the person sitting behind you or in front of you, you are wrong. There is only one who is good enough and that's Jesus Christ. And he died in your place and he paid the price for your salvation. How terrible would it be after he paid such price to reject it.

How terrible for you? How terrible for him? Don't let that happen. If you have yet to choose by faith Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior and asked him in repentance to forgive your sins, you can do that today. And join Christ on a new path that leads to life everlasting.

Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for Jesus Christ, our savior. Thank you for what he did for us on the cross. Thank you that you did for us what we could not do for ourselves. And Lord, all you ask is for us to trust in you and come to you to receive that which only you can give.

And we pray, Lord, if there's one here today that is yet to make that decision, I pray that today might be their day of salvation. If you keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed, I don't do this very often at all. But if there's someone here today that would say by raising your hand, pastor, I'm not sure, would you pray for me? I'd like to do that. Is there anyone here with everybody's head bowed and eyes closed who would say, pastor, would you pray for me?

I I won't come to you. I won't pray for you by name. I just just like to see a hand. I see a hand. Is there any others this morning?

Dear heavenly father, I pray for this one that's raised their hand that's unsure of their standing before you. I pray, Lord, that you would give them understanding, that you would give them faith, and, Lord, that they would make that decision to trust Christ as Lord and Savior before it is too late. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity of sharing your message this morning, and we pray for the salvation of this soul that has raised their hand today. In Jesus precious name we pray, amen. We're going to sing of hymn