Our scripture reading for this evening hour on this Good Friday service is from three portions of God's Word. First, we'll turn to the New Testament, 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. And I just want to read the words of text that we hope to unpack with God's help this evening here in 1 Peter 1 verses 18 through 20. For as much as ye know that ye 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 the 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. Now turn back to the gospel according to Mark chapter 15. Mark chapter 15. And we'll read from verses 33 to 37. And here we find a record in Mark's gospel account of the death of the Son of God. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all record it, of course, and we'll read it this evening from Mark. Mark 15, beginning at verse 33. And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthanai, which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calls for Elias. And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone let us see whether Elias will come and take him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. And then just one verse from Psalm 116, Psalm 116, which we'll be considering also this evening. Verse 15, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Thus far, the reading of God's word this evening. Dear congregation, whether consciously or subconsciously, every person in the world has a value system that we live by. We have likes and we have dislikes. We have preferences. We have strong desires. We have low priorities. We have high priorities. Things that we're not very convinced of And then things that we have an absolute unwavering conviction about. We have things that are not very important and not very precious to us. And then we have things that are extremely precious to us. And maybe when we think what things are precious to us, maybe we think of things like family, or relationships, or friendships, or the church, or the Word of God, or God, or our blessed Savior. Peter, in his epistle, he writes in 1 Peter 2 and verse 7, unto you who believe he, that is Jesus Christ, is precious. And so of all the things that may be precious to us in our lives, it's a necessity that believers display the preciousness of the Son of God. And we value him as a great and a precious Savior in our sight. And so all these things may be very precious to us. But I wonder if we've ever thought about the reality, not just the concept, but about the reality of death being precious. The Bible teaches that in this land of the living, that death is Very precious. And on this Good Friday evening, when we commemorate the good death and really ultimately the precious death of the Lord Jesus Christ, we ought to consider with God's help from a few texts, first in the New Testament reading, the passage in 1 Peter, and then secondly in Psalm 116, how that first Jesus Christ's death is precious, and then as a consequence, or flowing from that, that every believer's death, as the psalmist puts it in Psalm 116 and verse 15, is precious in God's sight. And so our texts are 1 Peter 1 verses 18 through 20, which reflects the historical death that we read about in Mark chapter 15. And then secondly, we'll consider Psalm 116 verse 15. And our theme as we consider this is death counted as precious. And I want us to also reflect on, and I would encourage you when you do go home to read the Lord's Day 16 of our Heidelberg Catechism. I'll be making just a few passing references to that this evening. Really that condenses or consolidates or summarizes what the Bible teaches regarding both the death of Jesus and the death of his followers. Lord's Day 16, page 44 in the back of the Psalter book. And so our theme is death counted as precious. First, Christ's death, and then secondly, the believer's death. Death counted as precious. When we think about the preciousness of death, it sounds maybe just strange to our ears. It seems as if those two words, precious and death, don't belong in the same sentence. And yet I trust, you will see as we unpack these passages tonight, that the Bible is abundantly clear that both Christ's death and the believer's death is greatly precious. Precious to the Lord, and if it's precious to Him, that which is precious to Him, we ought also to count precious as well. And so as we begin to consider these precious deaths, we need to begin with the very death of the Lord Jesus Christ and the preciousness of His death. Because that's really the foundation of it all, isn't it? That's the foundation of redemption. You see, our death could never be precious without His death. And that's why we call today a Good Friday. when we think about death, because we remember the good and the precious death of the Son of God. From his death, everything good flows spiritually. Nothing bad comes from the fact that Jesus Christ died. And there could be, and there There could not be, rather, and there would not be good salvation, good success that ends in glory without the good and the precious death of the Son of God. And so let's turn first to this passage in Peter that we read from, 1 Peter 1, verses 18 through 20, and let's unpack these words that we read And so Peter, inspired by the Spirit, says, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold from your vain conversation, your empty lifestyle received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ. Peter here does not speak explicitly of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and use that term death in this particular text. But when he speaks about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, really that's just shorthand, isn't it? It's code or shorthand for the very death of the Son of God, the very fact that he shed his life's blood. points to the fact that Jesus Christ, indeed in his humanity, died. He didn't die, of course, in his divinity, but he did die in his humanity. And Christ's blood which speaks of his death is precious, first of all, because verse 18 teaches us that it redeems us. His death redeems us. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed, When Peter puts it that way, he implies clearly, doesn't he, that you are redeemed, and he states so explicitly in verse 19. And he says, you are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in these last times for you. And so there's this redemption This redemption that has happened for every single believer. Now, the term redeem means to pay or to pay back. It contains the legal idea to pay a ransom price. And to understand the Bible's teaching of redemption, we need to understand why we need to be redeemed, why we need to be purchased back. And the simple truth is, dear congregation, is because we have fallen out of relationship with the Lord. We in Adam, he our federal head, was our representative, and we fell out of relationship with God, and we need now to be purchased back through and by the precious blood, the death, that is, of the Son of God. And so Jesus' blood, which Peter is speaking of explicitly here, is that price that pays for a ransom. And he pays that ransom price, that redemption price, not to the devil, who is our father. You are of your father the devil, Jesus says, John 8. But he pays that ransom price to his own father. to redeem us. And really the idea and term redemption is that he forgives, he releases, he liberates, he redeems his church who is bound by the shackles of sin with his precious blood. Fannie J. Crosby, that well-known hymn writer and poet, she was so moved by the redemption of Jesus Christ that she wrote, and we often sing those beautiful words, redeemed how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child, and forever I am. And so Christ's death is precious, first of all, because it redeems us. And that's a truth that believers ought to ponder more and more. It's one of the great spiritual exercises that many of our Puritan forebearers, they excelled in. They would take a doctrine such as the death of the Son of God the redemption of the Son of God. And for an hour, they would just mull over that thought and focus on it and mentally consider all what it means and all what it means also to a sinner like me, to think about it deeply, profoundly, that Jesus Christ laid down his life. He shed his blood so that I may be freed. First of all, his death is precious because it redeems us. And secondly, it's precious because it doesn't redeem us by earthly things. Look at verse 18. He says, not with corruptible, that is with perishable things as silver and gold from vain conversation, which simply means an empty way of life received by tradition or handed down from your fathers. And so there is also preciousness, Peter is teaching, in how redemption does not work. And here he puts it in the negative. Our redemption does not come from traditions practiced by our fathers and our grandfathers, nor by us, no matter how moral those practices may be. Peter says here, it's really just emptiness. It's meaninglessness. in terms of redemption. Be very careful. It's not wrong to practice tradition. Some people say, well, since we're not redeemed by tradition, therefore it's wrong to practice tradition. We can't come to that automatic conclusion. We can practice tradition. You can practice tradition that has been handed down, but don't think somehow that it counts toward our redemption. Why? Because there's only preciousness. in the foundation of our salvation, and that is the death of Christ. You see, there's preciousness also in how salvation is not secure. Imagine once for a moment if redemption came because of some practice you engaged in. How secure would you feel? Well, I think at the end of the day, at the end of our lives, we would feel very insecure because we'd be wondering, wouldn't we, if we practiced that tradition faithfully enough. Again, it's not wrong practicing a tradition, but just don't base your salvation on it. And Peter says here, he implies here in really the whole of our text, that there's not only preciousness in the death of the Son of God, but there's also preciousness in how it doesn't work. You see, there's no comfort or preciousness if we would rest our salvation, found our salvation on empty traditions that have been handed down from our fathers. But there is a measure of comfort in that redemption doesn't come from an earthly source. And you see, when we have our theology right, as Peter did here, that becomes tremendously comforting. Because then when we stumble in our traditions, when we stumble in the practice of our traditions, and maybe we're not so good at passing the traditions down to the next generation, it doesn't trouble us in terms of our personal salvation, because we know that our salvation, nor our children, nor our grandchildren's salvation is based upon that anyways. It's based upon the blood of the Son of God. Thirdly, he says, but redeemed, implied redeemed, with the precious blood of Christ. You gotta continue reading. verse 18 and verse 19 in a seamless way, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, a silver and gold from your vain conversations received by tradition from your fathers, but, and then implied, redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as the lamb without blemish and without spot. And here, Peter, as a faithful Jew, is really conjuring up an image And that would have been very familiar to the Jew. And that is one of the practice of Passover. And we find that in Exodus chapter 12. And there, the Jewish household, they would take a lamb, a strong lamb of one year old. It would be taken from the flock and it couldn't have any blemishes on it. was to be slain at sundown, and it was for the redemption of that particular Israelite family. And what Peter is doing here, he is marvelously weaving the metaphor and the very language together, and he says, this is a picture of Jesus Christ. He is the perfect lamb. He is God's lamb. He is the one who secured a redemption He's the one who was slain in the strength of his life, not just one year, but at 33 years old. And he's this perfect spotless one that is without blemish and without sin. You see, Jesus is God's lamb. He is the lamb of God without blemish and without spot. We are redeemed by the lamb God and what a wonder that is because all we like sheep have gone astray and turned everyone to his own way but the Lord has laid upon him that's Christ the Lamb of God the iniquity of us all of every single believer and with his stripes with his wounds that is with his blood Isaiah 53 we are healed healed spiritually. There's preciousness in his death because it redeems us. There's preciousness in that it doesn't redeem us by earthly things. There's preciousness in his death because it's the precious blood of the Lamb of God. But then there's also preciousness in that the Lamb was ordered to die, the Lamb of God was ordered to die before time began. We gather tonight, don't we, for Good Friday. And tonight we gather on this particular night because there was a particular time in history when Jesus Christ actually died. And when we piece together all the parts of the gospel, we come to the conclusion that that was on a Friday. And he did arise on the Sunday, the first day of the week. But even though Jesus Christ died physically on that day, yet Peter here speaks how that is anchored in eternity before. Verse 20, Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world. And there he's speaking of, of course, of the precious death of the Son of God. You see, there's preciousness, dear congregation, in that Christ, that the death of Christ was not an afterthought of God. And I say this respectfully, it's not like, well, man sinned and then God began quickly scratching his head and having to get together and to say, well, you know, what do we do now? And come up with a quick plan to fix this problem. That's not the way it went at all. You see, Christ was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The Lord's plan of redemption was eternally planned, knowing man would willingly plunge himself into ruin. And so the Lord ordained his son to die his precious death. and to pay the penalty for sinners. And so we may take comfort knowing that the very death of the son of God. Yes, it happened at one point in time in history, but it has eternal roots. And that is a tremendous comfort. This was anchored, this loving act of death was anchored in the heart of God before the world began. Even before you and I, dear believer, were ever born, the whole plan of redemption, the death of Christ, the salvation of your soul was beating in the loving heart of God because He's a loving God and He chose and is choosing and did choose to save you. The Lamb of God was ordered to die before time began, who was ordained before the foundation of the world. And next, Peter writes, the lamb that died was revealed, verse 20, but was manifest, literally revealed in these last times for you. You see, there's preciousness in this, Peter sees, that Jesus Christ, he revealed himself to humanity. There was a point in time when he chose to make his grand entrance into this world. When the fullness of time has come, Paul wrote to the Galatians, he was born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. And so he's referring first and foremost to this time in history when Christ is ushered into humanity. And he says, in these last times, in this New Testament time, he's revealed unto you. And indeed, the New Testament church had a great privilege, didn't they? They got to see the very Son of God. But I think there's probably something more here as well that Paul speaks of as well when he speaks about the revelation of the Son of God. Paul writes about it in Galatians 1 and verse 16, where he speaks about the personal revelation that he had of the Son of God. He stands amazed and wrote that Jesus Christ was revealed in me that I might be a preacher and to share the glorious gospel of the Son of God. It seems like the great apostle Paul just couldn't get over this staggering, overwhelming thought that Jesus Christ also personally came to him as a fallen, wretched sinner and chose to reveal himself in his saving grace to him personally. And that's somewhat of the language here of Peter as well, but was manifest, was revealed in these last times for you. And I wonder if we stand with awe and wonder that Jesus Christ revealed himself at all to all mankind, that's a wonder in and of itself, but then he does it individually to us as well, doesn't he? And why do we sometimes, whether sitting in church or maybe with our friends, stand in awe that we may feel the sweet preciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the next one may be sitting beside us or standing in the same circle, doesn't see it, doesn't know it, doesn't feel it, doesn't experience it. Peter's overwhelmed by that. Paul was overwhelmed by that. And these last times he's revealed, he's manifest to you. Philip Bliss, another gospel hymn writer. He wrote, I will sing of my Redeemer and the wondrous love to me on the cruel cross he suffered from the curse and set me free. I wonder if we can sing that. And do we sing that? And when we sing that, do you sing it with all of your heart? Is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ precious to us? Yes, it's a doctrine. It's a teaching. It's a biblical truth. But it has to be more than that. It's wonderful when we can acknowledge it and express it with our lips, and necessary that we do. But we have to feel this glorious truth in our hearts. That's why Christianity is called experiential Christianity. We experience the glorious truth in our heart that Jesus Christ's death is precious. But as a consequence. As an outflow of that glorious truth that Christ's death is precious, so also the Bible teaches, and many years before, the psalmist wrote in Psalm 116, and we read it together, Psalm 116 and verse 15, that the believer's death is precious as well. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Now, from a human vantage point, when we think of death, we don't usually have happy and joyous thoughts, do we? Death carries with it a sense of a final separation. And death has sin associated with it. When Adam sinned in the garden, God said to him, didn't he, the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. And so when we think of death, we think of the results of sin, we think of separation, we think of pain, we think of missing a loved one, we think of the big void that they leave for us. And so we oftentimes have very negative thoughts associated with death. And many times, you speak to many people, you speak about death and they don't want to talk about it. because it has so many negative connotations attached to it. And understandably, from a human perspective, we get it. We understand that. But yet here, the psalmist is inspired to write, many years before the death of Jesus Christ, that precious in the Lord's sight is the death of his saints. Precious in the sight of God, from God's perspective that is, is the death of his saints. Saints not because they feel so saintly, but because God has made every believer a saint, a holy one that is. through the precious death of the Son of God. And so we ask ourselves in our second and closing thought this evening, why are God's saints' deaths precious? Why is it so? First of all, simply and plainly, they're precious because God said it to be so. He spoke it to be so here in this in plain language. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. And in a certain sense, even though it is a statement, this is a promise as well, isn't it? It's not like it might be precious in God's sight when one of his saints die. No, it's a promise that will be fulfilled in God's sight The death of his saints is a precious thing. And I can't help but think how this ties together with 2 Peter 1 in verse 4, when Peter writes that we have been given exceedingly great and precious promises. Also this one. And this is God's word, this is God's promise. And you see, if I was saying this to you, if you say this to one another, if we say this to the next person, well, it could be true, it might be true, but it also could be false. Because you and I are prone to error and to sin. But this is the word of God, the plain, simple word of God. And here, I say to you, as we think about the idea of death, the death of Christ, and our impending death as well, because death is something that will capture us all, of course, unless Jesus comes before that. Our death, when we're a believer, is precious. And it's precious first, because God said so. And I find great comfort in that. Why? Because it's God's Word. You see, we can find comfort in so many things, in so many expressions. Sometimes we find comfort, don't we, in circumstances. Sometimes we find comfort in some people's words. And there can be a measure of comfort in these things. But the ultimate lasting foundational comfort that we can rest our whole soul's weight upon is the word, the unchanging word of the living God. The flower and the grass, It rises and it's cut down and it withers and it vanishes away, the word tells us. But the word of our God lasts, remains forever. And so first of all, the death of every believer is precious because God said so. But then secondly, The death of every believer, subsequent to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, is precious because in this Christ's purposes are fulfilled. And the logic goes like this. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ came to seek and to save the lost. And that plan, you see, includes sending his son to die on the cross for sinners, and then actually applying that salvation to every individual sinner that he purposes to save. But you see, Christ's work is not done when he died on the cross. Christ's work isn't even done when he applies that blood to the soul. Christ's work is not done as he's working on the sinner all the way through sanctification. But Christ's work of redemption is complete, as far as we can understand it, when that sinner arrives home with him in glory. And so you see, Every time a sinner repents, the Bible tells us, there is joy in heaven. But every time a saint passes away, and to go and be with the Lord, The Lord rejoices. Why? Well, because the purposes of Christ and redemption are fulfilled in the life of every individual saint, just like the psalmist here is saying, precious, in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. You see, every time one of God's people passes away, Christ can well say with assurance to his father that which he said also in the high priestly prayer in John 17, of them which you gave me I have lost none. You see there's satisfaction in Christ's heart every time one of his children passes away because that is one of the great purposes he came to die for. that his children may receive the gift of eternal life and dwell with him in glory forever. It's not only a wonderful homecoming for every child of God, and we oftentimes focus on that, don't we? But it's also a wonderful homecoming and a joyous thing for the Son of God every time a saint dies. And long before Jesus physically died, the psalmist says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Then to. Saints' deaths are precious because sin is abolished. Sin is abolished. One of the great purposes in God's plan of redemption is that He came to not only seek and to save the lost, but also to abolish sin. 1 John 3, for this purpose, John writes, the Son of God was revealed, was manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil. And that includes, of course, sin. And you see, when God's saints die, all sin is then gone forever. And Lord's Day 16 really sums this up so beautifully. I believe it's one of the most beautiful question and answers in the entire Heidelberg Catechism. Lord's Day 16, question 42, since then Christ died for us, speaking there of the death of Christ, since then Christ died for us, why must we, that's believers, also die? And the answer, our death is not a satisfaction for our sins. Embedded in that idea, of course, is Christ's death was a satisfaction for our sins. Our death is not a satisfaction for sins, but only an abolishing of sin and a passage into eternal life. You see, death is the wheelchair Perkins wrote, that ushers us in to glory. And what a welcome and precious thing that is for Christ and for his people. Because we know that for us, sin is a great grief to us. And we also know that for Christ, sin is a great grief to him. He had to die. for our sins and with our sins. But you see, when a sinner dies and goes to be with the Lord, the sin in that individual no longer functions and will never function again. It never will operate in a sinner after they die because they're dead. And when we're dead, we can't sin. Sin is completely annihilated at the point of death. And when our soul goes to be with the Lord, that is also why in the sight of God, the death of a saint is precious. And then finally and lastly, death is precious in God's people because suffering for a believer is finally finished. In this life, we do suffer pain. We suffer sometimes a lot of pain. In this world, John 16, Jesus promises you will have tribulation. Many are the days of darkness, the psalmist writes. But you see, after the death of God's saints, there is no more suffering anymore. Revelation 21, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away. And what a happy, what a precious, what a beautiful time that will be when all former things, including pain and sorrow, is gone forever. And so you see, Jesus' death is precious. But also the believer's death is precious. And so as we close this Good Friday evening service together, I pray that we would flee afresh to the blessed wounds, the ever flowing blood of the Son of God that points, of course, to his blood. His blood, metaphorically speaking, is not dried up on Calvary's hill. Even though the stains of blood that drip down on the rocks at Golgotha there, they are long, long, long weathered and washed away. But spiritually, his blood is fresh every single moment, every single second. The fountain, Zechariah tells us, is open to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for the city of David, for both sin and for uncleanness. There's tremendous comfort in this glorious truth, that the blood, the death of the Son of God is precious. And that as a consequence of that, as a result of that, Precious in the Lord's sight is the death of his saints as well. Praise God for this glorious truth. Amen.