I Peter 1:18  Forasmuch 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;
19  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
20  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
21  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.

Yesterday was Remembrance Day in Canada.
It was interesting to me, to observe the extreme difference between the two services I was involved with. The first service was held in a Catholic seniors’ home. There I was given free reign of the entire event. This is the second year they have asked me to conduct their Remembrance Day service. They scheduled the event for the day prior to Remembrance Day.
The second service I was involved in was in a non-Catholic care home. It was in an ecumenical environment. It was the first time I was asked to be involved in the service in that home. I assumed that they were going to let me conduct the service there as in the other home. We were told what time to be there and when we arrived, we discovered that the head of the recreation department had already started the service. This was her first attempt at this and she was having some trouble conducting the event. There were so many readings at that event. It seemed to me that it was a matter of keeping a tradition, but the meaning of the day was lost. One of the people in attendance at that event, was quite disturbed that a suggestion she had was not followed.
I had a brief time allotted to give a devotional. I was thankful for the time they gave me. It was sad to me to see how they missed the whole point of Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day should be more than reading a poem and other readings.
We should be stopping and considering why it was that so many young men were willing to risk their lives and their future to go into a foreign country to fight for freedom. The second world war was designed to stop a dictator from being able to advance his evil plan of taking over the world. He wanted to wipe out the Jews and the Christians. He was well trained in evolution and the result of that training was a distorted view of humanity.
God did not create man to be divided into colour zones. Evolution supports the Hitlerian idea of white supremacy. In the Bible, there is no hint of a superior group of people. God separated the Jews and gave them a land. He did that to demonstrate His goodness and power. Evolution divides people into “races”. God divided people into nations, by languages. Originally mankind was of one language. God caused the dividing of the people due to their rebellion at the tower of Babel.
As mentioned Hitler wanted to kill all the Jews and all the Christians. In fact he wanted all people to think as he did. There is still the same group that backed him, that is trying to destroy the Jews and the Christians.
In the second world war, the allied forces understood who the enemy was, in part. They focused on the man Hitler and his army. The allied forces did not realize the force that was encouraging Hitler in his goal. That force was the Catholics and the Muslims. Those two groups are still a major force in our time.
We are being told that it is not politically correct to name these groups as enemies of society. We are told we must be tolerant of them. Yet, there is no defence offered for those who are Jews and those who are born again Christians. It is fair game to attack them.
At the end of the second world war, the Jews were given “permission” to go back to their “homeland” and resettle there, the world has been interfering in the affairs of the Jews in Israel. The world seems to think they have the right to govern how the Jews think and govern themselves in the land of Israel. There is increasing resistance against even calling the land Israel. The Muslims chant: ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free’. The land of Israel has long been called “Palestine”. That is not its correct name. It is the land of Israel and it should be governed by God.
Israel is struggling in their land now due to their resistance against God. It is a strange thing to see how the Jews, whose very existence and longevity as a nation, can only be credited to God, and yet they are resisting Him.
Canada is not even two hundred years old. The way things look now, it does not seem as though it will even make it to two hundred years. If it does, it will be governed by a conglomerate and China will have a key role in that government.
Canada is currently governed by a group of people who do not appreciate freedom. They are trying hard to shut down any opposing voice. For those who are awake, we know there is a bigger agenda at work here. We know this because we have the Word of God. God tells us that the world is moving toward a one world leader. He is called the man of sin. He is also called “that wicked one”. We currently have a wicked one at the head of this country. He has people under him who are equally wicked. The head of this country is a puppet who bows to greater forces in Europe. Things are moving in the direction of a one world system.
Behind all of this is God. He created the world as a place to glorify Him. Man chose to defy God and thus the world was cursed by God. In the midst of that curse, God provided the way for individuals to come to know Him and be blessed by Him.
In our text God speaks of the fact that man’s traditions are not capable of redeeming man. Man is blinded by his sin nature. The things that sinful man thinks are good, are all failures. Sometimes it takes man a while to see the failure of his plans, but God tells us that plans made apart from His direction will all fail. The pride of man keeps him from seeing his failure.
God tells us that our hope is in Him. It is only through the blood of Jesus Christ that man can change course. God spoke of redemption in our text. Only God can set man free from the bondage he is born under. God had His plan of redemption in place before He created the world. His redemption is only possible through repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have tried to substitute the truth with worthless traditions. We are coming to the season now where there will be many displays of coloured lights and many presents purchased for people and put under trees. There will be men dressed in red and white who will be paraded as being everywhere present at one time. This is all designed to replace the God Who alone can satisfy the longing in man’s heart.
Then a few months after this corruption, we get out the chocolate bunnies and the coloured eggs that we teach children to hunt for. We accept a distraction from the truth that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer.
God directed Peter to remind us that we need to stick to the truth. Those who have been redeemed have believed in God’s way of redemption. It is a blessing to know Him. He alone can bring peace to the heart which translates to peace in the life.
The answer to the wars that are destroying lives today, is to know God’s way of redemption. It is through the blood of Jesus Christ that we can stop shedding the blood of humans. It is important for those who are saved to stop protecting vain traditions. We need to point people to that which is good and true. We have the Truth before us in God’s Word. The Truth is pure and powerful. When we try to mix the Truth with worthless traditions, we try to rob the Truth of Its power.
We can know the peace of God in our hearts today and we can help others to know that peace. We need to hold to the truth and forget about worthless traditions.
Pastor Bartel