Good Works Build The Temple of Christ

The Call to Read 1 Peter 2 and Hear God’s Word

Please turn your Bible to 1 Peter chapter 2. That can be found on page 1019, if you're using the Pew Bible. 1 Peter chapter 2. I will read from verses. I'll read from verse 1 all the way to verse 12. Go ahead and stand when you have that for the reading of God's Word.

1 Peter chapter 2. Long for this pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious.

You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture.

Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

They stumble because they disobey the Word as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners in exile to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Amen.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word. We know that man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. May your Word feed us today. May we feast upon it.

May you tell us more of the temple that you are building through Christ, the cornerstone. We ask that you would build that temple through us, that you would make us the living stones that we are to be oriented to our cornerstone.

In Jesus' name, amen. While we continue in our series on motivations on good works, and particularly in our sub-series on how good works advance the kingdom of heaven, and here in last week, this week, and next week, we are looking particularly at three metaphors that God gives us to talk about our relationship with Jesus Christ, the ongoing nature of that relationship, and what God is creating and accomplishing through our union with Jesus Christ.

Last week, we looked at how good works edify the body of Christ. Next week, we'll look at how good works beautify the bride of Christ from Revelation 19. And this week, how good works build the temple of Christ.

And as I've said before, many times people see good works as only being motivated by thankfulness. Gratitude is the only thing that would motivate good works. But really, scripture has given us many reasons to follow God and his law.

Uh, and one of these is the building up of that temple. If you understand the nature of his temple, if you understand the blessings of being part of his temple, and the blessings of, uh, of that temple growing and being built up, how much more will you be encouraged in walking in the law of the Lord?

Not merely by gratitude, but in seeing what that is accomplishing as God works through you. Here in this passage, he speaks of us as living stones. Peter writes, As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious.

So here it speaks of Christ as a living stone. And then it says, You yourselves like living stones being built up as a spiritual house. So us as living stones. Now, you might be inclined to think that when he uses the word living, he's particularly talking about about us being animate beings, rather than mere rocks, rather than mere inanimate objects.

But the word living has been used a couple of times before, uh, to a different end. In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3, it talks about a living hope. It says, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And then later on in verse 23 of that same chapter, it talks about the living word of God. It says, Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.

Now, in both of those, they talk about something that is living, or in some translations, something that is lively. Not only are these living in that they are things that continue, not only are they living in that they point to a living Jesus Christ, but they are living or lively in that they produce life in the here.

The one who sets his hope on Jesus Christ has eternal life. The one who hears the living word of God has eternal life. He has been born again in each of these cases. He has been saved from death itself.

And so it is, as we are oriented around Jesus Christ, we are ones who have eternal life that he fills us with his life. And that life has an end, not just in us being merely saved from death, but having a real vibrancy about us as we live the Christian life.

We have a living Christ, but we also have his life within us, us being filled with that eternal life. And so we are to be as stones oriented to him. This is what the cornerstone accomplishes. You get a very straight, exceptionally excellent stone that you place at the corner that all the other stones are to be oriented against.

So we are all to be oriented to Jesus Christ. He has been given to us as many different things. He's been given to us as a head, as we learned in relation to the body. He has been given to us as the branch, as the vine that we are the branches that come off of, giving us life.

But he is likewise the cornerstone, orienting all of us to be in such a way that we give glory to God. If you imagine a building where all the stones are off center and they fall down and they're not able to stand up straight, that is not a building that looks very glorious.

It's not something that gives glory to whatever that building is supposed to house. If it's some kind of monument to a particular thing, it would not bring that thing any glory. A temple is supposed to bring glory to God.

As we are oriented properly, we bring more glory to the Lord. Now, others in not being oriented to the cornerstone, they stumble over it. It says in verse eight, in the stone of stumbling in a rock of offense, they stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.

Now, throughout this, the contrast that's given is not between belief and disbelief, but between belief and disobedience. There's a way that you should see these things as opposite. That what God is talking about when he's talking about believing in Jesus Christ comes with the fullness of what that belief entails.

Comes with putting away these deeds of darkness, putting away malice, etc. And walking according to Christ's word, walking in orientation with him. So all others stumble over him. If you were to consider them as being like rocks, they would be disoriented with him and they would fall off the building.

Or if you were to think of them as people walking by, the cornerstone being large, if they were to trip over it, they would fall and be crushed by it. When it talks about a stone of stumbling, if you look throughout scripture at all the examples of the stone of stumbling, it is not talking about some small harm that's created when you stub your toe.

It is talking about the penalty of death. The stumbling that is described here is one where you would fall into an abyss and be crushed. So what is the temple that is being built up here? This is ultimately speaking of the universal temple of Jesus Christ.

This is talking about his universal church that is being built up. Bible uses this word temple to describe God's dwelling place in many different ways. Of course, we have the temple of the Old Testament that is anticipatory of the temples that we see in the New Testament.

But there is not just one temple that's described in the New Testament. There are quite a few. In John 2, we see that Christ's body is the temple of God. Because it is in his and by his body, I don't just mean his material body.

I mean the whole of his humanity, including his spirit. His humanity is the temple of God. Because it is in his humanity that God is united to humanity. And God dwells with us through Jesus Christ. So we have the temple of Christ's humanity.

We likewise have the temple of ourselves individually. The Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, dwelling within our own bodies. And so we are each individually temples of Jesus Christ. Likewise, it talks about the local churches being a temple of God.

That when we are gathered together, we have God's presence with us in a special way. We gather on Sundays. God is with us in a special way, blessing our worship in ways that are not had at other times.

People might use the phrase wherever two or three are gathered to talk about their workplace prayer meeting. But that workplace prayer meeting does not come quite with the blessing and authority that is being described in Matthew chapter 18.

That is something that is particularly had by the local church. And just to demonstrate that quickly for those who may be skeptical, Matthew chapter 18 is about excommunication. It's about church discipline.

You would never in your workplace prayer group, I would hope not, try to do an excommunication. Okay, you do not have that authority. The authority and power it's talking about having there, something that's had when the local church gathers.

That's the two or three gathered. And then there's also the global church. Some are skeptical that the term church should ever be applied to the global body of Christians that will all be united together.

Yet you do see when the Bible talks about the body of Christ or the bride of Christ as being the church, it has in mind one single universal entity that is the church. And the word church, which means gathering, is used in anticipation of the fact that the church will be gathered.

The universal church, if you've never thought about this before, the notion of a universal church is anachronistic. It is something that should strike you as ironic or paradoxical because there is no universal gathering right now.

All Christians are scattered abroad across the earth and they gather in local assemblies, but we are supposed to trust that by God's Spirit, we are united together and we are to trust that we are a church in anticipation of a physical gathering later on when it becomes fully manifest.

And this is what is being described here. What is being described here is not the many different temples where God dwells, but that one place that is being built up until the final end on that day when it will be completed.

This is that universal temple. And how is it a temple? It is a temple because it is through our orientation to Christ that we bring God's God glory. What does the temple do? It is in the temple that God dwells.

It is in the temple that people come to visit with God and see his glory. And it is us as a temple that would bring him glory in that way. Not particularly talking about worship. When it speaks of sacrifices, etc, what it has in mind here is not particularly worship.

Other times when it talks about us being a temple, it is talking particularly about religious worship, how when we are gathered as local churches, we worship God. Here, because it's talking about the universal church, it does not have in mind necessarily religious worship, but all ways that we would go about pleasing God with our lives.

And it combines this notion here also with being a priesthood. This does not just speak about us being a temple as being living stones to the exclusion of the activity that happens within it. But instead, we are like living stones who are also the priesthood.

The metaphor that's being made here blends those two things together, both the stones and the priests that are in the temple. It says in verse four and five, As you come to him a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

So we are a spiritual house and also a holy priesthood. We are both the location in which God dwells, but then also we are the ones who are to be doing the sacrifices that bring him glory. These things are all combined here.

A temple upholds the glory of its God. Okay, this is what a temple is. A temple is a house where God dwells. See, the tabernacle functioned this way. Solomon's temple functioned this way. The temple that was rebuilt functioned this way.

It is a house where God comes especially for his glory to dwell and to make his glory known to others. This is the case even for pagan temples, right? Even though it might be a false God and a false glory, this is even what pagan temples are supposed to accomplish, right?

If you were to go to a Hindu temple, they dress it up in a particular way so that it's supposed to bring the God's within it glory. And if you talk about a Hindu, about why they go to the particular temple they go, often it will be because of the particular God that dwells at that temple that they go to make their sacrifices to or whatever the case may be.

They will speak about it this way. Our God, of course, is a true God. Our God has a real glory but that glory is not entirely like the glory here of that we see in the Old Testament temple where it is very physical and outward.

Instead, it is something that happens through our orientation to Jesus Christ, the cornerstone. It says that we are to offer not material sacrifices but spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Later on in verse 9, it says, You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Being called out of darkness into his marvelous life, we are positioned to proclaim his excellencies, to bring him glory in a particular way. If you think about the Old Testament temple, in the Old Testament temple there was much gold.

There were stones that were lined up and built up so that it was a very large, impressive building. The Old Testament temple is the greatest religious structure of the whole ancient world. It was a massive, impressive, full of gold building.

It was incredibly glorious in a very outward kind of sense. However, we are supposed to glorify God in a different sense. We are a people who are pulled together into local bodies, united together by the Spirit, giving God glory.

Even when we are not gathered here in local assemblies, being just united through God's Spirit in our proclamation of his excellencies, even as we live out our lives in orientation to Jesus Christ. It is not merely speaking by which we proclaim these excellencies.

It is likewise by living that we proclaim these excellencies. If you see this whole passage, it describes it in that way. And why is that necessary? Well, if you think about the audiences that would come to see the glory of God in a temple, there's those who visit within and go within the temple.

There are those who are outside the temple who see his glories by looking on the great structure. And there are those who hear about these things from far off. Now, if we are not a temple that looks like a large building, how is it that people would see the glory of God?

Is it not through the spiritual sacrifices that we offer that are not material sacrifices, but rather those works of obedience that we render to him? Those within the temple see the love of God through the love of their brothers.

Those who are outside the temple know that we are truly Christ's disciples by our love for one another. Those who hear our deeds from afar off are the ones who recognize God's glory. All these things are made most manifest in our obedience, in our alignment with Christ as the cornerstone, him having been perfect, us being aligned with him in sanctification.

We are to be sanctified. To be sanctified is to grow in holiness. It's not enough to be just given the word to be part of the temple. It's not enough to receive the word to be part of the temple. In a mere sense where it has no real effect on you, where it's a living word, but it doesn't actually give you life, right?

It must fill you with a vibrancy. It is not enough that that word be spoken by us. God has made a temple for himself that would give him glory by that word being attended with our works, that he desires to bring himself glory, not merely by words, but by words and works attended with one another.

That these are the ways that he glorifies himself and makes his glory known. And you can see that in various places in this context here. Peter urging people to be that glorious temple. What does he tell them?

How does he instruct them to do that? As he's instructing them to believe the truth, he's likewise instructing them to live pure lives. These things go hand in hand. Verse one, so put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

He tells them they should long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation. This is talking about the milk of the word. And then what's the contrast with this? Some translations say the milk of the word.

What's used here is an adjective that's the word word turned into an adjective. So if you imagine, you could call it the wordy milk, which is kind of weird. That's why translations either say spiritual milk or they say milk of the word.

So this is talking about the word. And then later on it says they stumbled because they disobeyed the word. So what are we supposed to do? Well, we're supposed to long for the word while others disobey the word.

So it is contrasting obedience and disobedience. We are supposed to long for the word. We're supposed to love the word. We're supposed to be following the word. And as we do this, as we do this, likewise in verse 11, it says,.

Okay, so abstaining from passions of the flesh. And then verse 12,. So what is it that ultimately as the temple of God is bringing glory to God, it is through these good deeds that God has brought glory through his temple.

All this couched in the context of being pure, following after God's law. These are the ways that we are oriented to Christ, who is the cornerstone. He is the cornerstone. We are to be built up into him pure, making pure spiritual sacrifices.

There is also confirmation that this is what is intended, that not just all the context here talks about good deeds, but there are other parallel passages that make it very clear that good works are primarily the way that God receives glory through his temple.

Titus 2 .14, it says,. This was the first verse that we did in this whole series. And what does that sound very much like? Well, right here in verse 9, it said,. Remember Titus 2 .14,. So when it talks about a people for his own possession to proclaim excellencies, and then it describes proclaiming the excellencies through good deeds, is that not exactly what Titus is saying?

A people for his own possession, zealous for good works. These people for his own possession, God's purposes for them are the same in Titus and the same in 1 Peter. Also, you all have Hebrews 3 .5 -6 that says,.

Remember, Moses is the one who created the tabernacle, and he would go into the tabernacle to commune with God, often called the tent of meeting. He would go in there, commune with God, and his face would come out shining.

Testify to the things that were to be spoken later. But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son, and we are his house, if indeed we hold fast to our confidence and our boasting and our hope. Now Hebrews 1 talks about Christ being greater than the angels.

Hebrews 2 explains why you see him as lower than the angels. It's because that was God's purpose for a limited time in order that he might be raised up high above all things. And then after this, we go into Christ as a priest and what that implies for us.

And so Hebrews 3 is really starting off the whole rest of the letter. He tells us that Christ is faithful over God's house as a son, and we are his house, if indeed we hold fast to our confidence and our boasting and the hope.

And it goes through in the rest of the chapters and explains what it looks like to hold fast to that confidence, what it means to believe in all earnestness, and the things it describes are the living out that faith.

It continues and even into things like Hebrews 10, 24, where it speaks of thinking about how we encourage one another in love and good works. But then finally in Hebrews 13, it brings those ends together from Hebrews 3 all the way to the end to wrap up what it had said initially.

It says in Hebrews 13, 10, we have an altar from which those who serve in the tent have no right to eat. So he's talking about the Old Testament temple. The priests in the Old Testament temple can't, as they continue following a Christless Judaism, they cannot offer spiritual sacrifices at the true temple, which is the temple that Christ is building up now.

They have no right to eat from that temple. But then in verse 16, do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. What are the spiritual sacrifices that are pleasing God?

It's talking about sharing what you have and doing good. All these passages that talk about God having made a people for himself, for his own possession, for good works. He's made a temple for himself to offer spiritual sacrifices.

Hebrews 3, Hebrews 13, talking about that very same theme. What does it tell us that the spiritual sacrifices are? They are the good works that we offer. They are obedience to God. God desires obedience.

This is spoken of in the Old Testament too, that it's not sacrifices of cows and etc that he wants, but obedience, a true and humble obedience that comes from the heart. These are the things that really bring him glory.

And it's not as though he needs these things, as though he has benefited by these things, but it's through that that the temple becomes more glorious, bringing him glory. Those who come and see his glory experience it in a greater ways.

Those who are his enemies are more ashamed of the fact that they have been his enemies. Those who are his friends are more joyful in the great God that he is, the more that you, as a Christian who is part of that temple, enjoy his goodness, experiencing his glory further.

This is not something that is for him. He cannot benefit from anything that we offer. This is something that is ultimately for his people, that we would enjoy him more, knowing his glory in a greater way.

Now, these temple functions of bringing God glory are accomplished by good works, but it is also the case that the temple is being built even now with good works. Now, that distinction might not be obvious, but I'll explain.

Okay, we are being, we are being, the temple is being built up in two ways. Okay, we are living stones that are being added. There are more people being added to the temple, but then also this is something that is an ongoing process.

He talks about us being purified. The phrase I keep using because it is, because it fits with this notion of a cornerstone is that we are being oriented to Christ. We are being lined up with that cornerstone.

This is something that takes time. You can imagine that each generation of the church is being added as one layer to the, to the church, but then, but then as it's being added, it's not just a one-time thing where, okay, as you're born again, you're added, you're placed on, but then what does the mason, what does the mason do as he puts in the stone?

Well, he puts it on and then he aligns it and he sets it just right, and that is the course of your life, being set just right until you are cemented on that final day, having been, having had the holiness without which no one will see God.

So it's something that happens for each generation, but then not just in the adding, but also in the aligning. If you look at the various verses that talk about this being a process, in verse two, it had said that you may grow up into salvation.

Okay, so it's describing salvation as being something you grow up into. That throws some people off because they think of salvation primarily either being regeneration, which is being born again, or they think of it as justification, which is being declared right with God.

But the Bible uses the word salvation for all the different aspects of what God is doing for us. It uses it to talk about our sanctification, which is what's being described here, that we're being oriented to Christ, the cornerstone.

And then, and then finally for our glorification. So when it talks about growing up into salvation, it's not talking about being born again. It's not talking about being justified. Those are things that are accomplished.

We are right with God. We are forgiven by God. If we have truly trusted in him, those things have already happened. They're already accomplished. And so the orienting here is not to make yourself right with God.

It's not to have that kind of salvation because that's already been accomplished. What's happening here is for the sake of the glory of God, that it might be more enjoyed by yourself and others. There is a sanctification process of us being oriented to Christ, the cornerstone.

In verse one, it had said, excuse me, not verse one. In verse four, it says, as you come to him. So this is describing something that is happening. This is not something that has already, it's not that one time thing that happened, where you were born again.

It's talking about as you come to him. Hopefully you've already come to Jesus in the way that we use that phrase, right? Hopefully that's already been accomplished. You've trusted in Jesus Christ. You've been born again.

If you have not, trust in him today. There is no other way of salvation. You will be the one who disobeys his word and stumbles over him and is crushed. Trust in him. There is wonderful forgiveness in him.

But if you have trusted in him, then you are still in the sense that verse four intends, coming to him. It is something that is still ongoing. And then later on in verse five, it says, you yourselves like living stones are being built up.

Okay, this is something that is still being accomplished. You are being built up. These are all things that are happening as a process. Now, one of the exciting things about this that you can think about is what this means for the nature of this temple.

There are two ways that a temple gives glory to God. One is something that continues on forever, which is the priesthood that continually gives sacrifices. Another way that the temple gives glory to God is in the building itself.

Now, these two metaphors have been brought together here, but there is a distinction between them. There's a distinction between the building, which is being built up, and then the building finishes. And there's a priesthood that continues on forever.

And I do not think that I'm pressing the metaphor too far when I say that Peter would have us, and the Holy Spirit would have us to consider the differences between these things in our motivation to be oriented to Jesus Christ.

There is one thing that continues on forever. Those sacrifices. God will always receive glory through his church. Even beyond that day of judgment, his church will continue rendering him praise. His church will continue following his law.

It will continue giving him glory in that way. And if you look at the Old Testament temple, you can see that even after the temple was finished, there was a continual, not just continual sacrifices being made by the priests, but also there was additional buildings that were happening that weren't part of the main temple.

Right?

There's the portico of Solomon. That's not something that was made by Solomon. That's something named after Solomon. The portico of Solomon describes something later on made, I believe, by Herod. And then you have the pinnacle of the temple.

Likewise, something that was made later. These are all things that are added to the temple later. Throughout all eternity, God is going to build up the glory of his temple in these additional ways. Yet that core part of the temple is something that one day will be finished as each of the living stones is cemented into place, as God finalizes the work that he is doing in us here on earth.

If we were a traditional building made of dead stones, when the foundation is laid, you would be able to tell the footprint, the whole structure of the building. You might not be able to tell exactly how high it is, but you could have a sense of what the builders are making.

You could go over and look and you could say, OK, I have an idea of what that final building will look like. Because we are living stones, we don't have a real sense of what it is that God is going to, what shape of the temple he will finalize.

There is something that is real that is being accomplished by us recognizing our position as living stones and eagerly, zealously pursuing good works for the sake of his glory. In that, on that final day, either at the end of your life for yourself or on that final day of judgment, when he finishes this core temple that he is building up and he will no more do any of that kind of work, that will be something that will be finalized.

You have the ability now to contribute to this. I do not deny that Christ is an architect, that he has already in mind what is being accomplished, but your actions accomplish real things. When you pray to God, God really answers those prayers.

This is not just a, many people get bogged down with some notion of hyper-Calvinism, where because everything's fixed, the activities that I go about in my day-to-day don't really have an impact. That end is still going to happen anyway, so what does it matter?

No, God ordains the means as well as the end. Okay, he has chosen to answer prayers to accomplish things. He has chosen to work through good works to build up his temple. And as you go about good works, you are building up, Christ through you is building up his temple.

That core aspect of his temple that will be finalized on that day. Whatever we build up in this time that we have given us, he has given us, is what will be enjoyed throughout all the rest of eternity.

There are two, to say this differently, there are two kinds of works. He speaks of us having been a people that have been brought out of darkness. We are to proclaim the excellencies of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Okay, you have been called out of darkness and into marvelous light. You can proclaim these excellencies in two ways. You can proclaim these excellencies as one who is still surrounded by a world of darkness, but has been pulled out and are a light, being a light to the world.

And then secondly, you can on that day when all darkness is removed and you are a light in light, proclaim his excellencies. There is a particular way that we will remember all the things that God has accomplished, all the things that he did through us while the world was still in darkness.

There is a limited time in which those things will be accomplished as Christ is building up his temple. Is it not an exciting thing that one day we will look back at all the things he is doing now while we are lights, having been brought out of darkness, but being surrounded by a world of darkness, that we would have a great storehouse of things to look back at and rejoice about and see God's glory in.

There will only be a limited number. There will only be a finite number of these things. Perhaps they could be infinitely considered from every aspect, but there will only be a limited number of these because there is only a finite time in which they will be built up, in which God will be building this core aspect of his temple.

Pursue good works with an eagerness that is informed by the fact that the darknesses that you or that the proclamations that you make out of good works that are performed while the world is in darkness are limited.

There's a limited time to be able to glorify God in this way and to have those things memorialized in your stone. You ever see a building that has little lapidary statements? Lapidary means engraved in stone.

That has little statements in it, right? Maybe familiar with like the Hollywood walkway or something like that or buildings that have donors written into different stones. Okay, those stones that are being built up now are being engraved with the various glories of God as he shines through you, you having been one brought out of darkness into marvelous light.

And at these lower levels, at these core places of the temple complex, there is only a limited space in which those will be written. Take every advantage of the opportunity that God has given you in your limited life.

Take every advantage. You are being built up as a temple. Orient yourself to Jesus Christ. Reject all other standards. If you are someone who has your own standard in mind, you are no different than Adam who has ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, has taken judgment into his own hands, does not want the judgment of the Lord, do not be as our first parent who committed that first sin.