The Chosen Stone and His Chosen People: Part 2

The Chosen Stone and the Chosen People

And our study is consisting upon, in this passage, what it means of the chosen stone and the chosen people. The chosen stone being Jesus Christ Himself, and the chosen people is the people of God. That God has chosen, that He has selected and appointed to come to Himself, the elect.

And as we look at this study, we're looking at Jesus Christ and the people of God. This is going to be a wonderful study. Last Lord's Day, we did an overview. And starting today, we're going to start breaking this down, verse by verse.

We're not going to be in a hurry on this, so we're going to squeeze out all the nutrients and the juices out of it we possibly can, by God's help and grace. I thoroughly enjoyed studying this text, and I pray that it's going to be a great joy for you, as it was for me, as we looked into this Word together.

And that's the way I look at it. We're studying it together, but it's more than just a study. The reason why we study it is to see Jesus Christ in all of His excellencies and glories, and that we may worship Him.

Our whole life should be centered in worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, in saying that, please turn with me in your Bible as we continue our study in the first epistle of Peter, chapter 2. The first epistle of Peter, chapter 2, and we are looking at verse 4 through 10.

Beginning with verse 4 to 10. And I'm reading this morning from the NASB. So, hear the word of the living God. Scripture says, And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice, or chosen, either word is appropriate, and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood for the purpose of this, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For this is contained in Scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed. This precious value, then, is for you who believe.

But for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone. And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word.

And to this doom they were appointed. But, don't you love that transition there? But, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

You, for you, once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now, love when he says that, but now you have received mercy. May God richly bless the reading of His eternal word to our hearts this morning as we look into this wonderful study and worship Him.

Let us pray together. Our Father and our God, how glorious, how marvelous, this day, this day, your day, to know that we have this great gift of that word unto us. So we say with the psalmist, it's not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to your name give glory because of your loving kindness, because of your truth.

So Lord, we thank you. Lord, we praise you for the great salvation that has come to us by your right arm. That right arm is your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that has come to us incarnate and has lived and died a perfect life, a perfect death for our salvation and shed His precious blood.

Lord, it will take an eternity for us to praise and worship you for this great, great sacrifice that has been given for us that we may have life and hope forever. Lord, we thank you. Our prayer this morning is that we may only see Jesus.

Oh, that we may see Him. And Father, as we hear the preached word this morning, we recognize only by the blessed Holy Spirit can you give us the eyes and the understanding and the knowledge to see who you really are.

We must have the spectacles of the Holy Spirit. And Father, we cannot put these on ourselves. You must do this. You must grant this to us by your mercy in order for us to see Him, to see you. And Lord, you're willing to do this.

You're willing because we know this in your word. You invite us to come to Jesus through your Son, to yourself. So Father, we pray, give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear, give us a heart to perceive as we worship you.

And help us, Lord, to worship you acceptably in spirit and truth. And in the end, may we obey you, Father, from the heart. May our sacrifices through Him alone, and Him alone, Jesus alone, be acceptable, pleasing to you.

And we know this, this is by faith and through the precious blood. Father, within this hour, we pray that your face would shine upon your church, just not here, but throughout this whole world, O God, because we're part of this church that you're building.

And we ask this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen and amen. There's a story I'd like to share with you of a university student who once confessed to a pastor, and this is what he said, I've come to the conclusion that I don't believe in God.

I see, the pastor replied. He said, please tell me about the God you don't believe in. Very wise to ask that question. So the student proceeded to describe a very vengeful, unfair, arbitrary, cosmic orb, who delighted, an ogre I should say, who delighted in watching earthlings stumble through life in search of meaning and direction.

After listening to the student's portrayal of God, the pastor wisely replied, I don't believe in that kind of God either. But beloved, like that student, most people in this world have a very warped, erroneous, wrong view of God, as you well know.

What we believe about God is everything. It's the most important thing about us, as Tozer said. Because they cannot see beyond their circumstances and the conditions that plague the fallen world, which is dark and very depraved.

They have a distorted world view, which originated with the father of all lies, that is Satan himself. That's really bedrock. That's not a very light statement. I've said, people have a false, wrong view of God.

And the reason why is that they do not know the God of the Bible. We also must keep in mind that the people that is blinded and deceived from a true understanding of God's goodness and mercy, sadly and tragically, people, not all people, but most people and many people, as Scripture says, believe a lie and are damned eternally.

This is a very serious matter. The souls of men perishing. But God invites people, invites all to come unto Him to have life and have life eternal. But the believers, the elect, understand. And by the way, they don't understand because of something within them.

It's the understanding that is giving favor to them by God's grace. They understand by the Holy Spirit. And God has granted them to understand this and understand the knowledge of the Holy One. And because we see beyond the physical realm and we see with the eyes of faith and that faith is a gift from God and experience His grace and that is God's favor and not as something that we earn or we can merit.

But it's by God's grace and God's grace alone. And God's kindness and His kindness is His mercy and His compassion that He has shown to us through Jesus Christ. So scripture speaks pointedly about the duties and speaks of the responsibilities of the believers.

But all of that is balanced with or by, I should say, the rights and the benefits we have in Jesus Christ. And that's what I like for us to really focus on and this is going to take us several weeks, several Lord's Day to go through because there's so much here when it comes to the privileges and the rights and the benefits in Jesus Christ.

So in writing to the believers that were experiencing severe persecution as we covered last Lord's Day, an overview, we've got to understand the audience in which Peter, the apostle, is speaking to. He's speaking to persecuted believers.

They were persecuted Jews, believers, and Gentiles as well but mainly a lot of Jewish Christians that lost everything that they had. Their houses, the temple was all burned and laid waste. So the apostle Peter is reminding them of their privileges.

We've got to get that right there. The privileges and called them to praise God for His abundant grace in Jesus Christ. And can I say this? This is our calling as well. As we listen to this word this morning, this is our calling.

And our calling ends, is what he says, you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. And then he says this, so that you may proclaim the praises of Him or the excellencies of Him, Jesus Christ, who has called you out of darkness into this marvelous light.

So that is our calling. So within these awesome verses that Peter gives to the believers, there's ten that I counted and we're going to unpack these marvelous and great privileges in the next several Lord's Day.

And I love this about expository preaching because we can do this, we can unpack it a little at a time and as we search the Scriptures and dig into the Scriptures by the help of the Holy Spirit for us to understand.

But I'd like for us to focus today just on specifically our communion with God. Our communion with God. We're going to look at others and unpack these great privileges that God gives to His people, the church.

But they include our communion, our union with God. That's the first we'll be looking at. Our access to the Father. Next would be our spiritual sacrifices to Him. Which is application, but we're going to look at that a little bit today as well.

But we'll see it more specifically, God permitting in the near future. Security. Our security that's in God.

Our affection.

Our love for God. Our dominion with Him. That He has called us to be kings and priests unto Him. Our possession. That we are God's possession. That God is our possession. That we are God's possession.

Holiness. That we are a holy nation. Illumination. He's called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. That's illumination. And last, we will be looking at mercy. That right there covers a great deal of who God is.

That's a great attribute of God, isn't it? God's mercy. God's compassion.

God's hesed.

That's the Hebrew. His loving kindness. His tender mercy. So we're going to look at that. So in this passage, in 1 Peter 2, is precisely what we need today at Redeeming Grace Church. We need to hear this.

I needed to hear this. I'm passing this to you as I study this. If anything, this is just not a study per se. It is, I believe, a time of worship. That we can just worship our God at this hour. And to thank Him for what He is doing in our lives as a small living stone.

You're part of something big. It is a timely word because it is about God's privileges in the new house. Not this external house or this external. It's about the house that God is building. A spiritual house.

A priesthood. And it is a word about how that's what we're going to look at in application. We can offer up to God spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to Him. We want to be acceptable to God, don't we?

I believe everybody has that intention, sincerely. But there's only one way that we can find out that we're acceptable to God. And we must go to the pages of Holy Scripture. Because it is the word of God that leads us in the right way as Brother Keith has already pointed out.

Jesus is that way, isn't He? And He is the center of everything that is being built on the church. He is the head of the church. He is that chief cornerstone. So there's much here to look at in the text, isn't it?

So we can't get all of it in one or two sermons by no means. So we're going to be breaking it down verse by verse, precept by precept as we look into it at least into maybe probably five parts maybe more, Lord willing.

I'm not sure. We'll just see how far it can go. But there's a lot here. So saying that, let's begin and look at verse 4 and 5. And it really covers our union with Christ, our union with Jesus Christ which is the foundation of the church is knowing Christ.

That will be our focus for today's study as we worship our God. So in these two verses pretty much gives to us how believers God's people are being built into a spiritual house. That's our union with God.

God is building His church. And Jesus Christ is the head of that church. And we'll be looking at it later on. Brother Keith sent me a really great message by R .C. Sproul talking about the church that Christ is building.

And that it is, He is the chief cornerstone, but also we do not need to forget this as well that the early church studied, they were steadfast in the apostles' doctrines. So what does that tell us? That the apostles and the prophets is part of that foundation.

That Jesus Christ is that chief cornerstone. He is the chief cornerstone. And after all, if you think of it, the prophets and the apostles spoke of who? Christ. They spoke of Christ, predicted, prophesied of Christ.

Spoke of His works and His perfections. And who He is. Because the whole Bible is centered on the prophecies about who Jesus is and who, when He comes in His first coming, His second coming. So the prophets and the apostles were holy men of God.

They were selected to be God's people, appointed men of God. Not everybody. People could not appoint themselves, could they? God was the one that selected these holy men and then separated them to speak for God and thus sayeth the Lord.

And therefore we have the written revelation of it. Aren't we glad? We should be praising God that we have.

66 books.

Of the Word of God. It's wonderful when you've got so many people looking about, searching, philosophical, and always in things of life, of the truth. They're in search of truth. Beloved, all we have to do is point them to the Scriptures and say, here's the truth of God.

This is, thus says the Lord. Isn't that wonderful to know that we have this Bible? And we should be utilizing it, and we should be studying it, and we should be saturating ourselves in it so we can not only for ourselves that changes our own hearts, but tell the world as well.

Well, how believers, God's people, are being built into a spiritual house is crucial because a spiritual house and a holy priesthood and how the spiritual sacrifices become acceptable to God.

Acceptable to God.

Now, I notice in these verses there are six steps given to us in Scripture, and I'm just going to hit these as bullet points, and we're going to revisit this in another sermon. I'll probably revisit it and go backwards in it, but today we're going to go forward and we're going to look at these how the way God gets spiritual sacrifices acceptable to Him.

And this has a lot to do with our union and communion with Jesus Christ. So let's look at these six steps given to us from the apostle Peter through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The first one that I see here is the obvious one.

The first one is, and the most important one is foundational, and that is through Jesus Christ. Now, that may be obvious. I heard an example of this one time when I was here and when I was with the Christian Missionary Alliance and I went to a conference and I heard the president his name was Peter Nanfeld.

I'm surprised I remembered that. Because as I get a little older, my memory starts to slip. But this was years ago. And he preached a wonderful sermon. I have forgotten and I've got it on cassette.

And.

I'd love to share it with everybody someday, Lord willing. Maybe I can transfer it to a DVD or something. A CD or whatever. But he preached on Christ in you, the hope of glory. And he was talking about the great revelation that has been hidden from ages past.

But this one revelation is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And he gave an example. He said, remember that commercial on television of that little old lady for Wendy's. Where's the.

Beef?

And it really rang to me. He said, in other words, he was saying.

This is the beef.

Right here. Jesus. Christ in you, the hope of glory. I love that illustration he used from a commercial of a little old lady.

Where's the beef? And he.

Actually called her the great theologian.

Where's the beef? Where's the steak?

You see, and isn't that so true? Jesus Christ is everything. I'm telling you, if we don't know who Jesus is, the Bible is not going to be alive to us. And it's the Holy Spirit of God that helps us see this.

We can't do this with ourselves, but if you have it within you to seek and search and go after God, do it. Because that is God's grace to you. Who is the living stone? Jesus Christ is the source of every spiritual privilege that we have.

Isn't that great? I want you to think about that for a second. Every spiritual privilege that you and I have.

Today.

Is because of Jesus Christ.

Jesus.

Christ crucified. Christ buried. Christ risen from the dead. Christ ascended. And Christ to come back again. Christ is central. And that's what Redeeming Grace Church is about.

We're about Jesus Christ.

He is to have.

All preeminence and no one else. And I really mean that. And I pray as I minister this that God hides me behind the cross. I just want to be a mouthpiece and a voice for Him because I want you to have a heart that burns after Jesus.

Verse 4. What does He say? And coming to Him.

Coming to Him.

As to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but His choice He's chosen, precious in the sight of God. Who's precious in the sight of God? Jesus is precious. Don't you love how Peter uses that word precious?

Jesus is precious. His blood is precious. Everything about Jesus is precious. Jesus Christ is the living stone. I love that metaphor. It's just not a stone or a cold stone or as we use the word stone dead.

Jesus is not dead. He is a living stone. A stone that is risen again. That's what He's referring to. He's alive. Jesus Christ is the living stone and Peter is thinking in terms of a building. He's using a metaphor as we looked at that last week of the church that Christ is building.

And in verse 6, Peter quotes from Isaiah 28 .16 28 .16 the prophet. You could go there, whatever translation you have but in the NASB this is exactly what the prophecy says from the prophet Isaiah. He says therefore thus says the Lord God.

Behold.

I'm reading from the Old Testament now behold I am laying in Zion. A stone, a tested stone or a tried stone a costly cornerstone.

Costly.

Cornerstone for the foundation. Firmly placed I looked at that word. Firmly placed literally means well laid. It's well laid. Isn't that beautiful? And he who believes in it will not be disturbed and in the literal sense Peter said will not be disappointed or will not be in a hurry.

That's what it means. Will not be in a hurry will not be disappointed, will not be disturbed. I love that because it's almost a sense of there's a sure foundation but it's also an assurance of of perseverance.

You see that?

There's a remaining, there's a perseverance there and God's people will persevere to the end. He that endures to the end shall be saved Jesus says. Jesus was the one, was it John Calvin that came up with the perseverance of the saints that last pea and tulip.

Jesus is the one that taught the perseverance of the saints. He's the founder of the church and even though I do believe in Calvin on that but he derived his teachings from the New Testament of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the Old Testament prophecy that Peter is referring to of Isaiah 28 16. Peter is referring to this in verse 7. And he also quotes from Psalm 118 22. The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.

He's the head of the corner the very corner stone that is Jesus Christ himself. And we will come back to this later. The second step I see is that those longing for him come to him. Jesus said this he that cometh to me I will no wise cast out.

And actually before he said that he said all that the father gives to me will come to me. Then he turns it around and says but he that comes to me I will no wise cast him out. There's much said here because there's an invitation.

The invitation is coming to him coming to Jesus coming to Christ. This is accurate biblical description. Speaking of salvation Jesus said this in Matthew 11 28. Come to me all you who are weary. Are you weary this morning are you heavy laden and I will give you rest.

That rest is not necessarily physical rest. He's talking about rest for your souls. We are to rest in God within our soul. That's internal and that's where the peace that passes all understanding comes.

It's an internal rest. And that rest is in Jesus alone who he is who he is and what he's done for us. Isn't that everything I'm telling you. This is central. It's foundational. The person and works of Jesus Christ is central and foundational to our faith.

And we must believe. This is our union with him our communion with him. And he says come to me all you weary and heavy laden I'll give you rest. John 6 35 Jesus says I am the bread of life. And he who comes to me shall not hunger.

And he who believes in me shall never thirst. Right there hungering and thirst. A lot of people think a lot about that physically nowadays don't they about thirsting and hungry. We must feed our body.

We must give our body water. But Jesus is basically saying I am necessary for your spiritual hunger and your spiritual thirst. And he says I am the one that will feed you spiritually. I am the one that you will never thirst again if you drink of me.

That's what he was basically telling the woman at the well drink of this water. Jacob's well you'll thirst again. But drink of the water that I give you'll never thirst. Isn't that wonderful. And this is what we should be telling people and reminding ourselves that it's because of Jesus Christ now.

John 7 37 again Jesus says if any man if any man is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Isn't that wonderful. Let him come to me and drink if you're thirsty. And you know you got so many people today that are caught up in spiritualism.

You know this is really the harvest is ripe. Isn't it because the people are thinking spiritual things. Most people are they're into yoga. They're into all these other spiritual activities. Or if you want to tell them something spiritual give them the spiritual truth of the word of God and tell them what Jesus says.

Jesus invites them to come to him again. So we need to be telling them these are metaphors for salvation. But notice in verse 2 and 3 which is central to everything from verse 4 to 10 I'm backtracking a little bit.

But notice what Peter says. And we looked at these verses and broke them down. And it was a wonderful study. I tell you I got fed. My soul was fed so much. But he says this like newborn babies. Long for the pure milk of the word long it long for it so that you may grow in respect.

To salvation.

And then he says in verse 3. If you have tasted. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Now let me stop there for a second. Everything that Peter says from verse 4 to 10.

Is really.

Centered on those two verses. Because it is the word of God that we are to long for like a baby longs for its mother's milk. We should crave for God's word and that's how we are to grow in our salvation.

There is no growing in salvation unless we dig into this word.

We will.

Be spiritually retarded and spiritually malnutrished and not growing in respect to salvation unless we are in the word of God.

Studying in it.

Meditating upon it loving it longing for it. So. Verse 4. Then he says this. And coming to him as to a living stone see the fit. Coming to Jesus Christ initiates all the spiritual privileges.

Why?

Because in him and Peter says this and he says that coming to him that God the Father has granted to us everything not some things but everything that pertains to life and godliness. That's what Peter says.

So everything that you need to know pertaining to life to this life and to be godly in this life to be godlike godliness is all found in the word of God. Everything you need to know is right here in the pages of scripture.

Paul said this in Ephesians 1 3 about the spiritual privileges and you know what he does. He breaks out into doxology he breaks out into worship to God. And he says in Ephesians 1 3 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

In who? In Christ. There you have it it's in Christ you. And then we are safe to say this that there are no spiritual blessings outside of Christ. In other words all the spiritual blessings all the privileges all the benefits is in Jesus Christ.

And if you want that we must be in Christ in Christ the Greek word translated coming to him. In 1 Peter 2 4 we looked at this a little bit last week. But I want to look at it a little bit more here it conveys more than just initially turning to Christ for salvation it's much deeper than that it actually implies remaining in Him or remaining with Him, abiding in Him abiding in Christ remaining in Christ.

That's what it means remain, abide. That is our union our communion with God and that's the only way we can get to God the Father is through Christ because He's the God man. He represents God fully and He represents man fully.

And that's how we. He bridges the gap, isn't that beautiful. And this is what the Bible teaches. And that bridge is found at the cross if people want to meet God.

A holy God.

Meet Him at the cross because that's where mercy and justice.

Kissed.

And it's all reconciled sinners are reconciled right there at the cross of Jesus. But this is also in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament this word was used also of those who drew near to God for ongoing worship.

So it's necessary for the people of God if we're going to draw near to God to look at this word in coming to Him. It's ongoing worship. Our worship should be ongoing it should never cease right. So when you and I came to Jesus Christ there was a permanent relationship of intimate personal communion that was established and before that you and I were rebellious.

Toward God.

We were alienated from the life of God from all of His promises and actually the scripture says in Ephesians 2 that we were without hope. Isn't this, hey, cut on the news in which I pray you don't much but if you cut it on all you see is a world without hope.

Without God.

They have, I say without hope in the sense because they're without God.

We have the hope.

We have the living hope, we have the good news, we have the gospel. That's why we should be proclaiming the excellencies of Him that has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We should be illuminating that light and telling people with our mouth of the goodness of God and the good news of God.

Well we've been alienated from the life and the promises of God, we were but now we've been born again to a living hope, that's what He says. You abide in Him, His word abides in you, you have a wonderful spiritual privileges and benefits.

Hallelujah what a Savior all because of Jesus. It's nothing that you've done, it's nothing that I've done. It's no good works of our own. Now good works and righteousness does follow us as a fruit. Our obedience.

That's important.

But into getting into salvation into Christ, it's all of God and nothing else. Nothing in my hands I claim, I bring simply to the cross I claim. So indeed you and I are privileged people and the greatest.

Privilege of all.

Is our personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I'm telling you if you don't know Jesus we're not gonna know God, there's no eternal life outside of Jesus, what did Jesus say when He prayed in John 17 3, and this is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent that right there, you know what I read about that, the Puritans preached more on that one text than any other text in the scriptures you know why?

Because that, without knowing Christ everything else is vain. You can know about the Bible you can intellectually have, you have people that, don't you run into people like this today. They could quote you scripture folks, they can even pray.

Like an apostle.

But I'm telling you, if they don't know Jesus Christ in humility and know that they're a child of God and broken and repentant over the sins in which they've committed against the Holy God and knowing Christ.

It's all vain.

It's all vain for you, it's all vain for me, that's why it is central to know Jesus Christ. Well next, the third step is the third is the result of this coming to Him, is that we are shaped into living stones living stones, stone by stone upon this boulder the chief cornerstone for the use in the spiritual building.

Now this is central what he's saying here in verse 5 he says this, you also you also, as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood for the purpose of this.

To offer up.

To God, spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. Now I want you to underscore this, through who? Through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ all of our worship all of everything that we do.

Our services, our.

Faithfulness, everything that we do to Him, must be through Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. It cannot be in the work of the flesh it cannot be of good works.

It is the works.

It is good works, but it is the works of Jesus. But it must be to get to a holy God and to satisfy and to please a holy God it's all through Jesus. The Father does not look at anything else.

But Jesus.

This is why the Father spoke, and we see this recorded in scripture as far as I see.

Twice.

Now you can correct me if I'm wrong at Jesus' baptism. After Jesus was baptized and identified with sinners, He came up out of the water, right? And He was not baptized because of sins, He was representing.

He was representing God's people. He was identifying with God's people. And as He came up, when He came to John the Baptist, which was the forerunner of Christ, the last of the Old Testament prophets, and Jesus said I'm coming to be baptized and John says, no, no I'm not even worthy to stoop down and latch your sandals.

He knew who He was and Jesus has suffered to be so, to fulfill all righteousness.

You get that? say Jesus.

It was to identify with us for God's people and then when Jesus went into the waters and came up the Bible says the Spirit of God, the Spirit the third person of the Trinity ascended, He didn't become a dove but He ascended in a form of a dove.

That.

Came upon Him.

In fullness.

And then the Father spoke.

And what did He say? This is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. They thought it thundered but the Father was saying I'm pleased in Him. I'm pleased in My Son. This is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.

And another time that the Father spoke was on top of the Mount, on the Mount of Olives a transfiguration when Jesus was transfigured before them.

There was a.

The glory just bursted out of Him and this was for His glories to come but here He was veiled in flesh that God had seen and the glories were bursting out and He was transfigured before them. And they were blown away, the apostles.

Peter really was blown away and James and John and then they started talking about they saw Moses and Elijah and there's a reason.

Elijah.

Represented the Exodus I'm sorry the Exodus and Moses represented the Exodus. Both was the Exodus in a sense because Elijah exited out with a chariot of fire but he represented the prophets and Jesus was in the middle.