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But I'd like to minister to you on the chosen stone and His chosen people. The chosen stone and His chosen people. This will be part one. So please turn with me in your Bible, the Word of God, the Word of the living God.
It's so wonderful to have this Word in our own language this morning. To the first epistle of Peter, we're looking in our study here, the first epistle of Peter, chapter 2. Chapter 2, beginning with verse 4, we'll be reading to verse 10 in this section.
And again, this will be an overview today, but in this section of Scripture, this book and chapter, because it covers so much ground, we're going to be breaking into and breaking this ground. And using that word breaking, we're going to break it up into different parts so we can get the most out of our study.
That's what I enjoy the most when I'm studying a passage of Scripture or a section of Scriptures. It's important that we can get everything we can out of it. Well, beginning with verse 4, hear the Word of the living God.
I'm reading from the New King James Version this morning. Coming to Him, coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Therefore, it is also contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious.
Isn't that wonderful? But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble being disobedient to the Word to which they also were appointed.
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Listen to these privileges. His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Verse 10, who once were not a people, but are now a people of God. Who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. May God richly bless the reading of this holy Word to our hearts this morning.
Let's pray and seek the Lord's face and His help and blessing within this hour of worship and study as we look into this awesome passage before us. Let's pray.
Father in heaven, our God, our Lord, our Master, our Heavenly Father. Lord of heaven, Lord of earth, the Lord of all.
Lord, we thank You for this immeasurable gift You've given to us. Your holy Word. Oh God, save us from apathy. Lord, save us from apathy. Save us from ourselves. Save us, Lord, from stumbling. Oh God, help us by Your Holy Spirit.
We pray that we may hear Your holy Word this morning and that we may be equipped for every good work. And we pray this, Lord, only by the help and the power of Your Spirit. Our teacher be showing us the things of Christ to me.
Oh God, may Your glory be our supreme concern in our life. May Your glory be our supreme concern in life. The chief end of man, to glorify You and to enjoy You forever. Lord, we ask this for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In His name we pray, amen and amen. First of all, I'd like to say this. To truly understand our text this morning, verse 4 to 10, we must once again revisit something. And that is remember the audience.
Remember the audience in which the Apostle Peter is writing to. And also remember the background to which Peter the Apostle was addressing. So please keep this in mind. That the book of 1 Peter was written to encourage God's persecuted people.
They were a very persecuted people. This is foreign to us, here in America especially. And some parts of the world it's not so foreign because they are undergoing some severe persecution. They would resonate with this.
But it's important that we understand that the people that he's writing to were dispersed. They were scattered. They were persecuted. And I happen to mention this to someone that professed to be a Christian.
Here not long ago, actually last week, they professed the name of God and they deny God by their works. And I mentioned persecution and actually this particular person just pushed away and didn't want to hear what I had to say.
Especially about persecution. It's sad. And Elizabeth Elliott said this, suffering in the Christian life is normal. We might as well accept that. It may sound strange to people's ears. But this is so true.
All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. They shall suffer persecution. And as the flesh does not invite this, we by no means invite persecution, but when persecution comes, especially for the sake of Christ,.
We are to rejoice.
We are to count this in joy because he is worthy to suffer persecution for. But Peter the apostle here, he's an apostle of Jesus Christ and he is actually addressing some persecuted people. If you remember in verse 1, this whole book begins like this.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. Now it is significant to these people of God who were dispersed, scattered abroad, that were persecuted, to read who it was that was writing this letter to them.
And he begins by saying, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Peter was an eyewitness of the resurrected Christ. This is why this is significant. And as an apostle who was personally called and commissioned by Jesus Christ as well and who ministered with Jesus Christ even after his resurrection.
Now why is this important for us to get this in this text? I'm going to tell you why. Because the church was built upon the foundation of their teaching, of the apostles' teaching. And scripture says, as we'll be looking at in just a minute, that Jesus Christ himself is that chief cornerstone.
He is that cement.
He is the rock.
So that's why it's important to keep this in mind. So Peter invited his readers, as he's writing this, to keep coming to Jesus. To keep coming to Him. Coming to Him. But actually, the original Greek says, keep coming to Him.
His idea of remaining. So Peter invites his readers to keep coming to Jesus, to be built upon that, into a spiritual temple of a household of God. The household of God. The temple. Now, this was good news for God's people.
God's elect. Who were experiencing, keep in mind, when they were undergoing this persecution, they were experiencing homelessness. And they were wondering about where to go. They didn't have a home. And they probably were wondering where God was in all of this.
You know, a lot of people do this in persecution. But we need to be reminded, God's in it. God's in it. And this is what Peter does. He encourages them. But in the latter part of the first century, a little historical background here of the letter.
The letter of the first Peter addressed Jewish and Gentile Christians that were scattered abroad, dispersed in Asia Minor, as the scripture says. And they were living in a shattered world at that period of time.
Many of the cities were burned down. The Romans, the Roman military ruled through power. Their military power and tyranny. In 70 A .D., as you well know, this was very significant to Christian history.
But in 70 A .D., the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem temple. This was a fulfillment of prophecy. And now keep that in mind. So they were without a temple. There was no temple. They were homeless. They were without a home.
Now could you imagine not having a place to go worship God, offer up sacrifices, a place. They didn't have a home to have a family. These were Jews and Gentile Christians, believers, who were thrown into a state of a crisis that is almost impossible to overstate.
Actually, the loss of the Jerusalem temple was like a 9 -11 event to bring it into our day, but on a much more devastating scale. That would be hard to believe to some people,.
But it was devastating.
The temple had been the center of the Jewish life for these people. Now, why? Why? I want to tell you why. Because it was very important. It was the place where God's abiding presence was among God's covenant people.
This is where they went for daily sacrifices. The temple was the place where all Jews everywhere had access to God to offer up the sacrifices in which they did. But with the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, some major changes occurred and took place.
And here are some that I read about. I put my own words here, but this is very significant. The Sanhedrin was suspended. Sacrifices were terminated in the temple. The temple feast ended. The land was confiscated.
Now, could you imagine the devastation here? And this was very important for us to remember that it was our Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church, that actually was the one that prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem.
Now, you can read this in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John is the only gospel that does not have... These are called the synoptic gospels. The reason why it's called the synoptic gospels is because they look at the same thing, but through different lenses.
And I say through different lenses, through a different view, so to speak, from a different eyewitness. They put it in their own words. But it's the same story told by different writers. So Matthew, Mark, Luke all speak of this prophecy.
And it's contained in the discourse, the Olivet Discourse. And it's when the disciples come to Jesus and ask about the end times. Let me read Matthew's account. You can go with me there if you'd like to.
But Matthew chapter 24, verse 1 and 2. Verse 1 and 2. Now, this is very significant. This is a powerful discourse in Jesus' teaching. At this time, He's actually heading to the cross. There's many parables.
If you really want to study, just not end time events, but what's going on, read the Master Himself. Give the most lengthy answer ever given to a question that the disciples gave in verse 3. But I'm drawing our attention this morning to verse 1 and 2.
And to get the backdrop, Jesus just pronounced judgment over Jerusalem and condemns the Pharisees in chapter 23 of Matthew. But if you notice, Jesus laments over Jerusalem. And before He comes to this part, His lament in verse 37 of chapter 23.
Notice,.
Oh Jerusalem,.
Jerusalem,.
The one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. And this is great love that He's weeping actually over the people of God in Jerusalem.
But you were not willing.
See?
Your house is left to you desolate.
Notice what He says.
Your house is left to you desolate. For I say to you, you shall see me no more till you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And that will be at the second coming of Jesus Christ. Now, we go to chapter 24.
And this is what we're drawing our attention to. Here's the prophecy. Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple.
The temple.
The great temple in Jerusalem. And His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. Of its grandeur and the greatness of it. But Jesus said this.
He said to them,.
Do you not see all these things? Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. That's exactly what happened. It was a destruction.
And then, of course, the disciples' two questions comes up. And there are two great questions now as He sat on the mat of olives. The disciples came to Him privately saying, Tell us, when will these things be?
And what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? And all this happened in 70 A .D. A great fulfillment of prophecy. And then Jesus gives a breakdown of... I say a breakdown. Oh, my goodness.
It's one of the most incredible answers you will ever read in scriptures on what the tribulation period would be like. The second coming of Jesus Christ. He speaks about the parable of the fig tree. He gives illustrations such as the days of Noah.
And He goes and gives more illustrations of two servants. And then He gets into the parables of the ten virgins. And then the judgment of the Gentiles. Tell me about the end time period. That's another time.
But what's important here is that 70 A .D.
This was fulfilled.
And Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple along with it. Now, why is this significant? Because God's people are without a temple here. That's the point I'm bringing out. God's people... And as Peter writes this...
And here was Peter listening to the Lord. And he gives the answers to the questions that the disciples had about the end time. But Jesus basically expands on this. And these people, these persecuted people in Asia Minor without a temple, without a home.
So the people of God in 1 Peter they're strangers, they're foreigners. Without a temple, without a home. Pilgrims, foreigners, non-citizens in a foreign land. Think about this. Could you imagine putting yourself in their shoes?
They're excluded from voting, from landowning. They are restricted from intermarriage. Could be forced into military service. They were day laborers without hope of permanence and respectable work. You think of it.
The survival would be hard. But keep in mind they were suffering people of God. That's my point here for us to really understand our text. Because suffering is mentioned and it's alluded to so much in the book of 1 Peter.
Did you know that it is alluded to and mentioned over 22 times in the book of 1 Peter? Suffering. Suffering. 22 times. So how then can we account for their suffering? How then can we account for their suffering?
Well, it is likely that they suffered the ordinary disdain of foreigners in the ancient world in that time period. But they were verbally attacked. We know that they were verbally attacked and humiliated as believers in Jesus Christ.
So how do we know this is a fact? Well, the record from God's Word tells us. That's our steadfast surety, isn't it? The Word of God. The Word of God tells us. Now, I'm not going to turn to these passages of Scriptures but I'm going to bring them out to you here of some of the sufferings they went through.
In 1 Peter 4, 4, they were blasphemed. They were blasphemed. In chapter 2, 23, and chapter 3, verse 9, they were insulted. They were insulted. In chapter 2, verse 12, and chapter 3, verse 16, they were slandered.
They were slandered. In chapter 3, verse 16, disparaged. And in chapter 4, verse 14, they were reproached. And in this letter itself offers more clear explanation.
The believers were verbally abused. No doubt about it.
And also 1 Peter 4, 4, because of the name of Christ. Because of the name of Christ.
Persecuted.
They were labeled as Christians. I looked this up and it's exactly right. They were labeled as Christians. Now, I want to bring something out here a lot of people don't know in Christian churches today.
In 1 Peter 4, 16, actually from a Latin Roman perspective, Christ had been viewed as a criminal who died shamefully on a cross years earlier. And anyone who continued to follow Christ was called in the way.
The way.
In the book of Acts you see this. And was considered superstitious and foolish of those who believed in Christ. So they were looked down at and disdained for the name of Christ. So actually, what I'd like to say is the believers, the disciples of Jesus, of Christ was called Christians and that word Christian was used in a mocking way.
It was mockery. It was a disdaining way. You know, everybody's a Christian now but back in that time period in the early church to be called a Christian.
They were mocking them.
They were mocking them. You could see Agrippa.
He says,.
You almost persuade me as Paul was presenting him to the gospel you almost persuaded me to be a Christian. But he said that almost in a mocking way. So upon reading 1 Peter 2, 4 -10 in our text today, the original readers, think of this, as they had Peter address this, heard something very encouraging.
And it's very comforting to them to know here they are homeless, being persecuted, there's no temple, and then Peter tells them and coming to Him, coming to Him, keep coming to Him, to a living stone.
A living stone. Rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. Now that don't mean a lot to us because we don't understand the persecution. But they understood the persecution in that time period.
So we consider, I like to consider three things and by God's help we're going to, like I said, touch on this, but I like for us to look at these three great truths in our text today. First of all, I like for us to see God's people are stones in the same building.
God's people are stones in the same building.
Second,.
I like for us to look at God's people are priests in the same temple. God's people are the priests in the same temple. And third, with application with this, I like for us to see God's people are citizens.
They're citizens of the same nation.
Citizens of heaven.
Isn't that wonderful? They're rejected in this world, they're disdained in this world, they're persecuted by the world,.
But citizens of heaven.
Isn't that wonderful?
That's the way we should be looking. We're passing by, folks. It's a short time. So just in comparison to eternity, it's going to be all worth it. And look at the persecution that they were undergoing at that time.
They lost their homes. There was a fire that Nero just burned, leveled everything down. And here they are. They're homeless, without a temple, without a place to worship God. And here Peter says,.
No, you're the living stones.
God's building up a house in you. God abides in you. See, and that's what he's getting to. That's the point.
So this study is going to really deepen.
And broaden us in our faith in the Lord Jesus. It's going to really encourage you. I really pray. And it encouraged me as I was studying this. I was just burying myself in Scriptures and been going and listening to 1 Peter.
All through the week.
And listening to it in Alexander Scorby, from my house to work, it's about 20 minutes. I go through five chapters easily. And I was just listening to that. So I need to get the whole picture of what Peter is actually getting to.
And it's amazing when you start hearing that, you start picking up some key verses that's presented earlier than later.
And then you connect it together.
It's really encouraging to me. Well, let's begin. First of all, God's people are stones in the same building. God's people are stones in the same building. Praise God. He says this in verse 4 and 5. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious.
I love that word. Precious. Verse 5, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Now, we see the invitation. I've already touched on this, but it begins with an imperative. This invitation is imperative. Coming to Him, come to Him. Some translations just says come to Him, or better yet, keep coming to Him.
And this word coming in the Greek here means it's an idea of remaining. It's an idea of abiding in Christ. And that's what He's saying. You keep abiding in Christ. He's encouraging them. This is an admonition of encouragement.
You keep coming to Jesus.
You keep abiding in Him. And isn't that what we need to hear today? You keep coming to Christ.
Jesus said it.
Come unto Me, all you labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Come. That's the invitation. That's the beautiful invitation that God has for His people. The presence of God. Intimate fellowship.
And in the book of John, Jesus said this in verse 5 through 8. You can turn with me there if you like. I think it's very significant and very powerful. John 15, chapter 15, 5 through 8. Jesus says this, I am the vine.
You are the branches. He who abides, there's the word right there, abides, remains in Me. And I in him bears much fruit. For without Me, you could do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered.
And they gather them and throw them into the fire. Wow, what a warning. And they are burned. If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire. Now that's not talking about our fleshly desires, folks.
That's talking about God's desires. And it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified that you bear much fruit so that you will be My disciples. You know, that's an incredible section there.
And apart from Jesus Christ, in other words, a believer cannot accomplish anything that is of permanent spiritual value.
That's what he's saying.
There's nothing of permanent spiritual value. Beloved, not abiding and remaining in Jesus Christ has very serious consequences. And this is what he's saying there. Now, I've looked at different commentators on this and some feel that when he speaks about in verse 6 about that you... that the branch is withered and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned.
Some feel that in that context there he's talking about discipline. That there's a fire, the fiery trials that discipline that person. But, there's also others that has to the context that is those were never born again in the first place and that they go apostate.
Now, I take that view. You study that for yourself. There's other people that commentators will say no, they are still the people of God but they are... the fire will test them. But here I personally believe as I study the Scriptures the remaining is the evidence that salvation... those that remain are evidence of salvation that has already taken place and not vice versa.
The fruit of salvation is the continuing in the service to Jesus Christ and is the only legitimate believer. And like I said, verse 6 is very controversial but I personally believe it speaks of the total and complete destruction and apostasy.
And a lot of people will disagree with me on that but I take that view that Jesus is referring to apostasy and they are cast out and gives us the picture of the judgment awaiting those who were never saved in the first place.
Because you see this so often as Jesus warns they call me Lord, Lord but they don't know Him. They've never known Him. So they are religious all their life. But they've never been born again. So to the context of what Jesus is saying that's another sermon in and of itself.
But Peter says, coming to Him. Keep coming to Him. Remain in Him. Well first of all, Jesus is referred to as the living stone.
Right?
This is what he refers to. He is a living stone. Not just a stone, but a living stone. And there is only one Savior, Jesus Christ and there is only one spiritual building. That's the true church. That invisible church.
There is the invisible church and there is the visible church.
And a lot of people.
That's within the visible church are not truly born again. But God does have a remnant. He has a people.
That He has called out of darkness.
Into His marvelous light which we will see. But the only one spiritual building is the church. The ecclesia. The called out ones. Now Jesus Christ Himself is the chief cornerstone of the church. This is what Peter is saying.
Paul said it too. Ephesians 2 .20.
Listen to this.
Paul says, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. The chief cornerstone. Now let's ask the question. I was talking to Brother Keith this morning.
I'm sure he could give much better illustrations and examples on this because he's in construction. He's a carpenter. He's worked in construction. He understands about the structure, the building, but everything is so important when it comes to the foundation.
The foundation is everything to the building and the structure of the building. The alignment of the building is all because of the strength of the foundation. If you don't have a good foundation, you're not going to have a terrible structure.
But in context, the picture here used is of a construction of a building that the first large stone, the chief cornerstone is of a building and the builders would line up the rest of the structure.
To that chief cornerstone.
The cornerstone is what aligned the rest of that structure. If you've got a terrible foundation, you're going to have a terrible building. We all, one time, we almost stepped into a messy situation. We almost bought a house and it looked good on the outside.
This was in Subligna and this is when our children were a little bit younger and I don't want to go into details of too much here, but we almost, it was a great bargain and now I see why it was so cheap.
But then I had somebody, I should have done this, I was inexperienced at the time, I should have got someone to look at it in the first place and I had a friend I worked with in the grocery store business and food line at that time.
I worked as a produce manager, perishable manager and I had a, he was actually the market manager, the meat manager.
He said, Dave,.
I've got some experience at looking over houses and Brother Keith, I know you would have a sharp eye on this as well. Anyway, he came over there and he looked at the structure of that house. It was an older house and it was in a beautiful location.
I mean, it was built,.
You could see a view.
Of the mountains and everything.
The location was absolutely breathtaking.
But the structure of the house.
Was faulty and he said, Dave,.
Let me show you some things. He said, look at the alignment.
Look at that,.
Look at this house.
It's all crooked.
It just went one way, it was all bent. I never noticed this at first. He said, the reason why,.
He said,.
You got a bad, faulty foundation.
He says, whatever you do,.
Do not buy this house. And we already put something down and I had to go back to the realtor. The realtor was working with the owner and it became a mess because they already let us move in early and as soon as we found this out,.
I went to the realtor.
And I said, sir, we never met the owner but the realtor was,.
Of course,.
Doing the work as we call it in between a mediator,.
I guess you could say.
So, once we found out that, oh, the owner said, oh, I'll go down $20 ,000. $20 ,000? He was already getting a bargain. He went down another $20 ,000. He was almost giving it away. That let me know something right there.
Why is he going down so rapid?
Because the foundation was faulty.
He knew he had to try.
To get rid of it.
Get rid of it. So, anyway, the church is resting on a sure foundation.
Amen?
We've got to have a good foundation. Christ Himself is the rock foundation on which the whole structure of the church rests. Church resting on Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. You know this text.
You don't have to go there but Matthew 16, 18. 16, 18. Jesus says to Peter, and I also say to you that you are Peter. You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.
There it is.
It's going to happen.
I will build my church upon this rock and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Now, as I was looking at this one text, that one verse, verse 18 out of chapter 16. It's a very critical verse,.
Isn't it?
And by the way, it's very important that we get the right interpretation from that verse because our Catholic friends has this all wrong. Because they look at man as Peter being that rock. Now, that rock.
Now, let's look at Jesus' play on words here. A lot of people don't look into the depth of it of the right interpretation of it, but it's interesting that Jesus renamed Simon Bar-Jonah. That word Bar-Jonah means son of Jonah.
He's the son of Jonah. And he calls him Peter. Peter. What his name means is significant because it says, Peter, you are a small stone. You are a Petrus. You are that small pebble. That living stone. And this is where Peter gets this from in his letter.
He is saying, but Jesus is saying that you are Petrus, a small living stone, and upon this rock, this rock, speaking of himself,.
Jesus,.
He's the chief cornerstone. If you look in the Greek, it means Petra. In other words, the Petrus is a rock that's being built on the boulder. That's what he's saying. The meaning of the foundational boulder.
Isn't that awesome? Tell our Catholic friends that. They'll look at you as a heretic. And Sister Fee knows what I'm talking about here. But any Catholic friends, and if you're listening to this by MP3 download, if you listen to this and if you're in the Catholic religion, I pray that you look at the text and dig deep of what Jesus is saying because Jesus Christ himself is the foundation boulder.
I will build my church. And Christ is the head of the church, the foundation of the church, thus making him the chief cornerstone of the church. It would be a grave mistake to even think that Jesus has given those roles over to Peter.
Over to Peter. This role of the chief cornerstone belongs only to Jesus Christ. Only to Jesus. And there is a sense, the apostles played and owned the foundation role of the building of the church. But the primary role,.
The chief cornerstone,.
Belongs only to Jesus Christ because he's the chief cornerstone. So the church is built of living stones, the living stones, who like Peter, confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
That is the great confession of the church. And Christ himself.
Is that chief cornerstone.
This is so important. If Jesus is not the head of the church,.
Then we're all sunk.
But he is the head of the church.
And it's not the Pope. And it's not Peter.
No.
Peter basically says,.
And coming to him, why would Peter say that? Come to him, Jesus. As to a living stone, which has been rejected. By the way, he's rejected of men. He's rejected by men. There's so many verses when I look this up, but let me just give you a couple.
You're familiar with Isaiah 53? Isaiah the prophet says, he is despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And then he says this, and we hid. Don't we hide? Adam's still hiding.
We hid, as it were, our faces from him. We hide our faces from him because he's rejected by men. He was despised. And we did not esteem him. We esteem ourselves. We esteem ourselves. We don't esteem Christ.
That's what Scripture says. Isn't that so true?
God knows our fallen nature. Isaiah 49, 7. Listen to this. Thus says the Lord. Don't you love that? Thus says the Lord. Not man. Thus says the Lord. The Redeemer of Israel. Their Holy One. To Him whom man despises.
Man despises. To Him whom the nations abhors. To the servant of rulers. Kings shall see and arise. Princes also shall worship because of the Lord who is faithful. The Holy One of Israel. And He has chosen you.
He has chosen you. He has a chosen people. The chosen one who is Christ has chosen His people. He has elected them. That's in Scripture. People can come up against it all they like. But Scripture is going to stand.
Peter says, Rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious.
Precious.
Even though Jesus is the chosen one of God who is God in the flesh, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. I love this. He is precious. That means He is of infinite value. Jesus is the pearl of great price.
Verse 5, You also, living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
And second,.
The first as we looked earlier that Jesus is referred to as the chief cornerstone, the one spiritual building, the church. But the believers in Jesus Christ are encouraged of being part of Christ in God's spiritual house.
Heirs of God join heirs with Jesus Christ. As living stones,.
Each time,.
I think of this, each time someone is trusting in Jesus Christ and repents and believes the gospel in this world, and I pray this is happening as the gospel goes forth, another stone is quarried out of the pit of hell and out of the pit of sin and cemented by God's grace and put as a living stone in God's building.
It makes me think of that. This is what God is doing. He is building His church. Now, you know, to the world and what we see about us today, the church on earth, the visible church may look like a mess today.
A pile of rubble and ruins.
But beloved,.
When God sees His church, He is building His church. He is going to have a bride and she is going to be clean. A strong structure as it grows up in Jesus Christ. She is going to be strong. She is going to be ready.
She is going to be a pure bride. But what a glorious privilege that we have to be part of the church of the living God.
Scripture says,.
A habitation of God through the Spirit. Can't do it by our own flesh, can we? It's through the Spirit of the living God. Look at verse 4,.
Verse 7, Therefore to you who believe, He is precious. He is precious. He is precious. Though the chief cornerstone is rejected by the disobedience of men and unbelieving undeniably, Jesus is still precious to those who believe.
To those who believe He is precious.
Now,.
I want you to meditate on it. That's a seal right there.
You know,.
The only way to really know if a person that you meet, a person, I don't care how religious they think they are.
And what they say,.
How to know that they are truly biblical and authentic in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ,. Ask them the question, is Jesus precious to you? Is Jesus precious to you? I've got a story here. C .H. Spurgeon was 16 years old and he preached his very first sermon in a village cottage with just a handful of people like us here this morning.
He was very young, 16 years old. As he preached to this handful of people, he chose for his text 1 Peter 2 .7 Unto you therefore which believe He is precious. This is what Spurgeon said that he didn't think he could have preached on any other Bible passage as his first Bible sermon.
This was the one that came to his attention.
And he says,.
But Christ was precious to my soul. Christ was precious to my soul and I was in the flesh of my youthful love and I could not be silenced, Spurgeon says, when a precious Jesus was the subject. And then he asked the question, is Jesus precious to you?
Remember on your answer to this question depends your condition. You believe if He is precious to you, but if He is not precious, then you are not believers. And you are not, I'm sorry, and you are condemned already because you believe not on the Son of God.
Spurgeon gets right to the point, doesn't he? Well, let's go to the second point. God's people are priests in the same temple. They were priests in the same temple. If you look also, it says, as you are as living stones are being built up in a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.
Verse 9 says this, we're going to jump around a little bit and we're going to revisit some of this later on, but this is an overview. Verse 9 is really loaded up. All these wonderful glorious privileges we have for the children of the living God, but you are a chosen generation,.
A royal priesthood.
What a privilege. What a privilege.
A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and God's people are built upon, up as a spiritual house. Now, this is metaphors here, but God is building a spiritual house, putting all believers in the place of His building, and He's integrating one another as living stones that are alive in Jesus Christ and making the house that He wants, He desires.
So His abiding presence lives within a holy priesthood. A holy priesthood. A priest has an elect privilege to have access to a holy God. You read that in scriptures in the Old Testament. There's much more expansion on this, but I got this from John MacArthur in the Study Bible.
He says this about priests. First, number one, priest is an elect privilege of the people of God. Priesthood is the elect privilege of the people of God in the Old Testament and New Testament. Second, priests are cleansed of sins.
Third, priests are clothed for service. Fourth, priests are appointed for service. Priests are prepared for service. Sixth, priests are ordained to obedience. Seventh, priests are to honor the Word of God.
Eighth, priests are to walk with God. Nine, priests are to impact sinners. And ten, priests are messengers of God. But the main privilege of the priest, however, was having access to a holy God. That is the great privilege of a priest.
And did you know what the Bible says? You read in Revelation.
It's just not...
There are called men to the ministry that are like priests, speaking to God for the people. And there's like a prophecy and speaking to people for God. But the priests go to God. But actually, Scripture says that all believers, in a sense, as you're in Jesus Christ, are kings and priests unto God.
That's what it says. In that sense, spiritually, because just as justification by faith, you can have the least of all saints just as justified as the greatest of all saints,.
The weakest and the strongest.
Jesus cares about both, doesn't He? Well, notice within the text here, there are three Old Testament passages I'd like later on for us to look at, but we don't have time today. But they refer to the stone.
It's Old Testament prophecy. And that stone, again, is a metaphor used by Peter to show that Christ's position as the chief and the head cornerstone of that new spiritual house was foreordained of God.
Actually, Peter is quoting Isaiah 28, 16, Psalm 118, 22, Isaiah 8, 14. A stone of stumbling, he says, from Isaiah 8, 14. A stone of stumbling and a rock of a fence.
Isn't Jesus that?
You know, you tell people the truth about Jesus Christ and who He really is, they back away. They say His sayings are too hard. It's too difficult. His commandments are too high. But this is Jesus, and it's supposed to be high.
And His saying is supposed to be hard because He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to God, the Father, but through Him. This same stone is also going to be the stumbling stone that brings down the unbelieving and judgment.
This is what it says.
This is a passage of which is a warning of judgment. Now, how do we know this? Well, first of all, God says it. And I like what R .C. Sproul says. If God says it, the argument's over. Let God be true and every man found liar.
Boy, that's powerful, isn't it? Every man found liar. The argument is over. God says it. You can say what you want to. People can say everything they like to try to justify their sinning. But Jesus Christ is a stone, a stumbling, and a rock of offense.
Because when the true gospel is preached, the power of God's Word is brought forth, and it's a two-edged sword. It cuts, and it heals. It cuts to the quick, to our sinful condition. And people don't want to hear it.
They don't want to hear it. But there's a remedy. God has a remedy. But we've got to be cut open. We've got to have an operation. Now, we see Jesus preached about this on Palm Sunday a couple of Lord's Days back.
Matthew chapter 21, verse 42. You could go there very quickly. Look at Matthew chapter 21. This is very important because if you look at the course, Jesus comes in Jerusalem, riding on the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, we call Palm Sunday.
And prophecy is being fulfilled. And He cleanses the temple. That's significant because look at what God is doing. The temple is being cleansed. It was being used as a den of thieves. And Jesus says, this is a house of prayer.
It's written. It shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. Well, if you look at verse 42, Jesus said to them, have you never read in the Scriptures, and He quotes Psalm 118 .22 and 23, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone that this was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes?
Would you look at this.
And notice that the pronouncement of judgment was to Israel at that time? And look at verse 43. Therefore I say to you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing fruits of it.
Verse 44, and whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but whoever it falls, whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.
Wow.
Now look at that. That's a warning of judgment. Jesus is giving words of judgment. Jesus Christ is that stone to strike a rock, to stumble over to unbelievers. Now, it made me think about, I looked at a reference here that Daniel, in the book of Daniel, Daniel the prophet pictured Jesus Christ as that great stone cut out of the mountains without hands.
He's that great stone without hands cut out of the mountain, which in essence will fall on the kingdoms of the world and crushes them to powder. Daniel 2, 244 and 45. Let me read this to you. Now this is getting into some prophecy of the end times, but let me bear upon this a little bit.
And in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. Folks, that's the kingdom of God there in that context. And the kingdom shall not be left to the other people.
Well, like Israel, the kingdom was taken away and handed over to the Gentiles. And it shall break into pieces and consume all these kingdoms. It shall consume them all. And it shall stand forever. And notice verse 45.
And as much as you saw the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold. Those are symbols of other nations. The great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this.
And the dream is certain and its interpretation is sure. It's interesting that Daniel said that and there's been so many interpretations on this. Now the kingdom, no doubt, in verse 44, that shall never be destroyed is the kingdom of God.
We know that, right? And we can absolutely say that for sure. No matter what interpretation people have, this and what camp they're in, the kingdom of God, no matter what a believer takes on this prophecy, whether they're postmillennial, postmillennial, amillennial, some premillennial, we all agree that verse 44 is no doubt the kingdom of God.
But in verse 45 is where the interpretations differ. Postmillennials believe that things are going to get better. The amillennials suggest that it's a spiritual kingdom introduced by Jesus Christ at His first coming.
And a lot of that prophecy was fulfilled in 70 AD. The premillennials suggest that this is a literal kingdom to be established by Jesus Christ at the second coming, in which time Jesus Christ will destroy the kingdoms of this world according to Revelation 19 .15.
Let me say this. Whatever view that you take on this, in the end, Jesus wins.
Jesus wins.
And that's called panmillennialism.
I like to take that view.
Anyway, I know it's good to study this, look into the Scriptures, get the right interpretation as best as we can, but we're not going to know. Let me give a caution and warning here. May we not get so caught up in the signs of the times so much and keep our eyes and get our eyes off Jesus and get our eyes on the signs and all this.
No, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus. Study the Bible, be a good Berean, know the best you can and get closest to the truth that we possibly can. Because I tell you this, a wise minister told me this years ago,.
No one here on this earth,.
No matter how scholarly and theologically sound they are, is not going to be 100 to the truth. And I thought, whoa, I pulled back a little bit. What are you talking about? He said, no, we're to be sound in doctrine, know the Scriptures, interpret it, let Scripture interpret Scripture like Matthew Henry says, but get as close to the truth as we possibly can.
And then once we get to heaven, actually, it's not going to matter anymore because we won't be with the King forever. But if we do disagree, we need to do it lovingly. We need to be disagreeing, agree to disagree graciously.
And also we need to be mature, to sit down and talk about it and discuss it. I remember one time John Piper got all three of these camps together about end times and he said, let's talk about this.
I thought that was a good idea.
Let's look at your views. And each one had really some very significant things to look at. Well, that's another sermon altogether. But the description here of the church is lastly, God's people. The third point, and this is application, God's people are citizens of the same nation.
Citizens of the same nation. Look at verse 9 and 10. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. His own special people. I like that, don't you? God has His own special people. And He's getting this from Exodus 19 and Deuteronomy 7.
You can go there very quickly. But that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, who were once not a people of God, but now are the people of God, who had not, I'm sorry, who were not a people, but now are the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
That's the important thing. Have you obtained mercy today? Have you obtained mercy? Now, He's quoting from Exodus 19. Go with me very quickly here. This is so powerful because this is such a wonderful passage of Scripture.
I would recommend you to memorize this. Look at what... And this is Israel at the Mount Sinai. And Moses in verse 3. Moses went up to God. He was on the mountain meeting God face to face. And the Lord called to him from the mountain saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel...
This is God speaking. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to Myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people, for all the earth is Mine.
And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. This is what Peter is thinking of. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. Now, go with me to Deuteronomy chapter 7.
It's repeated once again. And this whole chapter 7, the remaining portion of it, speaks about the chosen people of God. Peter is thinking about verse 6 through 8. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God.
The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure... There it is again. Above all the peoples on the face of the earth. God's special treasure. This is God's people, folks.
And the Lord did not set His love... I love the expansion here. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people.
For you were the least of all peoples.
But because the Lord loves you... Isn't that wonderful?
And because He would keep the oath.
In which He swore to your fathers.
He's talking about the covenant.
And the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
Isn't that beautiful?
That you are called to God Himself. This is what Peter is talking about. He's speaking about. We are a chosen generation, a holy nation set apart. Let's look at this real quickly. This is the application.
First of all, we're a chosen nation.
What does that mean?
That means basically that speaks of God's grace. God's grace chose us. We didn't choose God.
God chose us.
Jesus said to His disciples, you did not choose me, but I chose you. God makes the initiative. God did not choose Israel because they were great in number and that they were something great about themselves.
No, because He chose them because He loved them. And God chose us purely because of His great love and grace. Isn't that beautiful? Well, next, we're a holy nation. We're a holy nation. We've been set apart wholly.
You don't hear much about this anymore. And it's sad. But we need to remember we are a holy people of God. We are a holy nation.
We belong exclusively to God.
And God is holy. And His Spirit is holy.
And to God alone.
And we belong to Him and Him alone. And our citizenship is in heaven. We seek the things above and not on earth.
We're passerbys.
We're just here visiting you for a short time. So we obey heaven's laws and seek to please heaven's Lord. Israel forgot that. And I'm feared to say that the churches forgot that today too. And began to compromise.
And the walls began to break down in separation that made her special and distinct. And set apart. And God commanded. God commanded them to put a difference between holy and what is unholy. Between unclean and the clean.
That's Leviticus 10. But they ignored the differences and disobeyed God.
Is not this the state of the church today beloved?
That she has forgotten God. And she's forgotten who she is. Oh beloved it grieves me. But you know you cannot tell the difference now. Between the church and the world. The church is worldly and the world is churchy.
H .H. Spurgeon said this. I believe that one reason why the church of God at present. At this present. This is back in his day.
Moment.
This present moment has so little influence over the world. Is because the world has so much influence over the church. It's true. The church has lost her saltiness. And has become lukewarm. Apostate.
And it makes God absolutely sick. The remedy to the church.
Is this.
And Jesus said this in Revelation chapter 3 verse 17. And this is what he says.
Of it.
I am rich. You have become wealthy. I have need of nothing. That was their state. And you do not know. You do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, and blind, and naked. They did not know it.
They were deceived.
And Jesus says I advise you. I counsel you. To buy from me.
From Jesus.
Buy from me gold refined by fire. So that you may become rich. And white garments so that you may clothe yourself. And that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed. And the eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
How dare anyone to say that this is unloving. Because Jesus in the next verse in verse 19. Of chapter 3 says this. For those whom I love I reprove. And discipline. Therefore be zealous.
And repent.
Behold I stand at the door and knock. And if anyone hears my voice and opens the door. I will come in to him. And dine with him and he with me. There is no supper time with Jesus. Unless there is repentance.
But last we are people of God. And our unsaved and lost condition. We were not God's people. But now we are God's people. But only because of His mercy. But the children. We were the children of wrath by nature.
We belong to Satan and the world. We were God's enemy. And now that we have trusted in Jesus Christ. Along by faith. By faith alone. By grace alone. We repented of our sins. It's not because of anything good in us.
But now we are God's people. His own special treasure. His own possession. And only because Jesus Christ. Because He purchased us with His precious blood.
That's what it says.
Precious. Precious.
Beloved all these privileges carry out a great responsibility. And I can't say this enough. But we will pick up on this later on. But let me say this. What is it? That we are to proclaim. To show forth the praises of Him.
This is it.
This is why the end of the believer. The chief end of the believer. Is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Because we show forth the praises of Him. Of Him.
What?
Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. See that's what He does. And that word show forth. To tell. Means to tell out. To advertise it. To praise Him. To tell the world. Can I tell you that two of the greatest evangelists showed forth these praises?
The woman at the well in John 4. 28 -29 says this. And after Jesus spoke to her. And presented the truth. And gave her the invitation to come. That Jesus said I am the water of life. And he that drinks of this well shall thirst.
But he that drinks of the water I give will never thirst again. And she heard all this. About worship. And after the conversation. The woman says. She left her water pot. What she came to do. She left the water pot.
Went her way into the city. And said to the men. To the men she witnessed to. Come see a man. And by the way that man is capital M.
See a man.
Who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ? And then they went out of the city. And came to him. She evangelized the whole city. Another great evangelist. The man that had demons cast out of him.
In Mark 5. 18 -20. And after he had the demons cast out of him. He went and got into the boat. He who had been demon possessed. After Jesus healed him. And cast out the demons. And the scripture says.
He begged Jesus.
He begged him. That he might be with him. That's very understanding isn't it? He wanted to be with the one. His Lord. But Jesus forbid him. However Jesus did not permit him.
Why? Why?
He said to them. Go home to your friends. And tell them what great things. The Lord has done. For you. And how he has had compassion on you. He departed. And began to proclaim. And all Decapolis.
That Jesus had done.
What he had done for him.
And all marveled.
Oh beloved.
When we are saved by grace. We are changed by grace. There is a change that takes place. All things have become new. When someone repents. Of their sins. They are not silent about it.
Are they?
We tell the world. We got something to tell. We got something great to tell. What great things God has done. He has compassion. He has had compassion on us. He has been gracious. He showed to us. He showed grace.
Mercy.
We would be lost.
Undone.
On our way to hell. To eternal judgment. Under the wrath of God. Unless it was for his great mercy. So God reminded Israel. Many, many times. That he had delivered them. From the bondage of Egypt. That they might glorify and serve him.
But the nation soon forgot God.
And his mercies.
May this not be of us. They drifted back into their old sinful ways. We are God's chosen people folks. Only because God. And his great compassion. Has rescued us.
From the terrible.
Wages.
Frightful.
Consequences.
Of those sins.
Now we are to be faithful to him.
May it be so.
With us.
Let's pray.
Oh Father.
As you said. In your word.
Who can find a faithful man? Who can find a faithful man?
Lord.
We thank you that. You have loved us. With an everlasting love.
Showered through your mercy.
Us with mercy.
Through the blood of the cross.
Makes me think of the great hymn. Oh years I spent in vanity and pride. Caring not that my Lord was crucified. Knowing not it was for me. He died on Calvary. On Calvary's cross. On Calvary's cross. At last my sin I learned.
That I trembled at the law's burn. Till my guilty soul imploring turned. To Calvary. Oh the love that drew salvation's plan. Oh the grace that brought it down to man. Oh the mighty gulf.
You did span at Calvary.
You did this. At the cross. At the cross. At the cross.
Father we thank you. For the great wonderful privileges you have given to your children. And we rejoice in this. And we give you the praise. Lord may we tell. May we tell this world. This is what this world needs to hear.
They need to hear the good news of the gospel. They need to hear the truth. The truth in love.
Forgive us. For not. Being on fire as we should. Forgive us for not telling this world. Of the great.
Wonderful.
Good news. That you have given unto us Lord. That we have been changed by.
Help us.
Help us to.
Set this world on fire. Fire doesn't need advertisement.
But yet.
It advertises itself.
May we call people to repent and believe the gospel. Fill us with your spirit. Fill us with your great love. May we go forth in your name.
And we ask these things in Jesus name.
Amen.
And amen.