Seeking once more the Lord's
help to grant me the words to speak to you this evening, I'd
like to draw your attention to the chapter that we read together
first, the epistle of Peter and chapter 2 and the text you'll
find in verse 7. Unto you therefore which believe,
he is precious, unto them which be disobedient. The stone which
the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the
corner." Really, we go from verse 6, it flows on into verse 7,
wherefore also it is contained in the scripture. Behold, I lay
in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that
believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore
which believe, he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallow, the same is made the
head of the corner. The Scriptures don't tell us
the full reason why the Lord Jesus and the book of Psalms
and in Isaiah and also in the New Testament, the whole story
as to why this account of the stone which was rejected came
into being. For that we have to go into church
history and the stories of the Jews when there is the story
of the building of Solomon's temple. We will know that that
took place, that David was not able to build the temple but
he prepared everything for the building of the temple and his
son Solomon was the one who was to build it. And it is said that
the stones that were dug out were shaped in the quarry and
brought to the templed site. And as these stones began to
be brought, the builders began to lay those stones. And there
was one stone which was of an odd shape. and not knowing what
to do with it, they threw it aside and forgot about it and
left it and continued building until they got to the top of
the building. And when they got to the top
of the building, they were missing a stone. And so they sent a report
to the quarry. The craftsman at the quarry replied
and said, we sent you that stone a long time ago. And it was the
cornerstone, the head stone of the building, which held the
corner together, tied all in the one that they had cast away
many months before. And so whether it is a true story,
we don't know. But it seems as it is, written
about in scripture so many times it has some truth in it and the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit uses it as a means to illustrate
the Lord Jesus Christ who is the cornerstone of the church,
is the foundation stone, is the cornerstone. He was the stone
that was rejected by the builders who were the Pharisees and yet
he is the cornerstone, the precious stone which was rejected. And so in our reading the Apostle
Peter takes up that same illustration and pressing the point about
the building that Christ is a living stone and that the believers
are also living stones being built up into a spiritual house,
a holy priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. And so he gives us a spiritual
picture of a new temple which is being built and Christ being
the foundation stone, the foundation cornerstone of that building
right at the very bottom. The apostles lay the foundation
and Christ being the cornerstone right at the bottom and then
the chief cornerstone right at the very top. All of the building
fitly framed together by the Lord Jesus Christ and in our
day we don't really see much of corner stones but we do have
them especially in old chapel buildings. You would find in
the corner often it's laid that this stone was unveiled by pastor
so-and-so in such And if you go into London, you'll see the
cornerstones there on the buildings there. They're monumental stones. In the olden days, they were
structural stones and of great importance to the whole building,
seeking to hold it together, stop it from spreading out. And
it was an unusual shaped stone, but vitally important. And so these builders, it seems,
they looked at the oddness of the stone and they rejected it. But even though the stone itself
was of an odd shape, didn't mean that it was of no value. Its
value laid not in its looks, but in its importance, in its
job that it held. so with the Lord Jesus Christ
we know that he is despised of and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows, acquainted with grief and by nature there is no beauty
in him that we should desire him. And so his value we can
say was not in his looks but in the work that he came to do,
in the importance of the work that he came to do. And so throughout
the scripture, this is pressed home. This was what was going
to take place. There was going to be this stone
that was going to come, the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that
stone was going to be rejected by the builders, the Jews. And
yet he was going to become the chief corner stone. So the references for that are
in Psalms 118. Psalmist is the first one to
speak of this cornerstone. Psalm 118. verse 20, the gate of the Lord
unto which the righteous shall enter. I will appraise thee for
thou hast heard me and art become my salvation. The stone which
the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing and
it is marvellous in our eyes. So maybe the psalmist is looking
back then to that original account when all those stones were cut
in the quarry and sent to the building of the temple and that
headstone corner piece which was rejected by the builders
became the head of the corner. But in doing so, is prophesying
regarding the Lord Jesus Christ who was going to come. Isaiah also, Isaiah 28 In verse 16 it says, Therefore
thus saith the Lord God, behold I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste or shall not be made ashamed. So there's Isaiah prophesying
regarding this cornerstone, shedding a greater light upon this cornerstone. Not only would he be the chief
cornerstone, but he would also be the foundation stone, a tried
stone, a tested stone, and a precious cornerstone and a sure foundation. And so as the prophets get a
clearer picture, as the spirit sheds a greater light upon the
prophecy, so we get a greater insight into what Christ was
going to be. He was going to be the foundation
stone in which took the whole weight of that spiritual building. the foundation stone would have
been the first stone that was laid and within that stone it
would have been used as a marker point or a pinpoint in which
to measure up the whole building, to square the building and to
build off the building. They said in building, if you
mess up the foundation, your whole building will be wrong
or cause you problems all the way up to the top. You get your
foundation out of level, the brickwork, your bricklayers will
struggle, the roofers will struggle. You get your foundation out of
square, the same again, all the way up to the top. And so Christ
is the foundation stone laid right at the very bottom to shape
the whole building. And then the building goes right
up, that spiritual building, and is capped off with the cornerstone,
the precious cornerstone, sure foundation, the cornerstone,
which is the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus himself. who speaks
of himself to the Pharisees in Matthew 21. In verse 42, he says, Jesus said
unto them, did you never read the scriptures? The stone which
the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner.
This is the Lord's doing. and it is marvellous in our eyes.
Therefore I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken
from you and given to a nation, bringing forth fruits thereof.
And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but whomsoever
it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And so Christ,
speaking to the Pharisees, speaking to the Jews, he says, have you
not read the scriptures about this chief cornerstone and this
stone, which is going to be a stone of stumbling to you? Although
it is the precious stone, although it is the correct and most valuable
stone, yet it's going to be a stone of a stumbling. to you. They are going to stumble and
reject the very stone which is most needful, which is the rock
the Lord Jesus Christ. And whoever shall fall upon this
stone shall be broken, but to whom Whomsoever it shall fall,
it will grind him to powder. We know that Christ is going
to come again and he's going to bring about judgment and he
will grind into powder. He will put into hell those who
have rejected him, who have not believed upon this stone, this
foundation stone, this cornerstone. They have not trusted. believed
upon, put their hope upon the Lord Jesus Christ and he will
come and he will grind, as it were, grind them to powder. And so the stone was rejected
as though it had no value. It was useless. And people rejected
the Lord Jesus Christ as though he had no value, that he was
not who he said he was. And yet, as they proved that
this was the most valuable and the most important stone, so
they will prove that Christ also is the most valuable and the
most important stone that they have rejected. Wherefore, it is also contained
in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone precious,
And he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. In Romans
9, I have a reference in my Bible. Verse 32, it speaks of there
again, Wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as
it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at the stumbling
stone, as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone,
a rock of offence, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. And so there is again that continuation
throughout the scriptures of the Lord Jesus Christ being the
chief cornerstone, the chief foundation stone in which the
whole building rests, yet to those who do not believe he is
a stumbling stone. They stumble over him like blind
people walking in the darkness stumble over a stone. So those
who reject the Lord Jesus Christ instead of seeing him as the
most important they stumble over the very important stone which
they should have trusted and believed in. And it says he that
believeth will not be confounded. or ashamed. He that believeth
not sorry shall be Sorry. And he that believes on him shall
not be confounded. And so the opposite is those
who do not believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who reject him
as the chief cornerstone, will be confounded on the day when
he comes again or they will be disgraced. They will be put to
shame because they have rejected that stone which Christ, which
the Lord gave as the chief cornerstone, the vital part of the building,
the vital part of our lives, the vital part of salvation is
rejected. On the Lord's Day I spoke of
faith and it being the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle. But we could say the same here
with the Lord Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone the vital
part of the building, the missing puzzle piece in people's lives
in which they try everything to fill, yet they never can.
Yet he is that vital part of the building. He's that finishing
piece of the puzzle, the only thing that can satisfy that hole
in which we have, that spiritual hole in which we have in our
lives, can only be satisfied by the Lord Jesus Christ. being
the chief cornerstone or the final piece that is added. The building without the cornerstone,
without the foundation stone is incomplete and so those builders
had to go and search for that stone until they found it and
our lives are also incomplete without the cornerstone the Lord
Jesus Christ and we look at the world today and they are searching
for that final piece to fit into their lives and they're doing
all manner of things to try and satisfy themselves but they cannot
and they never will be satisfied. Christ is the only way in which
our lives can be complete. when that cornerstone is laid
and that building is complete, when that faith lays hold of
that cornerstone. And we put our hope in that cornerstone. It's only then that our life
can truly be a life worth living. Jesus says, I am come to give
them life, that they might have it more abundantly. And as we
saw in Romans, the Jews were seeking to build, as it were,
their own building by works. They were trying to put their
own cornerstone there but it couldn't work. Christ is the
cornerstone. He is the object of our faith. When you are building and that
cornerstone is laid, although in our way of building now we
don't have that cornerstone as I've said but we do place blocks
on the corner. Sometimes we build up the corner
or sometimes we put up some wood on the corner or sometimes we
lay two blocks and get the corner then we use that and we pull
a line off that corner to the next corner and we build in the
brickwork. And so without that corner There's
no way in which to, as it were, have a straight line in our life. There's no way to plum off or
to gauge our life. because there's no cornerstone.
We must have the Lord Jesus Christ as our cornerstone, as our object
of faith, that we may lay hold of him like that line that is
hooked on to the corner. So our life is hooked on to the
corner, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is strong. He
has the ability to sustain and to be sure, to be fixed. by our faith in him our lives
can also be sure and fixed upon him. The corner also bears the
weight of the building. I said to you before about the
bricks and how they're laid. Each one is laid to spread the
weight of the bricks above it but all of those weights are
then transferred to the corner and then that weight from the
corner is transferred down onto the foundation. And so with the
Lord Jesus Christ being the cornerstone at the bottom, all of the weight
of the building sits upon him. And he has promised that he can
carry the burdens and the weights of his people for he is the strength
of them. He has the ability to hold them
up when they are in trouble. He has the ability to sustain
them and hold them all together. And as we get to the top, that
cornerstone there stops the building from spreading out, holding it
all together, securing it in the right position. All of the
weight then comes down onto the foundation. So he is the object
of our faith and he is the one that makes our life worth living,
worthwhile and beautiful. If you look in those old buildings,
you will find that that cornerstone, although it's structural, but
it's also decorative. Placed at the top, placed at
the bottom, placed up the corners, it adds a beauty to the building. And Christ adds beauty to the
life of the believer. There's a children's song that
I used to love, I still do. It says, all I had to offer him
was brokenness and strife, but he made something beautiful of
my life. And so that is the Lord Jesus
Christ. By our nature, sinful, ugly,
and yet when Christ is added into the equation, that life
that was once A rebellious life, a life that was in the darkness
can be a life now anchored to Christ and could be made beautiful
for he is precious. It says unto you therefore which
believe he is precious. By our natural nature. We like precious things and those things which we value
change as we grow older. Little children value toys and
they are precious to them. If they lose their teddy their
life almost falls to bits but to them they're precious. But
as they grow older they forget about that and they move on to
something else and maybe their life, their bicycle becomes of
something of value to them, something precious to them. And as they
get bigger and bigger things change and the things that were
once valuable, the things that were once precious become of
no worth to them anymore. and as we get older we begin
to understand the true value of things and the things which
are precious to us often are invaluable, they are sentimental but we come to understand the
true worth of actual things that we have There are things that
are worth money to everybody, like gold and silver and precious
metals and stones. There are things that are valuable
only to us, maybe memories, pictures, things that have been passed
down the family, family heirlooms that have no physical value to
them, but they are valuable because they have some memories to us
and they are precious to us. And those things which we deem
as valuable, we take care of them. And we spend time gaining
them or looking after them. We spend energy and money on
obtaining more of them. Or with children or families,
spending time with them. We see them as precious and they
are valuable. But Jesus is more precious. Jesus is more
valuable than any of the things which we possess. In the first chapter of Peter it speaks to us of the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1, verse 6, wherein we
ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you
are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of
your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though
it be tried with fire, might be found to the praise and honour
of the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom, having
not seen ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not, ye believe,
yet rejoice with unspeakable joy. Sorry, that wasn't it, but
there's the preciousness there, 18 and 19 it is. For as much
as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things
as silver or gold, from your vain conversation received by
the tradition of your fathers but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. And so he goes
to compare those things which we by nature value silver and
gold. A trial of your faith being much
more precious than silver and gold that we tried with fire.
Silver and gold is those things which we deem the most valuable
that have a physical worth to them. Not like photographs and
things like that but a thing that actually has a physical
worth to it. We were not redeemed with those
corruptible things. We know that those things do
lose value and they are not lasting. We know that at the end of time,
when this world will be folded up as a scroll, all of those
valuable things, silver and gold and diamonds and rubies and all
of those things which hold a physical value in time, yet will soon
dissolve. They will be burned up. They
will have no worth whatsoever. But Christ's blood is set forth
as something very precious, something with worth, something that is
costly. And something that I noticed
is that in these two chapters, there is this word precious.
And yet the scripture uses different original languages that has been
described or translated as precious. This first one which has been
described as the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is a
word that means costly. So it's the costly blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It cost him. It was of great
value, a great worth, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. It was costly to the Lord Jesus
to shed his precious blood. We know it was costly in so much
that he came down from glory to put on human flesh so that
he may die, made himself a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death. And so they translate this word
precious from a word meaning it was costly, a costly blood
of the Lord Jesus. And in comparison with silver
and gold, the cost of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ far
far exceeds that. If you think of what silver and
gold can buy, if you have it, then you can buy, the more you
have, the more things you can purchase. But with the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, what did he purchase? He purchased
a people for himself. He purchased their never-dying
souls from the wrath of Almighty God. He secured their souls for
salvation. He snatched them from the brink
of hell. And so the value of his soul,
of his blood, or his life, was able to purchase an innumerable
amount of people to save them. And so the value of that blood,
the value of his life, was used to purchase millions and millions
of people from the brink of hell. In the chapter we read together,
verses four to six, it says, To whom coming as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious,
ye also as lively stones or living stones are built up a spiritual
house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ where for also it is contained
in the scriptures behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone elect
meaning chosen by God and precious And this word precious here,
these two words precious, it means prized. They were of a
reputation. And as we look at those builders
who originally rejected that stone, yet that stone was a prized
stone. It was a chosen stone. As the Lord Jesus Christ is rejected,
yet he is the chosen stone. the stone of reputation. And in verse 7 it's a different
precious again. It is that he is valuable. He has value in himself. Like as gold. Gold has worth
to it. It has value in itself just because
of what it is. And so Christ is precious because
of who he is and what he has achieved. He has value and worth
in himself as his precious blood was able to purchase an innumerable
amount of people. And he was the one that was chosen
by God, so he is precious. Precious, the precious Lord Jesus
Christ and he has value in himself because of who he is, what he
is, the Lamb of God, the Chosen One, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus
and he is the precious Lamb of God. In Matthew 16 Verse 26 tells us there, for
what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and
lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? And so this verse shows us the
value of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
scripture tells us that what does it matter if we gain the
whole world and lose our own soul? Or what shall a man give
in exchange for his soul? And so the soul is being compared
to the world. that the value of one soul far
exceeds the whole value of the world put together. Now I don't
know how much the value of the world is but I expect there is
a value put on it. But the one soul is worth more
than the whole world put together because this world is passing. And even if you owned the whole
world and you could fly from here to Australia and you owned
it, and you could fly to China and you owned it, you could get
in a boat and you could say, I own all of the sea. It would
mean nothing because one day you would die. And when you died,
you would have to leave it all behind and you would go and have
to face God and your soul will live for all eternity. so in
comparison to the whole world being put next to your soul,
your soul is of more worth because it is everlasting. And so the
value of Christ's blood, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ is without value for what it is able to purchase is able
to purchase not only one soul but millions and millions of
souls from falling under the wrath of Almighty God. And so
for you who believe, he is precious. Do we believe and is he precious? Some things I struggle with personally
is to express feeling. I struggle to communicate the emotions
that I feel about God, about the Lord Jesus Christ, about
people. And yet the scripture is very
clear that there are words that we can use to express our delight
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And those of us who believe we
should lay hold of him as a precious
thing, a precious object. he is the chief cornerstone in
our life he is the crowning piece of our life that without him
our building our life would fall apart we would just be the same
as everybody else and so if we have things in our lives naturally
that are precious We take care of them if we have loved ones
that are precious to us. We want to be with them. We want
to talk with them. We want to discuss with them. And if Christ is precious to
us then he should be far more precious than the loved ones
that we have. And we would want to communicate
with him. We would want to speak of him. We would want to delight in him. we would want to serve him. Unto you therefore which believe
he is precious, you won't be confounded, we won't be ashamed,
we won't be disgraced because of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
unto them which be disobedient stone which the builders disallowed
the same has been made the head of the corner. Just because the
world reject the Lord Jesus Christ it doesn't make him of less worth. because he has value in himself. He is the chief cornerstone and
just because someone rejects him does not make him not the
chief cornerstone. They stumble over him and he
will grind them one day to powder and so Christ is cornerstone. He has precious blood that can
cleanse from all sin. He has value in himself as the
son of God, as the cornerstone of the church, as the foundation
stone of the church in whom all the building, the spiritual building
is fitted together. He has the strength to hold it
all together. and he is the chief cornerstone. Well may he be for us today the
chief cornerstone, the foundation stone of our life, the capping
stone of our life, our strength, our security, the one who beautifies
our life, the one who gives us eternal life. Unto you therefore
which believe, he is precious. Amen. Our final hymn is 979 from Gatsby
to the tune 356. 979. Jesus, those happy souls
thus blessed, who hunger for his righteousness, who seek the smilings of his
face and thirst for fresh supplies of grace. 979. Come on. Sing the smilings of His face. Oh, oh. Will then the glorious fight
begin? on the righteous days they lived,
which came o'er fruit and comfort giv'd. Then will I live, my soul shall
rise to love this land, Dear Heavenly Father, we thank
Thee for the foundation stone, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we
thank Thee that in Him all the building is fitly framed together
and we thank thee on that. great and terrible day when he
will return, that those who believe he is precious will be brought
together to be with him forever and ever. We ask, Lord, then
that thou open up our eyes, that we will not stumble over him,
that we will not be ground to powder on that great and terrible
day. We ask, Lord, that we may be granted those eyes of faith
to entrusted in him, to lean upon him, that he may be our
strength and our salvation. Do be with us now, we pray, and
dismiss us with thy blessing. Do return us here upon thy day
in peace and in safety, and bless us and prepare us to sit around
thy table. Do meet with us there, we pray.
We now ask, Lord, that thou be with us as we depart. May the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father,
with the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit, do rest and
abide with us each now and for evermore. Amen.