We'll be looking in 1 Peter.
In verse 5, as we continue on here, I'll read a few verses here. Beginning
there in verse 5, it says, ye also as lively stones are built
up a spiritual house and holy priesthood. to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also
it is contained in the scripture, behold I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious. 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 disallowed, the same is made the head of
the corner. And a stone of stumbling and
a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
disobedient. Whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people,
but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy,
but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you
as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust, which war
against the soul. having your conversation honest
among the Gentiles. Whereas they speak evil against
you as evil doers, they may by your good works, which they shall
behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Now he had been
speaking to the children of God. And of course, as we know, the
Bible is given for the people of God. We might say, as some
have described it, a love letter to the children of God. It is
a book that anybody can take and read, but it is a book that
contains the word of God that cannot be grasped on any wise
that a man can see the glory of it apart from the Spirit of
God awakening him. As the Lord said to Nicodemus,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And that's necessary for a man
to see the glory that's in the scriptures. Men often say, well,
I just read it, but I don't understand it. Well, none of us understand
everything that's in there, just like the passage that Brother
Al was speaking to us from this morning. I mean, who can understand
such a thing as that? I mean, that's outside the realm
of our capability to comprehend these things, just like on the
day the disciples went up the Mount of Transfiguration. I mean,
who could possibly grasp such a thing? I mean, you can imagine
Peter being overwhelmed. at the site and really kind of
just, I think he was just speaking just to be saying something because
he didn't know what to say. But the Lord told him what he
would show him. And so whether we understand
the word of God or not, as the Lord is pleased, he'll show us.
He'll teach us. If you need to know something,
he'll let you know. And a lot of times, he lets you
know a lot of things that you didn't want to know. You know,
that's the way that the Spirit of God works. Sometimes we think
we want to know this. I mean, you know, a man wants
to know, was Samuel real or not or whatever? Well, that's not
really what we need to know. I mean, I don't know if he was
or what. I leave that up to the Lord,
but I do know that we do need to know that what Saul did and
what he manifested was just like those that are manifested here
which stumble at the word being disobedient where unto they were
appointed. Now if that doesn't cause you
to be concerned, if it doesn't cause you to fear, if it doesn't
make you tremble before almighty God then I think you need to
ask Him to help you because it is a true thing and men hate
it natural man hates this that God
is an absolute sovereign God and He appoints some unto eternal
life And as scripture says here, he appoints some unto disobedience
and death. Now, if you can grasp that, you're
further along than I am. It's beyond me. I don't know.
I know it's true. And the thing that's amazing
to me is that he appoints any unto eternal life. I don't have
any problem with believing that he would appoint some unto damnation
because, I mean, when you look at yourself in the mirror and
you know good and well that the Lord ought to have killed you
a long time ago. But by grace and according to
his mercy, he has sustained you up to the present moment. Now
what that ultimately means, I'm not sure, but I know this, that
as the prophet of old said, it's of thy mercies, thy mercies are
new every morning, lest we be consumed. Because if his mercy
fails, if his mercy stops, then we shall be consumed. And no
question about that. And so he speaks here about the
living stones, lively stones, built up to a spiritual house,
a holy priesthood, for the purpose of offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God. Now what is the spiritual sacrifice
that is acceptable to God? There's only one, and it's the
praise of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the spiritual sacrifice.
We bring to Him the sacrifice of praise. That is the only sacrifice
that we can bring. And we do desire to praise Him.
And that's that the Lord has made us lively stones built up
to a spiritual house that we might do that, that we might
praise the name of Him whose house it is. May we ever remember
that the Lord's, this is the Lord's house. I'm not talking
about this building here, I'm talking about the house, the
place wherein we dwell. You know, the heavens can't contain
the Lord, so he can't be contained in anything, but this, the house
that he's built, he built for us to inhabit, and he made us
lively stones, living stones in that building. He has a garden, as Isaac Watts
wrote in that hymn. He has a garden walled around,
chosen and made peculiar ground. It belongs to him. And he has
made us lively stones. And to offer up spiritual sacrifices. For also it is contained in the
scripture. Now listen to this. Behold, I
lay inside a chief cornerstone. Now, he's made us living stones. But remember, the place where
we have gotten our life is from the Lord. Now, a lot of people
teach that man is just gonna live on somewhere. You've heard that. I don't find any evidence of
that in the scripture. The scripture says that if a
man, he that hath the Son, hath life, and he that hath not the
Son of God, hath not life. And not to have life is to be
dead. Now, eternal life is in Christ. He is the chief cornerstone from
which all the other stones gain their life. We have no life except
that which comes from Him. We can't gain it. We can't lose
it. Because it comes from Him. It
belongs to Him. And He's the God of life. And He's also the God of death.
Life and death are in His hands. But he lays in Zion, that is
the kingdom of God. That's when you read of Zion
in the scripture, it's speaking about the kingdom of God. And
he lays in the kingdom of God a chief cornerstone. Not one
that's to share the glory. See, the chief cornerstone is
the essence of the whole building. The building will fall without
the chief cornerstone. And the chief cornerstone is
Christ. He said there, Behold, I lay
inside the chief cornerstone elect. Jesus Christ is the elect
of God. And he has an elect people which
were chosen in him, according to what scripture says. But he
is the elect. If someone said, well, who are
the elect? We say, well, there is only one elect. He's the chosen
one of God. He is the right hand of God. He is the power of God Almighty.
He's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. If you are to know God,
it has to be that you know Jesus Christ. Otherwise, you can't
know God. Because He has revealed Himself
in Jesus Christ. He's elect, He's precious. And he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. That doesn't mean signing a card
somewhere. Doesn't mean being baptized.
Although I believe that if a man believes in Jesus Christ, the
scripture commands him to be baptized. But none of those things
have anything to do with that, with believing. Because believing
in Jesus Christ is, first of all, the gift of God. Man cannot
believe. The Lord said that to the Pharisees. He said, ye will not believe.
But he also told them, ye cannot believe. Because apart from the
gift of God to give a man faith to believe, they can't do it. Now, do they want to? No. Now,
they might want to escape damnation. I mean, there's plenty of folks
that don't want to go to hell when they hear a preacher talk
about hell. And, you know, there's people
that get scared enough to straighten up and act right for a little
while. And think that by doing so that they can somehow or other
ward off the judgment of God. Not so. But to you which believe,
you shall not be confounded. What does it mean to believe?
It means to cast oneself on Christ. See, a man never perished calling
on the name of the Lord. A man was never turned away that
had a broken and a contrite heart before Almighty God and was seeking
mercy at his hand. But those who come claiming something
other than Christ as the means whereby they should come into
the presence of God, they shall be turned away. Because such
is not to believe in Jesus Christ. To believe in Christ is to cast
off all hope in anything else. I often have said this before,
but back when Caleb was a young child and he was trying to get
up the courage to jump in the swimming pool. And he would get
right up there to the edge and, you know, he would be almost
ready, but then he might step back, you know, but the day came
when he jumped. And he found out that his daddy
was there with his arms to catch him. See, that's to believe. That's what it is to believe. Just cast oneself on Christ. It doesn't have anything to do
with what you are or what you've done or where you've been. It
has to do with Christ. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. The Lord will not turn one away
who comes. Unto you, therefore, which believe. Now see, if a man believes, he'll
not be confounded, but he said, and this is the way in which
it is known that you believe. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. Now if something's precious,
that means something that you desire with all your heart. It's
that which you long for. And to you therefore which believe
he is precious, but to them which be disobedient, that is to turn
away from that way of trusting Christ, casting oneself upon
Christ, but said, no, you know, I'll go my own way. The stone which the builders
disallowed, the same has made the head of the corner. See, he's the head of the corner
to those who are believing and those who are not. Now the Lord
said, I believe it's in Matthew 21. Let me turn over there and
read this. I think this is the passage I'm
thinking of. Jesus saith unto them, speaking
to the Pharisees, did ye never read in the Scriptures the stone
which the builders rejected, the same as become the head of
the corner? This is the Lord's doing, and
it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I say unto you, the
kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation,
bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this
stone shall be broken. but on whomsoever it shall fall,
it will grind him to powder. That's the stone which he's talking
about here. You see, this is the stone which
the builders rejected, the wise men of the earth, those that
thought they had a better plan. They rejected him, and he's become
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which
stumble at his word. being disobedient, whereunto
also they were appointed. But then there's a but. Because
you see, here's the glorious message to the sons of God. We're
reading the book of Hebrews, but we were not appointed under
wrath. You see, the people of God are not appointed under wrath.
But ye, are a chosen generation. A royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now
listen, this is the kicker of this. Which in time past were
not a people, but are now the people of God. And what's he
saying? He's saying there was a time
when you walked according to the course of this world. You had no thought toward God.
You had no desire after the things of God. You were not a people
of God. You were not obedient to God. But you went your own
way. But he said, now, you had not obtained mercy, but
now you have obtained mercy. Oh, what a glorious thing. What
is mercy? Can a man deserve mercy? No,
it wouldn't be mercy. You know, if a man deserves mercy,
then he earned it, didn't he? See, mercy's shown to those that
don't deserve it. That's what mercy is. That's
the glorious message of the gospel, is that the Lord shows mercy
to those that don't deserve it. You've all heard the old saying,
God helps those that help himself. That's a lie. That's a damnable
lie. Because God does not help those
that help himself. He helps those that can't help
themselves. He helps those that know themselves
to be sinners. He helps those that struggle
and find themselves unworthy of the least of the Lord's mercy.
And those are the ones who are appointed to receive his mercy,
because they know themselves unworthy. As long as a man thinks
he's done something worthy of the Lord, he's far from the Lord.
He may be a religious man. He may go to church every Sunday.
He might do great, marvelous things, might do many wonderful
works, but as long as he thinks Just like the Pharisees. The
Pharisees were not wicked men in the sense of the natural realm. They were good men. They went
about doing good. The problem that the Pharisees
had is they looked on what they did. And they said, well, you
know, the Lord's pleased with what we're doing. I mean, we're
cut above all these people, this riffraff out here. Well, look,
we got the scriptures. We carry the scriptures around
with us. We memorize them. We do all these things. And the Lord said, get away from
me. You're a generation of vipers. appointed unto wrath, but ye
are a chosen generation. God is not a respecter of persons. What does that mean? You know,
a lot of times people use that passage of scripture to argue
against the doctrine of election. But you see, God doesn't choose
men on the basis of their person. God's not a respecter of persons. He has no regard. Nothing you
do does he have any regard to whatsoever. It doesn't mean the
hell it means. Paul said, I of all men, if a
man was gonna be proud of something, he said, I had something to be
proud of. And it goes down through the
list. He was a Pharisee. He was born of the tribe of Benjamin.
He was circumcised the seventh day, the eighth day. He was everything
that you could possibly want to be. But he said, I counted
all these things as dumb. Because he said, that's exactly
what they are. That I might win Christ. See,
it's Christ. He's precious. He's the Rock
of offense, the stone of stumbling. He's the chief cornerstone. He's
the one appointed by God. And we, by His, according to
His mercy, have been called out of darkness and into His marvelous
light. One time we could not see. Now
we see. And we see through a glass darkly.
We don't have any understanding beyond what the Lord pleased
to give us, and we know nothing as we ought to know, but we know
this, that Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners. And that's
a glorious place to be. You know, if a man ever comes
to that place, he's come to the most glorious place on earth,
that Christ is the satisfier of the sin debt of his people.
He didn't try to save anybody. He's not hoping you'll let him
save you. But Christ is the Savior of sinners. Which in time past were not a
people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained
mercy, but have now obtained mercy. Oh, what a glorious place
to be. called as the sons of God. Not
through anything found in us, but through that which was found
in Christ. A righteousness which is perfect. The type of righteousness that
it takes to enter the kingdom of God. Because it doesn't matter
how much righteousness you might think you got, it's still going
to be Not enough. Christ alone is the salvation
of His people.