1 Peter chapter 2. Now Peter has set forth in the first
chapter the very fact that the Lord has called his people unto
himself, that he has made for them an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled. and that they are kept by the
power of God through faith and through salvation. And then he
says, wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope
to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at
the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children, not fastening
yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but
as he which hath called you is holy, be ye holy. in all manner of conversation
because as it is written, be holy for I am holy. And so having
set forth this truth and letting us as we close the first chapter
with these words, but the word of the Lord endureth forever
and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Now that's a glorious thought. the word of God which endureth
forever. There's nothing about this book
or the truth that's contained in this book that will ever change,
never has changed and never will. It endures forever. It is the
word of God. And he says, by that, the gospel's
preached unto you. Now that's a glorious thing.
It's a great privilege to hear the gospel. Not everybody has
that privilege. And among those who've been given
the privilege to hear it with their natural ear, there are
those who are greatly blessed having been given ears to hear
it with the heart and to embrace it and by the gift of faith to
believe it. And so he begins chapter two
by saying this, wherefore, in light of all those things that
have gone before, wherefore, laying aside all malice, and
all guile, and hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn
babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow
thereby. If so be ye have tasted that
the Lord is gracious, to whom coming as unto a living stone,
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. 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, 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 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, that whereas they speak against you as evil
doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold,
glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves therefore to
every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to
the king as supreme, or unto governors as unto them that are
sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise
of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that
with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish
men. as free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness,
but as the servants of God. Honor all men, love the brotherhood,
fear God, honor the King. Servants, be subject to your
masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also
to the fraud or harsh. For this is thankworthy, if a
man for conscience toward God, endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if when
ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But
if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently,
this is acceptable with God. For even here unto were ye called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that ye should follow his steps. who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.
who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness, by whose
stripes ye were healed. For ye were a sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. Now there's quite a lot of stuff
in that passage of scripture. And he begins with this, admonition,
exhortation, if you would, wherefore laying aside all malice. Anybody in here have any malice? It lurks in places we don't really
often think of it as being, but it rises to the surface quite
readily in the natural man. And all guile and hypocrisies,
guile, that's sneakiness, you might say, or that where you
twist the truth. It's not necessarily a lie. It's like the politicians. You
know, they might, though of course any more, I mean they pretty
well don't have any problem outright lying, but they will say things
in a way that makes you think it's one thing when in reality
it's something else. A good example of that is if
those of you that voted on these amendments that they write on
the ballot, they're full of guile. because they're written by lawyer-type
men who their whole purpose in life is to make people think
that something's something that it's not. And so you have to
be careful. God's people are not to be known
for guile. We're not trying to trick anybody.
We're not trying to set a trap for anybody. That's how God's
people are, to be open. All God. Hypocrisies. Any of
y'all ever are hypocrites? No? Do you find yourself ever
saying one thing and doing something else? Or thinking somebody else
ought to be doing something when you're not doing that yourself,
or vice versa? Hypocrisies. Envies. I wouldn't
need to, nobody in here would be having envy. No envy, covetousness. Envy in itself is not necessarily
bad, it's what envy is. works in the heart. Envy works
in the heart, it causes covetousness. It's not a bad thing to look
at a possession that someone has and say, you know, I'd really
like to have one of those one day. But covetousness is not
wanting them to have it. See, that's what covetousness
is. I mean, you may desire something,
and that's not in itself a bad thing, but it's when you desire
that somebody else not have something because you want it. because
that's covetousness. But envy is the beginning of
covetousness, is it not? I mean, you know, when Aiken
took the wedge of gold when they went into Jericho, he said, you know, that's a good
looking piece of gold there. That's where it began, wasn't
it? He looked on it. I mean, that's what happened
with the woman. She looked on the tree, and she saw that it
was good to eat, or she thought it was good to eat. She thought
it would be a good thing to eat it, and so she did. That's envy,
looking on those things, and all evil speakings. I know that
none of y'all have ever spoken evil things. Remember James,
as we went through the book, he said the tongue is set on
the fire of hell. I mean, evil speaking, see a
corrupt fountain is gonna bring forth corruption. And so when
we find ourselves speaking evil, then we can be certain that that
did not arise out of the good that we might entertain in our
mind that is in us, but it arose out of the wickedness that's
in our heart. Because a righteous man does not speak evil things.
The Lord Jesus Christ never had one evil thing to say. He spoke some judgment. He spoke
judgment, but it was the judgment of God. It was not evil. Now men might accuse the Lord
of evil, but it's because they're evil and they don't understand
what righteousness is. All evil speakings. Now all of
these things, you know, we look at them and we know that we're
guilty of all of these things. I mean, there's not one thing
that he has mentioned here that every one of us cannot look at
in ourselves. We know that. And we're not up
here to rape one another over the coals. There's no condemnation
to the people of God, but we are to think on these things
and be reminded that that's where we are by nature. And that apart
from the grace of God and the mercy of God to restrain us,
these are the things that we're going to embrace. It's natural. You don't have to teach somebody
to speak evil of somebody. You don't have to teach anybody
to tell stories, lies, things that are not true. You don't
have to ever teach them to do that. That's just by nature how
we come forth from the womb. And he says here that these are
the things that you are by nature. But then he says something, he
says, but. He says, as newborn babes. Because
you see, that's what we are if we've been born again. We have
been born anew into the kingdom of God. And therefore, we are
not those who embrace evil speaking, malice, guile, hypocrisies. We don't embrace these things.
When we see them in ourselves, we hate it. See, a man can't
love the sin that's in himself if he's born again. Now sadly,
as Paul said, the good that I would, I do not, and that which I would
not, that's what I do. I do find these things in myself. I do find hypocrisy in myself. I do find evil speaking in myself. But by the grace of God, because
of the Spirit of God, I hate these things that they're in
me. And I desire because, not just
simply because they're in me, but because I know that this
is an affront to the Lord. I know that it is unbecoming
of the children of God. I know that these are the very
things that caused the Lord Jesus Christ to go to Calvary's cross
to pay my sin debt. And so he said, as newborn babes,
desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.
In other words, we're not entertaining these things. We're not going
after those things that the natural man pursues. but we're desiring
to know the Word of God, not just simply know the words on
the page. Now, I don't think you can learn
spiritually the Word of God without learning the Word of God naturally. I mean, it's kind of foolish
to think that you can just all of a sudden know everything about,
you know, the things that the Lord would have you when you
disregard what he's given you. to study, to look at, to read,
to grow thereby. See, we grow as we study the
Word of God. Now, it's not the ability of
men to know things that causes them to grow thereby, but it's
as the Word of God, as you read the Word of God, as you study
the Bible, the Lord applies these things. And he causes these things
to be precious to you. And it's kind of like a circle.
You know, you can't read the Word of God unless the Spirit
of God moves you to do so, but the Spirit of God moves you to
do so, and you read the Word of God, and you see things in
the Word of God that cause you to realize, hey, it's just like
reading that verse there. Laying aside all malice, ego,
hypocrisies, and envies. We might have forgotten that
we had all these things in us. Because sometimes, you know,
we get to going along, and we kind of forget where we're at. We forget what we really are.
And we might start to entertain a higher thought of ourself than
we should. But we know nothing. We need
the Lord. And so as newborn babes, you're
not gonna find the truth of God by reading your
horoscope. But some people, you know, every
day they want to read their horoscope. I mean, you know, it used to
be a big deal when you had newspapers. I don't even know if anybody,
if that's online, if you can read your horoscope or not, probably
so. But people used to really, oh
man, I got to read this thing. Well, what good is that going
to do? You know, that's a bunch of foolishness. But the word
of God, see that's the thing we desire. Lord, teach us thy
word. Thy word have I hid in my heart,
David said, that I might not sin against thee. That's what
Paul's talking about here. Desire the sincere milk of the
word that you may grow thereby. The pure milk of the word, not
adulterated, not mixed with something else. You know, with kids, a
lot of times, in order to get them to drink their milk, I know
when I was a kid, they would put some Hershey's syrup in there
and mix it up, you know? And that, of course, when you
got through, it was all down in the bottom, but you thought
it was really doing something. But see, that's what I believe
a lot of the stuff that is going on today is like putting Hershey's
syrup in the milk. And because it's supposed to
make it taste better. You know, all the different entertainment
ideas and things to make people feel good and everything is they,
you know, have a wonderful worship experience, they call it. You
know, come down here and worship with us and you'll just go away
feeling great. And it's mostly, what it is,
is putting strawberry flavor in the milk. It's making it taste
good to the flesh. But that's not what newborn babes
need. Newborn babes don't need something
to make them think that it tastes good to the flesh, because dear
brethren, the word of God does not taste good to the flesh.
I mean, ain't nothing I read in here that makes my flesh rejoice,
because this withers my flesh. It burns me. It causes me to
see what I am. But see that, as newborn babes,
we need to know that. We need to grow. See, we need
to grow out of that place where we were to that place where we
are. And by the grace of God, we shall,
as newborn babes, that ye may grow thereby. If so be ye have
tasted that the Lord is gracious. Now, if you've tasted that, if
you've got a little taste of that, then that whets your appetite. Now a person that doesn't, has
never tasted that the Lord is gracious, these things don't
mean anything. You can teach a person to read
the Bible. But you can't cause them to like
what the Bible says. You know, you can't cause them
to rejoice in it. And that's what the work of the
Spirit of God, that is, if so be that ye have tasted that the
Lord is gracious. Because these, you see, Peter's
addressing the people of God. He's saying, look, if you've
been born again by the Spirit of God, these are the things
that you need to focus your mind on. To whom coming as unto a
living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and
precious. So we come to the Lord as unto
a living stone. Now that makes no sense. Have
you ever seen a living stone? Those stones are about as dead
as something can be. I mean, it's just a stone. It's
not doing it, it's not changing. But we're coming to a living
stone because the one who is the rock of ages, as Augustus'
top lady wrote about, rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide
myself in thee. We come unto him because he is
a living stone. Now listen to what he says here.
To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
not roundly accepted by the world. Now, the world doesn't always
care if you accept him, but they don't generally accept him. Because
it's not acceptable You see, the worship of Christ is acceptable
to the world as long as you include him along with everybody else.
You know, you can have this faith, or you can have that faith, or
this, that, or the other. Well, the scripture says there's
one Lord, one faith, one baptism. There's not a bunch. We're not,
you know, mixing everything up and we're gonna, you choose this
one, I'll choose that one and we'll have this and that and
the other and we'll just all get along together, no. Because
this word, this one of whom we speak, this living stone, he
has been disallowed of men. Men don't want him. They don't
want the exclusivity of Christ. They want the inclusivity of
Christ. Oh, everybody, you know, is just
welcome in here and everything, and we're just gonna be one big
happy family. The world loves that message. But Christ is set apart. and he's been disallowed of men.
Men don't receive him by nature. You can't talk a man into loving
Christ. You can't talk him into believing. And then he says this, disallowed
indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. He is the chosen. See, Christ
is the elect. If you want to know who the elect
is, go to the scripture and it tells you Christ is the elect.
He is the chosen one. He is that one who the Father
has sent into the world. God who at sundry times in divers
manners spake in time past to the fathers by the prophets hath
in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. There's no other
revelation of Almighty God to men than has been revealed in
Jesus Christ as he walked among men. You can't know God apart
from knowing Christ. He's that one stone which the
builders rejected, but he's chosen of God and precious. And then
he says this, we're coming to a living stone, ye also. as lively stones, that is, living
stones. Ye also, as living stones, are
built up to a spiritual house. A holy priesthood to offer up
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. There is no sacrifice. There
is no worship. that is acceptable to God except
that which is in Jesus Christ. I mean, that's what he says there.
It's very plain, and he says, you as lively stones, you have
been made alive. Remember what the Lord said to
Peter? He said, Peter, which the word Peter is Petra, means
rock. He said, Peter, you are a rock. See, we've been made stones in
the house of God, that which the Lord, that's building material. See, the older buildings and
things were built out of stones, and they were placed by the stonemason. They were marked out where they
should be put, and he put them there. to build what he desired
to build. And so it is, he says, you as
living stones are built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood
to offer up spiritual sacrifices, a holy priesthood. And he's gonna
speak about that again a little further over in the chapter and
says we are a royal priesthood. They were a holy priesthood.
Now what does that mean? That means, you see there was
a, when under the law, the Lord appointed Aaron and his offspring
to be priests in the house of God. And no one else could be
a priest. It didn't make a difference how
much you wanted to be a priest. It didn't make any difference
what you went about to do. If you were not of the tribe
of Aaron, you could not be a priest. That was the priesthood. Now
the priesthood was that which was appointed by Almighty God. And no one could be a part of
it except that which, those who were born into it. Same way in
the kingdom of God. He has made us a holy priesthood,
a priesthood set apart. Now we have been made kings and
priests unto our God. We're able to offer sacrifices.
See, a man can't come just on his own and offer a sacrifice
to God and it be acceptable. But the priest, if the priest
offers a sacrifice, it is acceptable. And how did the priest get to
be the priest? Did he do something to get to be the priest? No,
he was appointed to be the priest. And so as a member of this priesthood,
we're able to offer a sacrifice unto the Lord. And what is the
sacrifice? There's only one sacrifice that's
acceptable, and that's Jesus Christ. We don't want another
one. See, a lot of people want to bring other stuff to the Lord.
Well, Lord, you know, I mean, Christ is all right, but look
at this. You mean to tell me that if I get out here and I
do all these other things and Lord, I fed all these people
and I did all these wonderful things, Lord, isn't this good
enough in your sight? He'll say no. I never knew you. You were not part of the priesthood.
Says you didn't offer a proper sacrifice. You didn't have the
authority to do it and you didn't do it. But he says ye. are set apart as a holy priesthood
to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Remember what the Lord told the
woman at the well? She said, Lord, you know, you
Jews, y'all say we should worship down there in Jerusalem, and
our people, what we believe is we should worship up here. He
said, woman, you don't even know what you're talking about. He
said salvation is of the Jews. Now, what was he telling her? He said, I have an elect people,
and you can't worship me apart from this way. He said, you worship you know
not what we know what we worship. For the Lord seeketh such to
worship him as worship him, how? In spirit and truth. Now the
Spirit is, of course, the Holy Spirit that causes men to desire
to worship Him, but the truth is that one who came saying,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the
Father but by me. He is the truth. So it is impossible
for a man to worship the Lord apart from the work of the Spirit
of God in him and worshiping him in the truth of Jesus Christ. You can't get around that. And
it doesn't make any difference what eloquent person may come
along sometime in your life or out here saying that there is
some means, method, or way in which a man can approach unto
God other than through Jesus Christ and him crucified. He
is telling you a lie. Christ alone is that acceptable
sacrifice. And he can only be offered in
this sense by the proper priesthood, a priesthood appointed by Almighty
God. Now, can a man make himself a
priest? No. But the Lord makes men priests
that are very unworthy of being priests. In fact, they're those
that's described up here. He said laying aside these things.
Now, why did he say laying these things aside? Because he knew
that's what they were. See, we're not talking about people that
are good folks. We're talking about sinners.
Those who worship the Lord in spirit and truth are not good
people. They're those whom the Lord has cleansed. They're those whom the Lord has
borne again by His Spirit. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scriptures, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded. Oh, what a place to stand. The
Lord said, I have laid in Zion a chief cornerstone, there's
that word, elect, precious. See, he's the chosen one of God,
not another one. And then he says something that
is at the heart and essence of the blessed truth of the gospel.
He that believeth on him shall not be confounded. The Lord will
never turn his back on a man who believes in him. Do we believe what he said to
Nicodemus? For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's a glorious truth. That's a wondrous truth. You know, Now when a man comes
to that verse and he says, well I'll believe when I get ready,
he's not a believer. But when a man says, oh Lord,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Pass me not, oh gentle Savior.
Hear my humble cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. See, that's what it is to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. To believe that He is the Savior
and there is none else. Believe that His righteousness
alone is that which can give a man an entrance into the kingdom
of God. And that man who by grace, though
he might not know it at the time. See, a man doesn't know ahead
of time that he's an object of God's grace, does he? I mean,
a man doesn't come down and say, well, I'm one of the elect, so
I'm gonna believe. No, it's through the belief that the Lord manifests
that a man is one of his elect, one of those who is authorized
to offer sacrifices unto the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ. Because he believes. Whosoever
believeth in him shall not be confounded. Never gonna be a
man. that is turned away from the
Lord. A bruised reed will he not break,
and smoking flax will he not quench? He draws his people unto
himself, and he gives them a heart and a mind to call upon his name.
And in reality, they can't do anything else. See, a man in
whom the Spirit of God works, he runs to Christ. He's like
blind Bartimaeus. And the Lord's passing by, and
everybody says, oh, he ain't got time for you. Don't worry
about, just let him go by. But quick, he's in such a fuss,
and he said, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they said, be quiet. He said,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still. I'm here
to tell you today that any man by the grace of God who calls
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He will help those
that need him. May the Lord help us and give
us a mind to call on his name.