Now let us turn together to 1
Peter, Chapter 2, as we continue our expositions of this wonderful
portion of the Word of God, 1 Peter, Chapter 2. And I shall read in your hearing
the first ten verses. find 1 Peter toward the end of
the New Testament. If you're in Hebrews, you need
to go a little bit further. If you're in the book of the
Revelation, you've gone a little bit too far. And for some of you who ask,
why do I say that? Well, for several reasons. God
has been pleased to bring among us in recent days, some who have
no or little acquaintance with the scriptures. And it's embarrassing
to be struggling, trying to find the passage. And so More and
more I'll be doing that because God is answering our prayers
to bring among us those who need to know his word. If you wonder
why I'm giving a little more explanation in our consecutive
reading, it's for that purpose, because things that for some
of us have been part of our upbringing are simply not true of many in
our generation, and we need to be mindful of them so that they
will obtain maximum profit from these various elements of our
worship. All right, 1 Peter 2, and I shall read the first ten
verses. Putting away, therefore, all wickedness, or as we saw
in our expositions, all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies,
and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes long for the
milk of the word, which is without guile, that you may grow thereby
unto salvation, if or since you have tasted that the Lord is
gracious, unto whom coming a living stone, rejected indeed of men,
but with God elect, precious, you also as living stones are
built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Because it is contained in Scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believes on him shall
not be put to shame. For you, therefore, that believe
is the preciousness or the honor. But for such as disbelieve, the
stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of
the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense. For they
stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. But you are an elect race, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession,
that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of
darkness into his marvelous light. who in time past were no people,
but now are the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but
now have obtained mercy." Now there are basically only
two kinds of religion in the world. Only two kinds of religion. many institutions, many organizations,
many gatherings of people around various teachers, and there are
courses in colleges and seminaries and universities on comparative
religions, and the religions of the world, like those demons,
are legion. But at the end of the day, there
are really only two kinds of religion in the world. The one
says Do this in order to live. And the other says, because you
live, do this. The former is the religion of
self-effort and self-righteousness and self-endeavor in which men
think by what they do they will earn acceptance with God. And if they gain acceptance with
God, they can reach around and pat themselves on the back. Because
like that Pharisee who stood in the temple, you can say, I
thank God I am not like other men, not because of your grace,
but because of who and what I am in myself and because of what
I do. But the other religion, it does
not say do in order to obtain life. But it says, because you
have received life, having received life as a free gift of God's
grace, you are now to do, not with any thought of earning the
favor of God, but you do as an expression of your gratitude
to God for the favor he has freely conferred. Now, the Christian
faith, as conveyed to us in the Scriptures, is obviously a religion,
the only religion of the second kind. It is a religion of grace. In the gospel, God does not come
to you and to me saying, now look, if you do this, do this,
do this, and do it hard enough and long enough, I just may reward
you with forgiveness and pardon and acceptance and heaven at
last. That's no gospel. The gospel is an announcement,
it's good news, of what God has done in Christ to overcome every
barrier to the sinner's acceptance with God. And the Gospel declares
God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son. Christ has
died the just for the unjust. Christ has opened the way into
the presence of God. Cast yourself upon who Christ
is and what He has done, and you are given freely as the gift
of God, pardon, acceptance, access to God and heaven at last. And so because the gospel is
an announcement of what God has done, And it is not a religion
of do in order to live, but you live because of grace. It then
comes and says, now this is what you are to do, not to obtain
the favor of God, but to express your gratitude to the God who
has conferred his grace upon you. And this has become abundantly
clear to us in our studies in First Peter. Peter is writing
to a group of Christians scattered throughout what is now the land
of Turkey, called then Asia Minor, in these Roman provinces. And
they are experiencing all kinds of opposition from their former
companions in sin, from their own remaining sin, from the devil
himself. And Peter, with a pastor's heart,
wants to write to them to instruct them and guide them as to how
they are to live in that very real pressure cooker. But before
he gives any directives, any imperatives, any exhortations,
before he tells them what to do, he reminds them of what they
already have and they already are because of the grace of God.
As we went through verses 3 to 12 in chapter 1, we saw there
is not one command. Everything is a statement, an
indicative, a statement of what is. And what is, is what it is,
because God is a God of abundant grace and mercy. But then, in
the light of what God has given, Peter then gave five imperatives,
five specific directives to the people of God as to how they
are to live out of gratitude to God for his gracious salvation. And in the power and in the dynamics
of that salvation, he tells them, you are to live a life of hope.
a life of holiness, a life of godly fear, a life of brotherly
love, and a life of continuous hunger for the Word of God. Now,
this morning, we begin our study of verses 4 through 10 in chapter
2. And Peter is going back to the
same principle. For in verses 4 through 10, there
are no exhortations, there are no imperatives, there are no
admonitions, In these verses, we have another block of instruction
that tells us who we are and what we have because of the action
of God's grace. Just a very surface glance at
the passage and you will notice. Look at verse 5. You also as
living stones are built up. You are literally being built
up. He doesn't say build yourself
up. You ought to be built up. He
says you are being built up. The end of verse 6, he that believes
on him shall not be put to shame. He doesn't say you ought not
to be put to shame, he says you shall not be put to shame. Verse 7, to you therefore that
believe is the preciousness or the honor. You believers are
regarded by God with the same disposition with which He regards
His Son. Verse 9. But you are. He's not saying you ought to
be, you will eventually become. He says you are. And then He
mentions all these things that they are. Verse 10. You were
not, but you now are the people of God. You are, you are, you
are, you are. Verses 4 to 10 is another wonderful
block of what we've come to know as the indicatives of grace. And I use the word not to impress
you with big words. I do want that phrase to embed
itself in your memory. I, as a believer, must constantly
feed my soul upon the indicatives of grace, that is, the statements
of what God has done for me in Christ, the unfolding of what
I am in Christ, and only in the spirit-wrought understanding
of the indicatives of grace and the present believing embrace
of the indicatives of grace Will I be able to fulfill the obligations
of grace? And Peter has many more obligations
to lay upon the people of God. You will notice in verse 11,
he begins another whole string of them in chapter 2. Beloved,
I beseech you. And then a whole string of imperatives
flow out of this wonderful block of indicatives. And as we come
to the passage, I don't want you to get lost in the details
and not see that overall picture that Peter is beginning to paint
for us. In chapter 1, verses 3 to 12,
a large block of the indicatives of grace. Then we have five imperatives
of grace, from 1, 13, through 2, and verse 3. Now we come to
chapter 2, verses 4 to 10, and we have another big block of
the indicatives of grace. And then there will follow an
even larger block of the imperatives of grace. Well, as we come to
the passage, I want you to notice with me very quickly, by way,
again, of introduction to it, three very vital things. And I hope, as I mention them,
you'll say, oh yes, I noticed that even as we read through
the passage. First of all, It is, indeed,
another concentrated statement of the indicatives of grace.
I've tried to establish that with you, that it has no exhortations. There is not one verb in the
imperative mood here in this passage. It is all a statement
of what is. Secondly, then, the focus of
these verses is upon the corporate identity and privileges of the
people of God. the focus is upon the corporate
identity and privileges of the people of God. Whereas verses
3 to 12 in chapter 1 predominantly emphasize the privileges that
all of the people of God share in common. But the emphasis is
upon the individual believer laying hold of and appreciating
his individual possessions in Christ. Here the emphasis is
upon what the people of God are together. You see the imagery
of a house, the imagery of a priesthood, a class of people called priests. The whole concepts in verse 9
are all the concepts of an elect race, a priesthood, a nation,
a people. These are terms that focus not
so much upon the individual identity and privilege of the child of
God, though they are enjoyed individually or they would not
be their portion corporately, but the emphasis falls upon who
and what the people of God are in their identity as the people
of God in their corporate identity. And then thirdly, these verses
are a spirit-inspired Christianizing of many Old Testament passages
and concepts. These verses are a spirit-inspired
Christianizing of many Old Testament passages and concepts. If you
were to extract from verses 4 to 10 every explicit quotation from
the Old Testament, every allusion to an Old Testament reality,
every phrase that is extracted from the Old Testament, you'd
be left with just a handful of words. Verses 4 to 10, in many
ways, is a rearranged concordance of large sections of the Old
Testament. And we're going to see that as we unfold it. You
say, what's the big deal? Well, the big deal is this. Peter
is writing to a community of New Covenant believers in Asia
Minor, most of them with a pagan background. He says in verse
10, you were not a people, you were part of the Goyim, part
of the pagan nations of the Gentiles. You had no past heritage in all
of the rich realities that the Jewish nation had. They had the
tabernacle and the temple instituted by God. They had a priesthood
instituted by God. They had a sacrificial system
instituted by God. God could say of that people,
you only have I known of all the peoples of the earth. They
were an elect nation, a chosen people. And what Peter does is
he takes all of that rich Old Testament terminology, the concepts
of temple, of priesthood, of sacrifice, of a holy nation,
and elect race, God's peculiar possession, and he transfers
all of that to the Christian community there in Asia Minor
in the first century. And so I say, this is a Spirit-inspired
Christianizing of many Old Testament passages and concepts. And the reason Peter does that
is that he learned well from his Lord, who in his post-resurrection
ministry opened the mind of his apostles that they might understand
the Scriptures. And he taught them concerning
the true significance of that Old Testament temple, the true
significance of the Old Testament priesthood, the true significance
of the Old Testament sacrifices, all of which were not ends in
themselves, but pointed to Christ and to his church and to the
privileges of gospel days. So Peter is not accommodating
the Old Testament because he's got a bad set of hermeneutics.
He is exemplifying true biblical hermeneutics. He is demonstrating
by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the use of all of this
rich Old Testament terminology that it finds its fulfillment
in Jesus Christ and in his Church. That's not an imposition of a
theological position upon the text of scripture. It is the
only way we can handle honestly what Peter has written for the
people of God for all of the ages until the Lord Jesus returns. Well, so much then for that broad
introduction to this section. I hope you've not found it tedious.
I felt it was necessary if I were going to responsibly expound
the section. Now, God helping us and time
permitting, we're going to look at verses 4 and 5 this morning.
unto whom coming, a living stone rejected indeed of men, but with
God, elect, precious, you also as living stones are built up
a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. If I were
to give a title to the exposition, it would be a very unglamorous
title, The Living Stones the spiritual house, and the holy
priesthood, because that's what we have here in the passage.
Now, note with me, first of all, what I'm calling the continuous
activity of the true people of God. The continuous activity
of the true people of God. Verse 4a. Unto whom coming. Everything that Peter describes
in verses 4 to as part of the experience and possession of
the people of God is predicated upon this description of the
true people of God. And how are they described? They
are described as those who continually come to the Lord Jesus. Who is
the Whom of verse 4? Well, the Whom of verse 4, the
relative pronoun, is the Lord of verse 3. You remember that
he had said in verse three, since you have tasted that the Lord
is gracious when he gives the exhortation, the command as newborn
babes to long to yearn for the milk of the word. He does so
assuming that those to whom he speaks have indeed tasted that
the Lord is gracious. They have proven in their experience
that Jesus Christ is a kind, beneficent, merciful Savior. That's not a notion that floats
around in their heads. that merely passes by their ears,
for the true people of God, they have tasted, they have known
in the realm of the spirit what the tasting and the ingesting
of food is in the physical realm. They have heard of Christ in
the gospel, and they have in their experience tasted of him. Now, he says, the same Lord of
whom you have tasted, and there the form of the verb points to
that definitive tasting that comes in conversion. He now says,
unto whom coming. Unto whom coming. unto whom,
literally, you are continually coming. Now, this word coming,
if you know something of the New Testament, is synonymous
with faith. One of the ways faith is described
is that of coming to Christ. Remember in John 5.40, Jesus
said, You will not come to me that you may have life. You will
not believe upon me. John 6, 37, all that the Father
gives me shall come to me, and him that comes to me I will in
no wise cast out. Coming to Christ is one of the
terms used for approaching Christ in faith. What I do when I come
to your door is I make a physical approach with my feet from where
I am to your door and to where you are. What is faith? It is
leaving where I am in my sin, in my guilt, in my hell-deservingness,
going out of myself and unto Christ. Coming to Christ is one
of the descriptive elements of faith. And this particular verb
is also used in the Old Testament, in that Greek translation of
the Old Testament, to describe what priests would do when they
came with their sacrifices. It's used for specific coming
in acts of worship in the book of Hebrews. So the whole idea
of this phrase, unto whom coming, is that Peter assumes in writing
to these Christians that the fundamental characteristic of
every one of them is that they are continual comers to Christ. Not referring to that initial
coming to Christ for initial saving mercies, but the ongoing,
repeated, habitual coming to Christ for the sustaining of
spiritual life. In the language of John 6, 54,
it is the continual eating of his flesh and the continual drinking
of his blood. It is the coming continually
to Christ. You say, Pastor, you've labored
the point. Let's get on to something else. Well, if I've labored it,
I hope it will stick, because it's critical to all that follows.
Peter assumes that when he says, you are, you are, you are, you
were not, but you are, He's assuming, he's writing to those who are
continual comers to Christ. And if you are a continual comer
to Christ, you with those saints back there in the first century,
all that Peter says in verses 4 to 10 is true of you. If you
only began to come to him an hour ago, And your posture is
one of coming to Christ. You are determined you're not
going to go anywhere else for the ongoing pardon of your sins.
You're not going to go anywhere else for strength to live a life
pleasing to God. You're not going to go anywhere
else to find your deepest satisfaction. You have come to Christ. You
have found in him the pearl of great price. You're not out shopping
for anyone else. You are committed to continually
come to him. And dear people, if I stick by
my notes, it's been very distracting. We've had so much motion here
this morning. It's been very, very distressful.
So please forgive me if I stick by my notes. But when you've
labored for hours and are trying to deliver your soul, and I'm
not faulting anyone, that's why I'm looking down. But if you
wonder why, I find wherever I look, I try to turn away from motion.
I'm meeting other motions. So pardon me if I if I stick
by my notes, because it is most distracting. It's critical to
grasp this point, that all of those who are the true people
of God are comers to Christ. But we need to appreciate that
this is true of all of them, regardless of their stage of
growth. The most newborn babe in Christ and the most mature
saint in Christ, this is true. Everything Peter writes in 4
to 10 is true, if only that individual is a comer to Christ. It applies
to all of these comers, but only to these comers. If you are not
described in 4A, unto whom continually coming, then all the things Peter
says are true of such are not true of you. Not true of you. And can only be true of you if
you become a comer to Christ. They are not true of you out
of Christ, but they can be true of you in Christ. Well then,
having looked at the continuous activity of the true people of
God, note with me secondly the specific identity of Christ as
a living stone. Unto whom coming a living stone. Now that's nothing short of a
startling metaphor. Suppose I were to stand up here
this morning and talk to you about a mild hurricane wind. or talk about the timid roar
of a lion. You'd say, Pastor Martin, you're
mixed up. The wind in a hurricane is not
mild. It's a raging wind. It's a tearing,
rending wind. You don't talk about the soft
roaring of a lion. You talk about the soft purring
of a cat. But it's the loud, intimidating
roar of a lion. But this is that kind of a startling
metaphor. He says, unto whom coming a living
stone. Now when you want to show that
something's dead and real dead, how do you describe it? We say
that thing is dead as a stone. Cold as a stone. That guy has a stone face. What do we mean? It's not showing
the normal expressions of life. So living stone is a startling
metaphor. And he says, you who come to
this Lord who is gracious, you come to him in his specific identity
as living stone. Now, where did Peter get that
idea? Well, it's evident that when
Peter wrote this portion of his letter, his mind was steeped
with a rich vein of Old Testament teaching concerning Christ as
a stone, particularly as a chief cornerstone in the construction
of God's messianic temple made of his people. That will become
clear when we come to verses 6 through 8. where he quotes
from three pivotal Old Testament passages, Isaiah 28, and then
Psalm 118, and then Isaiah chapter 8. And we're not going to look
at those passages now, because that will be the task in expounding
verses 6 to 8. But the concept of a stone, Peter
derived directly from these Old Testament passages, clearly fulfilled
in Jesus Christ. But whatever possessed him to
join to it the concept of living stone? Well, it's one of Peter's
favorite words. You remember in chapter 1 in
verse 3, he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten
us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. The same Peter who said, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God, he now sees that
his hope, that confident expectation for all the blessings of a promised
salvation, has its taproots in the livingness of Christ. It
is a living hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. At the
end of chapter one, that's how he described the word of God,
the word of God, which is living and abiding. And as he contemplates
his Lord as God's appointed cornerstone in the construction of his spiritual
temple, he cannot think of him in any other way but that of
the living stone. He is the stone who, though dead,
was raised from the dead, the one who says to John in the book
of the Revelation, I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. And furthermore, as he's going
to describe the experience and privilege of the people of God,
he thinks of his Lord as the one who said in John 5.26, that
the Son has life in Himself, and He has a life that He is
able to impart to others, for He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. And when sinners approach the
Father through Him, they know Him not only as the way and the
truth, but they experience Him as the life. And so Peter sets
before his hearers this specific identity of Christ, the one to
whom they come as the living stone, the one who is able to
impart life to dead stones and make them with himself living
stones in his spiritual temple. But now note, having looked at
the prevailing disposition of the true people of God, they
continually come to Christ, the specific identity of Christ as
living stone. Note thirdly, then, the contrasting
assessment of Christ as the living stone. No sooner does Peter introduce
the Lord Jesus as living stone, but he gives us this contrasting
assessment of Christ as the living stone. And in the original, it's
a very clear, on the one hand, and on the other hand, structure.
For you Greek students, you have a men-dead construction. Peter
says, this living stone, who, on the one hand, rejected of
men, but on the other hand, with God, elect, precious. Man's assessment and treatment
contrasted with God's assessment. and treatment. Let's look at
them for a few moments. What is man's assessment? Peter writes, rejected indeed
of men. In the Old Testament it says
the stone which the builders rejected By the inspiration of
the Spirit, Peter moves beyond whatever specific application
that may have had in David's time and the application that
our Lord himself makes of it with reference to himself being
rejected by the religious leaders in Israel. And Peter says, rejected
indeed of men, mankind in general, rejects this stone. And the verb that he uses literally
means to examine, and after examination to reject or cast aside as worthless
or useless. It's the picture of what people
do who are in the quality control section of a plant or a company. Now some of you perhaps have
seen movies or you've visited a plant. Let's say it's an egg
processing plant. And among the various responsibilities,
from the time the eggs are delivered to the time they go out in boxes,
somewhere along the line you're going to have a quality control
segment that by the use of certain instruments is going to examine
whether or not an egg is fit for marketing. And when those
who sit there examining determine, no, this egg is unworthy to be
marketed, they take it out of that production line, or whatever
we would call the thing that is processing them and boxing
them, and they cast it aside. That's exactly the verb that
Peter uses here. Rejected indeed of men, assessed
and regarded as worthless, and therefore set aside. And he uses
a form of the verb which points to an action that continues. It is a steady state. It is an
action that abides in the overall assessment of mankind. This living stone, many value
it, and they regard it as unworthy of any further consideration.
It is rejected. But with respect to God, God's
assessment and treatment is, and there is a subtle little
emphasis that Peter gives, not merely with God, but he uses
a preposition that is the preposition of a long-sightedness. It's the
picture of God having that stone at his side, looks down upon
it, and he assesses it, and two words reflect his assessment.
and precious, elect, chosen, selected, perfectly suited for
all that is involved in his identity as the living stone. Isaiah 42
in verse 1, Behold my servant, my chosen one, my elect one. That's what the father says of
his son from all eternity. He regarded him as the one worthy
and suitable to be the stone in this spiritual structure that
God would build, comprised of those whom he would make living
stones as they come into relationship with Christ, the living stone,
with God elect and precious, honored, esteemed, properly regarded
because of its intrinsic worth, and character. That's how God
esteems him. And God made that known audibly
in the days of our Lord's flesh. This is my beloved son, in whom
I am well pleased. He spoke directly to him on another
occasion. You are my son, my beloved one,
in whom I am well pleased. And when Peter introduces this
whole imagery of Christ as the stone, before he even takes us
to those passages that narrow down the focus and show us that
he is that fashion stone that has a unique place in the construction
of God's spiritual temple, he is concerned to underscore that
in a very real sense, all mankind is confronted with this stone. and the true state of the heart
is revealed in the presence of this one whom God regards elect
and precious, and that will be amplified in the subsequent verses. The believers are those who will
never be disappointed that they share God's assessment and see
in Christ the one who was uniquely chosen to be the redeemer of
sinners, the one who is in himself and in his work worthy to be
honored and be regarded as precious. But there are others to whom
he's the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense. and they
stumble at the word being disobedient. You see, Christ, when he comes
to us in the word of the gospel, becomes that one in whose presence
we either share the estimation of all men by nature, or by grace
we are brought to share God's estimation of him. Well, we've
looked then at the contrasting assessment of Christ the living
stone now Come with me to consider the amazing results of coming
to Christ as a living stone. What happens to those who, tasting
that the Lord is gracious, continually come to Him, come to Him as the
living stone, though rejected by men in general, yet the one
whom God has designated as elect and precious, what happens to
all who come to Him? Well, in terms of how you regard
the matters, we could say two fundamental things happened,
but I want, for the sake of simplicity, to consider the four things that
Peter says happen to those who come to this living stone. First
of all, they are made living stones. Look at the text. A living
stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect precious,
you also as living stones." Well, how in the world did these people
become living stones? Christ has life in himself. Christ
is now resplendent with the uniqueness of resurrected life, having undergone
the pains of death when He died the just for the unjust, raised
to life to die no more. How did they become living stones? Well, they became living stones
by coming into union with Him who is The, capital letters,
Living Stone. You also, as living stones, where
did they get their livingness? By nature they were stones, dead
stones, dead as a stone, for you hath he made alive who were
dead in trespasses and sins. But remember, Peter, using different
imagery, has said, you have purified your souls in your obedience
to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, having been
begotten again. Way back to chapter one, blessed
be the God and Father who has begotten us again. They were
those in whom God had worked this mighty work of new life. They were newborn ones. And now Peter, changing the imagery,
says, In being the recipients of God's gracious impartation
of life, in union with Christ, you have become living stones. That's what happens when people
come to Christ. In contact with Christ, they
receive the very life of Christ. I have been crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. Colossians chapter 3, when Christ
who is our what? Our life shall appear, then shall
you also be manifested with him in glory. The first amazing result
of coming to Christ as living stone is that all who come to
him are made living stone. They share in the very imperishable
life of the Son of God. But secondly, they are also made
or built into a spiritual house. They are built into a spiritual
house. Now, the word in the original
can either be an imperative or an indicative, and some commentators
say, well, it's an imperative, be built. But it makes really
no sense to regard it as such. In this whole section, Peter
is not exhorting, he's not commanding. He's declaring what is and what
has been the operation of grace. And he says that you are built
together a spiritual house. a spiritual house. Coming to
Christ, this living stone, you are being builded together a
spiritual house. Now the word house can mean the
house as a dwelling or the household that dwells within it. And because
of the emphasis here upon priesthood and sacrifice, it's most likely
that Peter's using it in the sense, you are the house, you
are the building. And he doesn't use the term sanctuary
for good and wise reasons, we won't go into all of that. But
here he is likening that which has happened to these who come
to Christ as resulting in God continually building up this
spiritual house, this spiritual dwelling, this spiritual temple. It is spiritual as opposed to
material. It is spiritual in that it is
the fruit of the action of the Spirit, and it has as its end
that the Spirit himself might dwell in the house that he builds. The closest parallel would be
Ephesians chapter 2 verses 19 through 22. And let me just read
that passage. I say the closest parallel in
the New Testament. You are no more strangers and
sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household
of God. being built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the
chief cornerstone in whom each several buildings fitly framed
together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you are built
together for an habitation of God in the Spirit. Here you have
Paul's description of a building that grows Whoever heard of a
building that grows? I've heard of buildings that
can be enlarged, but when the enlargement is done, you stop
your building. But not so the church. God is
continually building that sanctuary in which he dwells by the Spirit.
Peter, in the same category of biblical reality, says, to whom
coming, you are being builded up into this house of God, this
spiritual house, a house built by the Spirit and for the Spirit. But not only this, you are not
only made living stones, built into a spiritual house, you are
constituted a holy priesthood. Again, look at the text. You
are, as living stones, being built up a spiritual house to
this end, to be a holy priesthood. to be a holy priesthood. Now
wait a minute. What temple ever had its stones
functioning as priests? You see, you talk about mixing
your metaphors. Yes, the Holy Ghost has wonderfully mixed the
metaphors. What we have in Christ is so
rich that no one metaphor will contain it. So much of the Old
Testament points to Christ and to the fulfillment in Christ
that Peter has no scruples of moving from living stones in
the temple, and now the stones, while still remaining as part
of the temple, are suddenly priests, clothed in garments, active within
the temple, offering sacrifice. And he says, this is what you
believers there in Asia Minor, despised by your former companions,
treated as the nobodies of this world, this is what God has made
you, to whom coming you also as living stones built up a spiritual
house to be a holy priesthood. Now this word priesthood is used
only here and in chapter 2 and verse 9 in the whole of the New
Testament. The word priest is found elsewhere,
but priesthood, as a singular collective noun describing a
class of people, who are the New Testament priesthood? The
answer is simple. All of the people of God. There is no priestly class in
the New Testament. Never once, among all the terms
used to describe those who have various gifts to minister, never
once is the term priest applied to them. Never once. And isn't
it ironic that the so-called first Pope of Rome is the instrument
the Holy Spirit uses to give us the most explicit doctrine
or statement of the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers
in the New Testament. Only Peter uses the word priesthood.
two times, here and in chapter 2 and verse 9, and he says, the
priesthood is composed of all who come to Christ, all who have
tasted that the Lord is gracious, all who continually come to Him.
They are not only the living stones in His spiritual house,
They are constituted the priesthood that functions within that house.
What is a temple without a priesthood to carry on its religious rituals
within the temple? Well, the temple is just a building.
It needs a priesthood. It needs those who can function
within that temple, doing the things that the God and the Lord
of the temple commands. And Peter says, anything and
everything that the Old Testament temple pointed to is now fulfilled
in you believers there in Asia Minor. Coming to Christ the living
stone, you are constituted this spiritual priesthood, that which
he calls a holy priesthood. That is a priesthood set apart
unto God and to his service. You are no longer a part of that
world system that is marked by defilement. You have purified
your souls in your obedience to the truth. you have in his
initial description of them in chapter 1. He says that you are
what you are as elect sojourners according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father in sanctification. Same root concept. In sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Christ. So there is a positional but
an internal and a moral holiness They are a priesthood because
in union with Christ and by the ministry of the Spirit, they
have purified their souls. They have been set apart unto
God. They are constituted a holy priesthood. One of the writers
I consulted in my preparation made a statement that has stuck
with me, and I've altered it a little bit. He said, Jewish
terms, given a Jewish meaning, instead of Jewish terms, with
a distinctively Christian meaning have ruined many. What are some
Jewish terms? Priesthood, sacrifice. Give to those Jewish terms a
Jewish meaning in the New Testament and you have spiritual shipwreck.
You have wrong with its priestcraft and wrong with its sacrifice
of the mass. That's giving Jewish terms a
Jewish significance now that all of the shadows and types
are swallowed up in Christ. What Peter does is he takes Jewish
terms and he gives them a distinctive Christian meaning and says, coming
to Christ, you are now the temple, you are the priesthood. And to call any man a priest
is to revert. to that which Christ has done
away with in his death and resurrection. You are constituted a holy priesthood,
but then the fourth privilege is this. We are privileged to
offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices. What's a temple without
a priesthood? What's a priesthood without sacrifices? You see, to Peter's mind steeped
in the Old Testament rituals, it would be unthinkable to have
a temple without a priesthood and a priesthood without sacrifices.
He says, yes, and it is unthinkable that God would bring people into
union with his Son, make them living stones in a living house
of his dwelling, constitute those same people a holy priesthood. without giving them the privilege
of offering sacrifices. And he says God has given you
that privilege. He's made you these things to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ. Just a few moments on those words
to offer up to offer up The common word used to describe the Levitical
sacrifices in that Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, if
you were describing in Leviticus that the priest would come and
offer, that's the word you would use. It's used in James 2 regarding
Abraham offering up Isaac upon the altar. And what we offer
are real sacrifices. To offer up sacrifices! They are real, God-ordained,
God-pleasing expressions of devotion and worship, but they are spiritual
sacrifices. They are not carnal, not animals
and foodstuffs to make atonement or to express gratitude by tangible,
physical commodities. They are spiritual sacrifices. They are sacrifices offered in
the power and in the grace of the Spirit, and they constitute
the heart of new covenant worship. Well, what are those sacrifices?
Well, if you want a rich study, just take your concordance and
look up the word sacrifice in the New Testament and see what
things are designated sacrifices. And you'll come across verses
like Romans 12, 1. I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies
of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable
to God, which is your reasonable, your rational, your logicon,
your spiritual service. We present ourselves in response
to the magnificence of God's grace and say, Here, Lord, I
give myself away. This is all that I can do. I do not come to present an animal
upon an altar. Lord, I give myself to you because
you were willing to give yourself for me. Or in Hebrews 13, 15,
By him therefore let us offer up the sacrifice of praise, the
fruit of our lips, making confession to his name. Further on in verse
16, Of good works Let us go on, he says, to perform good works,
to communicate in physical things with such sacrifices. God is
well-pleased. When Paul received the offering
of the Philippians, he writes back and says in chapter 4 and
verse 18, I've received the things that have come from Epaphroditus,
a sacrifice well-pleasing unto God. Our selfless commitment
to the advance of the gospel, Philippians 2.17. Our contrition
over sin, the sacrifices of God, are a broken and a contrite heart. A broken and a contrite heart
thou will not despise. It's not my purpose. We could
take every one of those and preach a sermon on it. But you see,
Peter, writing to these believers, says, your great privilege is
that you are not only made living stone, and not only built into
a spiritual house and constituted a holy priesthood, but you are
privileged actively, all of you, in your life together, to offer
up these spiritual sacrifices. And then he describes them in
this way, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And that word acceptable
means exceedingly well-pleasing to God. He uses a construction
of a word that underscores acceptable indeed, very favorable acceptance. You mean God is pleased to receive
these spiritual sacrifices? Yes, they are acceptable to Him.
Ah, but why are they acceptable to Him? The text says, through
Jesus Christ. We offer them through the mediation
of Christ. God receives them May I say it
reverently, He savors all of the perfection of the atonement
of His Son and the intercession of His Son, and our pathetic
sacrifices are well-pleasing in His sight because they are
presented through the Lord Jesus. Think of it. Sitting here this
morning, if you sought to engage your heart in the singing of
that opening section of Psalm 69, If you sought with all of
your heart to say, yes, Jesus is my rock, who was cleft for
me, and I do desire to hide myself in Him. And in singing the hymn
before the sermon, praising God for what His Word is, if your
heart was engaged, your conscious, there was still so much that
was lacking. There was a stray thought here
or there. I could have sung with greater
enthusiasm and devotion. I see spots and blemishes. in all the lands of my sacrifice
of praise. Yes, you do. And God sees far
more viewing them nakedly. But my dear Christian friend,
he doesn't view them nakedly. He views them through his son.
And he says, that sacrifice smells sweet to me. The odor of a sweet
smell, a sacrifice well pleasing to God. And when you gave your
offering this morning and you said, Lord, thank you. You've
blessed me. You provided my needs. And it
was a genuine expression of gratitude. But you know, you could have
been more grateful. You could have been more thankful. The
blemishes and the spots were in the sacrifice of your giving.
But it was well pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. You see,
Peter begins and ends this section with Christ to whom coming. All
of the things apply if you're coming to Christ. And now, as
a comer to Christ, all that you are and all that you do in that
identity is acceptable to God through Christ. Our Christian
experience begins and ends with Him. We don't start with Him
and go somewhere else and at the end hope that He'll come
in. No, it begins with Him, continues with Him. and will end with him. While I've attempted to unpack
these verses, we've looked at the continuous activity of the
true people of God, continually coming to Christ, the specific
identity of Christ as the living stone, the contrasting assessment
of Christ as the living stone, the amazing results of coming
to Christ as living stone. And to you, God's people, my
only exhortation is this, as I exhort myself, pray for grace
both to believe and understand and rejoice in all that you are
and all that you have because of Christ, to whom coming and
everything that flows out of that is but an exposition of
that which God freely confers upon his people. because of Christ. And to you who are yet dead stones,
you have no communion with God, no place among the people of
God, no service that is pleasing to God. Nothing pleases God if
it does not come through Christ. And if you're not a comer to
Christ, then whatever you bring to God doesn't come through Christ.
You see, verse 4a is critical to all that follows. Those who
can have the confidence that what they bring to God is well-pleasing
to God because it comes through Christ are those who are constant
comers to Christ. And so, once again, Christ is
set before you as the old Puritan said. Christ is freely preached
in all of our assemblies every Lord's Day. This Christ whom
God regards as His elect, His highly valued one. He says, Cast
yourself upon this Christ. Begin to value Him as I do. He must become your chosen and
your highly valued one. For the kingdom of heaven is
like unto a man seeking goodly pearls, who when he found one
pearl of great price, sold all that he had, that he might obtain
it. May God grant that you will lay
hold of His promise. Him that comes to me, I will
in no wise cast out. And if you come and you taste
that the Lord is good, you'll be one of those who is a continual
comer to Christ. And as a comer to Christ, you,
too, will be part of that company being built up into this spiritual
house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through the Lord Jesus. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for
this portion of your word, and we pray that the Holy Spirit
would write it upon all of our hearts, that we who are your
people may be given grace to know and to believe all that
we are because of Christ, and that we may then, having embraced
from the heart the indicatives of your grace, that we may seek
to live out the imperatives in gratitude and independence upon
your strength. We pray for those who are not
comers to Christ, that you would make them such. O Lord, by your
grace lay hold of them and draw them to yourself, we plead. Now
we ask that you would watch over your word, that you will dismiss
us with your blessing and your grace resting upon us, And may
the remaining hours of this day be kept holy unto you and to
the profit of our souls, we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.