Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to 1 Peter and chapter 2, and
reading for our text, verse 5. Verse 5, 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. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 5,
and what is upon my spirit is the spiritual sacrifices. What are they? How do we offer
them up? What is being set before us here? In our text, we have a picture,
a picture of a house. We know what a house is. We know
what the temple was. And the temple was made out of
stones and each one put together. And so the illustration here,
as a God's people, are like stones in a house. But it's not a literal
house. They're not literal stones, it's
a spiritual house. And they're not dead, cold, hard
rocks. But they're lively, they're living
stones. And they're built up, and they're
built up by God. And God's people are also described
here as an holy priesthood. In the Old Testament, there was
the priesthood. They offered up sacrifices. They made intercession to God. They went into the holiest of
all. But here we have a picture of
the Church of God, all joined together into one building, and
each one of them as a holy priesthood. We are all
priests unto God. We do not need someone to appear
and to come to God in our place. Christ is our advocate with the
Father. He appears in the presence of
God for us and on earth. and holy priesthood, and that
is set before us here, to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Not the sacrifices as the Old
Testament, which was blood of bulls and of goats, not literal
sacrifices on altars, but spiritual sacrifices, and that those sacrifices
are acceptable to God, not in themselves, not as something
coming from us, as we have sung from ourselves. We cannot bring
God anything worth, but it is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. These sacrifices are accepted
through Him, And as fruits of his work in us, they are well-pleasing
to God. Now, there is a bringing together
of the idea of sacrifice and what it is for a believer, what
it is for the Church of God to walk in this way. Paul, when
he writes to the Romans, he says in chapter 12 and verse 1 that
we are, our bodies are to be a living sacrifice. He says,
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to
this will, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God." And so he's pointing to our walk as renewed in Christ,
in this world, our reasonable service, a sacrifice that is
a living one because it's our life and our lives affected or
influenced by the grace of God. When he writes to the Ephesians,
The Apostle in chapter 5. He draws together how we walk
and what Christ offered. He says from verse 1, Be ye therefore
followers of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also
hath loved us, and hath given himself for us. and offering
and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. And so there is a joining
together there in those words as Christ also. And so here is our walk, walking
in love, and Christ walking in love, But God commendeth his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. And so there is a bringing together
of Christ's sacrifice the fruits and effects that then come into
our lives. So in thinking of this word,
spiritual sacrifices, I want to first set before us Christ's
one sin-atoning sacrifice, And then secondly, those spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. What are they? Because when we have an exhortation
in this way, we need to be clear, what are these spiritual sacrifices? How are we to make them? Well,
onto then, think first of Christ's one sin-atoning sacrifice. There is only one sacrifice that
has been offered up that made atonement for sin, and that is
what Christ offered up at Calvary. He laid down his life to take
it again. It is that alone that puts away
sin. It is that alone by faith in
Christ's sin-atoning sacrifice whereby the people of God are
saved. Looking back, the Scriptures
are very clear that the blood of bulls and of goats could never
put away sins. There was a remembrance made
of sins every year by those sacrifices, and those sacrifices pointed
to Christ. Abel, he offered a more acceptable
sacrifice than Cain. And he being dead now, he now
speaketh, that sacrifice was a blood sacrifice. a death of
one in the place of another, it was offered unto God. And
that all pointed to the seed of the woman that should bruise
the serpent's head, God's provision. We have a beautiful comparing
of those two with Abraham going up on Mount Moriah and his son
Isaac saying to him, my father the fire and the wood but where
is the lamb pray burnt offering and abraham answering my son
god will provide himself a lamb pray burnt offering and there
we have isaac taken off the altar the ram caught by its horns in
the thicket, so its fleece was not torn spotless, laid then
and slain in the place of Isaac, the substitutionary offering. But our Lord said, Abraham saw
my day and rejoiced at it. He saw Christ's substitutionary
offering. He saw that provision for the
Church of God. We, we look back and in the ordinance
of the Lord's Supper, which is not a sacrifice as blasphemously
taught in the Roman Catholic Church. It is a remembrance service. It is in no sense a sacrifice. It does not put away sin. For
that one truth, many of the martyrs lost their lives because they
would not allow that that service of the Lord's Supper was a remembrance
service and not a sacrifice. And may we ever remember that
and hold fast to that truth. It is Christ that died, yea,
rather risen again. And we do show forth the Lord's
death till he come. We don't offer him again. and
He will come again. And so we must be very clear
in this, that our Lord on Calvary, He fulfilled the Scriptures,
as He said many times in the accounts in the Gospels, that
the Scriptures might be fulfilled. He fulfilled what He Himself
said He would do. I lay down my life for the sheep. I have power to lay it down,
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
from my Father. The law demanded that without
the shedding of blood there is no remission. And our Lord supplied
that blood, spotless, sinless, Lamb of God, fulfilling the law,
taking the punishment his people deserved, enduring the wrath
of God that was due upon his people, and in offering up that
sacrifice acceptable to God, he put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And it is believing that that
is saving. If thou believest with all thine
heart, that Jesus Christ died and rose again, that is, it is
with the heart man believeth, with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation. It is vital that our faith, our
trust, is solely in what Christ has done, not by deeds of righteousness
which we have done. And we want to make that very
clear before coming to the second part of our text, our offerings
up, because in no way must it be said that we add to the virtue
of Christ's sufferings and his death, but really show forth
the effect of that in our hearts, the fruit of that. that that
which our Lord did 2,000 years ago at Calvary, by the Spirit's
power and work in our hearts, brings forth fruit so contrary
to the fruit of this poor dying world. It was said to the disciples,
all men took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. And the grace of God, the word
of God, conversion, makes a real change. And that change is to
be seen. And it is that change and that
effect in our lives that are the spiritual sacrifices. Our Lord in John 6 speaks about
his coming sacrifice. But he speaks about the people
of God and their believing in that and what it is to them.
And he said, except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of
the Son of Man, ye have no life in you. Now there was many there
that confused that with literal eating and drinking the flesh
of the Lord. Our Lord was speaking in a spiritual
way. Man shall not live by bread only,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So it
is here, not just hard stones, but living stones, people, not
sacrifices as in the picture of Christ's sacrifice or the
Old Testament, but in actually how we live and those things
that are set before us in the word of God which we'll come
to in a moment, as those spiritual sacrifices. So don't be put off
or don't be led astray in the thought because our text says
a spiritual sacrifice, that we are talking about a literal sacrifice. It is that which is acceptable
to God. That was the important thing.
of the types, they had to be acceptable unto God. That is
taught with Abel and with Cain, those types. It wasn't immaterial
as to how that type was shown. It had to be an offering as God
had prescribed. And then with our Lord Jesus
Christ, acceptable unto God. That is what was the great mark
of the sacrifices. And so the fruit and effect of
faith, true faith in our lives, that also must be acceptable
unto God. And the only way those Old Testament
sacrifices were only acceptable in as much as they pointed to
Christ. And our sacrifices and our lives
are only acceptable so much as they are offered by Christ, that
they are influenced by Him, the fruit of His work in us. As soon as we offer these sacrifices,
as soon as we walk in any way, that we are saying to God, you
look at me, you look at how I'm doing, how acceptable this is
to thee, as if we are adding unto the Lord. In all things,
the people of God will bear testimony, like we've sung in our middle
hymn, that there is nothing, we cannot bring those things
that are acceptable to God, but we can through Christ. It is
can through him, and those things that we do. You know the Apostle
Paul, he says, I labored more abundantly than them all, yet
not I, but Christ, which dwelleth in me. By the grace of God, I
am what I am. And he was very, very clear.
He would not take the credit to himself, but point to that
which was working within him. is Christ that worketh in us
to will and to do of his own good pleasure. And so may we
be very clear, our soul looking back to see the burdens that
Christ bore, that we trust solely in what he has done, and that
our sins be blotted out as we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. And our Lord said to those that
believed, if ye continue in my word, then shall ye be my disciples
indeed. Ye shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free. Free from sin, free from error,
free from this world. He also, as lively stones, hath
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Be reminded of that word whatsoever
ye do, do all to the honour and glory of God, not as unto men,
but as unto God. I want to look then in the second
place at those spiritual sacrifices, that which is set before us in
the Word of God. We have already mentioned 1 in
Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 2, and walk in love as Christ
also hath loved us. That is a sacrifice, that is
that which is set before us in The first epistle of John, and
God has seen fit in the ordering of the word of God. You think
of John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish,
but should have eternal life. And then we have 1 John, 1 John
chapter three, and again verse 16. Hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren. Lay down our lives for the brethren. A spiritual Sacrifice through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Really the Lord taught me what
that meant those years ago in going to visit Ron Jealous in
the William Harvey Hospital one Saturday. And there was much
I had to do at home, many things, and I confess I was going on
that journey really torn by what was in my life and wanting to
go and see Ron. But I always remember that spot
in the road that the Lord dropped in this word to me. Hereby perceive
we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Now show me
what that meant. that I was to lay down my life,
what I was to do that day, that I was to go and see Ron. It told me also this, that he
was one of the brethren. The Lord sealed it on me that
day, that time, that he was one of the Lords. If ever there's
a time of interpreting the Word of God in that way, instead of
just living our lives for ourselves all the time. And it is to think
of the people of God, putting ourselves out, as it were, for
the brethren. And we have this that is taught
in other epistles as well. Paul, when he writes to the Philippians,
He speaks of those that ministered to him in the fourth chapter
of Philippians. He had received a gift from them,
they had sent to him. And he says in verse 15, no church
communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye
only. For even in Thessalonica you
sent once and again unto my necessity, not because I desire a gift,
but I desire fruit that may abound to your account." There's a picture
of what these sacrifices, these spiritual sacrifices are. They are fruits. Then he says
in verse 18, but I have all and abound, I am full having received
of Epaphroditus, the things which were sent from you. So they had
sent those things through a man called Epaphroditus to Paul. And this is what he says of those
things. An odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice
acceptable, well-pleasing to God. How clearly the apostle
links that fruit, that giving of what they had, laying down
their lives or their goods and giving to one of the Lord's people
in his need. And then he says, but my God
shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ
Jesus. None ever lacked. The Christian
prospers laying out That was very evidenced in the first church
as they had their hands loosened of this world and even sold lands
those that had much and then gave to the poor. And you have
a really true value of the things of God and how precious they
are that loosens our hands of time. So a spiritual sacrifice,
the love, love to the brethren, our love to those whom Christ
loved, laid down his life and died for and commended his love
toward us in that while we were even sinners he died for us.
And that's why in 1 John as well we have this token, we know that
we have passed from death unto life sacrifice. Then we have the sacrifices
as set before us in Psalm 51. You remember that David, when
he had sinned in the matter of Bathsheba and then in killing
Uriah, her husband, to hide his sin, he was brought to repentance
through Nathan coming to him and telling him a parable that
are unable to see his sin. We can't see our sin. Very often it is through seeing
a sin in another that we're able to more clearly see our own sin. Sometimes we might have to walk
that path of making a judgment like David did on another before
the Lord lays it to our heart and makes us solely to trail
off in our words and our thoughts and realize maybe for the first
time that actually this is us. Well, David says in this Psalm
51 of repentance and of godly sorrow, He says in verse 16 and
17, for thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest
not in burnt offerings. So he's pointing there to those
literal sacrifices and burnt offerings, which, of course,
in David's day, they were still doing. They were still performing
those sacrifices. But he says, the sacrifices of
God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
thou will not despise. So clearly in the inspired, inerrant
word of God, the Lord pointing to that acceptable spiritual
sacrifice, broken and a contrite spirit, how different than so
full of pride, how different of saying, I have not sinned,
I've done nothing wrong, I'm in the clear, but here is one
that is humbled and broken and sorrowful and mourning over their
sins. This is a sacrifice acceptable
unto God. Then we have the sacrifices of
prayer. May we clearly view prayer as
one of the spiritual sacrifices. In Psalm 141 and verse two, we
have a Psalm of David. And here he says, let my prayer
In verse two, be set forth before thee as incense and the lifting
up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. So again, we have
so clearly set before us these spiritual sacrifices that which
is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. When we come before the
Lord in prayer, We are praying through our Lord Jesus. We plead his merits, we plead
his blood. He is the way by whom we come
to God. Our Lord said, no man cometh
unto the Father but by me. If ye ask anything in my name,
I will do it. We set before God not our own
merits, but Christ's merits. So prayer is. And the other way
is thanksgiving and staying in the book of Psalms, that well-known
psalm, beautiful psalm, Psalm 107. The whole psalm, it begins, so
give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth
forever. But then we have very clearly
in verse 22, let them, sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving
and declare his works with rejoicing. Thanksgiving is a very important
aspect of these spiritual sacrifices. This is reinforced again in Psalm
116 and verse 17. I will offer to thee the sacrifice
of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. It is the path of the people
of God to offer sacrifices in this way, thanksgiving. Jonah
in the whale's belly. He had rebelled, he'd run away
from God, He had refused to preach in his
name. He had run away to sea. The Lord had sent his wind and
the water. Jonah had been cast into the
sea, and the Lord had provided the fish, the whale, to swallow
him up. And in the midst of the waters,
there Jonah is praying unto the Lord. And at the end of that
prayer, he says in verse 9, chapter 2 in Jonah, But I will sacrifice
unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I'll pay that I have vowed salvation
is of the Lord. And the Lord spake unto the fish
and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. And so maybe be
very clear in that way that part of these spiritual sacrifices
is to offer thanksgiving unto the Lord. It is pleasing, it
is pleasant, it's pleasant to us and it is pleasant to God
as offered through our Lord Jesus Christ. Every blessing comes
to us through Jesus' precious blood. And Jonah is very clear,
salvation is not of me, it is of the Lord. And our Lord says
that Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites, and there shall be
no sign given to the generation our Lord was in, but Jonah himself. As Jonah was three days and three
nights in the whale's belly, so should our Lord be three nights
and three days in the heart of the earth. It all points to our
Lord Jesus Christ and our thanksgivings. Every mercy, every blessing out
of hell is because of the Lord Jesus Christ. what he has done
for us, what he has purchased for us. These are these blessings. And then also there is praise
that is to be offered in his name. In Paul, in the epistle
to the Hebrews and chapter 13, we have the mention of praise. And again,
it is by the Lord Jesus Christ. We notice the scriptures, they
are written by different ones. The inspirer is the Holy Spirit. We have in verse 15, by Him. Therefore let us, that is by
Christ, therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to
his name. Thanks and praise, very often
they go together. And here we have the praise that
is set forth. And this again was known in the
Old Testament in Jeremiah 33. We have again the mention of
the sacrifices of praise. And we have in verse 11, the
voice of joy, the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom,
the voice of the bride, the voice of them that say, praise the
Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his mercy endureth
forever, and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise,
into the house of the Lord. It is a blessed thing that we
bring into the house of God these sacrifices of praise. And then we have the bringing
together of the mercy and the knowledge of God. We have in
Hosea Prophet Hosea in chapter six and verse six. For I desired
mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than
burnt offerings. And this applies, this is the
Old Testament. There were many that offered
those sacrifices, that had no faith, that walked contrary. They actually did the deeds of
the sacrifices but then went and paid homage to idols or walked
in a way so contrary to the Lord. And so it can be with us. We
can think, well, we come into the Lord's house, we spend the
Lord's days, we think it should be spent, but then the rest of
our lives is completely devoid of the grace of God or walking
in any regard. to what the Lord would have us
to walk in. And so we have set before us
the mercy of God and the knowledge of God. And this is followed
as well in the prophecy of Micah, and again chapter six in Micah,
verses six to eight. Wherewith shall I come before
the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before
Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the
Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or ten thousands of
rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for
my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what
is good, What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to
love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? And our Lord says
before us the same, the Gospel according to Matthew and verse
13. But go ye and learn what that
meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And these are
the sacrifices, the spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable
unto God. In fact, when we have read the
remainder of the chapter where our text is, This is a path that
is set before us that are also the spiritual sacrifices. We have in verse 11, Dearly Beloved,
I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly
lusts which war against the soul. Having your conversation or your
walk honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against
you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall
behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. It covers the
submission of ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's
sake, whether it be to the King or Supreme, or unto governors,
as unto them that are sent by Him, for the punishment of evildoers,
for the praise of them that do well. This chapter speaks of
those spiritual sacrifices that are offered up. For even in verse
21, here unto were ye called, because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps. what a high standard is set before
us, what a path is set before us in this way. God's dear children
are not just called, as it were, to say here below, well, we're
born again, we're a child of God, we're going to heaven. They're
brought together as a church, as a building, and they're brought
together and that is set before us in our text, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Do we offer
up these spiritual sacrifices that we've heard set before us
this morning? Do we love the brethren? Have
we the sacrifices of a broken and a contrite heart? Do we really
have repentance? Do we pray? Pray through the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do we offer thanksgiving, or
are we murmuring and complaining? Do we give praise to God, and
do we have an and his mercy. Mercy through blood I make my
plea, God be merciful to me. Is it very clear in those things
that we do, that we do them for Christ's sake? The love of Christ
constrains us and that difference, that change is known and read
of all men. God to be those inhabitants of heaven,
but also his witnesses, salt and light here below, and to
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of nature's
darkness and into his marvellous light. May we then be living
stones, living stones in the Church of God here, living stones
above and offer up these spiritual sacrifices. May the Lord give
us that grace and that concern that we do show forth the fruits
of Christ's work in us as new creatures in Christ Jesus. May the Lord bless the Word to
us. Amen.