Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the first epistle of Peter
and chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2 is in page
1129 in the Bible box, Bibles. And the specific verse is verse
4. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 4. to whom coming as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. This, of course, is speaking
of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse
4, to whom coming. This morning I desire to look
at the coming to the Lord Jesus Christ and there are four descriptions
of the Lord to whom we are coming in our text and immediately before
the text. But first I want to Consider
what is in the middle of the word of our text, disallowed
indeed of men. However much the gospel is preached
and the Lord Jesus Christ is set forth and proclaimed as being
precious and vital and needful, yet it is necessary as Peter
saw fit here, the Holy Ghost through Peter, to acknowledge
what the general reaction of men is. Now we read in the portion
there in John how that the Jews themselves rejected the Lord
Jesus Christ. They did not view the Lord at
all as being truly God, in fact, they said
that he, being a man, had made himself God. His teaching, they
said, caused men to break the Sabbath, and the words that he
spake were laying claim to being God, and all they saw was a man. And so, Peter is very clear here
that he is indeed disallowed of men. He acknowledges that
this is the case, that the Lord Jesus Christ came unto his own,
even the Jews, and they received him not, but as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name. But it is clearly acknowledged
in the word of God that the Messiah, Christ, the Lord Jesus, when
he came, he was rejected of many. And then in the preaching of
the gospel as well, when Paul came to Rome as a prisoner, and
then he came before the Jews at Rome, and they had not heard
of the allegations that were against him that had been made
so that he appealed unto Caesar and was sent to Rome. But what
they had heard was that this act, that it was of everywhere,
spoken against. And so they wanted to hear what
it was that was so spoken against. And so we have this that is clearly
set forth in the scriptures as a stone that is disallowed, it
was prophesied that it should be so in the Psalms. And when our Lord came, the culmination,
if you like, of that was to cast him out, to crucify him, to reject
him, to treat him as a transgressor and as an imposter. This is how
man received him. This is how he came to be crucified
at all. Yes, it was by the determinate
counsel of God that he was. He was to be a sacrifice. He was to be an offering unto
God. But God ordained that it should
be so through the hands of wicked men that rejected him. And so for those that are seeking
the Lord, those that have received the Word of God or heard the
Word of God and are seeking after that, you must know right at
the very start that the doctrine, the true doctrine of the true
Church of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, the faith of Jesus Christ,
is everywhere spoken against. If we were to use an illustration
many of us would be very familiar with, if someone was to say to
us, we have found a very good product, something that we recommend
you buy, you go onto Amazon and you go and buy it. So you go
onto Amazon and you look at it to buy it and you look at the
ratings. and it's only got a rating of
one or two, and you think, and you would say to your friend,
are you recommending me to buy this? But there are lots and
lots of people that are speaking against them. They're not speaking
well of this at all, I'm not going to buy this. And all of
us, if we buy online in that way, we look at reviews, we look
at ratings, and if we see a lot say, no, no, no, don't go that
way, we don't, we take notice of that. And if we were to apply
that in the things of God, then we would say, well, we're not
having anything to do with the things of God. If the Lord has brought us to
really know our sinnership, If he has brought us to know the
need of a saviour, then because of what we feel, because of the
need, then we will react differently. With the power of God on that
need, the Lord said very clearly that none come unto me except
the Father which sent me draw him. It is a very clear thing
set forth in the Word of God that the Lord's people are a
remnant. When the Lord destroyed the old
world before the flood, there was only eight, eight out of
that whole world at that time that were saved by means of the
When the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness,
he only saved Lot and his two daughters out of that overthrow. His wife, looking back, was destroyed
as well. We are constantly reminded that
there are but few that are saved. In fact, the disciples, they
ask the Lord, are there few? Are there many that be saved? And the Lord turned it about,
and that he said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God. It is not
looking at how many. The way is set before us, the
true way, the way of salvation, the way of being saved, the Lord
Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And that way is spoken of as
the narrow way. And the reason why? Because the
way to hell, the way to destruction is the broad way. Wide is the
gate, broad is the way that leadeth unto destruction and many there
be that go in there at. Dear friends, don't be discouraged
in the ways of the Lord because there are few that are walking
in it and nor that there are those that profess to walk in
it that are not walking in it as the way of the scriptures.
We are warned that by reason of whom the way of truth shall
be evil spoken of. It's easy to say, well, someone
is called by the name of a Christian, you see what their life is and
you see how they are acting, so we won't have anything to
do with Christianity. But if we have a Bible, if we
have the Word of God, then we have the Word set before us as
the way of truth. And to read it, to join prayer
with each inspection, and to compare Scripture with Scripture,
and to ask for the light of God upon it, to have then the secret
of the Lord, and to have revealed to us the way of truth that many
could not be bothered with, have no need of, they're happy with
this life, not realising that when death comes, then we must
go to our Maker and we must give an account to Him and stand before
His judgment throne. And then it shall not be a pointing,
well, there is millions and millions that thought as I did and didn't
want the Word of God and had no need of the Saviour. The Lord
will point to a remnant, a small number that did believe, that
did see the preciousness of Christ and that were saved, that served
him here and shall be with him hereafter. So in our text, right
in the middle of it, there is an acknowledgement, disallowed
indeed, of men. The scriptures, they do not deny
this. In the Psalms we read, in his
temple everyone does speak of his glory. Yes, in his temple
they do. You go outside of it, you go
into the world, they will not speak of his glory. They pull
him down from his excellency. And you see this in many different
walks of life. If you, especially with our political
systems, You go amongst the followers of one party and you'll hear
everyone speaking well of that particular party and their leaders. You go into the other party and
they won't be speaking well of the opposition at all. And we
could expect that that be the case. Don't be put off by those
that blacken the name of the Lord, that speak evil of the
Lord. or evil of the way of salvation. The scriptures are full of those
that have done that and that have perished, perished eternally. The scriptures also are full
of a witness of those that have believed, have seen the preciousness
of Christ, have been of that remnant, that are truly saved. And so I want then to look with
the Lord's help, and because we've got four points, I'm going
to introduce them as we go, but they're very closely joined to
the text here. And perhaps at the very starting,
before we come to the four points, and how is it that we come when
it says to whom coming, if we're looking at the descriptions of
the Lord to whom that we are coming. How do we actually come? We come by prayer. Prayer is
a way that we come to the Lord. We come in reading the Word of
God. We're coming to the Word of God. We come by faith. We are not
coming as those that live with the Lord and could literally
come, and to a person, we are coming before him that is risen
from the dead, ascended up into heaven, and we come before him
in his earthly courts, where two or three are gathered together
in my name, there am I in the midst. So if we come to the house
of God, we are coming to him We're coming to his people, he
that receiveth you receiveth me. We know that we are passed
from death unto life because we love the brethren. And so
when we hear the word of God, we are also coming to him. My sheep, they hear my voice
and they follow me. If we would hear the voice of
the Lord, we hear the word of God, we receive that word of
God. So may we be clear on this, if
we're coming to the Lord, we'll be found amongst the people of
God, here below, found in his word, found in prayer, found
walking by faith, not by sight, and faith is based upon the word
of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. So that is how we come. So what is the description here? Four descriptions. The first
is coming to the Lord whose grace we have tasted. Our text says,
to whom coming, but the verse immediately before says, if so
be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious to whom coming. The ones coming here have already
tasted that the Lord is gracious. What does grace mean? The free,
unmerited favour of God. The Lord is not a tyrant. He's not a hard taskmaster. He's not one that deals with
us as we really deserve. He is gracious. And we know that
he is good to all, his tender mercies are over all his works. Now, it says he had tasted that
the Lord is gracious. Sometimes when we go round a
supermarket we might have at the end of an aisle a tasting
booth. They might have brought out a
new brand They might have some cheese or bread there and cut
up into very small pieces and they're trying to get you to
taste a little with the hope that if you taste it and you
like it, then you'll go and you'll buy the whole lot. And you'll
regularly buy it. It'll come back again and again.
They know the worth of what it is just to have a little taste
and that taste is enough to make you want more. Now you have this
here. This is written to a soul who
already has tasted that the Lord is gracious. Now it might be
that you have been ill and the Lord has healed you, and you've
seen the blessing, the goodness of the Lord in healing. It may have been help in a providential
way, something in your lives, and the Lord has appeared for
you in that way. It may have been in some other
way, You've seen the kindness and goodness and grace of the
Lord, something of which you felt in yourself that you were
not deserving of this favour and of this mercy, but God has
given it to you anyway. A little taste where your heart
has been softened, you've been thankful to God, you've felt
that He has done this for you and you haven't deserved it.
And so you're coming unto a God that you've already tasted of
his grace. Is that the case with you? Is
it with me? Or do we think, well, God owes
us everything and we should have health, we should have wealth,
we should have every blessing. Should we really? Our first parents
sinned and we have sinned We've all gone astray like lost sheep. Have everyone gone our own way? How do we fill our time? What
are our thoughts full of? Do we truly worship the Lord
with all our heart, with all our mind and all our soul? And
do we love our neighbour as ourselves? Are we really walking? as God's
creation truly giving all the honour and glory to God. Our goodness does not extend
unto the Lord. And indeed the Word of God is
very clear that all our righteousnesses, that's all our good works, are
but as filthy rags. We do not deserve anything at
the hand of the Lord. And if we feel that, if we come
at looking at what blessings and helps we receive in life's
journey from that point of view, then there are many things we
taste the Lord is gracious. He makes his son to shine upon
the just and unjust, him that serveth God and him that serveth
him not. He opens his hand, he satisfies
the desire of every living thing. The good Lord is good to all,
his tender mercies are over all his works. But the blessing is
if we taste that the Lord is gracious to us and we feel it
so, and our hearts feel softened at the goodness and kindness
of the Lord, and we trace it up to him. You know, we spoke
of how many that they disallow it. Well, we think of the time
when our Lord cured 10 of leprosy, miraculously cured them. And
there was only one that returned to give thanks to God, and he
was a Samaritan despised of the Jews. And that is how it is today. You could go into a ward in a
hospital, and if there was 10 people in those beds, and 10
were healed, and yet only one actually gives
glory to God and thanks God for the healing. The others would
just accept it. The others would just give thanks
for the medical profession or a drug and never look to God. And that is how it is. But may
we be the one. May we be those that do taste
that the Lord is gracious and there's a real encouragement
In our text here, if you and I have tasted at all that the
Lord is gracious and we trace it to the Lord, that the Lord
has done this for us, it is His work, it is His goodness to us,
and that taste is sweet to us, that it is the Lord that has
done this, then there's a real encouragement to come unto Him,
to seek unto Him, a scriptural encouragement. Not to be discouraged,
say, well I'm not God's people, I'm not elect, I'm not one of
his, I haven't been blessed. No, if you've tasted, coming
unto him. So that's the first. Coming to the Lord whose grace
we have tasted. And it might only be a little
bit, but all it says is taste, not had a feast, just a taste. Well, what's the second then?
Coming to the Lord as unto a living stone. As unto a living stone. You know, our Lord gave to Peter
a name of Cephas, that is, a stone. And in a way, you can see why
Peter uses this type here. Because our Lord at one time
said to Peter that thou art Peter. In other words, Cephas, a stone.
Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it." Well, in one sense, Peter was
used. Peter was the disciple, the apostle,
that was called to preach at the Day of Pentecost when the
Holy Spirit fell. And ten years later, to the Gentiles,
because Pentecost was the Jews, ten years later to the Gentiles
with Cornelius in Caesarea, and Peter was the one chosen of God
in both those times to preach the word when the Holy Spirit
fell, and many thousands were brought to believe, especially
at the Day of Pentecost. But Peter is not the rock, and
these scriptures are very, very clear that Peter, he denied his
Lord three times, And later on he was reproved by Paul as well
for walking inconsistent with the gospel. God's people, they're
still sinners, they're not perfect. And the scriptures are very clear
of that. But with our Lord Jesus Christ,
he is the rock. And the Lord was using Peter's
name as the example of that. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
rock upon which the church is built, and in the verse following
our text, he also, as lively stones, built up a spiritual
house. But the foundation is Christ. He is the rock unmovable, the
rock of ages. He is the rock that Moses was
shown, and when Moses asked that the Lord show him his glory,
he says, there is a place by me, I will stand upon the rock,
I'll put thee in a cleft in the rock, my glory shall pass by. Rock of Ages says to him, cleft
for me, let me hide myself in thee. beautiful hymn of top ladies,
which he wrote, I believe, in the midst of a storm when he
was sheltering in a rock. The Lord Jesus Christ is set
forth as that rock, and many times he used that illustration
of those that built their house upon a rock. The floods came,
the winds blew, and that house, it did not fall, it was founded
upon a rock. But those that built on the sand,
their house fell, great was the fall of it. The Lord Jesus Christ
is that rock of ages. Paul, when he writes to the Corinthians,
he says that the children of Israel in the wilderness, they
drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that
rock was Christ. We think of the picture of the
sea, and as boys we often used to go down to the sea in Melbourne
and Port Phillip Bay. And there were many times that
we went out onto the rocks, sometimes very big rocks, and the waters
were crashing around us all the way around. But those rocks didn't
move. They were solid. They were unmovable. And as long
as we clung to that rock, we would be safe. And so the Lord
Jesus Christ is set forth not as just a dead, hard, cold lump
of stone, but as a living stone, having all the qualities of immutability,
unmovable-ness, solidness, as a refuge, and yet living. He that laid down his life to
take it again and ascend up into heaven and is at the right hand
of the throne of God on high, coming as unto a living stone,
do you need such a foundation? Have you gone to this and that,
tossed to and fro, battered with many? Doctrines, many thoughts,
ideas, much temptation of Satan, or the evil of your own hearts. Our hearts are deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. And yet, in coming unto the Lord
Jesus Christ, we come unto him of which we read in Hebrews,
Jesus Christ, the same, Yesterday, and today, and forever. Have you ever thought going onto
a rock, a stone, and you think, how many generations of people
have seen this stone, have seen this rock, the great rock of
Gibraltar? How many generations? How many
in the days of sailing ships have sailed past that rock, that
same rock? that now witnesses the jets flying
over and the steamships going past. And it's still there. Heaven and earth, the Lord says,
shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. When he
appeared to Moses in the burning bush, He gave him his name, I
Am that I Am. You tell the children of Israel,
I Am hath sent you. It's only God that can say, I
Am. In a few years, you and I shall
be laid in the grave. We shall not say, I Am. But God
is the same. The eternal God is thy refuge. and underneath are the everlasting
arms. This is what is set before a
poor sinner, a coming sinner, a sinner who has felt the Lord
to be gracious. They come unto the Lord Jesus
Christ as their rock, their hiding place, their refuge, their help,
as one that does not move and does not change. Thou who changest
not, abide with me. So that is the second. The third
is coming to the Lord who was chosen of God. To whom coming
as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God. The Jews, they would not choose
the Lord, but God had chosen him. The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal
Son of God, is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost. In the beginning of the creation
we read, let us make man in our own image. And there is the Trinity. Our Lord spoke of the glory that
he had with his Father before the world was. He, as the eternal
Son of God, was chosen by God, by the Father, that he should
be the one that should suffer. Abraham said to Isaac that asked
his father about the lamb for a burnt offering that he couldn't
see. My son, God will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. He shall be the lamb The promise
was the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. It
should be Immanuel, God with us. And God then chose his only
begotten son. He chose him that he should be
Jesus, a body has thou prepared me. And so the Jews, when they
saw Jesus of Nazareth, they were to understand that this man was
the one that was chosen of God to be the saviour of the world. He was the one that should come.
He was the seed of the woman. He was the one that God had appointed
to be a prince and a saviour. And this was the great point.
This is John in his gospel especially. He's testifying that Jesus is
the son of God. That was the witness that was
required of the eunuch when Philip baptised him. If thou believest
with all thine heart thou mayest. And his testimony was, I believe
that Jesus is the Son of God. And this is where Paul, soulless
he was, sought to persecute those that called upon the name of
Jesus who came to him in that way in prayer, and he persecuted
them, hailing men and women to prison, because he did not believe
that Jesus was chosen of God. He did not believe that Jesus
was the Christ. And it wasn't until the Lord
himself from heaven appeared to him on the Damascus Road,
as he was hailing men and women to prison, and said to him, I
am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the prex. It is vital for us, the same
as it was for Paul, Saul of Tarsus, to believe that Jesus of Nazareth
was chosen of Almighty Eternal God to be the Saviour of the
world. There is, our Lord testified,
none other name given among men whereby we must be saved, if
ye believe not that I am he, ye shall perish in your sins. The whole scriptures testify
of the choice by God of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter
12, And verse 18, we have this, that it might be fulfilled, which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, that's Isaiah, saying, behold
my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is
well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him
and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive
nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.
A brooded reed shall he not break, and a smoking flank shall he
not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in
his name shall the Gentiles trust. This is the one chosen by God. May we be amongst that number. that are pleased with the choice
of God. The testimony of our Lord by
the Father, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. God has chosen the Saviour, not
ourselves. God has set him forth in the
word of God. His choice is approved by heaven
and sealed by heaven, and the proof of it is the empty tomb. He hath given assurance unto
all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. And that is
what we want, one that has power over death, one that has the
approval of Almighty God, whom we must stand before at the judgment
day. A saviour that is appointed with
the authority of God. What if we were to have someone
that would say, look, I've got authority, I can give you an
entrance into Buckingham Palace. And you believe that man. And
you went to Buckingham Palace and you say, can I come in here?
You say, by whose authority? And you name the person and the
authorities and the doorman says, I don't know that person. That
person's not any authority to give you an entrance here. How
necessary it is that the one that we trust in, the one that
we hope in, has the authority of heaven, that is known there,
that when we come there and plead that name and plead entrance
through that name, we shall be given entrance there. The blessing of Almighty God
is upon the Lord Jesus Christ and all those that put their
trust in him and that seek unto him and come unto him as the
chosen of God will find also the blessing of God upon them. Blessed through the Lord Jesus
Christ, that is the promise of God. that whoso believeth in
him should not perish, but they should have eternal life. And the Lord Jesus says, I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and neither
shall any man pluck them out of mine hand. So he's coming
to the Lord, who was chosen of God. May that be a subject, if
you want to search the scriptures, to look right through the scriptures,
and you'll see, as the Lord said to the Jews, search the scriptures,
for in them ye have eternal life. Ye think ye have eternal life,
and they are they which testify of me. The scriptures testify
of Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, being chosen by God. Well, the
fourth and the last coming is coming to the Lord who is precious. To the Lord who is precious. Our text says, to whom coming
as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God and precious. And precious. And we read then
in verse 6, wherefore also it is contained in the scripture,
behold I lay in sign a chief cornerstone, here is a stone
again, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not
be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe
he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient the stone
which the builders disallow. The same is made the head of
the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to
them which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto
also they were appointed. But for God's people he is precious,
and to you which believe he is precious. If something is precious,
then it is scarce. There is only one name. given
among men whereby we may be saved. You think of gold, you say gold
is precious, but there's lots and lots of gold in the world.
But the qualities that it has, you can never imitate gold, you
know. If you know the weight of gold,
people would think, well, the heaviest thing is lead. Well,
lead has a specific gravity of 11.9, but gold has a specific
gravity of 19. If we can work out the volume
of something, if you've got a coin and someone says that's a gold
coin, you know I would measure that coin. I'd find out the volume
of it and then I'd put it on some scales and I'd see how much
it weighed. And you know one litre, one litre
of water weighs one kilogram. One litre of lead weighs 11.9
kilograms. One litre of gold weighs 19.1. So no one can ever imitate gold
if they know the weight, because there is nothing on earth that
weighs heavier, or not that I know of, that ever weighs heavier
than gold. There's nothing like gold that
will survive the fire. You put it in the hottest fire,
and yes, it will melt. But when it solidifies and the
fire is taken away, the gold is still there. It is precious. There's nothing like it upon
the earth. We have in the previous chapter,
in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 19, that we are redeemed, not
with corruptible things as silver and gold. He's calling those
things as corruptible, from your vain conversation received by
tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ. as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. Precious indeed. When we think
of what it means, dear friends, in a few years we shall be no
more. If we have not the Lord Jesus
Christ who has suffered in our place and cleansed us from our
sin and brought us in time to believe in him and to trust in
him, then we shall perish eternally, eternally being separated from
God under the wrath of God in the outer darkness forever and
ever. But if we have believed in the
Lord Jesus Christ and trusted in him and know his preciousness
here, that we shall be with him forever, that he is the difference
between life and death, why we understand Don't we, the preciousness
of things that have used to give life to us naturally, whether
it be vaccines, whether it be machines, whether it be our food,
our daily food, without which food and water we shall die.
In one sense, we know the preciousness of these things. With the Lord
Jesus Christ, it is the one name given among men, whereby we must
be saved. To reject that, to not be saved
through him is to not be saved. There is none other name given
among men. There is only one way, the Lord
Jesus Christ says, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man
cometh unto the Father but by me. This is what makes him precious. And the blessing of the Lord
in our souls that we have because of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
preciousness of his words that is our meat and drink, the preciousness
of his intercession in heaven, his deliverance from the power
and dominion of Satan and of the allurement of the world.
It is through the Lord Jesus Christ that he makes us more
than conquerors and the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what makes him precious
to us. Is he precious? Bless the Lord if he is. If he is not, not yet, but we
have tasted he is gracious. May we be encouraged to press
on, to come unto him, and pray that there might come
that time that he is precious. And may he be precious even in
the want of him, in the need of him, and then precious in
the possession of him. And as we draw nearer and nearer
to our journey's end, to think that our whole hope of heaven
and eternal happiness hangs upon this dear man, The Lord Jesus
Christ, God's chosen one, his blessed one, and our hope upon
him who has been our comfort and joy here below, that we shall
enjoy him in heaven forever. There's nothing more precious
to a sinner saved by grace than the dear name of the Lord Jesus
Christ by whom they have been saved. and who has saved them,
and who has quickened them into life, and who has said, Father,
I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.