Alright, brethren. Turn with
me to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 2. Before I forget,
tomorrow night we'll have the youth Bible study at 7 p.m. in our house. Everybody's invited. And we'll have snacks and things
for the adults. As believers, we are spiritual new creatures by the Spirit of
God, by the new birth. But our first birth, and in our
flesh, we're creatures of flesh, and we far too often put too
much emphasis and are too fond of earthly things, material things,
carnal things, fleshly things, and we act as though those things
are the reality, and they're not. They're not. Spiritual things
are the reality. We get too fond of our place,
where we are. You remember, before the Lord
ascended, after His resurrection, before He ascended, He told His
apostles to go forth into all the world and preach the gospel.
He told them to wait, the Spirit would be poured out, and he said,
and then go forth into all the world and preach the gospel.
Well, 3,000 were saved on the day of Pentecost. Then, a little
later, several more thousand were saved. They never left Jerusalem. They got real comfortable right
there where they were. So the Lord took the restraints
off a man named Saul of Tarsus, who later we know as the Apostle
Paul. But he wreaked havoc on the church
and took men and women and put them in prison and tortured them
and had them killed and everything else. And it says, and they were
scattered abroad. by this persecution and they
went everywhere preaching the gospel. You know who Peter's
writing to? Verse 1, chapter 1, verse 1,
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, Bithynia. This is who he's writing to.
We get too fond of material things. When they were scattered, that
place they had lived and those things they had been accustomed
to and that style of life they had been accustomed to, they
didn't have that anymore like they had before. And Peter reminds
them over and over again that in Christ we have an inheritance
that's incorruptible, that's undefiled, that fades not away.
He reminds us in verse 7 that the trial of our faith is much
more precious than gold that perishes. Well, we get fond of our former
lusts and our vain traditions. He reminds us again here in verse
18, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as a lamb without spot and without blemish, foreordained
before the world began. As creatures of flesh, We look
at these things that are tangible, these things that are touchable,
but they're not the real things. They're not the lasting things.
The reality for the believer is not that which is earthy.
The reality for the believer is that which is spiritual. As
creatures of flesh, we get too fond of buildings, of religious
leaders, and of religious works. When the apostles sat one day
with the Lord and they looked at the temple in Jerusalem, they
began to marvel at it and just look at the architecture of it
and all the goings on within that temple and they just began
to marvel. And the Lord said to them, He
said, There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall
not be thrown down. We look to beggarly elements.
We look to things of the earth and somehow get real impressed
with those things. You know what the problem was
back in Isaiah's day and Hosea's day during the King Uzziah and
King Ahaz and King Hezekiah? You know what the problem was
in that day? The Lord said, Israel hath forgotten
his maker and builds temples. Builds temples. The reality is
that which is spiritual. And I want to talk to you tonight
about a spiritual house. Verse 4, chapter 2, verse 4. To whom coming, coming to the
Lord Jesus Christ, to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed
indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also, as
lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."
Can't you just imagine that these believers, having been scattered
into all these various countries, can't you just imagine how they
often thought about those days back in Jerusalem at the temple?
And Peter comes forth and reminds them, the Lord's house is not
that temple. It's not built by men's hands.
God's not worshipped with those things that are made with men's
hands. I want to look tonight at three things, the foundation
of the house, the stones which make up the house, and then thirdly,
the priesthood and the sacrifices of the house. First of all, the
foundation of the house. Christ Jesus is the living foundation
of his house. Verse four, to whom coming as
unto a living stone. Every house has got to have a
footer. It's got to have a foundation. It's got to be built on solid
foundation. If not, it'll perish. It won't stand. It's got to be
built on a foundation. God the Father is the architect
of His house. In verse 6, Wherefore also it
is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. God the Holy Spirit is the one
who regenerates, the one who quickens to life, the one who
builds up this spiritual house. but it pleased God that Christ
received the preeminence. God the Son, Christ Jesus, is
the living foundation. There's no other footing to this
house. No other footing. Righteousness
and truth, the righteousness of God and truth have met together. Mercy and truth have kissed each
other in harmony in Christ Jesus. That means God has satisfied
God in Christ. And that's what this whole creation
was made for and what this whole thing of sin being allowed to
enter in was all about. To declare the righteousness
of God. That God will justify God. That God will declare His own
righteousness. That God will satisfy His own
justice. And He did so in the person of
His Son, Christ Jesus. And there's nothing else that
can be added to what God's done. Nothing else can be added to
the righteousness of God. He's righteousness in Himself.
And this work that Christ has accomplished is righteousness.
I read there 1 Chronicles 17 to you. Whenever David got to
thinking about building the Lord a house, the Lord made it clear
to David that, David, you're not going to build my house.
He said, there's a Son coming that's going to be of your sons,
and He's going to build my house. And he's going to get the glory
for building my house. He said, he shall build me a
house and I'll establish his throne forever. I'll be his father
and he'll be my son and I'll not take my mercy away from him.
This is the Lord Jesus Christ we're talking about. His throne
shall be established forevermore. He was disallowed indeed of men.
He still is today. He said, if I hadn't come, they
wouldn't have had sin, but because He's come... You know why men
don't like the preaching of Christ and Him crucified? It makes us
to know our sin. It makes us to know God is not
pleased with anyone outside of His Son. And when these men who
loved the temple, that physical temple, and they loved their
tradition, They loved everything about it, but then when Christ
came, of whom the whole thing was a type and a picture, of
whom God was declaring the whole time, when He came in person,
because they loved the types and the shadow, because they
loved the earthy, because they loved the show of religion, they
rejected Christ, defending dead prophets, who they didn't believe,
because they didn't believe the prophet standing right in front
of them. You know, there was a time when men stood up against
the Church of Rome and stood up against Catholicism and said,
this is idolatry. It's idolatry. If Satan takes
the same theology that is truth that was used to stand up against
Catholicism and corrupts it with men that don't know anything
about the power of God. Do you think men in our day will
defend dead prophets and reject living prophets because they
want to hold on to that same dead vain tradition against which
they speak? Sure they will. Sure they will. Disallowed indeed. And He's still
disallowed today. But He's chosen of God. Chosen
of God and precious. Christ is God's elect. Christ
is God's choice. Christ is precious to God. Do
you know how precious you'd have to be for God, holy God, to say
you're precious? That you're honorable? That you're
more valued than any? You've got to be as honorable
and as valuable as God Himself. This is His chosen one. Chosen
and precious. Look there at verse 7. To you
therefore which believe, He is precious. But unto them which
be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the
same is made the head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word.
being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. He's
the foundation. Righteousness is established.
Justice is satisfied. Satisfaction has been made. Pardon
has been granted to his people. His people are complete in him.
He is the living stone in whom his people are alive. Here's
the second thing. The stones which make up the
building. Look there in verse 5. Verse
5. Ye also, as lively or living
stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Now notice these words. a spiritual
house to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Believers are the living stones
of the Lord's spiritual house. You get the picture here that
Peter is drawing for us. The temple was built on a foundation
and it was built stone by stone. But now Peter is telling us this
temple is Christ, the foundation. on which the apostles and the
prophets were built, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone.
And his people are the spiritual stones of this building, the
walls of this building, built up stone by stone, fitly framed
together in this building. So you see the temple's not a
earthly place, it's not a place that can be seen with these eyes,
it's his people. And you see this word also, ye
also as lively stones, this word also means that what Christ is,
the believer is. What is Christ? Christ is a living
stone. Christ is the living stone. He's
the sanctuary. That's what Isaiah said, he shall
be for a sanctuary, but he'll be a stone of stumbling for others.
He's a holy abode, a holy dwelling place, a house to dwell in for
His people. And the scripture says of Him,
God was in Christ. He's the second person in the
Trinity. God was in Christ Jesus, the man. And Christ, through
the Holy Spirit being formed, Christ is formed in His people
so that His people are alive in Christ, and Christ in them,
and God in His people. This is what the Scripture said.
Our Lord Jesus Christ called His body the temple of God. He said, destroy this temple
and I'll build it in three days. He called his own fleshly body
the temple of God. Why? Because God was in him.
God was in him. His perfect body was a true temple
which God pitched and not man. Man had nothing to do with that
body being, that temple being made. He was that holy thing
conceived in the womb of a virgin by the Holy Ghost. Not by man. God pitched that tabernacle,
and God was in Him, and He in God. And even so, every believer
is in Christ, and Christ is in them. And they're individually
the temple of God, and collectively they're built up a spiritual
house, and He dwells in them. He dwells in them. Paul said
our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us.
The bodies of the believer. These, just these things right
here, these skeletons covered over with flesh, Christ, God
Almighty, dwells in the body of His people. And the whole
church together, the redeemed, the regenerated The called, the
Scripture says, are builded together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit. Even our Lord, just as He was,
we're like Him. He's a living stone. We're living
stones in Him. Ye also as living stones. He was disallowed of men. You
know what believers are going to have happen to them? They're
going to be disallowed of men. That's what the Lord said. The
Lord said, don't think it's strange if they persecuted me, they'll
persecute you. Even as our Lord is chosen of
God and precious, believers are chosen of God and precious. That's what He said, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Look at verse 9, ye are
a chosen generation. Even as Christ is alive, Believers
are alive because Christ is alive. He said, because I live, ye shall
live also. Even as Christ is raised up.
Where's Christ right now? Christ Jesus the Lord is not
in a tomb. He's raised, glorified, seated at the right hand of God.
You know where His people are? They're raised in Christ Jesus. And they're built up in this
earth, a spiritual house built up upon Him. When I was younger,
we had added an addition onto the back of our house. And they
laid a foundation, a footer. And our house is not brick. My parents' home's not brick,
but they came in and they put a brick retaining wall at the
back of it. And I watched them as they worked
on that. Those brick masons worked on
that. The foundation was laid. It was there. The masons brought
the stone, the bricks themselves, to the foundation and they laid
those bricks brick by brick and put them right in place. You
know, those bricks were just dirt. They were dirt. That's where they started out.
They were just dirt. And they had to be dug out of the earth
and had to be formed and molded into bricks And they had to be
brought from one place to the foundation. And that brickmason
would take them and you ever watch a brickmason lay bricks?
They'll take those bricks and they'll score them and they'll
tap them and they'll just chop one and they just break just
where they want them to break. And if they break in their hand
and it's no good, they don't cry over it. They don't even
stop. They just throw it away and get them another one and
keep going. That's what a believer is in the hand of God. He's dirt
that God has taken and that He's dug out of the earth by His own
grace and power and expertise, that He's molded and fitly framed
together, that He's chiseled and broken and brought together,
and He makes it, sets it piece by piece in the foundation. So that it's built up, every
believer built up, built up, framed together, framed together.
And he is the potter that has power over the clay. He can make
one vessel under honor, one vessel under dishonor. And he don't
lose sleep over little earthen vessels. Well, this is the case with how
he does, how he builds up. The Lord said this, if I be lifted
up, I'll draw all unto me. And that's what he's doing. And
he's making his house himself. He comes to where his people
are through his messengers. And he sets forth the gospel.
And through the gospel, through the Spirit, he enters into the
hearts of his people. And he makes them alive. and
He frames them together. He brings them out of one earthen
place, brings another out of another earthen place, puts them
all together in this foundation in Christ and builds them up
together. And He makes them to sit corner
to corner, middle to middle, end to end, side to side, right
plumb on the foundation. And this is the spiritual reality.
This is where Christ dwells. And this is what His holy temple
is. It's His creation. It's the house
He made. It's the house He's built. It's
the house He dwells in. He says, this is my rest forever. Here will I dwell, for I have
desired it. Paul said, I live, yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me. This is how the believers live
because the second Adam, the last Adam, is a quickening spirit. And where he makes alive, there's
life. And this is his temple. Now thirdly,
let's talk about, you know, a temple. The old temple had a priesthood
and it had sacrifices that were offered. Well, let's talk about
that, the priesthood and the sacrifices. Look with me here
at the at verse 5. Ye also as lively
stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices. The believer is the Lord's holy
priest. And every one of the Lord's,
those he's called, those he's sanctified, those he's made to
behold that he's redeemed, they're his holy priesthood. We don't
make men priests. We don't set up men as priests.
We don't regard any council of men whatsoever as some kind of
ecclesiastical body. That's just more priestcraft.
We were coming over here one day, and there's a place right
over here, just a street over. And one of the kids, one of the
men was walking into the front of this building, and one of
the kids in the back seat said, Daddy, that man's wearing a dress. He was a holy man. He had to
have that dress on to distinguish him from everybody else. But look who it is here that's
reminding us that every believer is a holy priesthood. This is
Peter. This is the one When the Lord
was talking to Peter and he said, On this rock shall I build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Peter knew the Lord was talking about himself. Peter knew the
Lord wasn't talking about Peter. Peter knew the Lord was talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ Himself being the rock. And Peter didn't
say it right to these people and say, now I'm your Holy Father,
and I'm your Holy Priest, and if you want to come to God, you've
got to come to God by me. He says, ye all are a holy priesthood. A holy priesthood. What does
that mean, a holy priesthood? You know the only ones that could
do the service of the Lord in the temple were the Levites?
God's children, those He's called, they're true Levites. They're
the holy priests of God. Holy is what they are. They're not trying to get there.
They're not gradually getting there. They're not getting a
little more there. It's what they are. They're a
holy priesthood. How did those Levites become
a holy priesthood? God chose them. How did a priest become a holy
priest? A lamb was slain for him. And he was sanctified and consecrated
by oil being poured on him and blood being applied to his ear
and his thumb and his toe. You know what all that pictured?
You know what all that was a type of? How God makes His priests
holy. God the Father chose them before
the world began, and ever since He chose them and put them in
Christ, if you read Ephesians 1, they've been holy and without
blame before God in Christ the Beloved. That's where they've
been holy ever since. That's why when they sinned in
the garden, God didn't just destroy the whole lot right then, because
they were holy in His Son. They've been redeemed. They've
been perfected forever by the one offering of Christ Jesus.
It has to be perfect to be accepted with God. And they've been sanctified
by the washing and renewing of regeneration, by the renewing
of the Holy Spirit, so that they're a holy priesthood. And you know
what they can do now? Because they're holy priests
unto God, they can come to God. and don't have to have anything
but Christ, and they come to God. They come to God. Every one of them has been consecrated
by the same Spirit, redeemed by the same blood, chosen by
the same Father, clothed in the same righteous garments, anointed
for this service with the oil of gladness, and each holy priest
is consecrated to God through the Holy Spirit. And you know
what he says here too? Look down there, he says, we'll
get to this a little later, but I had to point this out in verse
9. He says, a royal priesthood. That means a kingly priesthood.
I want you to see something, two things. Look at Hebrews chapter
4. You know what royalty can do? You know what a king can do?
He can come to the throne. He don't have to even worry about
coming. He don't have to second guess coming to the throne. Let's
see what this royal priesthood can do. Hebrews 4.16, Let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You know
why we can do that? We're kings under God. We've
been made kings and priests under God by Christ Jesus. You know
what a priest can do? Look over at Hebrews 10. A priest can come into the holiest. Hebrews 10.19. Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a high priest
over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in
full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. You know
what we can do? As kings and priests, as a royal
priesthood, we can come to our King's throne right into the
holiest of holies, not made with hands, and He'll receive us.
Right now. You know why? Because He made
His people holy. He's in us and we're in Him,
and He's made us all together new so we can come to Him. Well,
It says here that we offer up spiritual sacrifices. That's
what the priesthood did in that tabernacle. They offered spiritual
sacrifices. The first thing that they offered
is they had to have a lamb on the Day of Atonement to make
satisfaction. They couldn't come without a lamb. They had to have
a lamb. They always had to come with
blood. Do we have to offer lambs now? Do we have to offer blood
now? Do we offer those kinds of sacrifices now? Hosea said
this, take with you words and turn to the Lord and here's what
you say. This is what coming to Christ
is in faith. Come to Him and say, take away
all iniquity and receive us graciously. And Hosea says, and that's how
we're going to render the calves of our lips. We're coming one
way. We're not coming with any other
sacrifice, but one sacrifice. The Lamb in whom all our iniquities
have been taken away, in whom we've been saved by grace, all
of grace completely. Well, the Levites were consecrated
to God. They were His, and He provided
everything for them. so that they didn't have to look
anywhere else to get everything they needed. They didn't even
have an inheritance with the rest of the children of Israel.
The Levites did. But the Lord said, I'm your portion. I'm going
to provide for you. Well, that's what He says to
you and me who are priests unto God. He says, I'm going to provide
for you. And so, what the Levites were
to do was, they were consecrated to God so that their whole body,
everything about their lives was consecrated to Him. You know
what Paul says in Romans 11, 36? He says, of Him, he's talking
about Christ, the unspeakable gift of God. of Him and through
Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. And he says, I beseech you, therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. And be not conformed to this
world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you
may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God. Alright? In that temple they
had incense and they had an evening sacrifice in that temple. Let's look at Psalm 141. Psalm
141. Well, we better get us some incense
then and start burning some incense. Look at Psalm 141 too. Let my
prayer Be set before thee as incense. And the lifting up of my hands,
that's not some show of flesh where you pray with your hands
lifted up. That means empty handed. Me having nothing in my hand,
period. Be as the evening sacrifice. Well, there's something else
that we sacrifice. We sacrifice everything that
He's given us, because it's His, and He's given it to us to use
to glorify His name in the edification of one another in the glory of
His house. You know, when Paul received
that gift from the church at Philippi, you know what he called
it? He called it a sweet smell, a
sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. We're talking about spiritual
sacrifices. We're talking about sacrifices
such as faith, and hope, and love, and long-suffering, and
mercy, and thanksgiving. And all of these sacrifices are
made by believers without any compulsion from men whatsoever. They're made by the compulsion
of grace only. by a believer being willing,
and that's the only way God will receive them. Look at 2 Corinthians
8, verse 12. God won't receive them any other
way. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. Look at 2 Corinthians 8, verse 12. For if there be first
a willing mind, it is accepted. according to a man that a man
hath, and not according to that he hath not." Folks will say, well, I just
don't have it. Well, God ain't asking you for
something you know He ain't given you. He ain't telling you to
break something He ain't provided. He provides everything. Of Him,
and to Him, and through Him are all things. And He's given everything.
And when He says now, rendering to me what I've given to you.
You know what these people do? Okay. All right. And these are
spiritual sacrifices. And now get this last thing in
our text. Verse 5. This last phrase. And these things are acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. You know when
they brought in the sacrifices, you know where they brought them
to? The altar. They brought them to the altar.
Well, then we better get us an altar up here, shouldn't we?
Let's just get a pulpit. Let's don't worry about an altar.
We do need a pulpit. We don't need an altar. Christ
is our altar. Christ is our altar. We come
to Christ and everything about us and everything about these
spiritual sacrifices is acceptable with God. What's it got to be
to be accepted of God? It's got to be holy. God's holy. It's got to be perfect to be
accepted of God. Well, this is the reality. We
don't worship a building. We're not even going to be able
to build the Lord's house. We don't call any earthly place
holy. We got one sanctuary. One sanctuary. And that's Christ Jesus, the
Lord. And in Him, in our living foundation,
in our living stone, we're living stones. We abide in Him and He
abides in us. We live in Him and He lives in
us. And that won't ever be separated.
Ever. It's a present, everlasting,
eternal reality right now. The second reality is we don't
have and we don't need any earthly priests, any councils of men
between us and God. But in Christ, our holy high
priest, we are a holy priesthood. a royal priesthood, and we can
come to His throne of grace, into that holiest of holies,
not made with hands, into the very presence of God, and be
accepted of Him without any other mediator but our High Priest. And here's the third present
reality. We don't offer any carnal sacrifices,
depend on anything such as incense or lambs or any of those spiritual
things. In fact, the matter, you know
this, the wine and the bread that we break and we drink to
remember our Lord, that's not a sacrament. There's no grace
conveyed by that. You know what it is? It's a piece
of bread and a cup of wine. That's exactly what it is. Our sacrifices are spiritual. They're from a heart made new.
The Lord said, they that worship God must worship Him in spirit
and in truth. That's how we worship Him. You
come to a building and go through all the same things that everybody
else goes through here, and never be in Christ, never worship Christ,
and never do one thing acceptable to God. But in Christ, we accept
it. Accept it. And here's the last
thing. Turn to Zechariah chapter 4.
Zechariah chapter 4. One of these days, this house
is going to be finished by the same One who started it, by the
same One who bought it, by the same One who's doing all the
work, by the same One who's making it alive, by the same One who's
drawing us together, by Christ Himself. It's going to be finished
by Him. And this is what He said, verse 7. Look there at the last. He shall bring forth a headstone
thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. And this is what the Lord meant
when He told David over there in 1 Chronicles, when He said,
David, you can't build me a house. But there's coming one after
you who's my son, and he shall build me a house. And I will
be his father, and he'll be my son, and I'll establish his throne
forever. And this house won't ever fall. It won't ever. It is the present
reality. John said, I saw in heaven, and
there was no temple there. You know why? Because God and
the Lamb are the temple thereof. All right, amen.