I please the Lord to bless us
together this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn to the first
epistle of Peter, chapter 2, and we'll read verse 7. The first epistle of Peter, chapter
2, reading verse 7. Unto you, therefore, which believe
he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, The stone
which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of
the corner." The Apostle Peter has some very
direct words to speak to us and this is a very clear word which
we read, unto you therefore which believe he is precious. What that means is that if Christ
is not precious, then we do not believe. And so it is a very
important consideration. And very often the truth of Christ in the day
and age in which we live is put in the background and yet in
reality it is fundamental that we are blessed with the knowledge
of Christ and a desire for Christ and that Christ does mean something
to us and he will mean something to us if we have been brought
to that position to believe because what do we believe? We believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that He is
that One who came into this world to redeem our souls. The Apostle Peter was very clear
about this. And in the previous verse we
read, Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture Behold, I lay
in Zion a chief cornerstone in elect pressures, and he that
believeth on him shall not be confounded. That's a great encouragement,
surely, to the Church of God, to think that if the Lord's given
us that grace to believe on his name, that we will not be confounded. That means we will not be disappointed. That means we will not arrive
at the end of our life and find there's no Saviour. So this word is true. If and
he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore
which believe he is precious. Well, may we tonight have some
understanding of why the Lord Jesus is precious to us. Sometimes it may be, we may feel
like this, the Lord Jesus is precious in the want of Him. I wonder whether we really want
the Lord Jesus Christ. And perhaps we are not being
blessed with that personal experience of the Saviour with us as we
desired. But is there a want in our heart? Is there a desire in our heart
that we would know Jesus and we would have Him precious to
our souls? Now you see, such desires are
not forthcoming from our old nature, the nature of our flesh.
Because our old nature is an enmity against God. And there wouldn't be any real
desire after Jesus. There may be lip service, we
may just acknowledge perhaps, yes, Jesus was a wonderful man
and he was, so we believe, the saviour of his people, but it's
just really weasel words. They don't really come from our
heart. The work of the Spirit of God is in the heart. It doesn't remain in the head.
Knowledge passes from the head into the heart of those who are
the people of God. And therefore it will not suffice
just to have a mere knowledge in our head. We shall need to
know in our souls, our innermost being, that we have a Saviour,
Christ the Lord. Oh, what a word that was when
the Lord was born. A saviour. Christ the Lord. The only saviour of sinners.
The only one that can deliver our soul. The only one that can
come and save us. The Lord Jesus Christ. So, as we have a word like this,
which believe. Which believe. Now, it would
be a great blessing if the Spirit of God has given us faith, living
faith, real faith, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we will only believe in the Lord Jesus Christ if the Holy Spirit
of God has brought us to a right appreciation of our lost and
ruined condition before a holy God, so that we come and understand
what the hymn writer said, He saw me ruined in the fall, yet
loves me notwithstanding all. The personal evidence of Christ's
love toward us is a blessing that is so needful and is forthcoming
to all those who are blessed with this true believing heart,
which believe. And so if the Spirit of God has
brought us to see our need, our need of saving, there we are
on that road, that broad road that leads to destruction. And
we're going along at a good pace. We can't seem to get ourselves
out of it. And there we know there is that
narrow way that leads to eternal life. And all we observe is ourselves
apparently getting worse and worse. Enveloped with sin. Overcome
sometimes with sin. Unable to extricate ourselves. We need a saviour. We need someone to come to us.
We need someone to pluck us out as it were. We have the description. Plucked as a brand out of the
burning. A piece of wood being consumed
by the fire and taken out before it was consumed. And that's true
in everyone who is a believer. They need to be delivered. They need to be saved. They need
to be recovered. Just like that. Plucked out from the fire. The fire which was consuming. I wonder whether we realise how
that fire of sin does consume. It brings us down. He drags us down. We get lower
and lower. The devil wants to annihilate
us if he can. That's his great desire and his
great aim. But what a blessing when God comes and tells us to
look up. To look up. And who are we to look up to?
To Himself. the Lord Jesus Christ. Look unto me, and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. How true those words of Isaiah.
How blessed it is when we hear those words in our heart, when
we're in a desperate condition, a low condition, seeming to be
sinking under the load of our sin. The Lord comes and tells
us to look up. So look to Him. There is our
salvation. What a wonderful thing it is
to have such a great and glorious Saviour who looks upon us and
remembers that we are dust. He knows our frame. And He knows
what sore temptations are, for He has felt and known the same.
Lord Jesus Christ, He's gone before us, tempted in all points,
like as we are yet, without sin. What do we have? We have a Saviour
who understands us. I believe a Saviour who understands
us better than we understand ourselves. Because He knows precisely
our condition and our situation better than we do ourselves.
And so He comes and directs us to look up, to look to Himself. And what do we see? We see the
Saviour. The Saviour who is carrying our
sin. bearing our sins away? And how were they born away?
They were born away in the fountain of His most precious blood. If Christ is precious to us,
I believe one thing will be very clear. As Peter tells us, the
blood of Christ will be very precious to us. Because that's what the Apostle
says in the previous chapter, that we were not redeemed with
anything of this world, any corruptible thing. No, we were redeemed in
one way and one way only, but with the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb, without blemish, and without spot who verily was
foreordained before the foundation the world that was manifest in
these last times for you." What a mercy if this Lamb of
God is revealed to us because the Spirit of God does reveal
the Lamb of God to His people as their Saviour. And as the Lord Jesus is revealed
to us as our Saviour, we see in Him all that we need, and
we see in Him the only way of salvation. The only way. Now, if there is only one way,
if there's only one thing perhaps we might say, It will be valuable,
won't it? It will be precious. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only way. And indeed, He is precious. We read in an earlier verse,
If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious to
whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed are
men, but chosen of God and precious. Who is this living stone? The
Lord Jesus Christ. Coming to Him. And the Apostle
says, ye also as lively stones. That means to be a living stone.
That means we are born again in the Spirit of God. That means
the Lord Jesus has come to us and looked upon us In our sad
condition, as we read in Jeremiah, or Ezekiel
rather, he saw us in our blood as he passed by and said, live. Live. And that living is life. And that life is eternal life. And that eternal life is through
the precious blood of the Saviour. Because He died, He shed His
blood in order to redeem our souls. Now, I hope we're understanding. I hope we're appreciating in
some measure what it is that the Apostle comes to and says,
unto you therefore which believe He is precious. He is precious. There is no doubt about it. He must be precious. He is so
valuable because of what he's done on our behalf. Without the Saviour, without
the Lord Jesus, we would be hopeless. But oh, what a blessing tonight
if our hope is built on what Christ has done. And be assured of this, what
Christ has done is verily true. We read the detail of what occurred. We read it in the Gospels, recorded
in four places for our encouragement, to know that the Lord Jesus Christ
did die, that He was crucified. He rose again the third day and
He ascended into glory and seated His Father's right hand even
today to intercede for yours and my prayers. Well, it's a
wonderful consideration, isn't it, to think that we have such
a Saviour as that, who has been so gracious and dealt with us
in love to our souls, unto you therefore which believe
he is precious." Now, just for a moment, we don't want to be
amongst those who do not count the Saviour as precious, because the word goes on, but,
unto them which be disobedient The stone which the builder disallowed,
the same is made the head of the corner, and the stone of
stumbling, and the rock of offence, even to them which stumble at
the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed."
It's a very solemn position to be in, if we have rejected this
chief cornerstone. And as the word says, that the
stone which the birth disallowed, the same is made the head of
the corner and the stone of stumbling. If we've stumbled, stumbled over
Christ, we're not confess Him and we're
not bow down before Him and we acknowledge that He is the very
God and a rock of offence. He is
an offence to unbelievers. We only have to read the media
and we know how people object to the name of Christ. He is
an offence to them. They don't want to hear What
a difference to those to whom Christ is precious. And in the
things of God, there aren't any grey areas. Christ is either an offence to
us, or is He precious? And so the word goes on, even
to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto
also they were appointed. Very solemn to be appointed,
to be a disobedient person, isn't it? To be one who walks afar
off, contrary to God, enmity with God. Very solemn to be in
that position. But you see, those who are found,
unto you therefore which believe He is precious, what are they? But ye are a chosen generation." A chosen generation. You have not chosen me, says
the Lord Jesus. But I have chosen you and ordained
you. What a blessing to have a word
like that. And I'm sure it is a comfort
and it is a confirmation to us as we press on through life with
all the hardships and all the trials and all the difficulties
to have the evidence in our heart that the Spirit of God is moving
us and working there, doing for us that which we could not do
for ourselves. And that is an evidence that
we are indeed a chosen generation. And not only so, the Apostle
goes on and tells us, a royal priesthood, a royal priesthood,
such unworthy sinners of the earth, a royal priesthood. Priests before our God and a
holy nation. We are part of the family of
God. We are part of that holy nation
for whom He has died and for whom he is gone to repair a place
in glory. A holy nation and a peculiar
people. Well I suppose that is true we
are a peculiar people because we are blessed with faith
to believe things which the natural mind cannot comprehend. A natural man will not believe
the great truths of the Word of God. He will not believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He will not believe the Lord
came to seek and to save that which was lost. He will not believe
that Lord Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And
so those who do believe those things are classified as a peculiar
people. Well, what a blessing it is to
be included amongst those who are classified as a peculiar
people, those who worship the Lord, those who believe in the
Lord. A holy nation, a peculiar people,
that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called
you out of darkness into His marvellous light. A very clear
position, isn't it? Began to realise that if Christ
is precious to us, we will have the evidence that we have been
called out of darkness into His marvellous light. And the light is only a marvellous
light when the Spirit of God brings us out of that black darkness
and we see how glorious it is when the light of God shines
into our heart and it reveals to us our true condition and
it reveals to us the Lord Jesus Christ as our great and glorious
Saviour. And my friends, this is a wonderful
blessing. He has called us out of darkness
into His marvellous light. And it is a marvellous light. When the light shines into our
heart, we who are dead in trespasses and in sins, walking in darkness,
no light. And when that light shines, it
is a marvellous light. We see the truth of God. We see laid out before us the
plan of salvation. We wondered. We never really
saw it before. It was because We were in darkness. We couldn't see anything. And
the Lord graciously came and shone his light. Oh, it was a
marvellous light, wasn't it? It was a marvellous light. It
was his light. It was Christ's light. And it
shone into our hearts. What a change there was. Behold,
I make all things new. Things appeared to be different.
Things appeared to be new. And we had the evidence that
God had come in His great sovereign mercy and called us, called us
out of this darkness into His marvellous light. And then we
see the Spirit of God moves us to behold this blessed Jesus,
the Lamb of God. that one who now is our hope. Without Christ we have no hope.
The light shines and we have that hope. Therefore then we
understand what Peter said unto you therefore which believe he
is precious. He is precious. Precious means
valuable. Precious means rare. You see, there are few people
who are blessed with this favour of being joined with the Saviour, who know Him as their Saviour. He is precious as their Saviour. I believe He is precious also
as their great and glorious High Priest. He is one of the endearing
offices of the Saviour, His great office of High Priest. We only have to cast our minds
back to the Old Testament and to realise how significant the
office of the High Priest was and how important it was. It
passed from generation to generation and it was only the High Priest
that could enter into the Holy of Holies on that great day of
atonement and then not without blood. And that was an annual
occasion that Israel looked forward to. That day to realize that
their sins would be taken away. Now we know it was only a symbol
of that which was to come. And of course the Apostle Paul,
he spells out the detail of that so very wonderfully and very
clearly when he wrote to the Hebrews and instructed them in
the truth of these words. The great blessing it was to
have this high priest. And he tells us in the 10th chapter,
now where remission of these is, that sin, There is no more
offering for sin, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Only the high priest could enter
into the holiest. But when Christ died, what did
he do? By a new and living way, which
he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his
flesh. There was that heavy veil which
separated the holy place from the holy of holies and the high
priest had to pass through that veil. And the very significant occurrence
was when the Lord Jesus died upon Calvary's cross and spoke
those words, it is finished. That veil was rent, torn from
the top to the bottom. There was no more need of any
entrance into the holy place because the Lord Jesus had made
that permanent entrance whereby we today can approach unto the
majesty on high. And so the Apostle says, 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. That way of acceptance through
what the Lord Jesus Christ did then, when he fulfilled that
work that the Father gave him to do. What did he do? Well,
he offered himself. You see, when the high priest
went into the Holy of Holies, he had to take blood, and the
blood was from the offering, the lamb slain. And that blood
was taken and sprinkled upon the mercy seat. And he sprinkled
it on himself as well. But you see, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He was that sacrifice, that perfect sacrifice. What a wonderful thing
it is to know that He was. And we're told, the Apostle tells
us, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, Thou hast had no pleasure
then, said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me to do Thy will. O God above when he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offerings for sin thou wouldest
not neither hence pleasure therein which are offered by the law
then said he lo I come to do thy will O God he taketh away
the first that he may establish the second by the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. Go home and read the 9th and
10th of Hebrews. Very wonderful. Directs us so
very clearly to that sacrifice and that blood was shed and to
the new and living way which we are privileged to enjoy today
so that we can pray to God the Father for the merits of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Without Christ, there's no access. There's no way to the Father.
Oh, unto you which believe, He is precious. To think without
Christ, there's no access. Does that not make Him very precious
and very valuable to us today? It's as though there's a blank
wall before us. There's no way through. But we
come on this ground for Jesus Christ's sake. That's how we
approach to our Father in heaven. For Jesus Christ's sake. What
a privilege. What a glorious way it is. What
is the way? It's marked out with blood. For us, the dear Redeemer died. that we might be favoured to
be able to come to this High Priest who is ever available
to present our prayers to His Father. Our prayers, my friends,
are never pure. Sin is mixed with all we do.
It's a very sad condition. But to think we can come to our
God through the Lord Jesus Christ, through His merits. My friends,
His merits must prevail. And so we see He is more precious
far than earth and all its comforts are. Because here we're dealing
with eternal realities. those things which concern our
eternal souls, not something which is transient
and passing. Oh no, it's a wonderful blessing
to view the Saviour in this way, unto you therefore which believe
He is precious. Well, He's precious because He's
that great and glorious High Priest. He's also glorious as
our prophet, as that one who speaks to us, as that one who
preaches to us. A prophet is a preacher, and
the Lord Jesus is that great and glorious preacher. My friends,
we have His words before us. The whole of Scripture is really
the Word of God, the Word of the Saviour, the Word of the
preacher, indicted by Him. Oh, bless God tonight. that we
have His Word before us. He is that great and glorious
Prophet. Well, my friends, does the Saviour,
through the Word of God, preach to our hearts? Do we bless God
for it? Or for the wonderful truth contained
in that? You know, the Apostle Paul, when
he wrote to the Corinthians, he tells us, For Christ sent
me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of
words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect,
for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. And the cross of Christ sets
before us the suffering Saviour. It sets before us what the Saviour
did to deliver us from that wrath to come, that He died in our
place. And as we read the Word of God,
we read that Word as He preaches to our souls. Oh, do we rejoice in the Word
of God? Do we rejoice in what He said?
Do we bless God for it? And is He precious because of
it? And then also, of course, He
is to His people their King, their King. A king has his subjects. His subjects are subject to his
laws and they are obedient to his laws and they bow down to
him and do his bidding and do that which he commands them to
do. We have a great king. King Jesus, who is the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords, as we read this morning in that
19th Revelation. The King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. Well, is He your King? Is He
my King? You know, lip service is very
easy. But do we live our life as though
He is our King. We do desire to do His will,
we do desire to bow down before Him and to follow that which
He instructs us in. Now, a natural King is usually
precious and valuable and looked up to. this King is so wonderful and
indeed one to look up to. As I said earlier, we are to
look up and look up to this One who is the King of Kings and
Lord of Lords and in so doing to bow down and to worship. That means to submit ourselves
unto and under the hand of our God. Not pleasing ourselves,
but pleasing our God. And then also, we can think of
what the bride in the Son of Solomon refers to her Saviour
as. He is her friend. Or, is the Lord Jesus our friend? Can we say, what a friend we
have in Jesus. A friend who sticks closer to
us than a brother. A friend who is always there
at our right hands to support us and to encourage us. You know, a natural friend. We
have friends, don't we? And we're thankful for them. They can come
and help us in our times of need and we can go to them and explain
difficulties sometimes that we're in. Well, we have such a friend
in Jesus. He is indeed a most glorious
Saviour. And so the Bride speaks of Her
in these terms. She comes to the end of a description
of Her Beloved. You see, the Church of God had
asked her, what was her beloved more than another beloved? We
might say, why was Christ more precious to her than anyone else? And if you turn to the 5th of
the Song of Solomon, you'll be able to read why it was so from
the 9th verse down to the end. And he tells her, the bride tells
the Church why. She comes down to the last verse
and she says, His mouth is most sweet. The words that come from
the mouth of the Lord Jesus, they are most sweet. Yea, He
is altogether lovely. There's no blemish in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We don't find any fault in Him.
He is altogether lovely. And she says, therefore, this
is my beloved. This is my beloved. This is the
one who is precious to me. And this is my friend, O daughter
of Jerusalem. Well, the scene was so clearly
set. She'd given a wonderful testimony
of whom she believed in and what her beloved meant to her. it
would be a great blessing for us if we can give an account
of what the Lord Jesus means to us so that we are able to
come and speak in these terms, yea unto you therefore which
believe he is precious he's precious because of all these reasons
and he is to us that lamb of God that taketh away my sin he
was that one who stood in my place. He was that one who bore
my punishment instead. He was that one who was led as
a lamb to the slaughter. There's wonderful words in Isaiah's
prophecy which speaks so clearly about the Lord Jesus. And the
question was, who hath believed our report? Who has believed? Who believes? the Lord Jesus
Christ is indeed precious. He explains himself, all we like
sheep have gone astray, and so we have, and the Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all. And then, yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
his church. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied." It's a tremendous
truth that, isn't it? To think of the Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ, walking that path, that path through Gethsemane,
the Judgment Hall and Calvary all are to satisfy God's righteous
law and to pay the price for our sins standing in our place
and shedding His most precious blood that all our sins might
be forever washed away and therefore by His grace one day we should
be with Him in glory to sing his praise forever and ever. Well tonight can we say or perhaps
put it this way do we really desire to be able to say do we
have a desire for a desire to be able to say from our heart
unto you therefore which belief he is precious because I believe
if that is granted to us, it's indicted by the Spirit of God
and we have the evidence of His love toward us and we form part
of those who are numbered amongst the chosen generation, a royal
priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth
the praise of Him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvellous light. Amen.