Go with me back to first Peter
chapter two. First Peter chapter two. This is one of those messages
where I pray the Lord will put our hearts, put our ears and
our hearts in the right place to hear it. And I pray he'll put our minds
in the right place to think on it and ponder it. I think a lot
about the fact that I have so much time to think about these
things and ponder these things before the Lord touches my heart
with it. And you go from nothing to. And sometimes you have to be
put in a place you have to be prepared. To hear something to
really enter into something and. This verse and this line and
this subject matter deserves some pondering and I want to
encourage you to ask the Lord to prepare you for this. I'm
going to read this line to you and then just give you a second
to ponder it. Everybody is big these days on
a moment of silence, you know, we'll have a moment. Well, that's
what this deserves. This deserves a moment of silence to really
just enter into this. Look at verse seven, first Peter
two, verse seven, it says unto you, therefore, which believe
he is precious. That's the truth, isn't it? Unto
you, therefore, which believe. He is precious. He is precious. The word precious means all value
unto you that believe he is all value. The word means all honor. To the highest degree. Unto you, therefore, that believe
Christ is precious. He is so precious. Unto God,
unto God, the father and God, the spirit, when we talk about
God, we're talking about the three persons of the Godhead,
father, son and spirit unto God, the father and God, the spirit. Christ is precious. He is so
precious to the father. Everything has been placed in
the hands of the son. All the Father's love, all the
Father's affection, the Spirit will not even speak of Himself,
but will only speak of Christ, will only point men to Christ.
Unto God, Christ is precious. Unto the entire host of heaven,
all the angels and all the cherubims and all the seraphims and everything
that's there. Christ is precious. And unto all of God's people,
they feel the exact same way. We all cry, amen. To those of
us who believe, and that's the key, is to those of us who believe,
Christ is so precious. Now, the word precious is in
the scripture quite a few times for quite a few reasons. But
the places we're going to turn to tonight all have to do with
what makes Christ precious to us. What makes Christ precious
to God's people? What precious things about Christ
makes him precious to us? There are many things that the
scripture says are precious to God, and that would be a wonderful
thing to look at, too. So many things are precious to
God. But our text tonight in verse seven, it says unto you,
therefore, which believe he is precious to you that believe
he's precious. So I want us to look at the things
concerning Christ that make him precious. And before we even
get into this, I just want to say, what doesn't make him precious
to us? I mean, really, what things are
there about him that are not precious to us? There is nothing concerning him
that's not precious to us. We're going to spend all of eternity
dwelling on the things concerning Christ that are precious to us.
That's how we're going to spend all of our eternity. Everything
is precious to us. For tonight, for the sake of
this time and this outline, we're going to just consider some things
that the scripture says make him precious to us right now. And I believe as we go through
this, we'll very clearly be able to see and say, yes, that is
so precious. He definitely is precious because
of that right there. Starting with this first one.
Okay. Look with me at first Peter chapter one, verse 17. First Peter one, verse 17. It
says. And if you call on the father,
who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's
work, past the time of your sojourning here in fear. 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 of a lamb
without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you." He said, you know that you were not redeemed
with corruptible things like silver and gold. You were not
bought, you were not paid for with corruptible things. like
silver and gold. If a man has to pay his silver
and his gold, if, you know, I thought about the fact that tax season
is coming up. I haven't gotten my taxes back yet. I don't know
if I'm going to have to pay or if I'm going to get a refund.
I have no idea. I'm always thinking the worst.
If a man has to pay his silver and gold, But that may be something
that he doesn't want to do. That may be something he deeply
regrets doing. If he loses his silver and his
gold, what if the economy crashes and we literally lose it all?
If a man loses his silver and his gold, that may be something
he just deeply does not want to happen and does not want to
see happen. But if a man loses his blood, If something costs a man his
blood, that's not just regret or loss, that's the end of life
as he knows it. That makes a man's blood infinitely
more precious, infinitely more valuable to him. And that's talking
about a man who has sinful, corruptible blood in his body. How much more
the spotless, incorruptible, sinless blood of the Lamb of
God, how much more the blood of Christ himself. That's what
was given to pay the redemption price for our sinful, wretched
souls, precious blood. All value was given to pay the
price. That is something that every
time I think about that, that just astounds me, the most priceless
substance of heaven. The blood of Jesus Christ himself.
That's what God gave. All the value of heaven was given
for something that possessed no value in itself at all. None whatsoever. God willingly gave. The life
of heaven, the life is in the blood, the scripture says, and
that's how it is in our salvation. The life is in the blood. If
we want to know where eternal life is, it's in the blood. God gave the life of heaven to
redeem the death of man. He did that to pay the price
of death for sinful man. Now you talk about an unspeakable
gift. You talk about amazing grace,
amazing grace, what an amazing gift. That's what the song means.
What an amazing gift. the blood of Jesus Christ, in
the blood of Jesus Christ, by the blood of Jesus Christ. God
gave everything. He gave everything to redeem
a bunch of nothings. God gave everything to redeem
a bunch of nothings. That makes him precious to us,
doesn't it? That makes him so precious to
us. Where our sin abounded, The grace
of Christ and the blood of Christ infinitely more abounded and
that makes Him so precious to us. His precious blood, that's the
first thing that makes Him precious to us. Alright, here's the next
thing. Look at 2 Peter, we're in 1 Peter, go to 2 Peter chapter
1. 2 Peter 1 verse 1, it says, Simon
Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that
have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
according as His divine power hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life, and godliness through the knowledge of Him
that hath called us to glory and virtue. He said, to them
that have obtained like precious faith with us. And the key to
faith being precious is in the fact that we have obtained it. That's what makes it precious.
It's in the fact that we have obtained it. That's something
that God's people know that the rest of this world does not have
a clue of. If any man or woman is going
to have faith, God is going to have to give it to them. God
has to give it to them. That is a precious gift from
God. We cannot conjure it up on our
own, and that's what, you know, men are standing in pulpits telling
people to do. Conjure up something they don't
even possess. That's what people naturally think they need to
just, you know, make more of and create more of. We don't
even possess it. We cannot take it upon ourselves
to exercise it. We don't possess it until God
gives it to us. He has to give it to us. Hold
your place and turn over to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter two, verse
16, it says. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
if we could ever really get ahold of that, that is an amazing statement. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. I believe
this is one of the clearest verses on what faith really is. We believe
in Jesus Christ. Most people do. Most people do
believe in Jesus Christ, but we believe that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ. And not by the works of the law,
for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Isn't
that always so relieving every time you hear that? That's a
reminder again, by the works of the law shall no flesh be
justified. Faith is not of ourselves. Faith
is of Jesus Christ. This is in his hands. The ball
is in his court. It is totally in his court. Faith
only originates in one place. It only comes from one place. There's one source of faith,
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. And if we're going
to have any, it's going to have to come from him. Ephesians 2
says we are his workmanship. Philippians 2 says it is God
that worketh in us. And Philippians 1 says, if God
has begun the work in us, he will perform the work all the
way to the end. Hebrews 12 says he is the author
and the finisher of our faith. The apostle said, Lord, would
you increase our faith? Would you increase our faith?
It's the only possible way that our faith can be increased. And does that cause us to understand
how precious it is if he chooses to give it to us? You know, it's
kind of like people think, well, it's my fault. I didn't exercise
my faith. That's not it at all. We need to understand how precious
it is if he chooses to give any to us in the first place, if
he chooses to give the grain of a mustard seed to us in the
first place. He gives it only to whoever he's
pleased to give it to. And it is something that I know
I take for granted. We shouldn't take it for granted
that we believe God, that we believe on Christ, that we believe
it's of Christ. It's a special, favorable bestowment
of life unto the acknowledgement of our salvation when it comes.
So seeing the faith of Christ that has been freely given to
us, that makes him precious to us, that he would choose to give
it to us. Thank God he would take his faith and give it to
us. This like precious faith. That's what has brought every
one of us here tonight. Like precious faith. Freely, graciously, lovingly,
generously bestowed. That makes Christ to be so precious
to us. His blood that He gave for us,
that makes Him precious. His faith that He has given to
us, that makes Him precious. All right, here's the next thing.
Go back to 1 Peter. 1 Peter, I had you hold your
place in 2 Peter. Go back to 1 Peter chapter 1.
1 Peter 1 verse 3, it says, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept
by the power of God through faith like precious faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time wherein you greatly rejoice
though now for a season If need be, you are in heaviness through
manifold temptations." You're in heaviness, you're in sorrow,
you're in weariness through many trials that just keep coming,
just wave after wave of trials. Verse six, wherein you greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness
through manifold temptations. that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom, having not
seen, you love, in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing
you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of yourselves. Not only does the faith that
Christ has given to us, not only does that faith cause us to look
to him and cause us to believe on him, Not only does the faith
itself make Christ to be precious to us, but the trying of that
faith. The trying of that faith, he
said, you have joy and you do. And he said, you're looking for
Christ and you're waiting for Christ whom having not seen you
love. And I love that line because
it's so true. Whom having not seen we love. He's precious to
us and we love him. But he said, if need be right
now, you're going through trials because the trying of your faith,
that testing of faith, that proving of faith, those trials make Christ
to be precious to us. Now, I just want to say that
nobody here wants trials. Nobody here does. I don't want
them. I do not want them. Whether we
want them or not, they're going to come anyway. They're just
going to come anyway. And I'll tell you this, when
they come. They're going to cause us to sincerely realize what
Christ means to us. The greater the trial. The more
we're going to realize what Christ means to us. When trials are
not on us, we think very little of our savior. I'm not saying
we think little of Him. I'm saying we don't think of
Him often. We don't think of Him fervently.
When trials are not on us, we're just so selfish. We're just so
selfish. We're so consumed with ourselves
and so consumed with everything we're into. It's just so sad
to say. The one thing we definitely don't
really enter into is the great trial of our Savior on the cross,
the great trial that he endured. All the deliverance he accomplished.
We believe, but our minds and our hearts, they're constantly
so sidetracked. I mean, just with everything,
they're taken up with everything, every unimportant, insignificant
thing in this world. We're just so consumed with it.
And it just, again, it amazes me how the things of this world
so easily consume us. You start thinking about a movie
or a song or a vacation or who knows what, and you can't get
your mind off of it. You can't stop thinking about it. You try
to think about the things of Christ and you can't keep your
mind on it to save your life, to save your own life. But honestly, let a great trial
come to you. I mean a great trial. And everything else goes away,
doesn't it? Everything else in this world just goes away. When
trials come, Christ becomes precious to us. And again, I don't want
trials and you don't want trials. But our comfort is when they
come, they are going to cause Christ to be very precious to
us. They're going to make him to be very precious to us. Everything
else will get stripped away and Christ will become all that matters. The deep trial of faith, that's
what causes us to realize that there really is only one thing
needful in this life. Come the end of this life. We
only need one thing. We need Christ. We need faith
in Christ. We need the blood of Christ.
That's it. Come the last day, when the last
day comes, he is going to be very precious to us. How precious
do you think he will be on the day of judgment? It'll be very,
very precious. The trial of our faith is truly
so precious. Painful? Absolutely. But precious
every single trial that comes makes Christ to be just that
much more precious to us. So his blood is precious. His
faith is precious. The trial of that faith is precious. And here's the next thing. I'll
be quick. Look back at second Peter, second
Peter. Chapter 1, verse 3, it says, According as
His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto
life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that hath called
us to glory and virtue, verse 4 says, whereby are given unto
us exceeding great and precious promises. that by these you might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. The exceeding great promises
of the Word are precious. What our Lord has said to us,
do we not hold to these things? Are we not counting on these
things and hoping in these things? Or is our hope not truly waiting
for these promises to come true? What our Lord has said to us
in the pages of this book, these words make him to be precious
to us. Everything that he has sworn
to us that he cannot lie in. He will not, cannot change his
mind on. He will not alter one promise
in this book. The promises of love, the promises
of redemption, deliverance, reinstatement man. Walked with God. Was one with God. That's what's
going to happen. We're going to be reinstated
with God. Fellowship, adoption, inheritance,
union, the promises that he will never leave us, never forsake
us. I want to be with him and I don't
want him to ever leave me after that. He made a promise that
he won't. The promises that he has prepared
a place for us. I want to go somewhere. I want
to go to a city that has foundation. I want to go see things that
my eyes have never seen and my ears have never heard and my
heart has never imagined. I want to experience that. I want to be in his image. He
has promised us that in just a minute, we're going to be in
his image. In just a minute, any minute
now, we're going to be in his image. The promise of life, I don't
want to die. You know, God's people are always
saying, well, I'm ready to go be with the Lord. That does not
mean I want to die. That means I'm ready to start
living. It's about time to lay down death. I'm sick and tired
of death. Let's go live. Life, liberty,
happiness. That's in Christ. That's in the
Lord Jesus Christ, all the promises of God, which are So much higher
than anything we've ever. Imagine they make Christ to be
precious to us very quickly, look at Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3, verse 14, it says. For this cause I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by
his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ
which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all
the fullness of God. Now unto Him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory In the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Does that not make him
precious to us? Look at 1 Thessalonians 4. I'm counting on this right here.
I'm just counting on this. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13. I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not,
even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore,
comfort one another with these words." Does that not make him
precious to us? His blood is precious. His faith
is precious. The trial of that faith is precious. Every promise in this Word is
precious. It makes Him to be precious to
us. And here's the last thing we'll consider tonight. It's
in Psalm 139. Turn with me over to Psalm 139. Psalm 139 verse 17, it says. How precious also are thy thoughts
unto me? Oh God, how great is the sum
of them? When trials cause us to think
on Him, that's a precious moment. When these trials come and they
turn our minds and our hearts to Him, that's a precious moment.
But do you know what an infinitely more precious moment is? When
the Lord Jesus Christ thinks on us, infinitely more. We love Him, but it's not that
we loved Him, it's that He loved us. We think on him, but the
glory of our salvation is not in the fact that we think on
him, it's in the fact that he thinks on us. And he knows us
and longs for us. You know why he went to the cross?
He longed for us. We desire to be with him, but
the greater glory is that he desires to be with us. told you about a conversation
I had a long time ago with a guy that I was already here. I was already pastor and it was
right after I got here. But anyway, he was asking me about the church
and he. I was answering his questions and he realized I could see it
all over his face. This was not going like he thought
it was going to go and the conversation, you know. He was wanting out. He was trying to back back out
and. So he was going to end it by saying he said, just tell
me this. Do you love Jesus? And I said,
I do. I do, but my greater concern
is, does he love me? Does he love me? And all of God's
people think on the Lord Jesus Christ. We do. Yes, we do. But our greater concern and the
hope of our salvation is in the fact that he thinks on us. Can
you in your eyes of faith and your heart of faith, can you
envision him sitting on his throne, taking his precious time, To
think on us, what is man that thou art mindful of us? Here
we are just thinking on him and there he is thinking on us. And just to hear him say that
his thoughts toward us are more than can be numbered. We're all
ashamed of how many thoughts we have toward him. His thoughts
toward us can't even be numbered. Verse 18 says, If I should count
them, they are more in number than the sand. That makes Him
so precious to me. And for a child of God, that
preciousness will never end. That's what's precious to me. Once the sin is gone, That heart
of feeling this way will never go away. That preciousness will
never end. Even when it comes time to lay
down in sleep here on this earth, the very end of verse 18, it
says, when I awake, I'm still with thee. We're with him now. We'll be with him forever. And
that makes him precious to us. Unto you, therefore, that believe.
Can't we all say amen to that? He is so, so precious. All right,
let's all stand together.