We want to turn to 1 Peter chapter
2. 1 Peter chapter 2 with me please. 1 Peter chapter 2. I was thinking
before the service today, I want to communicate to you every time
I stand here and speak to you the message of God's word. I
want so much for you to hear from Him. And I know that if
you do, you will hear as a sinner. That's the way all of God's people
have heard, as sinners. And so when we read in scripture
these words from Psalm 80, we can identify with that. And I
hope that you can enter into the cry, the prayer that's here. Listen to these words, Psalm
80, verse one. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel,
Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, shepherd. Thou that
dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth before Ephraim and
Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up thy strength and come
and save us. Is there ever more appropriate
prayer than that? Lord, stir up your strength and
come and save us. Turn us again, oh God, and cause
thy face to shine and we shall be saved. A prayer of our need
of God to save us. And the way that salvation comes
to us is when God shines in favor. He shines to us in the face of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what First Peter
and all of scripture is about. That's why the Lord is precious
to us, isn't it? That he would come and save us. I also wanna read this text of
scripture to you from Psalm 35. if you happen to be in the Psalms,
Psalm 35. And I want you to notice this
and apply these things, always apply them to yourself as the
object of your great need and God's saving grace. Come to the
Lord Jesus Christ when you read these things in your heart and
look to him to be to you all that he has said in his word.
He says this in Psalm chapter 35, And verse 10, now this is
speaking about his own experience on the cross, but it's true of
all of his people. He says in verse 10, all my bones
shall say, are we not one with the Lord? Are we not one flesh
and one bones with him? All my bones shall say, Lord,
who is like unto thee? How do we compare God to others? There's no comparison in which
way. who is likened to thee which delivereth the poor from him
that is too strong for him. Are you poor? Are there enemies
of your soul that are too strong for you? How about your own sin
against God? Is that too strong for you? He
delivers the poor from him that is too strong, yea, the poor
and the needy from him that spoileth him. That means the one who takes
away all that he has and ruins him. Our sin has done that. Come
and save us. The Lord is the one who delivers
the poor from him that is too strong for him. What a comfort
this is to us, isn't it? Oh Lord, come and save you. It's
God's promise to his people. But in 1 Peter 2, I want to read
from verse 2 and through verse 10 with you, and then I want
to go over these verses with us. Beginning in verse 2, we
see the exhortation to behave as newborn children of God, newborns. You know, newborns have no strength.
They have no pretense, they just have a great need. And they have
an automatic desire for the nourishment and comfort of their mother.
So he says in verse two, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk
of the word that you may grow thereby. We have a need to grow,
don't we? How do we grow? How do we grow
in grace and in faith? Faith comes by hearing, hearing
by the word of God, so we need to take it in. We need to read
it, meditate on it, pray it, take it into our own selves. This is the truth of the way
things truly are. This is the one truth in all
the world, the word of God, the word that is preached to us through
the gospel. We need this. Newborn babes crave
it. We're comforted by it. We're
nourished by it. We grow by it. So this is a simple
exhortation to us with the great privilege of being babes, children,
newborn children who have no other motive than to desire this
milk. of what God has provided from
their mother's breast as comfort and nourishment, so we desire
the milk of God's word for our own selves to grow by it, to
know our God and Father. And then in verse three, if so
be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. When a baby drinks
his mother's milk, I don't know, babies aren't able to say, but
I'm sure they really enjoy it. And we enjoy nothing more than
the grace of God made known to us. We've tasted it, haven't
we? And what is that grace? How do we taste that the Lord
is gracious? Well, a baby is helpless, a baby
is hungry, a baby needs someone to care for them in every way.
They can't do anything for themselves. All they can do is cry. and drink. And so he says, if
you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, then do these things. We've tasted it, and how do we
taste it? God, in his mercy, he brings us to the point where
we, in ourselves, are helpless and utterly weak to do one thing
to help ourselves in the matter of our sin and salvation. In life, in eternity, we stand
before God guilty and condemned, and we need everything from him. And then he points us to the
Lord Jesus Christ, where everything God requires and we need is found. That's tasting that the Lord
is gracious. Have you tasted? Then he says,
to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men,
but chosen of God and precious. The Lord Jesus Christ here is
called a living stone. And what he's about to do in
the next few verses, which we're going to read here to verse 10,
is he's going to lay out for us the huge blessings. God has bestowed upon us in saving
us from our sins and making us His own. He's going to describe
them pictorially to us, our relation to God, so intimate, so condescending
on God's part, so lifting up and giving privileges to us beyond
our wildest imaginations. It never would have entered our
heart, could never have been conceived unless God made it
known to us from His Word by His Spirit. But he says, to whom
coming, we'll read these verses, to whom coming as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, rejected in other words of men,
but chosen of God and precious. It's not surprising that men
reject and do not allow the Lord Jesus Christ to be what God has
chosen him to be. He's precious to God. Verse 5,
you also, as lively stones or living stones are built up, notice,
a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God, how? By Jesus Christ. All these things
describe God's people. Living stones built up, a spiritual
house, God built them. They're His dwelling, a holy
priesthood. They offer up, this is the purpose,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices, and those sacrifices are acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. Verse six, wherefore also it
is contained in the scripture, according to this speaking about
Christ as the living stone and us as lively stones, it is contained
in the scripture, God said this, behold, verse six, I lay in Zion,
Zion is a reference to a mountain in its significance. It's speaking of God's church,
his congregation, his people. I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded. The word confound means to throw
into distress and to confusion and put to shame. Whoever believes
on Christ as that living stone will not be put to shame, they
won't be distressed, and their minds won't be thrown into confusion
because they have been built on the foundation stone, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 7, unto you therefore which
believe, he is precious. This describes every believer.
They believe Christ and he is precious to them. But unto them
which be disobedient, The stone, which the builders disallowed,
the same is made the head of the corner. In a building, when
they want to make the first part of the building, they lay the
first stone at the corner, and that stone not only establishes
the corner reference for the entire building, but it's the
solid foundation on which the whole structure rests. The Lord
Jesus Christ is that to his people. He's everything to them. Verse
eight, and he's not only made by God the head of the corner,
but he has made a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to them
which stumble at the word being disobedient where unto they were
also appointed. The grace of God always is given
to us in contrast Contrast to what we are in ourselves in contrast
to God's goodness to us. Contrast into how low we brought
ourselves by our sin and how insignificant we are in ourselves,
but how high, how far God has stooped and how high he has lifted
us up in Christ to be his children by Jesus Christ. But there are
those, in contrast to the ones God has saved by His grace, who
have refused, who have rejected, and who stand in disobedience
to this gospel that God has sent throughout the world because
they refuse to own themselves as sinners in need of God's grace
and come to Christ for it. They're disobedient. They have
opposed their own salvation. And he says here, they were appointed
to this. By who? By God. Isn't that amazing? That tends to offend us, doesn't
it? How God would appoint people
to this condemnation. Yes, God did this. Can you explain that? I don't
have to. I'm just gonna take it like a
little newborn child. God appointed those who were
disobedient to His Son to that condemnation. He says, but you,
now notice here is the contrast. And notice these words here,
because this is what's being laid down in order to go to the
next step. But you, in contrast to those
who were appointed to stumble at the Word, you are a chosen
generation. In the book of Mark and other
gospels, Jesus said that he spoke to them in parables. And the
reason he did that is so that he gave the meaning of his parables
to those who were in the kingdom of God. But he spoke in these
parables to hide the mysteries of the kingdom of God from those
that are without. because that if they were to
understand with their heart and perceive with God-given understanding,
then they would be saved. But he designed the gospel to
be given to his people, but not to be given to all in that way.
So he shows us here the great privilege of God's mercy to us
as sinners. He says, you are a chosen generation. Now we think of our generation,
you can go online and you can find your ancestry. You find
out who your mom and dad were, you can find out who their parents
were, and all the way back to any level, practically. I don't
know if they're making it up or what, but you can probably
go back to the early times, right? Guess what? You were born to
Adam and Eve. Wow. All those people in between. But the Lord has a generation.
How did they become his? He chose them. A chosen generation. They didn't make themselves the
people of God, He chose them as His people called the generation,
His generation. You hear these songs, a Joshua
generation or something like that, I don't know. The Lord
has a chosen generation, they're His people. He adds another description
to His people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. Now, contrast this with everything
that you know of God's dealings with the nation of Israel in
the Old Testament. They were a people set apart
by God. They were a people that God called
his own. He gave them promises. He gave them land. He gave them
prophets and kings. He gave them a priesthood. Peter
is writing to those who were scattered throughout not the
land of Israel, but throughout the world. And he says, you are
the elect of God. You're sanctified by God's Holy
Spirit. You're given grace. The redeeming
blood of Christ has purchased you. You have heard the gospel. You've been born of God. You're
a chosen generation. You have been made a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a peculiar people. What God is saying here is everything
then, back in the Old Testament, was but just a shadow of the
reality which you are, to whom the gospel comes. And you've
heard it and believed it. This is the fulfillment of that
prototype which was set up in the Old Testament scriptures.
And now to you, strangers who are suffering all these things
described in chapter one with all these blessings that God
has given to you. He's pointing these things out.
Don't look to those people in the land of Israel as having
an advantage over you. You are the chosen generation. You're the royal, the kingly
priesthood. You're kings and priests, a holy
nation to God and a peculiar people that you should show forth.
Notice the praises of him who has called you. Him who calls
you out of darkness into His marvelous light. And here's our
description of ourselves, which in time past were not a people. We were not God's people. not
in our minds, not in our actions, not in anything about us. We
were alienated and we alienated ourselves from the life of God
by our sin, by our thoughts, by our intentions and motives.
You were not a people, but now are the people of God, which
had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. So he's
talking to Gentiles here, the residue of men. God has set his
name on these residue of the Gentiles and he's speaking to
them because of God's grace evidently coming to them having believed
the gospel. He says, you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood. All these things are stacked
up in order to show us the great privilege that lays down the
foundation on which the next words are spoken in verse 11.
Dearly beloved, loved of God, you're dear to God. I beseech
you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust which
war against the soul. Our sin is our great enemy. The warfare is continuous and
because of God's grace to us, and all these things just described,
he's telling us, you have this fight going on. Abstain from
these fleshly lusts that war against your soul. All right,
let's go back now and take a look at some of these things. Notice
in verse five, verse four, he says, to whom coming as unto
a living stone. The stone God's describing here
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the rock. Enduring, durable,
unmoving, invincible, almighty, a refuge, the stone. But here
he's describing him as part of a temple, a building, a building
that God alone built. You can't see it. Well, you can't
see it with natural eyes. It's made up of him. They had
a temple in the Old Testament. And the people looked at it and
they thought, this is where God meets with his people. And God
said, no, that's not it. This temple is built on a rock.
And that rock is a living stone, not a piece of granite. This is a living stone. And this
stone has life in himself. Christ is the life, he said. Jesus says, I am the life. It's
not like he's just alive. No, life is in him. He is the
life. And he's the life of God. He's
the life of God to his people in every way, but especially
in their spiritual life. He gives us life. Our life is
in him. He is our life. He's the living
stone. And if we are part of God's people,
we're built on him. Like Jesus said, if a house is
built on sand, when the storms come, it will fall. But if it's
built on the rock, then when the storms come, it will not
fall because it's built on Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we've
come to Him. God has brought us to Him. Why
do we come? Why do I come to the Lord Jesus
Christ? Well, because I need Him. I'm
a sinner. He's the only Savior. I need
Him. I come to Him. I look to Him because I don't
find salvation anywhere else. God has said there's only one
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
We come to Him because we need Him. We come to Him because we
want Him. Don't you? I want to come to
Him. Every day I don't feel like I'm coming to Him. I say, Lord,
help me come to You at all times. And I come to Him because I'm
compelled to come. I'm compelled because He's drawn
me. I wasn't looking for salvation in Him. I thought I had to do
it. I thought I had to do everything necessary to save myself and
keep myself. Somehow it depended upon me. God had conditions I had to meet,
contingencies I had to fulfill. No, it's all Him. I didn't know
that. Now I come to Him, and I come
to Him as all for all. Everything God requires, He is. Everything I need is found in
Him. He's everything. Do I need sincerity? Do I need an attitude change? Do I need faith, love? I come
to Him for it. Do I need life? He's the life.
He's the truth. He's the way. He's everything.
He is the salvation of His people. He is the Jehovah, our salvation. He's the Lord. He's my master. He's my king. He's everything.
Can you name one thing that he isn't? No, because the fullness
of the Godhead is in him, and we're complete in him. He's the
living stone, and we're built on him. So we've come to him. He's the living stone. Not allowed
to be by men, but rejected indeed of them, but chosen of God. God
chose him, just like when King David was chosen, nobody thought
of him. That boy out there taking care
of his father's sheep, no one cares about him. He's just out
there on the hillside somewhere fighting off lions and tigers
and bears and stuff with a little stone, but he had the Lord with
him. God had chosen him. God had given him his own heart.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ is the one after God's own heart,
chosen of God and precious to God. God thinks highly of him. He thinks so highly of him that
he requires everyone to bow the knee to his son. You're going
to honor the Son because God has given all judgment into His
hand. He's given life to Him so that He has life in Himself
and He gives life to whom He will. He's made Him the salvation
of His people. He has put everything, He has
made Him for us, wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption,
everything. He's our all, and we're so glad
to have it that way. He's so precious to God. If he's
precious to God, then if he's precious to us, that's God's
doing. He says in verse five, you also
as living or lively stones are built up a spiritual house. We
also are connected to him. Tim is a mason. He puts rocks
on top of rocks and builds walls and all sorts of things. We're
connected to Him. The Spirit of God has created
us in Him, joined us to Him. We're members of His body, of
His bones, and of His flesh, so connected to Him that the,
think of the condescension, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the living
stone, the cornerstone, the chief cornerstone, would be side by
side with His people. He would be under them. They
would be connected to Him. Their life would be His life.
He calls them his brethren, his brethren, because they're heirs
of God, children of God by his own work. He made them the children
of God by his redeeming blood. They're chosen in him. They're
given all things in him. And that's why we're so connected
in this structure called the dwelling place of God, the temple
of God. Will God, Solomon said, will
God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Yes, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the man who is God, and we're built on him, and we're
built a spiritual house. Not a house you can see, but
a spiritual house. No one can do anything spiritual
but God. God built this house, and we're
a holy priesthood. How are we holy? Because God
set us apart. It's like a man has all of these
vessels in his house for different things, and he says, I want this
vessel to hold a treasure, and he puts his treasure in that
vessel. This one, I want to hold my garbage. He puts his garbage
in that other one. We've been set apart as a precious
vessel of God to hold the treasure of the gospel. And this grace
is given to us to know and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the
life of God in us. That's the treasure. And so we're
built up a holy priesthood. Because God's designated us to
be his and set us apart, that makes us holy. He did it. We didn't do this. The man who
has all these pots in his house and says this one's for garbage
and this one's for the treasure, he's the one who made it, has
set it apart. God is the one who sanctifies
us. I am the Lord that sanctified thee, he says in Exodus chapter,
I can't remember. But in any case, we're made holy
because we have been identified with and connected to the Lord
Jesus Christ. It says in Hebrews chapter two,
he that makes holy and they who are made holy are all of one. Jesus Christ is the one who makes
us. He sanctifies us. He makes us holy. And so we're
a holy priesthood. What is a priest? What does a
priest do? Well, a priest is someone God
hears. A priest is someone that God hears. A priest is someone
who can enter into the presence of God. How? By an offering and
a sacrifice. How do we come to God? By the
offering God has provided. By the offering He required.
By the offering He gave His Son. Christ offered himself as the
offering, the Lamb of God offered himself to God, and we come to
God by him. We didn't offer Christ, but we
come in faith looking to Christ as the one we needed, the one
God appointed and provided, the one with whom God was pleased,
and we come by that offering. The priests in the Old Testament
couldn't come by any old offering they wanted to. God appointed
it. God said, this is what you bring,
and do it in this way, precisely like this. And because God said
to do that, that made it acceptable to God. But the Lord Jesus Christ
is the only offering with which God is pleased, and we can only
come by him. So, God, we're made holy because
we're connected to Christ, made holy by God's setting us apart,
by Christ redeeming blood, and we come to God by the offering
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessing that is, a holy
priesthood. We have business with God, and
that we come to God by the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody else does,
but God's people. Nobody else can come except by
Him, by Christ. And so we come, and God hears
us. He hears us for Christ's sake.
That means He attends to us as those He is interested in because
of the way we come to Him, by the offering of Christ. He made
us holy. He appointed us to be priests.
He made us priests. If you read in Revelation chapter
1 and verse 5, you'll see who did this. Notice in Revelation
chapter 1 and verse 5, he says, unto Him, Christ, that loved
us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made
us kings and priests to God and His Father, to Him be glory and
dominion forever and ever." Amen. That's what he says. Christ did
this. He made us kings and priests to God. We're a royal priesthood,
the children of God, heirs of God. chosen by God and made,
and were made all these things in order to do what? He says
in verse 5, in order to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. Now, whatever you do as a believer,
whatever you do in faith, this is mind-boggling, incomprehensible
grace. God, by Jesus Christ, makes that
acceptable to Him. Sometimes you wonder, what have
I ever done that's according to God's will? What have I ever
done? Well, this is the will of God, that all that seeth the
sun and believeth on him might have everlasting life. Was that
something that you conjured up? Did you produce that faith in
yourself? No, God did it. He worked it
in you, and He worked it in you because it was His good pleasure.
And that work of God in us to believe on Christ, he says that's
a spiritual activity. And he takes delight in it and
is made acceptable to him by Jesus Christ. Our faith isn't
perfect. It will never be perfect. And we in ourselves will never
be perfect. But God has made us perfect in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're perfect in him. We're perfected
by his sacrifice, sanctified, made holy by his one offering.
and we're brought into God's presence through him. God receives
us by him. He goes on in verse six. He says, 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. He that believeth on him. What
does it mean to believe on him? What does it mean to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, to believe on Him, I must
be built up on Him. God has to give me this faith.
God does the building. But those who are living stones,
which were chosen by God in Christ and put into this building by
God the Father, are joined to Him. And this life that comes
from Him brings with it this grace to believe on Him. When he calls us through the
preaching of the gospel, he also brings what's necessary for us
to believe on him, that life. But to believe on him means to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in John 14, you believe
in God, believe also in me. In other words, equally. The
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is equal with the Father.
He speaks of it in Acts 20, verse 21. He says, testifying both
to the Jews and the Greeks, our repentance toward God and faith
towards our Lord Jesus Christ. We're commanded by God in scripture
to believe on his son. And what does that mean, to believe
on him? Well, it means that we find and
depend upon Him for all of the forgiveness of our sins, for
washing us clean from our sins before God, for presenting us
into the very presence of God, accepted in God's holy presence. That's what it means. We're depending
on Christ to answer God for everything that God requires from us. Isn't
that what we're depending on Him for? Everything? If Christ
is all, then we believe on him when we depend on him for all.
And if we can only come to the Father by him, then we believe
on him by coming to God, considering him alone in our coming. I mean, religion is all about
what you need to do. The gospel is all about what
Christ did. Religion is all about our experiences. Have you experienced
this? Have you experienced that? But
the gospel is all about Christ's experience and the experience
of faith trusting him. As Rommel said earlier, that
God's peace passes all understanding because those who trust him have
this peace. We trust him, we depend on him,
we come to him. Believing him means we see all
of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are absolutely
helpless like dead people. and have no life, like newborn
infants who need milk. We're like sinners, ruined by
our sin, lame on our feet, blind in our eyes, deaf in our ears,
mute in our tongue. We can't think, we have no understanding. We need God to do everything
for us, especially to know Him and trust His Son. And so we
look away, not to ourselves. We don't look to ourselves for
that experience or that attitude change. We look to Christ for
everything. And we come to Him for all in
our salvation. He saves us without any help
from us. Do you believe that? That God
can save you without any help from you? He has to because there's
no help to find in you. It's all of his grace in spite
of our sin. All that he is, all that he did,
is all that saves us and all that God required. So we come
to God to provide what he required. You think about the austere, occasion of standing before God
in judgment, and what do you think? How am I possibly going
to stand before God in judgment? What are you going to do then?
You're going to flee to the rock, the refuge Christ, and ask Him
to stand for you, aren't you? If you're the Lord's people,
that's what faith is. You believe on Him. He says, Let's see, where was I reading
here? In verse 6. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. You won't be put to shame. You
won't be thrown into confusion. When we sin against God, what
does it do? Our minds are confused. We're
so distressed that we would be so vile and yet claim to be God's
people. And we have no bearing. We're
like a ship at sea and tossed about. We're put to confusion
by our sin. And the Lord comes along in his
grace and he directs us to the rock, Christ Jesus. Look away. Your anchor holds within the
veil, in heaven itself, in Christ. And so you look and you find
everything God requires, and all that you need is a ruined
sinner in Him. You're not confounded. But to
those who don't believe, they're going to be confounded, because
they don't have the rock. They're not built on Him. Verse
7, unto you therefore which believe, He is precious. Everything in
God's word is written about Him, isn't it? Everything God requires
is in Him. All that I need is found in Him
alone. God directs me to Him. Look to
Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. Call on Him. And He speaks to
us of all that He's done for us. So many things. He says, I will come to you. And He calls to us, come to me.
I will look for you. I will find you. I will carry
you. I will bring you. And we're dependent upon Him
to do that. Lord, save me. Save us. Come and save us. Aren't
we? And to you, therefore, which
believe, he is precious. He's everything. That's so precious. But to them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallow, the same is made the
head of the corner. Now to you believers, he's writing
to here, I know your trouble. I know you're experiencing persecution
and trials of every kind. It's so much that it's shaking
even your faith and confidence. But don't be surprised. The world
has rejected Christ. But God has chosen him. God has
set him up. He is precious to God. You have
believed in the one God alone has chosen. The one alone whom
God has chosen. The one alone whom God has set
up as the cornerstone of his people. Verse 9, but you are,
they were appointed to this by the way, those who are disobedient,
who ultimately live their lives and die in unbelief, they were
appointed to that by God. Does anything surprise God? No. God has determined everything. Judas was a son of perdition
and he was appointed to his deeds. God brought good out of his wickedness
and God will bring his victory out of the wickedness of everyone.
He will exalt his son. in opposition to every enemy,
and he will be seen to be even more glorious, because no one
could stop God from honoring His Son and saving His people.
Our sins will be subdued. Satan has been defeated, and
he will be cast into the lake of fire. This world will be shown
that Christ is King and Lord, and they will bow to Him. Everything
is designed to honor the Son. and it will be done. So he says,
but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, kings and
priests, a holy nation. Not talking about a geographical
area on earth or a people born to a certain man. We're talking
about those who were chosen of God, given to Christ, redeemed
by his blood, called with his name upon them, born of his spirit,
They're a peculiar people. And what does that word mean
there, peculiar? When you say, when you read the word peculiar,
what do you think? Well, somebody with green hair and big eyes
and I don't know, some weirdo, right? They say beauty is in
the eyes of the beholder. God sees his people as valuable. Peculiar means a possession. purchased of high value uniquely
his. Look at Ephesians chapter 1 and
verse 14. I want to point this out to you because this is such
a gracious thing that God would so condescendingly set his heart
and mind and work and everything and bring glory to himself in
these people. Ephesians chapter 1 and Verse
13, in whom you also trusted. After that you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
God put his seal upon you, and that seal is his own spirit.
Verse 14, which is the earnest of our inheritance, just the
beginning. until the redemption of the purchased
possession. You see that word there, possession?
Same word as peculiar. We're God's inheritance. I guess
it's a myth or some kind of a story that they talk about this man
named Midas. He was a king and everything he touched turned
to gold. And so he's always got his mind wrapped up and his affections
toward his gold. Have you ever done anything with
gold that's useful? There's a few things you can do with it, but
really at the end of the day, it's just a mineral or an element,
I guess. God has a people. God has everything. I mean, everything is created
by him. But out of all of creation, he made everything to have this
one thing. What is that? A peculiar, a purchased
people, a people treasured by God, so valuable to God that
he purchased them with his own blood. Acts 20, verse 28. Feed the church of God, which
he hath purchased with his own blood. That's a possession. That's God's lot. That's his
people. Think about that. That's what
you are, believer, in the Lord Jesus Christ. God put His name
on you. In Revelation, he says, in chapter
24, verse 4, he says, He put His name in their foreheads.
It doesn't mean that He's going to write like a pen on our forehead. It means that He's going to put
the knowledge of himself and his relation to us by Jesus Christ
into our minds and our hearts so that we know him. That's in
Revelation 22, 4. They shall see his face, and
he shall put his name in their foreheads. They're the people
of God. See this in verse 10? Which in
time past were not a people, but now are the people of God. God said, I will be a God to
them, and they shall be my people, which had not obtained mercy. You were just like everyone else. You were living everything in
your life for your own self. Suddenly you saw you stood before
God naked and undone and under his wrath and God showed you
his gospel. He made you weak. He pointed
you to Christ. He gave you faith in him. Now
he's precious to you. You had not obtained mercy, but
now have obtained mercy. You are dearly beloved. That's what he says in the next
verse. You're the people of God. That's what he's talking about,
all that we are to God by his choice, by his work, by Jesus
Christ. And these things are the greatest
treasure, built up a spiritual house, made a priesthood. Don't
think about the people of Israel and the priesthood there. God
has revealed now the truth of his eternal will to make his
people his own dwelling place. Christ their foundation, Christ
their cornerstone, Christ the one who made them holy, Christ
who made them kings, who made them priests, who brought them
to God, Christ who gave them faith in himself, who is their
life, their whole life, the way to the Father, the truth about
how God is both just and the justifier of his people. What
a blessing. You are, he says, you are the
newborn babes. Desire this milk of the word,
this sincere milk of the word. If you've tasted that the Lord
is gracious, then behave as his children. Look to him for all
grace and live your life offering up the sacrifices of praise to
God continually. The fruit of our lips giving
thanks to his name. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for your great mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ to us. You
have shown us something of our sin. We have been given this
drawing compelling grace to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ and
we found our all in Him. We pray that His answer to you
for His people against all of their accusers would be our answer
to God when He offered Himself. That would be all that God requires
from us. And because of Your will to receive
Your people for His sake, we pray, Lord, You would receive
us for His sake and as Him, and You would give us all grace and
blessings in Him. We desire to know Him and love
Him and to trust Him, and we pray we would find our all in
Him and so live our lives with thankfulness and praise in our
heart, and help us, Lord, to be as the light in this world
to show that Christ is all. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.