What a blessing it is to be here
together with God's people. I couldn't think of any better
place to be than with people who love the Lord and love to
share, love to hear the Word of God. And I need your prayers
tonight. The subject I'm going to speak
on is a long, broad subject about the Lord, and you can never say
too much about Him, can you? As a matter of fact, one service
wouldn't do it. That's why we keep coming, isn't
it? To hear of the grace of our God. Turn with me in your Bibles
to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. While you're turning there, let
me just explain a little bit of the Greek language that the New
Testament was written in. Sometimes they would take a word
like the one word that we're going to study tonight, and it
may be translated several different ways into the English language,
but sometimes they would put two of that one word and another
word together, or that word and a preposition together, and sometimes
it would change the meaning altogether, and then sometimes it would intensify
the meaning. And that's what we have in this
passage with the word, as you'll see as we go through there, with
the word precious. The word precious is a word that
has been intensified. Now it's intensified by our Lord
Jesus Christ because He is precious. Precious in all that He is and
all that He does. But it's also intensified to
us for us to realize there is none his equal. There is none
his equal. Let's look at it here, 1 Peter
chapter 2, beginning with verse 1. We'll read down through verse
10. Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies,
and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. If so be you have
tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, and we keep on
coming, and keep on coming. He's the only one we can go to.
He's the one that has the words of life. 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. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a cheap cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded. unto you therefore which believe
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,
even to them that stumble at the word, being disobedient. whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people,
but, praise the Lord, are now the people of God. which had
not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. The Lord is precious. The word
precious can be translated, has been translated into the English
from the Greek in three or four different ways. One is precious,
one is honor. For instance, thou art worthy,
O Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power. For thou hast created
all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. The
word honor there is the exact same word as we have the word
precious here in chapter two, and actually some other verses
we'll see as well. The word precious can be translated
the word price. It's done once in the New Testament. For ye are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and your spirit, which are God's, your butt with the price,
the sum total. As a matter of fact, Stephen,
when he was preaching to the multitude that was about to kill
him, Stephen talked about Abraham when he went down and he bought
the cave of Machpelah for a sum, S-U-M, that's the same word,
the sum total. And so when we talk about our
Lord Jesus Christ, when we talk about him being precious, he's
the price, he is to be honored, he is honored, will be honored,
and he's the sum total of the gospel message, isn't he? That's
who we're talking about. That's who we're talking about.
He's one of a kind. There's none that is like him. There's none his equal. He's
one of a kind. Let me show that to you. Hold
your place there and go back with me to Isaiah chapter 46.
Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah chapter 46, beginning
in verse 5. Our Lord says, To whom will ye
liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be
like? They lavish gold out of a bag,
and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith, and he
maketh it a god. They fall down, yea, they worship. They bear him upon their shoulder,
they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth, and
from his place shall he not remove. Yea, one shall cry unto him,
yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. Remember
this, and show yourselves men. Bring it again to mind, O ye
transgressors, remember the former things of old. For I am God,
and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like
me, declaring thee, in from the beginning, and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous bird from
the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. There's no comparison. No comparison,
there's none like him. And here in verse four of 1 Peter
2, he says, to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed
indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. According to
the Father, he's precious. He's precious. He said, this
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He said, this is
my beloved Son. Hear Him. He's precious to God
the Father. He's that living stone that we
read about here. He's the cheap cornerstone. He
is chosen and elect of God. He's the head of the corner.
And for those that disallowed Him, He's the stone of stumbling
and the rock of offense. Our Father gave His only begotten
Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life. Who but the Son, who but this
One who is so precious, who but this One who has no equal could
complete the covenant of grace. He's so precious to the Father. In the covenant of grace, he
must become a man. He did it. Virgin born. God, man, God became flesh and
dwelt among us. In the covenant of grace, he
must live a perfect, sinless life. He did it. He's precious. He did it. He lived a perfect,
sinless life, and that was for you, for the Father, and for
us. that he lived that perfect sinless
life. He must give his life a ransom
for many. And he did it. He did it. He
must shed his blood for the remission of sin. And he did it. He must be made sin and bear
the wrath of God for all the sins of all his people. And he did it. That's how precious
he is. He's one of a kind. There's no
one like him. He must be resurrected on account
of our justification. And He did it. He did it. He
said, I lay down my life. I take it up again. He did it. He's so precious. He must ascend
back to His Father and to His glory. And He did it. He did
all this and more, and He did it out of a heart of love, an
eternal love. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. I've loved you to the end. He
did it willingly. When they covenanted together
sometime in eternity, He said, Father, I'll do it. Lo, I come
to do thy will, O God. I'll do it. And while he was
here, he said, I do always the will of my father. Father, I'll
do it. He willingly did it. Powerfully,
he did the job. He completed the covenant of
grace that God had put together, which is the gospel for you and
me. The good news. It's done. It's
done. It's all done. There's not one
thing we have to do. There he is, precious. None is
equal. Can you trust him, the one who
has no equal, the one who is God and beside him there is no
other? Can you trust him? He was the
only one able. Angels couldn't do it. I could
never have even hoped to come close to doing it, but he did
it. He accomplished salvation. for you and me. Wherefore God
hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every
name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in earth,
in heaven, and everyone should confess that he is Lord to the
glory of the Father. As a matter of fact, he did it,
and God, this, his son, so precious to him, when he came back to
glory, God gave him a seat of honor. Precious at my right hand,
God said. And there he sits, doing all
that he said he would do for you and me. He's unequal. According to the Father, he is
precious. According to the believer, he
is precious. Look down in verse 7. unto you
therefore which believe he is precious, he's one of a kind,
no one like him, no one like our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
to whom coming, he says, as unto a living stone, coming to him,
to whom shall we go? He has the words of life. The
most precious thing of all, nothing equal, close even, to Him. There's no comparison. Our Lord
Jesus Christ. Then He made us living stones
as well. Verse five, ye also as lively
or living stones. He made us living stones just
like him. He gave us faith to trust in
him. And that faith is the faith of
Jesus Christ himself. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live. Yet not I, but the life which
I now live. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and died for me. and gave Himself for
me. The faith of the Son of God.
He gave us the faith to trust in Him. He says in verses 9 and
10, you are a chosen generation. He chose you. Just like He was
chosen and elect, He chose you. How precious. One of the greatest
thoughts that God ever impressed upon our minds was, You're mine. I will be your God. You shall
be my people. I've chosen you. I've chosen
you. We were yet in our sin when all
this was done. I've chosen you. You're a royal
priesthood. That's kings and priests unto
our God, John said. You're a royal priesthood. You
are a holy nation. You are a peculiar people. Now that doesn't mean you're
weird, though some of us may be. A peculiar people means that
He made you different. He made you different. Who maketh thee to differ? Only
God can. And He did something for you
and me, that's His chosen, that He did for no one else. and all
this to show forth the praises of our Lord Jesus Christ. who hath called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light." Have you heard His call? Oh, how precious. When you hear His voice, the
preachers up there preaching, He's saying words. The Holy Spirit
takes those words, the Word of God, and brings them to your
heart, gives you faith, regenerates, gives you faith to believe, and
you hear the voice of God. Oh, how precious. Unequaled. Nothing like it. You're called
out of darkness into His marvelous light, which in time past were
not a people, but now the people of God. You're one of His. You're of the people of God.
And which had not obtained mercy, but now you've obtained it. God
said, I will be merciful to you. He delights in mercy. How precious
our God is. How precious. One of a kind. Nothing like Him. that he would
show me mercy. I needed mercy. I begged for
mercy. I didn't know whether I would
ever have mercy. But when that marvelous light
was turned on, I found out I've obtained mercy. I have the very
mercy of God upon me. You see, this One who is precious,
this One that believers see and know to be precious and has no
equal, He is the precious One that accomplished our salvation. We didn't have to do a thing.
Just trust what He did. And that trust comes from Him.
For by grace are you saved through faith. That's not of yourselves.
It's a gift of God. Not of works lest any man should
boast. and we trusted Him. He gave us
that ability, and we trusted Him, and no one else could do
this. He said, call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sin. It's a fact. It's a fact. He shall save His
people from their sin. All His purposes, all His counsels,
all His decrees, He did! There are things that I have
purposed to do. Sometimes I don't get them done, and most of the
time I get them done wrong when I do them. But when He purposed
something, it was done, it was done correctly, it was done perfectly. He is God, as we read in Isaiah
46. He is God and there is, beside
Him there is no other. You see what He did? Our Lord
Jesus, this is why He's precious to me. Our Lord Jesus substituted
Himself for me. He took my place. The death for
sin I deserved, the wrath of God that I deserved, He took
my place on the cross. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He mediated
for me. He spoke to God on my behalf.
He did what he did to father. He pleased the father. He satisfied
the father on my behalf. I deserve to die. I deserve the
wrath of God. But he took my place. He substituted
himself for me. He perfectly kept the law and
in him so did I. He's the Lamb of God without
blemish. The Lamb of God that takes away
the sin of the world. The only perfect offering. No one else could have done this.
Only the God man. He had to have kinship with us
and he had to have the power of God. Only he could have done
this. He stands before the Father on
our behalf, and I stand in Him complete. Perfect before Him. And He intercedes at the right
hand of God. He's interceding for His people. How precious. One of a kind. Nothing like Him. He's sitting
there interceding for His people. The devil would love to be there
to accuse us, and if he told the truth, he'd have a lot to
tell. But the Lord Jesus says, for that sin, I died. Here's the proof. I shed my blood for that person. And because of that, I made him
perfect, complete. I made him fit for heaven. Oh, not because of what he's
doing or has done or will do, but because of who I am. Wherefore,
he is able to save to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for us. He's precious to me because
he substituted himself, took my place before the Father. He's
precious to me because he satisfied the very justice of God. I'm glad that the writer said
he's both a just God and a Savior. Justice demands the death of
the sinner, and the wrath of God has been revealed. And he
was made a curse for us, for cursed is every man that hangeth
on the tree. He was made to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. He satisfied the justice of God. Another thing that I think of,
and this is gospel, this is good news. Not only did He substitute
Himself for me, and He satisfied the justice of God for me, but
He actually redeemed His people. It's not a hope-so thing. Well,
I hope He redeemed. I hope if I live well enough
that one day He'll take me on to Heaven. No, He actually redeemed
His people. It's a done thing. He actually
did it. He's their atonement. He's their
mercy seat. And through the blood of the
everlasting covenant, He has redeemed us. The writer of Hebrews
said, now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect. For by one
offering hath he perfected forever them that are sanctified. What
a cost. He had to become a man. What
a cost. He had to be my offering for
sin. What does that say about me?
God in His love died for the ungodly, died for the sinner,
died for those that were weak, could not help themselves. Not
only that, but He alone can forgive sin. He alone, without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission. He's precious, one of a kind,
nothing like Him. He forgives sins. They sit there
one day and The Lord Jesus said to a woman, thy sins be forgiven
thee. And all those religious leaders
said, who could forgive sins but God? Folks, he was sitting
right there with them, in flesh, God in flesh. But he said, so
that you will understand, woman, thine infirmity is healed. And
she was healed that very hour. He alone can forgive sins. He
alone is so precious that He justified, sanctified, and glorified
His people. There's no greater love. Jesus
said it this way, there's no greater love than a man lay down
his life for his friends. Ye are my friends. No greater
love. It was free grace. For by grace
are you saved through faith. It was free grace that He brought
to us. It was mercy that He brought
to us. And all that the Father giveth
me, He said, shall come to me. Not like any other person. Not
like any other man. He's the God-man. He's precious. He's precious. and made us those
living stones. Now, there's something else I
want you to note with me. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1. He's precious. No equal. Nothing like him. He's
the sum total of who God is. As a matter of fact, if you want
to see who God is, no man has seen God at any time. But if
you want to see Him, you look at Jesus. You look at Jesus Christ. He said, I have declared Him. Philip, you've been so long time
with me and not seen the Father? If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. Here in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse
1, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to
them that have obtained like precious faith." Obtained like
precious faith. Like precious faith. To the believer, every believer
is precious. Isn't that right? To the believer,
every believer is precious. Why are they precious? Because
they have a like precious faith. And that faith is, and there's
nothing like it, nothing like it. The faith that He gave us,
once He showed us the truth, we can't help but believe and
keep on believing, can we? That faith is the whole counsel
of God. That's why the Father said, I'm
pleased with my son, hear him. Listen to him. He has the words
of life. We're precious to each other
in so many different ways. But let me just say it this way,
not because of who we are. I will fail you. Don't put your
hope and trust in anything I'm going to do. I'll fail you. That
faith. We're precious to each other,
not because of who we are, but because of who we believe. We
believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That's precious.
That's precious. Only God can do this. That's
the gospel. Only God can do this. Not because
of who we are, but because who we believe and because what the
Lord has made of us. His people. That's who you are. His people. We are of them that
believe to the saving of the soul. One more thing I want to
note with you. In 2 Peter, again, chapter 1,
verse 3. Verses 3 and 4. 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, whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious Why are they so precious? Because He made them.
And remember, when He says something, He does it. It's not a frivolous
promise that He made. It's a promise that will come
true. It will happen. Nothing in this
world is equal to His promises. He said, I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. That word never, in the English
language, if you use two negatives together, that's bad grammar.
In the Greek language, you can use two, three, how many ever
you want. And in this case, there are five
negatives. I will never, never, never, never,
never leave you. Now that's pretty good emphasis,
isn't it? That's a wonderful promise, isn't it? that he has
made. Only one could do that. He's
one of a kind. I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee. In that one he uses three negatives. I will never, never, never leave
thee, nor forsake thee. Pretty ironclad, isn't it? He
says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. That's a wonderful promise, isn't
it? A wonderful promise. It comes from the One who is
precious, the One who made these exceeding great and precious
promises. It's the One who has no equal. And these promises, and I've
just mentioned just a couple, three of them, these promises
are in God's Word just for us, for His people. I'd like to close
tonight with Isaiah 43, if you'll turn there with me, please. Isaiah 43. Look at these promises that are
here. Isaiah 43 beginning with verse 1. Isaiah 43 and verse
1. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name.
Thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, Thy Savior, I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Sheba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not,
for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather them from the west. I will say to the north,
give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from
far and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even every
one that is called by my name. For I have created him for my
glory. I have formed him. Yea, I have
made him. Father, we thank you.