Alright, look with me back here
at 1 Peter chapter 2. Spiritual house offers spiritual
sacrifices. That's what we are. We're a spiritual
house, spiritual people, and we offer spiritual sacrifices.
As it says there in verse 5. But you know, Peter taught us
here that we are the elect of God. God's elect. been born again by the Spirit
of God, forgotten unto a living hope. He said there in verse
23 of chapter 1, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. And as people have been born
again, we have a new nature. God gives us new natures. A new
heart gives us always a new direction, and the Holy Spirit dwells in
us. And then with this drastic change, this dramatic, drastic
change that God works in us and accomplishes in us, He does it
through the Word of God. And what we just said, corruptible
by the Word of God. He said there in verse 25 of
verse 1, chapter 1, But the word of the Lord endureth forever,
and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
So this change that God makes, and this is new birth. that God
uses to enact this new birth. It's through a belief of the
truth, sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.
There's no way you know. God gives us knowledge. He don't
bypass our minds. He don't pass our wills. And
this change that God uses, He uses His Word. And we're born
again through this knowledge that He gives us through the
Lord Jesus Christ working in us and putting it in our hearts
and in our minds. But we're babes, that's what
he says there. In verse 2, as newborn babes,
we're babes. And as babes, we ask that people
have to grow and they have to mature. And God has appointed
means, just as He has appointed means to save us by His grace,
to regenerate us by the Spirit of God. He also has appointed
means for us to grow. He has means for us to grow.
And it's just we have babies and if a baby is not taken care
of and fed right and cared for, they won't grow. They won't grow. They found a little boy chained
to a bed here a while back up in Philadelphia. And he was about
10 or 11 years old and his body was about, oh it only weighed
like 40 pounds, 50 pounds, 55. His mother and daddy starved
him to death. And he never grew. Naturally, they took them off
to jail and took the baby someplace to take care of. But if that
baby had been treated, that child had been treated right, if it
had been 11 years old, he would have been a healthy, fine young
man. And that's the way it is in this
new birth. We got to grow. And if something
don't grow, there's something wrong with it. If you've got
this new birth and the Spirit of God dwells in us, we grow.
But the means that God uses for us to grow is the Word. We've
got to have the Word. Oh, we can't grow without the
Word. God's appointed the Word. And that's why, beloved, He gave
us His Word. Forever, O Lord, thy Word is
settled in heaven. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but the Word of the Lord will abide forever. It abides forever. And so you know He gives us His
Word, He gives us prayer. He has enabled us to pray, call
on Him, seek Him, open the door for us to come into His holy
presence. And then He gives us to worship. He lets us meet together
here to worship. Meets us together here as a body
of believers to worship Him. And then we don't have to be
with a group of people in order to worship the Lord. There's
not a believer in this building that we may have been alone at
one time or another that God has touched their heart, touched
their mind, touched their spirit, and they've worshipped the Lord.
been lifted up. Their soul has been lifted up.
They've been taken and enjoying the presence of the Lord. It
may be for just a little while, but I tell you, there's nothing
like when your mind and heart is taken up by the Lord and you
just automatically, you know, the worship of God's real then.
So real when we're alone by ourselves. But then it also gives us fellowship. To be able to be with one another,
talk with one another, enjoy one another. And He gives us
trials. These are means that want us to grow in grace. He
gives us trials. Trials, oh, they mature us about
as quick as anything. The word trials mature us about
as quick as anything. And I'll tell you something,
you may not agree with this, but I think you can also use this
personal determination. When we say, by God's grace,
I'm going to, you know, we commit to certain things. And we, God
gives us the grace to commit, determine some things we're going
to change about ourselves or about the church or what we're
going to do for other people. And then, oh beloved, in no effort,
look over here in 2 Peter 1, verse 5. This is what he's talking
about, over in 2 Peter 1, verse 5. So we're babes, you know, and
this God which worketh in you. Now, you know, it says God which
worketh in you both to will. He works in you the will. And
to do. The will's there. He gives us
the will, but there's a to do that He gives us when He works
in us. He don't just worketh in us and
then leave us alone, but He works in us to will and then to do. He worked in us to will to be
here tonight, but we're here. He works in us to wield open
scriptures, but you know, open them and not read them, they
go missing. He works in us to pray, but yet
we do pray. So you see, He works in us to
do. And look what He said here in 2 Peter 1, verse 5. And besides this, giving all
diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
and Denali's temperance, the temperance patience, patience
godliness, and the godliness brotherly kindness, and the brotherly
kindness charity. Now listen to this, for if these
things be in you and about, now boy ain't that, wouldn't we all
love that, wouldn't we be interested in those things? I want to have
some virtue. I want to tell people to see
that I have some purity about myself. And knowledge, oh, to
know more about God, to know more about Christ, to know more
about the scripture, to know more about myself, to have a
greater understanding of human nature. And to temperance, a
moderation of temperance and evenness. And oh, listen, patience,
calmness, Brotherly kindness, all these things. Oh, those are
the things that he's talking about for us to do. And oh, that's
why he says, now look back over here, in 1 Peter 2. And so Peter, since we've been
born again, since we have this new nature, since we're God's
elect, and he's used these means, he says here, wherefore, since
you have this gospel preached to you, since you're born again,
Since you have this new nature, wherefore? He's talking about be done with
some things. Wherefore? Lay aside. Laying aside. All men should not lay aside.
Laying aside. All malice and guile and hypocrisy
and envies and all evil speakings. And oh, what he's saying is things
that's not right about us, disagreeable with our spiritual nature, disagreeable
with our spiritual life. And he says, lay aside. Laying
aside. Now I'm going to tell you something,
this business of laying aside. You don't just do it once. Once
you start laying aside, you're constantly laying aside. It's
a lifetime experience. It's a lifetime of laying things
aside. It's a lifetime. Say, I'm going
to lay that aside. And when we lay something aside,
say, I'm going to lay my jacket over here. That's what Peter's
saying here. He said, lay aside some things.
And I wish I were to say, well I'm going to put that off, I'm
going to lay that aside, and I ain't going to pick it up again.
I wish it was that simple. But he says we're for laying
aside. He says lay aside malice. You
know what malice is? Malice is maliciousness is awful. Malice is a horrible thing. It's
an awful having an ill, ill, ill, ill will. Ill feelings towards
others and acting on that. Acting on that. And I tell you
malice is born out of self-love. When somebody does something
to you, it's an act of vengeance. It's an act of wanting to get
even. It's an act of I want to let them feel as bad as I do. And I was born of self-love. And I tell you then he says,
lay aside guile, lay aside deceit. And you know what this word means?
This word means it's used for all dishonest ways, manipulative
ways of gaining our goals. Well, this is what I want to
accomplish, so I use guile, I use deceit, and I'll get this way,
and I'll get my way in this, and I'll get my way in that.
And God make us men and women, men and women who speak the truth
and are honest in all of our ways with all men and deal honestly
with them and tell the truth. And then he says lay aside all
hypocrisies. Not just being a hypocrite, hypocrisies. That means evidently we got a
lot of them. And you know I heard a preacher
say here a while back, He said, being a hypocrite, that's what
they used in the Greek theme, a hypocrite was a play act. He
took on a role. And they would say when he took
on this role, said, boy, he's one of the best hypocrites there
was, that he can really act. And that's what it was about,
acting. Putting on a face, putting on an act. And hypocrisy is putting
on an act. And he says, let's hide all your
hypocrisy, let's hide all your acts, let's hide all your phoniness,
let's hide all the things that you say with your mouth that's
not in your heart to do. And oh, and it's the opposite
of sincerity. It's pretending to be what we
are, speaking with our mouth things that's not right, not
true, that's not in our heart. Look what our Lord said about
it over in Matthew 15 about some fellows like this. Matthew 15. Oh, look down here at verse 7. Oh my. I guess hypocrisy is, and it's
hypocrisy, not hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. Oh my, how many do we have? God
only knows. But look what he said here. This
is exactly what I'm saying. Our Lord says, ye hypocrites,
Matthew 15, 7, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, this
people drives nigh unto me with their mouth. Oh, they're getting
close to me. They say, oh Lord, we're here,
we're calling on you, we're looking to you. And honors me with their
lips. Talk about me all the time. But
listen, it's not in their heart. Their heart's as far away from
me. It's in their lips. I'm in their prayers. But I'm
not in their hearts. And that's what he's talking
about. This people draws nigh unto me
with their mouth on it, but their heart's far from me. And that's
what he says, don't speak from our mouths what's not in our
hearts. That's what he's saying. And then he says, laying aside,
laying aside, laying aside, Malice, guile, hypocrisy, and envies. Envy, you know, is another thing. You know, and these things grieve
us as believers. When these things come and crop
up in our lives, and crop up in our mind, and crop up. Envy is a natural effect of malice
and reveals the absence of love, and the absence of And what it
is, is when you see somebody have success, when you see somebody
that you know prosper, and you see somebody enjoying life and
happy and have things going well for them, and you begin to envy
them a little. You feel uneasy about it. Instead
of rejoicing in them and be glad for them, you feel uneasy about
it. You say, why can't I have that? Why don't I have that? Why do
they get that and I don't? And that's to lay that aside.
Lay that aside. And look what else he says. In
all evil speakings. Now when we think about evil
speaking, we think about people cussing, telling dirty jokes,
blaspheming, using dirty words. But you know what the most worst
evil speaking a person has is two ways to really speak evil.
First we speak evil of God. That's real evil speaking. But
to speak evil, is for us to gossip, for us to slander somebody, for
us to criticize others. Now that's evil speaking. If
I was to take and start slandering you all and saying something
about you that wasn't true, and gossiping about you, and telling
people things. You know, I was reading a scripture
that said a whisper separated chief friends. Here's these wonderful
friends, they've been friends for years, and somebody comes
along and starts whispering, do you know what so and so said?
You know, I think so and so don't feel this way about you. I think
so and so is just not this way. And next thing you know, these
two friends start going apart. And they say, well, what happened?
Don't know. A whisperer done that. I believe
that I want to get close to this, and so if I want to get close
to him, I've got to get this person out of the way. And oh,
that's evil speaking. And a man can do more damage,
more damage with his tongue than he can any other way to another
person. Is that not right? And then look
what he says now, in verse 2, as newborn babes. Now he takes
it for granted here that we're born again. He takes it for granted
that we've got new natures. And that we're children in the
family of God. That we're children of God. And
just like a baby, just like a baby desires its mother's breast.
And it's this amazing thing to me. You know, when babies are
born, any kind of new baby, it's amazing how they go naturally
for them to go for the breast. No matter what it is, it's just
natural for them to. and how they can learn to move
the mouth that just automatically starts to act. That's how God
does it. That's an act of God. God's working
in it. But they want the mother's milk.
And that's what he said, as newborn baby, you desire. Now what do
we desire? The sincere milk of the word. Oh, just like a baby desires
his mother's breast, we should have the same hunger and thirst
for the Word of God. Oh, for God's blessed Word. Oh,
I want that Word, need that Word, gotta have that Word. that we
may grow in grace, you know, it's like when that baby eats
and he starts out on milk and a little while they start giving
him baby food and a little while he gets a little bit of baby
food and the next thing you know they're eating taters, smash
the taters off the table and smash up a green bean, stick
it out in their mouth and the next thing you know you got somebody
big as Bentley and a big as some of Marlene's grandbabies, you
know, big old. But that's what happens. You
don't stay on milk, but that's just where we started. And oh,
and it's the Word of God that makes us grow in grace. It's
the Word of God that causes us to grow in love. And that's what
we want to grow in. In knowledge, in patience, in
humility. Grow in faith. And when it says,
seek the sincere milk of the Word, that means take the pure,
unmixed Word of God. And that's our real food. I want
you to look something over here in Revelation 22 with me just
a minute. Oh, Larry Matthews mentions this all the time. About
adding to and taking from the Word of God. You know, this is
our real food. The Word of God. Pure Word of
God. Unmixed Word of God. And I've
told you all this before. When I got around these men who
preached the Gospel of the Grace of God. And I read the Scriptures
for almost four years. I didn't read nothing but the
Bible. Never owned another book. And I just read it day and night.
Read it day and night. And I got around these men. And what they do, they say, open
your Bibles. First thing they'd say. If you
will, turn your Bibles here with me. There's so many places they
don't even want you to bring your Bible. Catholics don't want
a Bible in their church because they don't need one. The priests
don't do everything for them. And you don't need a Bible if
you're going to be entertained. You don't need a Bible if some
clown's gonna get up and tell you jokes and tell you how helpless
God is. You don't need a Bible. But if
you're interested and you know God and you're interested in
salvation, then get up and say, if you would with me, open your
Bibles. And then they'll say, start with
their text and they'll stay with that subject. And then they'd
say, to enforce it, they'd say, turn here, or turn there. And
they'd use one scripture to enforce another scripture. And I was
so blessed by that and so encouraged by that. I said, these fellas,
they tell you what they're saying and show you what they're saying,
and you can follow what they're saying, and you can't dispute
what they're saying. And I love that. And I said,
Boy, I hope these fellas will let me hang around a while. And
they were gracious enough to let me. But look what it says
here in Revelations 22, 18. Talking about, Oh, listen, we
don't need traditions. We need the Word of God. And He said, For I testify unto
every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book,
The preaching of this book. If any man shall add unto these
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written
in this book. There are some awful plagues written in this
book. And if any man shall take away the words of the prophecy of this
book, now listen to this, God shall take away his part out
of the book of life. and out of the holy city and
listen to this, now you didn't notice this until this afternoon
and from the things which are written in this book the things
that God said I wrote he wrote about Christ, he said I'll take
Christ so that's how serious it is for us to take the sincere
word and he which testifies these things say surely I come quickly
Amen, even so come Lord Jesus And so that's how serious it
is. Don't add to it. Don't add to it. Don't add, you
know, it's just a... And so I tell you, God work in
our hearts. And then look what he said back
over here in our text, in verse 3. I love this right here. And oh, you know, it's dear newborn
babes, and when you taste something. That baby, when he tastes his
mama's milk, I mean, that's it. He gets hungry and he gonna worry
her to death. From the warrior to death until he gets fed. You know, all kids have done
this. When a young'un wants something,
until they learn to talk, they'll go to wherever they got it the
last time. And they'll stand there at this point. You know what they want. They
can go to the fridge and they want milk, a bottle, or they
go to the cabinet and they'll start opening the door and pointing
at what they want. And that's what he says, because
they've tasted. And he said, if you, if so be as babes, you
have tasted. Tasted what? That the Lord is gracious. If you ever taste the Lord, that's
the only way you're going to taste Him, ain't it? Taste to
see that the Lord is good. If you taste Him, it's going
to be grace that you taste Him. It's grace that enables us to
taste Him. It's grace that makes His word
tasteful to us. It's grace that makes His food,
His word so precious to us. Jeremiah said, it's like honey,
honey to my taste. And oh my, that's what he's talking
about here. And I tell you, we've tasted
and know, we know by our own experience, That God's been good,
gracious to us, and good to us in Christ. And if we've tasted
that the Lord is gracious, and tasted the goodness of God, tasted
the grace of God, enjoyed the grace of God given us in Christ,
and tasted it because we're babes in Christ, we'll lay aside, by
God's grace, seek to lay aside everything that's uncharacteristic
of His children. Feed on His Word. And the old
man said this, I don't know who said this, but he says, the ear
of the mouth, the ear is the mouth of the mind. Right here
is where you eat. Right here. The ear is the mouth
of the mind. And look what else it says now. To whom cometh? You've tasted
that, he's gracious. You've come unto the Lord, you
knew more than that. Whom cometh? To whom coming? Believing on Christ, living on
our Lord Jesus, not just something that happens in one time, but
it's a continuous, constant coming to the Lord. To whom coming?
Constantly coming. Constantly in faith. Constantly
in love. Constantly in grace. Constantly
we come to His blood. Constantly we come to Him. Continually. And we have come to Him, we've
come unto Him, and we'll always come to Him who's the author
and finisher of our faith. A fellow was at my house last
Friday, a preacher friend of mine, a man we've... But he was talking about how
hard it was for him to give up when God started revealing Christ
to him, and grace to him, and teaching him the gospel. He had
made a profession when he was nine years old in a Southern
Baptist Church. Grew up in a Southern Baptist
Church, grew up to win souls. He said, I can win a soul to
Christ in four minutes. Go by bus loads, go into town,
the whole bus load would get off, and we'd go win all these
souls. He said, well God in sovereign mercy began to cross my path
through the gospel. He said, I started hearing Brother
May and Brother Fortner and me and Jim James and some others.
He said, I started hearing these stuff. And he says, the last
thing to go, he said, for six months I was the miserable creature
that lived on this earth because I wasn't going to give up my
past life. I was not going to give that
up. He said, I hated to give up that profession back there
when I was nine. Because I determined to live
for Jesus up until God got a hold of him. But he said, I had to
let her go. He said, that's the last thing
to go. He said, and what it amounts to, and that's why he says, you
know, it's not an isolated thing, just coming to Christ. I can't
tell you exactly when I came to Christ. I've had lots of experiences,
but I know I've come I can't take you to a time and a place,
I can take you to times and places, lots of times where God made
Himself known to me. But oh, to say back on February
the 15th in 1978, I can't do that. But I can hear preachers preaching
and I say, I'm coming now. Hear them preach again in six
months, I'm coming Lord. Scott Richardson preached sometime
and he preached about the ark, get in the ark, and I'll tell
you what, I want to get up and go get in the ark that night. That's what we're talking about,
the homecoming. Once you ever come, you can not
keep coming, you just have to keep on coming. How many times
have we come to Christ today? Mary sat there in her chair and
she went to Christ. I couldn't tell you how many
times a day. She went to Christ. Oh Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus. No wonder them Simon Peter said,
Lord to whom shall we go? And oh, look what he goes on
to say here now. Oh, to whom coming? disallowed indeed of men, but
chosen of God and precious. He says, to whom cometh your
living stone. Christ is a living stone. He
was that rock that the water come out of. He is the living
stone from which we live. And oh beloved, and Peter is
not the rock upon which the church is built, but Christ is that
foundation stone. That stone that has life and
gives life, the buildings built upon Christ, this foundation,
this rock, and built on Him, our life comes from Him. Our
life comes from Him. And that's why Paul said there's
no other foundation can be laid than that which is laid, which
is Christ. And I tell you beloved, look what he says here, he was
disallowed indeed of men. They said, oh that stone, we
don't want that stone, that stone ain't got nothing to that. He
was rejected by the leaders and anybody that was anybody. They
said, oh, listen, he's a winebibber, he's a basil bud, he's a, he's
a, he's Republican since 10 years. Ain't nothing to him. Has any
good thing ever come out of Nazareth? Oh, if you be the Christ, save
yourself. And us too. And they disallowed
him. But look what it says. Chosen
of God. This is the one God chose. You
want to be on the rock? Christ chose this one to be on.
You want to be on the foundation? Christ is the one God chose.
He's chosen by the Father to be the head of the church, to
be the Savior of the body, and to be heir of everything, and
we in Him. And look what it says here, I
don't know. Look what it says now in verse 5. And oh ye also,
So he's a living stone and he also has living stones. Or built
up a spiritual house. A spiritual house. All believers
are stones found in the same quarry. Everybody's the same. God goes and gets a rock here
and gets you a rock there and puts it on that foundation. Puts
it on that foundation. Built up a spiritual house. Let
me show you that over here in Ephesians 2. I want you to see
this, just a minute. Ephesians 2 and verse 20, I think
it's verse 20. And oh, when he says a spiritual
house, you know, the tabernacle was an earthly house, an earthly
tabernacle. It was an earthly tabernacle.
It was made out of material. And it was a house where God
dwelt and where God's glory was and where sacrifices were offered.
Now, we're a spiritual house. And we offer spiritual sacrifices.
They offered blood sacrifices. They offered bulls and goats
and heifers and lambs and rams. And they offered material and
bloody sacrifices. We are a spiritual house and
we now offer spiritual sacrifices. And look what he said here in
verse 20. and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth up unto a holy temple in the Lord. Now listen to this,
a holy temple in which the Lord dwells in, in whom also you are
built together Now God dwells in that tabernacle. Now we're
building spiritual houses built together for habitation of God. He dwells in us through the Spirit.
And I want to show you something else over here. And I believe
it's, let's see, 1 Kings, I want to say 6. That's what I want to say. Let's
see if that's it. And it's building Solomon's house. No, that's not it. Let me see
if I got it wrote down here somewhere. I don't think I do. I should
have wrote it down, but I know, let me see if I can find it real
quick. But what it says is, Yeah, I saw him at Billings Temple. Well, I'll find it here to me.
But anyway, what his task was... Yeah, here we go. 1 Kings chapter 6 and verse 7. I thought I'd just take me a
minute. Now this Solomon's house, John
Bunyan has got an incredible work on it, spiritualized it. And the house when it was in
building was built of stone, made ready before it was brought
there. So that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of
arm heard in the house while it was building. And that's what
God did for us. There ain't no hammer, axe, nothing
done. He unified and brought us and
put us in the building. We were built and formed and
made to be put in Christ's house and nobody had nothing to do
with it. We were made ready. by somebody
else. Ain't that right? We're not going
to hear no hammer, no axe, no saw, no chisel, no nothing in
the work of the Lord in this place. Are we? Alright, let's
go back over there. It always says, therefore as
lively stones you build up a spiritual house. And whose house? Christ has a Son over His whole
house. Whose house? We are. We are. We're His house.
And oh, and it says, you know, we are offer up spiritual sacrifices. Oh, we're a holy priesthood.
Offer up spiritual sacrifices to God. And I tell you, the only
place that God will ever accept any sacrifice, spiritual sacrifice,
and that's all we can offer is a spiritual. Prayers, love, faith. And we are only acceptable through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Anything we do is only acceptable
through Christ. Our prayer is only acceptable
through Christ. Our faith, everything is only
acceptable through Christ. Love, praise, and all beloved. Then look what he says there
in verse 6. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion, talking
about this cornerstone. I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect precious. And I love this. And he that
believeth unto him shall not be ashamed, confounded. I want you to look in Isaiah
28. Here's the context of this in
Isaiah 28. And oh, this is what happens. This is the context in Isaiah
28 verse 14. Look what it says here. And you know what happens was,
there's some men trying to, they made them a refuge. And they
thought everything was alright. And God spoke to them here. In
Isaiah 28, 14. Wherefore, here ye were of the
Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. This is what you say. We've made
a covenant with death. Death is not going to bother
us. Death ain't going to come near to our house. The priest
told us he wasn't. The preacher told us he wasn't.
The rabbi told us he wasn't. And withheld we are in agreement.
When the overflowing scourge will pass through, it ain't going
to come to us. God ain't going to send nothing to overthrow
us. For we have made lies our refuge,
and under falsehoods have we hid ourselves. Now listen to
this. Therefore said the Lord God,
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone. God tried this stone. He tried
him by his justice. Tried him by his wrath. Tried
him by his holiness. Tried him by men. Tried him by
his word. Tried him in a lot of ways. And
he's a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. And that he
that believeth on him, and hath not made lies his refuge, he
shall not make taste, he shall not be confounded, he shall not
be brought to shame. And we come out of our refuge
of lies, and we own that foundation on Christ. And oh beloved, I'm
telling you, they're going to be destroyed, but we rest in
Christ and we'll never be brought to shame. Now let me hurry up,
I need to hurry. Look in verse 7. Unto you that for which believe
he is precious. Unto you who have seen your guilt,
unto you who have seen your inability, unto you who know you need a
Savior all the days of your life, those who have seen his grace,
those who have seen his power, and his ability to save us in
his blessed grace those who say oh he's my prophet that teach
me he's my priest that sits at the right hand of God and to
intercede for my king who rules over and meets for me he to them
that believe he's precious oh how precious Christ is and he's
precious in more ways than you and I either one of us can ever
tell I could ask you, how precious, what's he precious in? And everything
about him is precious. Has he not got a word that's
precious? Is his person not precious? When he was born, that's what
the angel said, today is born in the city of David a Savior!
And he's Christ the Lord. Let's go see, let's go look,
let's go see. Is his sacrifice not precious?
That He entered once with His own blood into the holy place
and obtained eternal redemption for us? Oh, He's precious in
every way. But look what He says. He's precious
to us that believe. Oh, to those that believe, He's
precious. But unto them which be disobedient.
Unto them who refuse to believe on Christ. Unto them who despise
him. And they looked at that stone
and said, we do not want this stone. And God said, He is going
to make it the same, the head of the corner. And said, He is
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which
stumble at the word, being disobedient unto word they also were to purport. He is everything to us and He
is nothing to them. In fact, He's everything to us,
but not only are they disobedient, but they stumble over Him. I
heard a preacher say yesterday, and I'm going to write him, I've
got to write him, I've got to let him know, and I hope I say
it in a gracious way, but he said, I know lots of Christians,
he's preaching on election, and he said, I know lots of Christians
that don't believe in election and even market. I said, no,
no, no. They only don't believe it until
they hear it. And when they hear it, the sheep,
when they hear it, they may say, well, well, you know, they've
never heard, that's why they're babies. And they'll hear that
and they'll say, boy, boy, I've never heard nothing like that
before. I'm going to think about that. I'm going to look at that.
I'm going to consider that. I'm going to go back and hear
some more about that. He ain't got no children in market. None. You find a man marking
election. You find a man marking God's
sovereignty. You find a man talking about
Jesus. Jesus, oh, Jesus needs you. Oh, He needs you so bad. Oh,
please come. Oh, please come. The disobedience. They're despicable! And look
what He said here. They stumble at Christ. They
stumble at His redemption. They stumble at His blood. They
stumble at His deity. And oh, look what He says. And they were
appointed to this. Not only did they do it, but
God said, I'm going to make them be that way. I've appointed them
to be this way. Isaiah told about them before
they ever knew what they were. And oh, beloved, I'm telling
you, they stumble. They stumble at Christ. They
stumble at the Lord Jesus Christ. They stumble at His birth. They
stumble at His parentage. And now, now, now, it's a big
thing to talk about. He was married. Everybody, you
know, a lot of historians and teaching theological schools
and that, that Christ was married. Oh boy, they stumble at his poverty. Oh, how could he be poor? How
they stumble at his friends. They stumble at his doctrine.
Nobody ever spoke like this. They stumble at his death. You
mean his death wasn't for everybody? No! And then it says they were appointed.
Pharaoh hardened his heart, but the first thing you find is God
hardened his heart. Peter says, you with wicked hands
have crucified and slain the prince of black, but he was delivered
by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, and you
did what God meant for you to do. You was appointed to this
office right here. We can say that stumbling and
destruction is appointed to end of all who reject Christ the
cornerstone. And we can also say that those
who willingly refuse Christ and stumble at His gospel of grace
were vessels of brass fitted from destruction from the foundation
of the world. And I'll tell you what, that's
why, you know, if you ever get a chance to talk to a man about
the gospel and he refuses it, I'll tell you a story and I've
got to stop. I know I took way too long. I was down in the highlands
one time and I was preaching and this preacher preached and
he taught preaching at an eastern sub-seminary out in North Carolina. I forget the name of the school
but it's a big school. And he was down there preaching and
he got through preaching and after service was over I went
up to him and said, you know, you didn't preach the gospel
tonight. I said, you didn't talk about
Christ, you didn't talk about anything. And the pastor who
had him there was right there with me. And I said, you didn't
talk about Christ tonight. You didn't mention Christ. He
said, well I was preaching apologetics. What have we got to apologize
for? What he was, he was preaching
the importance of it. But I talked to him about it.
I told him, I said, now you listen to this man, you go on sermon
audio, you listen to this man, go listen to this man. And said,
you'll know what the gospel is. Greg Amquist down there a couple
of years later and this fellow is preaching and Greg stood up
while he was preaching and said, you're not preaching the gospel! Stood up in the service and said,
you're not preaching the gospel. The same man. Now that's a fellow
that's been warned twice. If God don't teach him the gospel,
he wouldn't be in his shoes for 10,000 worlds like this. To be
warned by two men? Henry Mahan warned me once. Just
one time is all it took to get my attention. But the difference
is, God saved me by His grace. This fella here, he loves his
titles and loves his position and loves being bragged on for
being a certain kind of a...