Turn with me this evening, if
you would, to the book of 1st Peter. 1st Peter, and we're going to
start in chapter two. 1st Peter chapter two. Let's,
let's look by way of introduction, just in verse seven to start.
Unto you, therefore, which believe. He is precious. He is precious. I, uh, after I got done with
my notes through work, I've recently been introduced to AI. Landry,
I'm sure you're way more familiar with it than I am, but I, I've
recently been introduced to AI and I typed some questions in
the chat GPT cause I'm just fascinated by this, right? I typed some
questions into chat GPT, not, not to use in the message. I
don't mean that just because I'm fascinated by it. So I typed
into chat GPT, um, you show me an example of when Adam was malicious
in the garden and chat GPT came back and said, that's not the
conventional wisdom. That's not what people think, but you can
just have a conversation with this thing. It's amazing. And
it says, uh, Adam was foolish. Adam made a mistake. Adam was
ignorant. It's okay. So I said, no, that's not right.
Uh, Adam maliciously took up the fruit, trying to overthrow
God's throne. And boy, that made now, now the
circle spins is thinking and it thought for a good long while.
And it came back and it was excited. It was using exclamation points.
It was, it was excited. And it said, well, if, if that's
true and remember, I mean, chat GPT has the entire Bible loaded
up in it, right? So it referenced in that couple
of minutes there, it referenced the entire Bible and it said,
if that's true, and then it went book by book by book showing
the consistency. If, if what Adam did was malicious,
was a, was a malicious, Hippocratic, full of guile attempt to overthrow
God's throne, then that is consistent with Cain and with what Israel
has done. And it just went all the way
through. It wrote paragraphs about how consistent that is
with the teaching of the Bible. And a couple of things came to
my mind. I thought, well, I mean, if you remove our willful ignorant
sin from the equation, If you remove our sinful minds from
the equation, which is what ChatGPT does, right? There's no denying,
there's no denying the gospel of Christ. Even a computer can
do that and recognize that it's consistent. And this verse says, unto you
therefore which believe, he is precious. That's the part ChatGPT
can't get. that he's precious and that's
the part that we can't get. And Paul, or excuse me, Peter
reminds us all through the scripture, we're reminded not to take comfort, right? That's
peace where there is no peace. To take comfort, to get excited
like Chad GPT figuratively got excited in the doctrine. Are we excited? Of course, in
the doctrine that describes Christ. Yes, because it describes Christ.
TULIP is a really nice acronym for describing the attributes,
the characteristics of Christ. But our hope is not in TULIP.
Our hope is not in the doctrine. And I need to be reminded, we
all need to be reminded that that's not where, that's not
precious. Christ is precious. Unto you,
therefore, which believe. He is precious. Isn't that what
the disciples said? To whom shall we go? Right? Thou hast the words of everlasting
life. To whom shall we go? Not to what shall we go? Unto
you, therefore, which believe. He is precious. If that's all
we had, we could take a lot of comfort in two things. One, the sun rose this morning.
And if the sun rose this morning, then Lord is about his business.
And there's people who are going to believe based on his grace.
Unto you, therefore, which believe. This precious God, the creator
of the universe, as we read to open the service, hast thou not
known? Hast thou not seen? You know, the creator of the
universe that holds the waters in the small part of his hand.
sees fit to reveal himself because there's some which will believe.
There's hope, right? He's still revealing himself
to people. Unto you, therefore, which believe. Every morning
when the sun rises, we can take comfort in the fact that there
will be more who believe. The Lord is about his business.
I heard Cody Groover one time say, and I agree with him. Once the last child is called,
the Lord will just wrap it all up. So if that hasn't been done
yet, there's more children that are going to be called based
on the promise of his word. He's in the business of calling
lost sheep, even today. And that gives me hope in his
preciousness that he's still calling sheep. He is precious,
whether we know it, whether I see it, whether I acknowledge it
or not. It's not my belief that makes him precious. He is precious.
Unto you, therefore, which he is granted faith, because faith
is a gift. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
that's the evidence of salvation. Unto you, therefore, which believe.
Unto you, therefore, which he's given eyes. He lets us see that
he is precious. What a, what a miracle. Frank and I often talk after
service. If I'm allowed to sit there and
hear. If the Lord would give me ears
to hear and reveal his character and his self and his worth to
my naturally dead soul, then we have sat there and experienced
a miracle that is no less than if we sat. Can you imagine sitting
and watching the Red Sea part? Have you ever thought about it?
Can you imagine sitting there watching the Red Sea part? What we see
here every week when sinners are permitted to hear from God
is a greater miracle than that. And to you, therefore, which
believe he is precious. And precious meaning valuable
in and of itself. In this case, in and of himself.
Precious meaning honorable and right and good. Maybe we think of gold. But all
the gold in Fort Knox, in and of itself, it's not precious.
Gold is just a rock found in the dirt. There is no inherent
preciousness of rock. We give it value because it represents
something else, right? That's what our money system
is based on. It's based on the value of labor and all these
things. The gold in and of itself isn't precious. It's just a rock.
And to you, therefore, which believe, he is precious. He has value in and of himself.
He has honor in and of himself. Christ is precious. Christ is
worthy. Christ is valuable. The fact
that, again, if all we had was those words, unto you, therefore,
which believe, he is precious. A precious mediator exists, ever
liveth. His will and ability, his willingness
and his ability to make himself known. Precious, all barriers
between us and him, between sinners and God, all barriers Christ
has removed. There's no barriers. There's
no barrier that would make it wrong for God to allow a sinner
into his presence that would make it inconsistent with himself
because justice has been served. There's no barrier that would
prevent us from coming to a throne of mercy. And to a throne of
justice to both, because both have been satisfied in Christ
unto you. Therefore, which believe he is precious because, because
of, because of Christ, all barriers are removed. So Peter, through
the five chapters here in first Peter, Peter is writing these,
this one letter. We have a broken down into five
chapters. Peter's writing this one letter as a general letter
to all of God's children that are scattered throughout. Look
back in chapter one, the first two verses, Peter, an apostle
of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God, the father through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience,
elect unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Grace be unto you and peace be multiplied. He's writing to the
strangers scattered throughout. Not that they're necessarily
strangers to each other, but they're strangers to the world.
Strangers to the world. Do you ever feel that way as
a stranger to the world? Maybe even you feel as a stranger
to yourself, right? The spirit wars against the flesh
and the two don't intertwine and that there is no consistency
between the two. The two don't know each other. Well, maybe being a stranger
to the world, maybe being a stranger to myself, maybe that's a good
place to be because Peter's writing to the strangers scattered throughout.
He's writing to us. And this is a, This letter, these
five chapters, it's a letter of encouragement. And throughout
the five chapters, Peter encourages us to not give up. He encourages
us to be strong. He encourages us to be holy.
He encourages us to be submissive and to turn from evil. He encourages
us to rejoice in the Lord's will, even when that involves suffering.
He encourages us to live for God's glory. He encourages us
to readily encourage and provide for the needs of each other.
Peter encourages us to do these things. And Peter tells us to
cast all of our cares upon God. So why? Everything Peter mentions,
this is supposed to be an encouragement to me, but I can't do any of
these things. I can't be submissive. I can't be holy. I can't turn
from evil, right? These things are unnatural to
my flesh. I can't rejoice in the Lord's will during trial
in and of myself. I can't be an encouragement to
you. I can't live for God's glory over my own glory. That's unnatural
to myself. So to my natural flesh, this
feels not like an encouragement. This feels like a burden because
I can't do these things. It's unnatural to my way of thinking.
It's unnatural to my sinful self. It's unnatural to my own wisdom
to seek God's glory above my own, to seek your needs above
my own. It's unnatural to be submissive,
to rejoice in trial. And outside of a supernatural
work of God, these things never will come naturally. Or they
won't even make sense to me. So why, Peter? What's my motivation? What's my reason? In the history of time, when
man tries to motivate man, for as long as we've been around,
we've only come up with two methods of doing so. For man to motivate
man, we've only come up with a system of work and reward,
right? You work, you get a paycheck
or you get some sort of reward and a system of slavery where
you work to avoid punishment. That's it. So, without God's
grace, that's all we have knowledge of. doing something for reward
or doing something to avoid punishment. That's all the flesh has ever
come up with, ever will come up with. That's all. That's all.
That's all my natural man, my fleshly self. That's all I'll
ever respond to. That's all that will ever keep
me going. And we commonly call that the carrot and the stick,
right? Because you hold the carrot out in front of the donkey and
the donkey moves. The donkey doesn't move. You give the stick.
Because we know our nature is the same as a donkey. We know
that. So we've structured our entire
society around it because that's all a donkey's nature understands.
And we get it. That's all we understand. Carrot
and stick. Reward or motivation. So, but
is that our motivation in this? Is that what Peter is calling
us to? Is that our motivation before?
a holy and just and good and merciful God. Is that our motivation? Reward or avoid punishment? What does Peter say our motivation
in? Peter encourages us, which we'll look at because of Christ.
We close our prayers with, for Christ's sake, right? Because
of Christ, that's what we mean. Peter encourages us for Christ's
sake, because of Christ. Here in, still in chapter one,
Through verses three through 12, Peter reminds us because
of Christ, here's our motivation, here's why. Because Christ has
birthed us, because Christ has called us to a lively hope, not
based on the carrot and stick of our mind, but rather a lively
hope to the living God, the living Christ. He reminds us that God
has given us an inheritance that never runs out and is pure. It
never decays. He reminds us that God keeps
us even in trials, even in our own many failures. He teaches us often in those
trials and failures. Peter reminds us that God gives
us love for him. Even our love for him was given
to us. He reminds us that God in Christ
saves our souls. He reminds us that he provides
all of these special supernatural gifts that even the angels desire
to look into. But he gives them to us, sinful
fallen man, that even the angels desire to understand. Peter reminds
us that God did all of this. Why? As a reward for something
that I did. To say that, just the arrogance
that drips from that, that we would naturally believe that
God would do anything for us out of debt, out of obligation
because of something that I've done, because he owes it to me.
How lowly we must think of God that in our flesh, that's the
wisdom of me left to myself. That's the wisdom of man left
to ourselves is that I can do something that would obligate
God to me. How arrogant of me and how lowly
I think of God that he would be obligated to me. Tomorrow morning, I'll get up
and I'll make breakfast for my kids. And that's our routine
in our household. I make breakfast. So I make breakfast
for the kids and we get done. And if one of them were to look
and say, well, you know, dad fed us because he has to, he's
dad. I mean, how offensive is that? Have I not shown myself
to be at least a little bit better than that, that I'm not feeding
them because I have to, because I'm dad. I'm feeding them because
I love them. I'm feeding them out of my own
goodness. because of who I am, right? How,
I mean, how offensive would that be if your kids said that? How
lowly, you wouldn't say that, right? How lowly would you think
of your folks to say something like that? You wouldn't think
that lowly of them. By nature, that's how lowly we think of
God, that he'll do something for us because he has to, because
I've obligated him to. Unto you therefore, which believe,
he is precious. Outside of the work of God, that's
exactly what we do. But God does for sinners out
of his own abundant mercy. He does for himself. He does
for sinners out of his own abundant mercy, which it says here in
verse three, first Peter chapter one, verse three, blessed be
the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again. There Christ has birthed
us again Why? Out of obligation to us? No,
according to his abundant mercy. And you may see in the center
margin of your Bible, the word much, much mercy, because our
language is limited and our understanding is limited. How do we describe
God's infinite mercy? Peter looks at it and just says
much, much, much mercy in Christ. That's why he does it all according
to his own goodness. Now let's, let's look here through
1 Peter 1, 3 through 12. 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. These are
the things that Peter is calling to our memory, calling to our
remembrance. All the things that God has done
for us in Christ. He's called us again, he's begotten
us and called us to a lively hope, giving us an inheritance,
which is incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away. Reserved
in heaven for you who are kept. He keeps us by the power of God
through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in that
last time. wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season,
if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.
He gives us the ability to rejoice in trial, that the trial of your
faith being much more precious than that of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, fire might be found under praise
and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having
not seen ye love. He gives us 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 your souls." He saves our souls. All the things
that God has done for us in Christ based on His much mercy. Therefore, Peter says, because
God is good, because God has rebirthed you from spiritual
death to spiritual life, according to his goodness, therefore, according
to his much goodness, Peter encourages us to be holy, to be strong,
to be submissive, to turn from evil, to rejoice in the Lord's
will, even in trial. to live for God's glory, to readily
encourage and provide for the needs of each other and to cast
all of our cares upon God. Which given a heart to do so
and given eyes to see and given life, you see Christ and based
on his goodness, right? Based on his goodness. Now that
is encouragement. What encouragement? It's not
debt. It's not burden. It's encouragement. It's encouragement
to, to walk this way because of God's
goodness in Christ. The encouragement that we'll
look at for the rest of our time today is found here in chapter
two. Peter encourages us in verse one of chapter two to lay aside
all malice and guile and hypocrisies, envies, evil speakings. Wherefore,
because in Christ, God has provided you spiritual life and salvation
and the countless other gifts that we discussed in chapter
one. Therefore, we're to lay aside these things, malice, guile,
hypocrisies in these evil speakings. Why do we have to be encouraged
to lay these aside? Why do we have to be encouraged
to lay these aside? I was, Landry, I was as young
as you, even younger, sitting and listening and looking around
just as you look around and seeing a lot of gray hair, just as you
see a lot of gray hair. It wasn't always. And now 50
years later, I still have to be encouraged and you will too,
to lay these things aside. Isn't it something I've learned
after 50 years? Isn't it something we've learned? Why do we have
to be encouraged to lay these things aside? Listen to Hebrews
12, Hebrews 12 verse one says, let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Let us run with patience
the race that is set before us. How? Looking unto Jesus. The sin that does so easily beset
us. Why does this sin so easily beset
me? Didn't Peter say in chapter one
that I was reborn by God, that I was rebirthed? We are. Turn over to a Galatians chapter
five. Galatians chapter five, starting in verse 16. This I
say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh for the flesh lusteth against the spirit. The
spirit against the flesh. These are contrary, the one to
the other. So you cannot do the things you would. But if you'd
be led of the spirit, you're not under the law. Now the works
of the flesh are manifest, which are these, and it's quite a list. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness,
revelings and such like. There's more. And such like.
Of the witch I tell you before, and I have also told you in time
past that they which do such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God. This is why we have to be reminded to lay it
aside because our flesh is still there and always will be until
you put it in the ground. But praise God, there's fruit
of the spirit. Because a sinner is two distinct
natures in one body. Those are the works of the flesh.
That's not a surprise. We inherited that in Adam and
Adam. Adam exhibited every single one of these. And so did we.
That's not a surprise. The fact that Gavin's hands looked
like my hands are not a surprise. He's my boy. The fact that we
exhibit these is no surprise. We're Adam's kids, right? Our
nature is Adam's nature. Here's the blessing, but the
fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, also a very long list, meekness, temperance,
against such there is no law. They that are Christ's have crucified
the flesh and the affections who are with the affections and
lust. That's why we have to be called to remembrance. We see
Christ again and it calls us to remembrance, to live after
the spirit. Romans 7.24 Paul says, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Or who shall deliver me from
this body of death? That's why prayerfully Landry
50 years from now, you'll still be here in this and you'll be
called to remembrance of that spirit. While we're in this world,
again, believers are two separate natures, one born of flesh, one
born of God. And these are scripture says
these two are contrary one to the other. That's why we have
to be reminded to stir up that, that remembrance because the
flesh can't be quieted or changed, not until death. But by his grace,
we hear our pastor say this all the time. Oh, there's nothing
I can do. Yes, there is. We can look to Christ just as
the Israelites were called to look to the brazen servant. We
can look, we can look to Christ. And that's what Peter calls us
to do. He calls us to remember Christ, to see Christ. Peter
calls us to lay aside our malice and guile and hypocrisies and
envies and evil speakings because Christ took Adam's. And Adam's
and all of his children's, Christ took their malice and guile and
hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings. When Adam ate that
fruit, that's all he was. As his offspring, that's all
we are by nature. We exhibit the defiance and we
exhibit it through malice, just as Adam did. Malice to God because
eating that fruit, to become like unto God and forcibly take
his throne. Adam took the fruit with malice
against God. Adam took the fruit with guile
to God, thinking himself to be wise and cunning, trying to trick
God. Adam took that fruit with hypocrisy.
He walked with God, the scriptures say, in the cool of the day as
a friend, in tenderness, and then he tried to overthrow him. Hypocrisies. Envies, Adam ate
that fruit, envious of God's authority over him. Evil speaking,
Adam said in his heart, the same thing Lucifer said, I will be
like God. Evil speaking, I will be like
God. Christ took these in his body
on the tree. The scriptures say, Christ took
these in his, he took Adam's guile in his body on the tree,
even though the scriptures say in whose mouth was found no guile.
The perfect sacrifice, no deceit, yet he took these in his body
on the tree. The sin of the elect of Adam's
seed in his body and he bored away by his perfect sacrifice.
He was killed the perfect sacrifice. and put those sin away behind
God's back. Scripture says as far as the
East is from the West. And with that sacrifice of his perfect
self, Christ removed any barrier. We talked about the beginning
of the service, any barrier. Christ removed any barrier between
God and man that would make it impure for God to allow one of
his children, a sinful man, into his presence. Everywhere we see,
I was in Danville on Easter Sunday, and I have no doubt that everywhere
I go, the overwhelming message that we hear and hear and hear,
and except for God's grace, it's the message that will be being
preached from this pulpit right now is accept Jesus. But the question that must be
answered is how can God accept me, a sinner, the sinner? How can God accept me, the sinner?
We're told in Christ, in Christ, because Christ took the malice,
the guile, the hypocrisies, the envies, the evil speakings and
bore it away. We can come boldly. Not only
can we come boldly before the throne of mercy, scriptures command
us to. They call us to, through the
spirit we're called. They command us come boldly before
the throne of God's mercy, having no malice, having no guile, having
no hypocrisies or envies or evil speakings because of Christ's
sacrifice. These are all removed from us
before God so that we can come in honesty. And the scripture
says to come in honesty as a little child with no malice and no guile,
come in honesty. not hiding who you are, but exactly
who you come before the throne of mercy and honesty without
hypocrisy. And because of Christ's sacrifice,
this is justice speaking, because of Christ's perfect sacrifice,
there is no malice, there is no guile or evil speakings. There's
no inconsistency between God and man. Man can come to a throne
of mercy and God can come to man because Christ has eliminated
the malice and the guile and the hypocrisies in justice. Because Christ, in Christ, justice
has been completely satisfied. His pure sacrifice, the son of
God entitled, the son of God and the son of man in his actions
and what he did in the life that he lived. Perfect sacrifice. Outside of Christ really, truly
being perfect and really, truly taking my sin and really, truly
dying and really, truly being raised again from the dead. Then
God's relationship with me is full of hypocrisy outside of
Christ, right? Outside of Christ, God allowing
a sinner into his presence whose sin has not been born away. is hypocrisy that challenges
God's justice and holiness. He charges the angels with folly,
right? He's pure. Outside of Christ,
allowing a sinner to come before his throne of justice is full
of hypocrisy. There's no hypocrisy in Christ.
Justice is served when Christ was made sin and his people were
made the righteousness of God in him. Justice is served. There's
no hypocrisy. Therefore, if Christ took my
guile and Christ took my malice and my evil speaking and my envy
and my hypocrisy in his body on the tree and bore it away
from me so that I can approach God almighty without them. And
this is what Peter is reminding us. If God in Christ took all
those away so that I can approach unto God without him, then me
reflecting that and approaching you without them should be a
joy. Should be, should be a joy. Is that naive? Is that naive? And to the wisdom of this flesh?
Yes. Yeah, that's naive. But spiritual wisdom calls us
again here in chapter two, verse two, spiritual wisdom calls us
in verse two as newborn babes, as newborn babes, desiring the
sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. And here's
the sincere milk. Sincere milk of the word is that
word which is nothing's added to it, nothing's taken away.
It's the sincere milk of the word. At the time that this was
written, not only was milk used as nourishment, it was also used
as medicine. It's the sincere milk of the word that God loved
the people. And based on his own goodness
in Christ, he saves them and births them, makes them righteous,
calls them, provides them an inheritance Christ does this
all in justice. It's perfectly consistent with
God's holiness and God's justice. And it's also perfectly consistent
with God's goodness and mercy. And neither one of those are
diminished or sacrificed in Christ. My flesh says, well, yeah, but
I, right, but I, Whatever it is. I don't pray enough. I don't
have enough faith. I don't read enough. There's a ton of things
I don't do. Whatever that is though, that's
not the sincere milk of the word. We come as newborn babes desiring
just the sincere milk of the word, focusing on God. In Christ,
he saves them and births them and makes them righteousness
and calls them to repentance. As newborn babes, we just stay
right there. Naive, if you will. Worshipping
this God, Jehovah who provides, Jehovah who provided, and Jehovah
who provides, and Jehovah who will provide, who promises to,
that Jehovah. Now let's look here again in
chapter two, verses four through six. 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 chief
cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. How do we lay aside the sin,
which does so easily beset us by looking to Christ, by coming
to Christ, not the idea of Christ. Remember Luke Coffee bringing
out one time, the scriptures say that in those last days,
they'll stand before, people will stand before the throne
of justice and say, but didn't, didn't we preach in your name?
not just in his name, preach his name, right? Not just an
idea of Christ, not about Christ, but actually coming to Christ
himself. Not a dead cornerstone, not a church creed. We talked
earlier about not even tulip. And a good, strong relationship
can be built on a cornerstone between us of a whole lot of
things. When I was at UK, this is, This
isn't popular. When I was at UK, I was a Michigan
fan. I still am. But I found Claire Sharon, right?
Claire and Annie are from Michigan and we had an instant cornerstone,
right? Being fans of the same thing.
You can build a pretty strong relationship one to another based
on a cornerstone of a common belief. But our cornerstone,
our cornerstone of of us, the church of Christ. Our cornerstone is the eternal
Christ, the Christ who lived before the foundation of the
world. John says, in the beginning was the word. The word is with
God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. Christ was before the foundation of the world. Christ
lived in the world. John 1.14 says, and the word
was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The
glory is of the only begotten of the father, full of grace
and truth. Our cornerstone is the living
Christ. Hebrews 7.25 says that he ever
liveth. So he lived, he was before the
foundation of the world. He was in the world and is, and
he ever liveth. Wherefore, he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he
ever liveth to make intercession for them." This is the living
stone, the living Christ, to whom we look, to whom we come.
The Christ that was foretold in the scripture, in the skins
that God put on Adam and Eve, the sacrifice of the animals,
Christ the ark, Christ the rock from whom water flowed, Christ
in every sacrifice, billions of sacrifices, Christ, that living
cornerstone in whom, who was foretold in the scriptures. Therefore,
therefore we go to verse seven where we started. Unto you therefore,
which believe. He is precious. We talked about
that word precious, meaning great value and also honor, value and
honor in and of himself because of who he is. That's found only
in Christ. This word precious means only
Christ who has value and honor and worth in and of himself. Right? Whether I see that or
not. There is no catalyst to that. He is. He is. He said, I am, and the soldiers
fell backwards. I am. He is. He is precious in
and of himself. Turn with me back, if you would,
to Isaiah 43. Because of who Christ is, he
is precious. Again, whether. Whether I recognize
that or not. Look here in Isaiah 43, he is
precious. Let's read the first four verses
together. But now saith the Lord that created
thee, O Jacob, and that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for
I have redeemed thee. I've called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I'll be with thee. Through the rivers, they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, and I have to be reminded of that. When I'm walking through
trial, it never fails that my mind tells me I've been cast
off. But scripture says, when thou
walkest through the fire, it doesn't mean we've been cast
off. 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 Seba for thee. Here, since thou, since
thou was precious in my sight, thou has been honorable and I
have loved thee. Therefore will I give men for
thee and people for thy life. Christ is precious. Christ makes
his people precious in his sight. And however God sees it, I'm
convinced that's the way it is. He makes his people precious
in his sight, consistent with the verse right here. We've been made the righteousness
of God in him. Meet the sinner, precious, honorable. That's what the scripture says.
Thou was precious. I could not stand here and say
this if it wasn't in the scripture, right? Thou was precious. Sinner
before the throne in Christ, before the throne of mercy and
justice, you can put your name there. That according to the
scriptures, because of Christ's work, I could read that. And
I can say, Jonathan was precious in his sight and has been honorable in his sight. Because in Christ,
he makes his people that way. And he's, and I have loved thee.
Therefore, will I give bend for thee and people for thy life.
Because of Christ, right? Because of, because, because
he is the son of God, because he is the sinless manifestation
of the word, because he is the one that selflessly gave himself
as the perfect sacrifice. Because he is our brother, scripture
calls it him the firstborn among many brethren. Because he did
it all from his, from his much abundant mercy, because of who
he is. The same one makes us to be called
precious in his sight. Because scripture says we're
given his name, right? Therefore, shall she be called
the Lord, our righteousness, right? He makes us precious in
his sight. And therefore, because of who he is, because of what
he's done, therefore, we reread there in verse seven, unto you,
therefore, which believe he is precious. Let's pray together. Father, we pray together that
you bless this time that we've had and open your word to our
minds and hearts that you'd bless. And that your name would be magnified
and glorified and lifted up all for your sake. We pray for those
who are traveling, we think of of our pastor and Janet, pray
that you'd be with them. Give them traveling mercies home. We pray for Rex this weekend
that you'd be with him. Give him a word from you. Give
him comfort and a message from you and give us ears to hear. And we pray for those of our
congregation and elsewhere who are undergoing different trials,
that they're real. And father, we recognize that
they're of your hand. We pray that you give peace and
comfort as you promised, where it's needed. We pray for our
community, that you continue to call out sinners according
to your will. We pray for ourselves that the
gospel continue to go from this pulpit for as long as you'd have
the light be here. Father, we pray that's until
you return. We pray this all thankfully in
Christ's name and for his sake.