If you would, open your Bible
again to 1 Peter chapter 2. We've been looking here in our
study of 1 Peter through chapter 1, and Peter has clearly taught
us salvation is by grace alone. Salvation is through the sacrifice
of Christ alone. He says that in verse 18 of chapter
1. For as much as you know, this is something we're not in doubt
about. that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold, mere vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but you are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. And then Peter
went on to show us the necessity of the new birth. In verse 24
he says, Crawl flesh as grass, and all the glory of man is the
flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away. That verse is so clear, you and
I need to be born again. Because we're just dying, dead
grass. That's all we are. That's all
we're good for. We must be born again. And he told us this new
birth comes from the seed of the Word of God. In verse 23
in chapter 1, being born again. Not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. Verse 25, but the Word of the
Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospels preached unto you. Salvation from beginning to end. It's all of grace. Sovereign,
distinguishing grace of God Almighty. Now that's so. But in no way
does that mean the believer's walk through this world is unimportant. Salvation is by grace. You and
I don't contribute one whit to it by our actions. But that is
not to say how we conduct ourselves in the world is unimportant.
How a believer conducts himself as he walks through this world
is important. When a person is born again,
he's given a new nature. He's given a new heart. He's
given new desires. He's given a new way of life.
The Holy Spirit dwells in that man, that woman, and he's a new
creature. Well, he's going to have a new
holy conduct. By no stretch of the imagination
does that mean the believer is done with sin. We still fight
sin every minute of every day. We fight sin. Have any of y'all
done that today? Just spent the day fighting sin. I sat in my study today and thought
how wicked is this flesh. I'm reading God's Word and fighting
sin. Has that been your case today?
Well, if it is, I've got a message I believe will help you and comfort
you. The title of the message is The Disease and the Prescription. What I'd like for us to see this
evening is the indwelling sin that remains in every believer,
even though we're born again, that old sin nature still dwells. And I want us to see that the
prescription for that disease, that disease of sin, it's the
same Word of God that gave you the new birth in the first place.
We never graduate from needing God's Word or needing Christ,
the Incarnate Word. We never graduate from needing
Him. Now we're saved by grace alone. Now we don't contribute
anything to this work of salvation. And growth in grace, now that's
growth only God can give. If there is an increase, you
can just know this. God gave it, didn't He? Yet this
is also true. Spiritual growth is something
a believer should work on. Spiritual growth is something
that we can work on and we can cultivate that. Our walk before
men, now that's something we can work on. We won't get any
glory for it, but that's something that we can work on. So here
in verse 1 of 1 Peter 2, Here's our first point, the problem,
the disease that we have as we see it here so clearly in verse
1. Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies,
and envies, and all evil speakings. Now Peter's talking to believers
here. He says, wherefore? Because you've been born again.
Now he's talking to people who've been born again. And this just
makes my point. He's talking to people who've
been born again who deal with all these issues, these issues
of sin. We've been born again, but now
we still sin. That sin nature is alive and
well. But now remember this, that don't
mean you have to give in to it. Sin's in us, but don't let it
reign in your heart. No matter how far that you've
come, no matter how much growth in grace we may have experienced,
don't ever be satisfied with it. Don't ever be satisfied with
how far we've come. David said, well, when did he
say he'd be satisfied? I'll be satisfied when I wait
with thy likeness. But not before. We're not going
to be satisfied with how far we've come in this world because
we're still going to be fighting this sin that's in us. That's
why Peter uses the word laying, laying aside. You're not going
to put these sins down once and be done with it. No, we have
to constantly lay down sin. We're constantly laying down.
Because the flesh is constantly producing this disease that makes
us have to be laying these sins down. And we're told as believers
that you be laying these things aside. As a child of God, you
don't have use for any of these things anymore. They're just
of no use to you. This week, or last week I suppose,
Jan and I ran into a dumpster. We were doing some work and we
had some stuff, some old fencing stuff we needed to throw away.
And we took this opportunity to throw away a bunch of stuff.
Stuff that we don't need anymore went out to that dumpster. How
do you get all that stuff? There's so much stuff that wouldn't
fit in the trash cans. We had to get a dumpster. These
are things believers can't use anymore. How do we accumulate
all this sin? It's that sin nature. We're carrying
it around Got to be laying it down because we don't have use
for these things anymore. Just keep laying them down and
keep laying them down and rent a dumpster if you have to. Be
laying them down. Just get rid of them now. Throw
these things down like you would if you picked up something and
somebody told you, oh, that blanket you just picked up is infected
with smallpox. Well, you throw it down. That's
the way we're to lay down these things. Get rid of them like
they're infected, like they'll hurt you because they will. They're
not just going to hurt others. They're going to hurt us. Throw
them away like you would old clothes. Just with your nose
turned up out there. I can't believe I ever wore that.
It's out of style now. These attitudes that Peter talks
about are things that are out of style for a believer. They're
unbecoming to a believer and they don't match the new nature
that God gave you in the new birth. So be laying them down. And they're going to hinder you.
The sin that does so easily beset us, be laying it down. They're going to hinder love.
They'll hinder unity with the people that you love. Be laying
it down. And the first one Peter lists
is malice, hatred. But this is more than just hatred.
Malice is an anger that stays in your heart. You let it stay
there so long, it takes root. And just like a weed, pretty
soon, You're overgrown with it. You're just overwhelmed with
it because it's taken root and it grows so quickly. And it grows
to the point, malice, that you delight when somebody else gets
hurt. Or worse yet, you seek to hurt
them. That's malice. That has no place in a believer's
life. Look back at 1 Corinthians chapter
5. He's laying this down now. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 8 Therefore let us keep the feast,
not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Paul talks about malice as leaven. The leaven of malice. Just a
little bit of it. Stay in your heart. It will grow.
You've got to constantly be laying it down. Don't let it stay in
your heart because it will take over. Now let's be laying it
down. Next, Peter says guile. Now you
all know what guile is. It's deceiving someone to get
gain for yourself. Guile is when you deceive someone
by not letting them see the truth. Not letting them see the true
you. Not seeing the real reason or real motive behind what you're
doing. And then you get gain at their expense. You use their
ignorance of the situation to get gain for yourself. At the
same time, hurt them. If you look over a page of 1
Peter 2, now that's at the end of this chapter. That's unbecoming
to a believer, but if you want to see strong motivation for
a believer to be laying down guile, look at verse 22, 2 Peter
2. Speaking of our Lord here, he
left us in verse 21, leaving us an example that you should
follow his steps. Who did no sin, Neither was guile
found in his mouth. That's the greatest reason that
a believer has the desire to be laying down guile. We want
to be like our Savior. No guile is found in his mouth.
Then Peter lists hypocrisies. And hypocrisies go hand in hand
with guile. A hypocrite is an actor. It's someone pretending to be
something that they're not. And you'll notice Peter, when
he talks about hypocrisies, He makes it plural. He doesn't say,
be laying down hypocrisy. He says, be laying down hypocrisy.
It's plural. So there must be several different
kinds of hypocrisies. And whatever different kinds
there are, lay them down. Be laying them down. First, you
can be a hypocrite in the world. This isn't a worldly fleshly
sin. You can be a false friend and,
you know, that kind of a hypocrite is hurtful. Now, many times,
You can see a hypocrite coming a mile away, and they don't hurt
you, because you expect it. You see them. You know them.
You see them coming. You know what they are. This
dumpster Jan and I rent. Some of you read about this on
Facebook. We rent this dumpster. A fellow dropped it off. Had
to set it out in the street in front of our house. Couldn't
get up in the driveway. Someone who, when she's in our face,
she pretends to be a good friend. She pretends to be such a good,
caring neighbor. She called the police. Because
that dumpster is set up there. The police come knocking on the
door. I open it. Oh my goodness. I knew immediately who called
the police. I knew it. Dan Morgan was out
there throwing stuff in that dumpster. She comes out talking
to him, acting all sweet and fancy. That lady crossed the
street over here to the left. She's the one who called the
police. You could see her coming a mile away. So I wasn't hurt
by that. But if our next door neighbor
Now that's a sweet couple. I mean, Janet and I just love
them. They're so kind and gracious. Janet and Ms. Huddle, they trade
sugar and flour, buying eggs. You're great neighbors. If I
found out they were pretending to be our good neighbors for
all these years and turned around and called the police on us,
my feelings would have been deeply hurt. If they'd been a hypocrite
and done such a good job and I didn't know it, I'd have been
hurt. Peter says, don't do that. Be laying that down. Don't be
a friend in word only and then not a friend when you're out
of sight. And to believers, now let's not be brethren. Brothers
and sisters, warn each other's face and go home and forget about
one another. Don't do that. But second and worst, this is
the worst, don't be a religious hypocrite. A religious hypocrite,
they pretend to be religious. They pretend to be righteous,
but they're not. And you know, you might be able
to fool men for a while with that religious act. But who cares? You're not fooling God. You're
not fooling the all-seeing eye of God. God looks on to heart.
All things are naked and open with Him with whom we have to
do. He sees. So what's the use in being a
religious hypocrite? And I tell you this, the person
you'll hurt the worst by being a religious hypocrite is yourself. It is. Now I'd be laying down
all kinds of hypocrisies. Then Peter says envies. Envies
being jealous of something somebody else has. If you're envious,
you just can't be happy for somebody when the Lord blesses them with
something. All envy is, is self-love. That's all it is. It's self-love
and not being able to, not being happy with what the Lord's given
me. I can be happy with what the
Lord's given you if I'm happy with what the Lord's given me.
Envy, all it is, is questioning God's providence. And that's
unbecoming for a believer. I mean, that's just out of style
for a believer. Let's be laying these things down. And if you
really think about it, a believer doesn't have one thing to be
envious of. Not one. Because we already have
all things in Christ. What do we have to be envious
of? Be laying it down. And last, Peter says evil speakings. Be laying this down. Now this
is a whole lot more than just using four letter words. I suppose
that's bad enough. But there are other things that
are evil speakings that we've got to guard against. Lying about
other people. That's evil speaking. If you're
out somewhere, somebody starts talking about one of your friends
and you don't defend them. That's evil speaking. If I was
out somewhere and somebody started talking about Wayne Kennel, said,
that guy's awful. I mean, he's an awful husband.
He's an awful father. He's just awful at work. Nobody
wants to be around him. And I just kept my mouth shut.
That's evil speaking. If I don't stand up and say,
now, wait a minute. Wayne's my friend. I know him. You're not
telling the truth. If I don't say that, that's evil
speaking. Now be laying that down. How
about this one? Spreading rumors. Gossip. You hear a little bit of juicy
gossip. You want to go tell people. Be
laying that down. Could be a lie. Usually it is.
Not true. Even spreading something that's
true about somebody that would embarrass them. Now brethren,
that's evil speaking. Now just be laying it down. It
comes natural to the flesh, but be laying it down. It's evil. Nothing will tear you down worse
than that. Spreading gossip and lies and
these kinds of things. People are going to see it for
small as what you are if you're spreading those kinds of things.
And it'll tear down the church too. It'll tear the church down.
It'll tear unity apart worse than anything. Lay down this
evil speaking. And we'll never lay it down completely.
until we lay this flesh in the grave. So, until then, be laying
down this disease. Now, you might be thinking, well,
Frank, how am I going to do that? Now, all these things are so
natural to the flesh, they just are natural, they happen before
you even think about it. How am I going to do that, be laying
these things down? Well, second, Peter gives us
a two-fold prescription for this disease. He prescribes two medicines,
and they always work together. He prescribes the Word and Christ
Himself. Peter's a wise doctor. He diagnoses
the disease. It's pretty easy to diagnose.
It's obvious. He points it out. And then he gives us a prescription.
And the first prescription, Peter writes, is the Word of God. Look
at verse 2. As newborn babes, desire the
sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. The same
Word. that gave you spiritual life.
The same word that revealed Christ to your heart is the same word
that will cause that life to grow. That same word is the prescription
against all these diseases that we have. You know, you have to
eat a food that fits your nature. Cows eat grass. Human beings,
for the most part, don't eat grass. Occasionally, maybe. But humans don't eat grass because
that's not our nature. It doesn't fit our nature. A
goat. A goat can eat tin cans and string
and garbage. You won't eat that. Because it
doesn't fit your nature. The goat's happy with it, because
that's the goat's nature. You who have been born again,
you have a new nature. And that nature has a very specific
diet that it needs. It's the Word of God. And Peter
tells us, now this is your food. Now feed on it. And desire it. Desire God's Word. Like a hungry
baby desires to be fed milk. Jan and I here in a few days
are going to go see our brand new nephew. We're going to go
up there and visit. And over the course of that visit,
several times a day, you know what's going to happen? That
kid's going to start crying. And everything is going to have
to come to a halt till he gets fed. He's got to have milk. And you can rest assured He's
going to let everybody know about it. I mean, everybody's going
to know He desires milk. Well, that's the way it is for
a believer. Everything else is God's stock. So I can be fed. I must have God's Word. I need it. If I'm going to be
healthy, if I'm going to grow, I must have the Word of God. Look over at 2 Peter chapter
3. 2 Peter 3, verse 18. But grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, how are you
going to do that? How are you going to grow in
grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? By feeding
on His Word. By feeding on the Word of God
that tells us of Christ. That's how. And we should desire
God's Word like a baby desires milk. You know, when a baby is
hungry, that baby doesn't care who's watching. That baby doesn't
care a thing about modesty. He just wants some milk. He needs
milk. He needs to be fed. Babies don't
care what's going on. They don't care what time of
day it is, day or night. They don't care if it's two o'clock
in the morning. They don't care. They need milk. And they cry and let it be known.
They don't let other things. It's pretty simple. I'm on a
feeding schedule. You know, I need milk. Babies
don't care what mama or daddy looks like. You know, you get
up in the middle of the night to feed that kid, your hair's out
of which way, your pajamas are all, you know, your eyes are
half closed, you can't really stumble around. The baby don't
care. As long as you're feeding him sincere milk. That's all
he cares about. And how we approach hearing God's
Word and reading God's Word is important. First of all, Don't
come to God's Word as a know-it-all. Don't come and think, well, I've
seen, heard that before. Y'all have heard somebody preach
from 1 Peter 2 before. Don't approach it like, yeah,
I've heard that before. Come to God's Word like a newborn
baby. That baby doesn't know anything. Just one thing. I need
milk. Come to it that way. Come as
someone as a child who needs to be taught. Someone who comes
and says, well, I've had this milk before. I like it just as
much now as I did four hours ago. That's all I need. That's
all I want. Second, approach God's Word with
humility. Why don't you look at Philippians
chapter 3. This is at the very end of the
Apostle Paul's life here on this earth. You think about the experiences
and the revelations that this man's had. He wrote to Lion's
Share in the New Testament. The preaching services he's been
in, all the preaching he's done. Boy, you think this fella, he
knows something, don't you? Well, he does. He shows us he
knows something. Look here at verse 12. He says,
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect,
but I follow after. I haven't arrived, but I follow
after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended. But this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, forgetting those things which
I think are bad, and especially forgetting those things that
I think were good. Forget them. Forgetting those things which
are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. If the Apostle Paul counted not
himself to have apprehended, I don't suspect he will either. So approach God's Word with humility
as someone who can learn and desire the sincere, pure milk,
the Word of God. Don't mix God's Word with the
works of the flesh now. That's watering it down. A baby
will get sick if you water down the milk. If you water the milk
down so you can stretch it and make it last longer, that baby's
going to get sick. He's not going to get all the nutrition he needs.
All a newborn baby needs is mama's milk. And you'll hurt that child
if you give it something else too soon. If you give it cereal
or something else too soon, you're going to hurt that child. When
our daughter Holly was a little, little baby, I'm weeks old, I
suppose, we were out at Jan's grandmother's and she didn't
come around the corner and Jan's grandmother was holding this
infant and sticking a big old thing of mashed potatoes in this
kid's mouth. And well, she's loving it. She's
just, I'm just laughing it up. She says, Gammy, don't do that.
You're going to hurt the kid. She said, well, she likes it.
So what? It's going to hurt her. As the
months go on, you come around the corner, Gammy's sticking
frosting in her mouth. Well, she likes it. Well, yeah,
she likes it, but it's going to hurt her. She just needs milk. That's all she needs. That's
all a child of God ever needs. I don't care how much you grow
in grace, how much you've learned, how much you've read. If you
have something other than the sincere milk of God's Word, it'll
hurt you. It will. Just pursue. All we
need is the simplicity of Christ. Just pursue the Word. And don't
ever corrupt God's Word by peddling it. Don't use God's Word to go
beat somebody up and try to get your way. No. Look over here
at 2 Corinthians chapter 2. That is corrupting God's Word
and peddling it. 2 Corinthians 2 verse 17. We are not as many which corrupt. That word corrupt is to deal
deceitfully with or peddle, sell the Word of God. But as of sincerity,
But as of God and the sight of God, speak we in Christ. Speak we of Christ. Just speak
the simplicity of Christ. That's what's going to feed God's
sheep. And there's just no substitute for God's Word. I read commentaries. I enjoy them. I read them every
day. There are certain men I just
read for every scripture I ever intend to preach on. I just,
I enjoy those commentaries. And I believe I get something
from them. But there is no substitute for God's Word. None whatsoever. I've been preparing for our lesson
Sunday morning. And I read one of the commentaries.
I thought I'd always read. There's nothing there. I thought
I'm going to have to go somewhere else because I'm just not seeing
the message. And I just kept reading that
chapter over and over and over again. And then suddenly there
it was. It wasn't a commentary. It's
God's Word. That's all we need. There's no
substitute for it. Men have invented baby formula
to be a substitute for mother's milk. And I suppose, I don't
really know anything about it, but I do know this. That formula,
it's not as good as what God gives. Our daughter Holly's a
nurse at the neonatal intensive care. And those babies come in,
sometimes they'll fit in your hand. They'll fit in her hand.
Her hand's smaller than mine. And you know what they want if
it's at all possible for that baby? They want that mother,
if it's at all possible, to breastfeed that baby. They can give it formula.
But that baby is going to get healthier and stronger more quickly
if it has mother's milk. There's no substitute for it.
The same thing is true with God's Word. There's no substitute for
it. That's why we preach almost always
verse by verse through God's Word. Because there's no substitute
for it. So let's be laying these things
aside and desiring the sincere milk of God's Word. And that's
just exactly what you'll do if you've tasted God's grace. Look
at verse 3. If so be you've tasted that the
Lord is gracious. If God's given you a taste of
his grace, he's whetted your appetite and you want more. You want more of that. Give me
some more just like that. God's grace. God's given you
new taste buds in the new birth. And now you love God's Word.
Where at one time, the Bible just didn't really hold much
interest to you. But now you love it. You love to hear God's
Word. You need God's Word. Well, what
happened? You tasted God's grace. That's
what happened. Grace is tasted. You don't just read about grace
in a book and then understand it. Grace is tasted. And when you taste something,
it becomes part of you. Grace is experienced. David said
in Psalm 34, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Taste
his grace. And if you've tasted God's grace,
you'll be a gracious person. Because it's become part of you.
You've tasted it. It's become part of you. Well, it'll come
out on you. You'll be a gracious person. If you've tasted God's
love for sinners, You'll be a loving person. If you've tasted God's
kindness to sinners, you'll be kind to others. If you've tasted
that God's forgiven your sin, you'll be forgiven. You just
won't be able to help it. And you'll be laying down these
other things because they get in the way if you've tasted more
grace. You'll be just laying them down.
So the first prescription Peter gives us is the Word of God,
the written Word. The second prescription he gives
us is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the incarnate word. Verse 4,
he says, to whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed
of men, but chosen of God and precious. Now this laying aside
and coming, they're both continual, aren't they? Neither one of them
is a once for all thing. We're constantly laying aside
the sin and we're constantly coming to Christ. God didn't
just say, well, I came to Christ, you know, how many years ago?
No. Well, I mean, I did. But I come to Him again today.
We keep coming to Him. Repentance. That's not a once
in a lifetime thing. Well, you know, I repented of
that and now, you know, I've done it. No. I had to repent
again today. Repentance is a constant thing.
Looking is a constant thing. It's not, well, I looked at Jesus,
you know. No. Looking. unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. We continually look to Him. We're
continually believing Him. Yes, how many ever years ago
it was, I don't know exactly when. There was a moment, though,
I believed. But I keep believing. Well, I believe Him again today.
I'm just awed by the Gospel again today. These are things we're
always doing. A believer comes to a person
We're not coming to a doctrine or to denomination. We come to
a person. We're laying aside malice and
coming to the love of God in Christ Jesus. We're laying aside
guile and coming to Christ, who's the truth of God. We're laying
aside hypocrisies and coming to Christ as we are. I'm not
pretending. I'm a sinner who needs a Savior.
That's the way we're coming to Christ, without hypocrisy. We're
laying aside envies and coming to Christ who not only gives
us all things, but is all things. We're laying aside evil speaking
and coming to Christ to hear the gracious words which proceed
out of his mouth. We're laying aside the flesh
and coming to Christ. And Peter describes Christ as
a stone so we can see the strength of Christ to whom we're coming.
He's going to last. throughout all of eternity, He's
going to last. You can count on Him. You can
depend on Him. So you'll keep coming to Him.
And we come to Christ, first of all, for life. Peter says
that Christ is the living stone. He has life in Himself. Christ
has eternal life because He is eternal life. And we come to
Him for life. He's the fountain of life to
His people. And we keep coming to Him. Because not only does
He give life, He sustains life. We come to Him for life. This
is just the plain. If you're dead in sin, come to
Christ for life. Life's in Him. Now, men by nature,
they're going to reject Him every time. This word Peter uses here,
disallow. It means to deny the force of,
or to deny the truth of, or to not deny the validity of someone. Well, of course, that's what
our nature is going to do. Our nature is malice and guile and
hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings. Of course, we're going
to disallow and reject Christ, not come to Him, because He's
against our nature. He's against the nature of the
flesh. That's why Isaiah said, who has
believed, I report. Well, nobody will in the flesh
unless God does something for them in grace. The nature of
man will always deny Christ. But now listen. The Father chose
Him. The Father chose His Son to be
the Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
first elect. Peter says here, He's elect. That's God's elect. He's the
first elect. And all of His people were elected
in Him. God chose the Savior. He chose the Son to be the Savior
of His people. And all of His other people were
chosen in Christ. He's the first elect. And He's
precious. He's precious to the Father.
This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Do you hear
Him? He's precious to the Father. He's precious to the Father because
He's His only Son. He's precious to the Father.
He's the only Savior. Something that's unique, something
that's rare is precious. This is the only Savior. That's
why we're coming to Him. He's the only Savior. Christ
is the only cure for our disease of sin. That's why we're coming
to Him. A believer has come to Christ for the cleansing of our
sin. But we keep coming to Him daily. For daily cleansing, we keep
coming to Him. We come to Him for the ability
and the desire to continue laying down these sins. So Christ is
the prescription. And then third, the cure. The cure is this, that we are
built upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 5. 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. Now Christ is the
cornerstone. The whole building is built on
the cornerstone. And Christ supports the whole
building. He supports the whole church
and he holds the whole church together. These Jews, they love
to brag about how beautiful the temple was, and I'm sure it was
a very impressive building. But the Church of God that you
see is much more beautiful than that. The Church of God is made
up of living stone. Not dead materials like that
temple over there in Jerusalem. God's church is founded upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, not those great big square stones. I see
on TV, they just keep showing these stones, you know, they're
big, great big square things. That's what Solomon's temple
was built on. Well, I guess that's kind of impressive. But that's
not impressive compared to the cornerstone of God's church.
God's own son. God's church is eternal. That
temple has been built and torn down and rebuilt I don't know
how many times. God's church has never been rebuilt. Just
one time is all it took. Built on that cornerstone. The
church of God is a spiritual building. That temple, that's
just a physical, earthly building and it's going away. God's church
won't. It's a spiritual, eternal building.
The church of God is held together by God the Holy Spirit. That
temple is held together with mortar. That's why it's falling
apart. God's church is not falling apart. It's held together by
the power of the Holy Spirit. That temple over there in Jerusalem,
the inhabitant of that temple has been religion. Now over the
years, sometimes it's been true religion. Sometimes it's been
false religion. But religion is about the only
thing that's ever inhabited that temple. God himself is the inhabitant
of his church. This is where God dwells in his
people. God's church is much more beautiful
in that building over in Jerusalem. And everyone who has come to
Christ, who is in Christ, who has been built upon Christ, is
made like Christ. Peter lists his three attributes
here, but we're made like Christ. We're made in him, made just
like him. We have his attributes. The first
one is this. We've been made alive. Christ
is the living stone, and everyone who believes on Christ and has
been built on Christ has been made alive. Peter says Christ
is the living stone, and you also are lively stones. You have
been given life. You've been made alive in Christ. This is life. As opposed to the
deadness that we read about there in verse 1. That's deadness.
This is life. Being given spiritual life. And
we keep coming to Christ because of life. is in him and he's the
antidote for our disease of sin. We've been made alive. Second,
believers have been made holy. Peter calls us a holy priesthood.
Not like Aaron's priesthood. They showed right off the bat
that wasn't a holy priesthood. Just read about it. This is a
holy priesthood. Everyone who is in Christ Jesus
has been made truly holy, as holy as Christ himself. And just
like every other priest, we have sacrifices to offer. Those Old
Testament priests offered sacrifices all the time, many times a day.
Well, we have sacrifices to offer too. No blood sacrifice. Christ, our great high priest,
He offered the only blood sacrifice that was ever required to put
away sins. And we don't have to offer blood
sacrifices anymore. Our sins have been paid for.
But we do offer spiritual sacrifices. We offer praise. We offer thanksgiving. We offer prayer. We offer our
love to God and love for one another. Those are spiritual
sacrifices. And we offer those to God out
of a thankful and grateful heart. And God accepts those sacrifices.
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't ever think God accepts
our spiritual sacrifices because we did a good job offering them.
He offers them because He sees them in His Son. Because He sees
us in His Son. We've been made holy as Christ
is. And third, everyone who's built
on Christ, who believes on Christ, who's in Christ, they've been
made not guilty. Not guilty. Whoever believes
Christ, Peter says, shall not be confounded. They'll be found
not guilty. Christ is the stone. He's that
great stone. We hide in Him for safety and
security. And that great day of judgment
will be found not guilty. Not guilty. Because we've been
made the righteousness of God in Him. When that overflowing
scourge passes through, sweeps away everything in its path,
the only thing that will stand is the Lord Jesus Christ. And
those in Him who've been made righteous in Him. And that overflowing
scourge can't touch you. Not if you're in Christ. Because
the law can't touch you. The law has no desire to touch
you. You've been made righteous in Christ. Now hide in Christ. Come to this stone. Rest in Him. Build upon Him. Strive like Paul
said. I strive to be found in Him.
This is a tried cornerstone. He's been tried by the law and
found perfect. That's where I want to be then,
in Him. He's been tried and found perfect. Satan tried Him. Couldn't find anything in Him.
He won't find anything in you either if you're in Christ. And
the Father tried Him. And the Father said, I'm well
pleased. The Father said, sit thou at
my right hand, for I'll make your enemies your footstool,
because I'm well pleased. Not that it matters a great deal,
but I am too. I'm well pleased in the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm well pleased in salvation
in Him. I wouldn't want it any other
way. And I wouldn't want to be any place else other than in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the prescription. He's the
cure. Alright, let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank
Thee for this thy word, how we thank thee for the forgiveness
of our sin in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's so obvious we need
thy forgiveness, and we're so thankful that you've forgiven
us through the sacrifice and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we pray that you
give us the power, the spirit, the desire to be laying down
all these things of the flesh, and to keep coming to Christ,
to keep looking to Him, to keep exalting His name, to keep believing
Him. He is our all and in all, and
we're thankful. Father, we pray that You'd bless
this Word to Your glory and to the hearts of Your people. For
it's in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.