Good morning. We are very, very
glad to be here and appreciate your all's hospitality and friendship
and love. I bring greetings from home,
from Hurricane Row Grace Church, from my pastor, Frank, from Janet,
from all the congregation there. I hope you all know how dear
you are to us. We love you and we keep you all in our prayers
regularly. We think of you often. Not just we, I. Very, very glad
to be here worshiping with you together. Looking forward to
having Rex come preach for us next week. We're looking forward
to that. Turn with me, if you would, this morning to 1 Peter
2. 1 Peter. chapter two, and the focus of
our message this morning is going to be in the first eight verses.
And I was sitting there thinking during the special while we were
singing, have you ever sat and thought about how many assumptions
we make? Just the assumptions that we just live in all the
time. The kids ask, you know, what are we gonna do this afternoon?
I assume we're going out to eat. We have all these plans. I have
plans for right now. I have plans for after service.
I have plans for tomorrow. I have plans scheduled out. We
have summer vacation plans. I got plans scheduled out years
from now, right? All these assumptions that we make, and none of those
are in our hands. This afternoon's, this moment's
not in our hands. This afternoon's certainly not
in our hands. All these assumptions that we make, I know we have
to live in time. I understand that. But we make
all these assumptions about things that we just do not know. We
just, we just don't know. A couple of things we do know. We know that we're not here by
accident right this minute. Every single one of us was called
to be here. My family was called to be here. Everyone's sitting
here. We were all, we're all brought here on purpose. My kids
may believe that we were brought here because I set the alarm
and we got them ready and we brought them here. just means
to an end. We're brought here on purpose
to listen right now. We know that. We know the Lord
said where two or three are gathered, he'll be here with us. We know
that we prayed this morning that we'd be able to worship, that
he'd grant us the spirit that we can worship in spirit and
truth. These things we know. All the
assumptions that we make, these things we know. We're here right
now on purpose. Here in verse seven of chapter
two unto you, therefore, which believe he is precious. This we know he is precious,
whether I see that or not. Well, you're sitting there seeing
right now that Christ is precious or not. We know this. He is precious. He is worthy.
He is valuable. He is honored. He's earned that
from who he is, from his title, from his self, from his presence,
from who Christ is. He's earned that from his work,
right? Living a sinless, perfect life,
dying a sinless, perfect death, taking the sins of his people
in his body on the tree. He is precious and he's earned
that. Whether we see it or not, this we know. Christ is worthy.
This we know, from this verse alone, if we stopped right there,
from this verse alone, we know that a precious, a worthy, an
honorable, a precious savior, mediator exists. This we know. And based on this,
how it starts, unto you, therefore, which believe. That's evidence
that today he's revealing himself to sinners, even today. We talked
about that on the drive down, didn't we? That if the Lord wasn't
revealing himself to sinners today, he'd already wrapped this
world up. We have hope based on this word. This we know. I can make all
the assumptions I want to about later on today. This I know based
on this word, unto you therefore which believe. He's still calling
sinners to his throne of mercy even today. A worthy savior. He's worthy, and he's willing
to make himself known to us. What a gift that is. And careful
with that word willing, how I mean that. I don't mean he wants to.
I don't mean that at all. That's not what that word willing
means. Willing means he's doing it. He's making his will known.
He's making himself known to sinners. What an encouragement
that is. This we know. This we know. He's
encouraging saints today. He hasn't stopped. This we know,
all those assumptions. This we know, all barriers, all
barriers to God Almighty, He's removed. There's no barrier between
God and man because of Christ. He's removed those barriers.
Paul talks, or Peter talks, and we'll look at that about the
sincere milk of the scriptures, how we add all... God has removed
no barriers to his throne of mercy because justice has been
satisfied. He's removed all barriers that
a sinner right now sitting there can come to the throne of mercy
and our sinful self says, oh, but wait, I, and put in whatever
you want to after that. Oh, but I, oh, but I'm, and there's
plenty of reasons, oh, but I. Left to myself, left to my natural
thought, a little bit of wisdom says, oh, I have no business
coming before the throne of God. That's Mount Sinai. I have no
business coming before the holy mountain. But Christ says, come, sinner,
come. All the barriers have been removed. This we know. We see
all that. Right there in that verse, unto
you, therefore, which believe he is precious. Oh, what a rich
word that is, precious. Peter's writing this whole letter,
all five verses, or all five chapters, excuse me. It's a general
letter to all of God's children scattered abroad, scattered throughout. Look back a page there in chapter
one. First Peter chapter one, 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, elect unto obedience
and resprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace be unto
you and peace be multiplied. That's who this, This letter,
these five chapters, this one letter, that's who it's written
to. It's written to us. It's written to strangers, strangers.
Not necessarily that they're strangers to each other, but
strangers, strangers to this world. You ever feel like a stranger? You ever feel like a stranger
to this world? Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that's a good thing
because this letter is written to me. Am I a stranger to this
world? You ever feel like a stranger to yourself? The spirit and the
flesh war against each other, right? They don't know each other.
They don't mix. They don't relate. They're inconsistent.
Flesh doesn't change. You ever feel like a stranger
to yourself? Then this letter's to you. This letter's to me.
This is a letter of encouragement, all five chapters. This is a
letter of encouragement to us. Through the five chapters of
this letter, Peter encourages us to not give up. He encourages
us. If you were to go home and read
all five chapters together, you'll see he encourages us to be strong.
He encourages us to be holy. He encourages us to be submissive.
He encourages us to turn from evil. He encourages us to rejoice
in the Lord's will, even when that's in deep trial. That's
hard, to rejoice in the Lord's will. All of these aren't just
hard, all of these are impossible outside of Christ. To rejoice
in the Lord's will, even when that involves suffering. To live
for God's glory. That was in our song that Don
wrote, living not for self. To live for God's glory. To readily
encourage and provide for each other, the other brethren. These
are things Peter's encouraging us to do and to cast all of our
cares upon God. These are things that we can't
do outside of Christ. Why? Everything that Peter mentions
that's supposed to be an encouragement to me, it's unnatural to my own
way of thinking. This is unnatural. How is this
supposed to be an encouragement to me? I can't be holy. I can't
be strong. I can't be submissive. I might
be able to convince you that I am. I might be able to show
it for an afternoon to make you think that I'm all these things,
but I can't be. I can't be in my heart. I can't
rejoice in Lord's will during suffering outside of Him. How
is this an encouragement to me? And why should I do these things? It's unnatural to my own wisdom
to be submissive. It's unnatural to my own wisdom
to rejoice in trial. It's unnatural. Adam showed this,
and we've shown it every day since. It's unnatural to desire
God's glory over my own. That's not the nature that we
have. Outside of a supernatural work of God himself, these things
will never come naturally, or they'll never even make sense
to me. The world calls Christ foolishness, right? So why? Peter writes this. What's my
reason? My motivation in the history of time from day one
until today, all of man's wisdom wrapped up into a ball has come
up with only two ways. And all the time from Adam till
now, we've only come up with two ways to motivate people,
the carrot and the stick and a donkey, right? Teach a donkey,
the donkey knows, I can move forward and I can get the carrot,
or I can be stubborn and I can feel pain, I can get whipped,
right? Even the donkey knows that. Same as God said to Paul,
why kick ye against the pricks? That's all natural man knows,
is the carrot or the stick. And we even know that our nature
is just as stubborn and dumb as a donkey. We know that. We've
set up our entire society around that. Every country in the world
has set up their society as carrot or stick. Either work hard and
get a paycheck or you're under slavery. That's it. Those are
the only two methods that we've ever come up with to motivate
a person. So what's our motivation? Is
this our motivation before God? That we're going to do these
things to receive a reward from him? or that we're gonna try
to do these things and not receive punishment? Is that how lowly
it is? I'm asking a question I know
the answer to. Yes, that's how lowly we think of God in our
sinful selves, that we think he's no better than carrot or stick.
First of all, that we could do any of these things, that speaks
to our own arrogance. Secondly, that we think so lowly
of God, that he would reward us for our piddly, sinful works,
or that by doing these, we would somehow, this is good enough
to avoid wrath, that this is holy, that that's good. What
arrogance. Peter encourages us to do all
this because of Christ, because of Christ. When we close our
prayer and we say in Christ's name, for Christ's sake, that's
what we're saying, because of Christ. Because of Christ, we
ask these things. Because of Christ is Peter's
call, motivation to us to do these things. Peter encourages
us for Christ's sake, because of Christ. Here in chapter one
still, and we will read through the verses, through verses three
through 12, Peter reminds us of what God has done in Christ. What has God done in Christ?
In Christ, he has birthed us. In Christ, he has called us to
a lively hope, a lively hope that's not based on carrot and
stick of our sinful mind, but rather to the living hope that's
in a living God that's in Christ. He calls us to this lively hope. He's given us an inheritance.
This inheritance never runs out. It's inexhaustible. It never
runs out. It never decays. It's a pure inheritance in Christ.
He keeps us. He keeps us, even in our trial,
even in our trials, even in our failures, which are many. And in those trials and failures,
He teaches us. These are all the things Peter
says in these verses we're going to read. He teaches us. God gives
us a love for Him. Can you imagine? A dead sinner
being given life to love back. All good and perfect gifts come
from him, right? So if it's love, pure, real love
to God, that's got to be a gift from God because all good and
perfect gifts come from above. He saves our soul. He provides
all of this, these special supernatural gifts. that Peter says even the
angels desire to look into these things. Even the angels don't
understand. Even the angels... Special supernatural
gifts that Peter is telling us about and that we're here together,
that even the angels desire to look into. Peter reminds us that
God did all of this. Why? As a reward for something
that I did? No, no. Something that he has
to do? Not at all. If we stop for dinner
on the way home, and Stacey and I provide a meal for our children,
and my children were to roll their eyes and say, well, mom
and dad just did that because they have to, how offensive is
that? Because I have to? Haven't I shown myself to be
a little bit more kind than that at least, right? Because I have
to? Would I be thought of so lowly
as for someone to say that I'm only feeding my children because
I have to? Am I so base as that? And that's a poor example compared
to how great our God is. Would God do these things for
us because of an obligation to us, because He has to? Do we
think so lowly of Him as that? Outside of a work of God, that's
exactly how lowly we imagine God to be. You thought I was
one such as you all, and He's not. His ways are much higher
than our ways." That's offensive. What does 1 Peter say? 1 Peter
1 verse 3, what does he say? Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again. Why did God do this in Christ? All these things that Peter listed,
why did God do this in Christ? according to his abundant mercy,
according to his much mercy. I was thinking about much. I
was imagining trying to look at a quantity. Like in glory,
Book of Revelation says there's going to be a number that no
man can number, right? That's how they're talking about mercy.
That's how Peter talks about mercy. He just says much mercy
because you look at it and you try to put a number on it. Yes,
hell, trillion. Trillions and trillions. A number
just doesn't do it, so he just says, much, much mercy. According to his much mercy,
hath he begotten us again? That's why, because God is who
he says he is. He's done it according to his
much mercy. He does all this according to his own goodness.
Let's read through 1 Peter here, chapter one. Let's read through
verses three through 12. Peter says, blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his
much mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. These
are the things that he has done. Unto a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, this is the
pure inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you who are kept. He keeps us, right?
For you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. wherein ye greatly rejoice. Though now for a season, if need
be, you're in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the
trial of your faith being much more precious than that of gold
that perishes, though it be tried with 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 for him. In
whom, though now you see him not yet believing, ye 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 these things God has done in Christ, therefore, therefore,
because God is good out of his much mercy, because he has rebirthed
us from death, from spiritual death to spiritual life, according
to his much goodness, therefore, Peter encourages us through the
five chapters to be strong, to be holy, 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 each
other, and to cast all of our needs and cares upon God because
of who Christ is. That's why. What encouragement
that we'll focus on today is found back over in chapter two,
Peter encourages us in verse one to lay aside all malice,
lay aside all guile, lay aside all hypocrisies, all envies,
all evil speakings. Therefore, that's what he says
in verse one, wherefore, because in Christ, God has provided you
spiritual life and salvation and the countless gifts that
Peter mentioned in chapter one, therefore, we are to lay aside
these things. Why do I have to be encouraged
to work, to labor, to lay these aside? Young folks in here, look around. There are a lot of folks in here
with gray hair. My hair didn't use to... A lot of folks in here
with gray hair. A lot of folks have been coming
here for years and years and years and years. A lot of folks
have been coming and listening to sound instruction and sound
gospel. A lot of folks have been pointed
to Christ for decades. Why do we still have to be encouraged
to lay these aside? We still have to. Listen to Hebrews
chapter 12. Paul 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, looking unto Jesus.
How do we run that race set before us? Looking unto Jesus, that's
how. That sin, which does so easily beset us, engulf us. And just as the strangers throughout
the world, just as us, we have to be called to remembrance,
to lay these aside because of what Christ has done. Why does
this sin so easily beset me? Didn't Peter say in chapter one
that I was born of God? Yeah, we are. Born of God, incorruptible,
born of God. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
five. Why then do I have to be reminded
to lay this sin aside, which does so easily beset me? 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, and the Spirit against the flesh.
These are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye cannot
do the things that ye would." We talked about that on the way
in the door, didn't we? Cannot do the things that we would.
But if you be led of the Spirit, you're not under the law. Now,
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. These are the
works of the flesh. adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revelings, and such like. Which so easily beset us, because
we're not rid of that nature. We have it and we're born with
it. Of the witch I tell you before, Because I've also told you in
time past that they which do such things shall not inherit
the kingdom of God." We all have that. Oh, but here's the good
news. But the fruit of the Spirit is,
oh, there's hope. There's hope. The fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. They that
are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts. And Paul says in Romans, 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? It's not a surprise that we are
a sinful nature, although that has to be revealed to us. We're
born so spiritually dead, we don't even see that. That has
to be revealed to us. that we are spiritually dead,
that this is our nature that we're born with, the idolatry,
the witchcraft, the hatred, the murders, that's us. We're given
eyes to see that, that should not come as a surprise. The good news is, right? Here's
the, I don't want to use the word surprise. Here's the good
news is that the fruit of the spirit is there because of Christ,
because of God, because of what he has done, because he births
his children again in that second birth. Ah, therefore there's
hope. While we are in this world, we have two separate natures
within us, two separate natures. We are two separate natures.
One born of flesh and one born of God, and these two, the scripture
said, are contrary one to another. That's why we have to be reminded
to stir up, to stir up remembrance. This flesh cannot be quieted.
It cannot be changed. It is. It can't be quieted or
changed, not until death. But by his grace, we can look
to Christ. Just as the Israelites, right,
look to the brazen serpent, look and live. Is that a silly thing to say
to a dead person? Not spiritually, no. The amazing thing is not
only that God says, you can look and live, that he
would open that door for rebels, should just put us all on cloud
nine, that he would open that door for rebels, that he would
allow rebels to walk through Sinners, he commands us to walk
through, right? He commands sinners to come to
him. There's no barrier. He's removed
the barrier. There's no barrier. That's what
Peter calls us to do. He calls us to remember Christ
and see Christ. Verse 1 says to lay aside malice
and guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings. See
how Christ took Adam's, right? He took Adam's malice. In his
body, on the tree, he took Adam's and all of his children's, he
took their malice, Adam's malice towards God. When he ate that
fruit to become like God and to forcibly take his throne,
that's what Adam was doing, that's malice. His guile to God, when
Adam thought himself wise and cunning, he thought he'd trick
God and become like unto God. Adam's hypocrisy and our hypocrisy. When Adam walked with God in
the cool of the day, in tenderness and as a friend, and then tried
to overthrow him. Hypocrisy. Envies. Adam ate the fruit envious of
God's authority over him. Evil speaking. Adam said in his
heart the exact same thing that Lucifer said, I will be like
God. Evil speakings. Christ took these
in his body on the tree. Though the scriptures say of
Christ, in whose mouth was found no guile, Christ's perfect sacrifice,
yet he took that guile in his body on the tree and put it away
behind God's back as far as the east is from the west. He bore
it away as the perfect sacrifice. And with the sacrifice of his
perfect self, Christ removed any barrier that would have made
it impure for God to permit sinful man into his presence, would
have made it unjust, not right. The message of this world is,
accept Jesus. But the question that must be
answered is, how will God accept me? Only in Christ, only in Christ,
he took the sin away so that it's right and holy and just
for a sinner to come before a holy throne. through Christ, right,
through his mercy, because justice has been satisfied. So I come before the throne of
God. with no malice and no guile and no hypocrisies and no envy
and no evil speaking. And because of Christ's sacrifice,
these are removed from us before God's throne so that we can come
in honesty. And the scripture says, sinner,
do come in honesty before God, your father, through Christ.
Come before him, not hiding who you are. Come before him exactly
who you are, right? Confessing your sin before him,
confessing who you are before him. not making a deal, begging
hopelessly for mercy. Scripture says there is hope.
There is hope. Come, as Peter says, as a little
child with no malice and no guile, come honestly and beg mercy.
We don't hide who we are. We come without hypocrisy. And
because Justice has been served because of Christ's sacrifice. There's no malice and no guile
and no evil speakings There's no inconsistency between God
and man. It's right in Christ for God
to accept man It's not inconsistent with his holiness. It's not inconsistent
with his mercy with his with his much mercy. It's not inconsistent
for God the Holy Father to to Command men into his presence.
In Christ is not inconsistent, because justice has been satisfied.
There is no guile. There is no hypocrisy. There
is no malice. There is no evil speaking. There is no reluctance
to save on God's part, because justice has been served. Justice
has been served, and righteousness has been given in Christ to his
people. There's no reluctance on God's
part to save a sinner. No reluctance. It's consistent
with who he is. Outside of Christ really being
perfect, really taking my sin, really being the son of God,
really dying, really crucified, and really raised from the dead.
Outside of that, anything we talk about here is full of hypocrisy. We're lowering God from who he
is to say, accept something that's less than holy. when he charges
even the angels with folly. We're lowering God from who he
is to say, no, no, he'll accept something that's less than holy.
That message is full of hypocrisy and death. That cannot be how lowly we would
think of God to say that. Justice is served when Christ
has made sin for his people and his people are made the righteousness
of God in him. Justice is served and there's
no hypocrisy, there's no guile, there's no inconsistency, there's
no malice. Can you imagine there's no malice
from God to me? Was it Bunyan that wrote the
book, Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God? Is that Bunyan?
Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God. God's not angry with his
children. because of Christ's work, no
malice. Therefore, if Christ took my
guile and my malice and my envy and my hypocrisy and my evil
speaking in his body and bore it away on the tree so that I
can approach unto God Almighty without them, then me reflecting
that and approaching you without them should be a joy, right? It's not easy. It's impossible. It's impossible. Outside of Christ. But maybe
I could reflect it. Maybe, maybe, and that's what
Peter calls us to remember. Maybe I could reflect Christ's
goodness in my dealings with you. Because of his goodness
to me, because he took my malice, maybe for a minute I can not
show malice. Because he took my guile, maybe
for, it should be a joy for me to not show guile, for me to
not show hypocrisy, it should be. And that's what Peter calls
us to remember. Is that naive? To go about my day without malice
and without guile and without hypocrisy, without evil speaking,
in the wisdom of my flesh. Yeah, that's naive. But spiritual
wisdom calls us, in verse 2, Spiritualism calls us here, chapter
two, verse two, as newborn babes, as newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word that you may grow thereby. And here's the
sincere milk. So is this naive? Yeah, but we're
to come as newborn babes, desiring the milk of the word without
anything added, without anything taken away, that God loved a
people. out of his abundant mercy. He
loved people. And in Christ, he saves them.
He births them. He makes them righteous. He calls
them. He provides an inheritance, and
God does all this in justice that is perfectly consistent
with both justice and his much, much abundant mercy. No inconsistency. That's the sincere milk. And
as we talked earlier, when my flesh says, yeah, Yeah, but I
don't have enough faith. I don't pray enough. I don't
read enough. I'm an embarrassment in the way that I act. All that's
true. Whatever it is, I don't love God like I should. I don't
either. That doesn't taste like the sincere
milk of the scriptures. That doesn't taste at all like
sincere milk when I start adding in but I. Peter encourages us
to be spiritually wise, that is as newborn babes, staying
right there on the sincere milk of the word and worshiping this
God, Jehovah, who provides. Jehovah who provided, Jehovah
who provides, and Jehovah who will provide. We stay right there,
worship that God. Let's look here in verses four
through six here, 1 Peter 2. Peter says, to whom coming, to Christ, 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 this sin
that does so easily beset us? The sin that I exhibit through
the malice and the guile and the hypocrisies of the evil speaking,
and the sin that you don't see, the sin of unbelief. Lord, help my unbelief. By his
grace, I do believe. Lord, help my unbelief. How do
I lay that aside, this sin which does so easily beset me? By looking
to Christ, by coming to Christ, not only to the idea, the philosophy,
the structure of Christ, not only to the idea of Christ, but
actually coming to Christ himself. Not a dead cornerstone, not a
church creed, not a set of common beliefs. And that could be a cornerstone
to any relationship, right? I mean, we wouldn't have to talk very
far. We all live in roughly the same area of the country. We've
all been raised roughly the same way. We wouldn't have to talk
very much that we don't find something that is in common that
we could build the cornerstone of a relationship with. This
is not going to make me popular. But when I went to University
of Kentucky as a freshman, I was not a University of Kentucky
basketball fan. Right? Told you it's not going to make
me popular. I always have been and always will be a Michigan
fan. You can imagine that made me
very unpopular with all the freshmen at UK. I was friends with some
of the basketball players and I rooted for Michigan, still
do. But at Todd's Road, I met Claire Sharon and Annie who are
from Michigan. And we built a relationship like
that, right? So I could go over to his house
and watch Michigan basketball play. Because we built that cornerstone. That was the cornerstone at that
time. That was the cornerstone of our relationship. And we together,
like, we could build a cornerstone, me to you, pretty quickly. We
can find something that we relate on that's important to us and
we can build a cornerstone. That's not a lively stone. Peter
says, come to Christ. Not the idea of Christ, not a
set of doctrines, not even tulip. That's not the basis of our cornerstone.
Our cornerstone is to whom TULIP points. TULIP describes the attributes
of Christ. Christ is our cornerstone. Not
a dead cornerstone, a living, a living stone is what Peter
says. What a gift that God gives us
to call to remembrance that cornerstone, our relationship with each other. It's not based on the dead cold
stone of doctrine or tradition. It's the living stone of Christ
himself. That's the cornerstone of our
relationship with God and our relationship with each other.
The eternal Christ who lives before the foundation of the
world, John 1 says, in the beginning was the word, that's Christ.
The word was with God, the word was God. The same was in the
beginning with God. Christ who was, Christ who is. John 1.14 says, and the word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. And Christ who ever liveth. In
Hebrews 7, Paul writes, wherefore he is able also to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth. E-T-H, liveth right now to make
intercession for them. Christ who ever lives before
the foundation of the world right now and going forward, that living
stone, not the cold stone, the living stone that in our text
here in verse six says, wherefore also it is contained in the scripture.
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect and precious. That Christ who was foretold
in the scripture Christ who is foretold in the scripture in
the animal skins given to Adam and Eve, right? Christ who is
foretold in Ark, in the Ark of Noah, which is Christ, and the
Ark of the Covenant, which is Christ, Christ the rock from
which the water flowed, Christ in every sacrifice. I would imagine
billions, if not trillions of sacrifices. Sacrifice after sacrifice
after sacrifice foretold in the scriptures of Christ. Christ,
the living cornerstone. The living cornerstone. And he
calls us, bear with me a second. He calls us a house, stones together, built as a house together. And I thought
when I was reading through there, something that kind of comforted
me. Yeah, in verse five, 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. And it was a comfort to me to
think. He makes us living stones and the strength of a living
stone, and I'm thankful. But he calls us a house built
together. Aren't stones a whole lot more useful stacked together?
Does that make sense? Aren't we better together? Isn't the public worship, isn't
this a rich time together? You know, for the one time in
my week that I'm not a stranger. living stones stacked together,
building the house. And here in verse seven, still
of 1 Peter 2, verse seven, begins, unto you therefore, which believe,
he is precious. Here, the word precious denotes
a meaning of, as I mentioned before, of great value and also
of honor. And this is found only in Christ.
You think of gold, you think of money, things that have great
value. It actually doesn't have any
great value in and of itself. It represents something with
great value, right? All the gold in Fort Knox, just a rock dug
out of the ground, right? Gold has no value in and of itself.
It represents the value, right? It's what we base our money system
on so that you can put supposedly the value of labor to something.
But gold in and of itself has no value. It has no honor in
and of itself. Precious, that word precious
applies only to Christ, something that has both great honor and
great value in and of itself. Christ doesn't represent something
of great value. Christ is the great value. Christ himself is great value.
This precious can only mean Christ, who has both the value and the
honor in and of himself. because of who Christ is and
because of what he's done, because of his title and his work, because
of who he is as the son of God and as the savior of sinners,
as the slain lamb before the foundation of the world. Because
of who he is, he is precious. And I think we started the service
saying, he is precious. And while I'm addressing that,
turn with me, if you would, to Isaiah 43. He is precious. Whether I see that, admit that,
or care about that or not, He is precious. Whether I ever recognize
Him for who He is or whether I don't, regardless of that,
He is precious. He is full of honor and value
and glory in and of Himself. But what a gift He gives. He
gives faith to believe, unto you therefore which believe.
He gives faith to believe, and to whom faith is granted, They
see him as precious for themselves. What a gift that is that he saw
fit to share who he is with sinners. And then because of his great
worth, his great work, and his great worth, because of who he
is, because he is precious, because of his much mercy, he makes his
people precious. Look here in Isaiah 43, let's
read through verses one through four. But now thus saith the
Lord that created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel.
Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name. Thou art mine. When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. Through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt 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 Ziba for thee, since thou was precious in my sight. Thou hast been honorable, and
I have loved thee. Therefore will I give men for
thee and people for thy life." Well, we can stay right there,
can't we? He is precious. He makes his people precious. He says, since thou, sinner,
since thou was precious in my sight, and I believe that however the
Lord sees things, that's how they really, really are. Since
thou was precious in my sight, I would be precious to him. Thou
has been honorable. This sinner would be honorable
to the holy God, and I have loved thee. only in Christ, because
he is precious. Because he is precious, this
sinner is precious before God Almighty in him. And I'm almost reluctant to say
that because my physical self says, right, that's a heavy statement,
that I would be acceptable before a holy God. But that's not me
saying it. Don't take anything I say. That's
what scripture says, right? That's right out of Isaiah. Since
thou wast precious in my sight, thou has been honorable and I
have loved thee. Christ makes his people honorable. Precious
in the sight of holy God the Father. And Peter says, sinner
come. Come to this throne, come to
Christ. And Peter says, Children of God who do see Christ for
who he is, remember what he has done, reflect what he has done.
Since he has taken our malice and our guile and our evil speakings,
our hypocrisies, turn aside and reflect what he has done amongst
ourselves and others because of who Christ is. Me, the sinner,
precious. Honorable, he makes us precious
in his sight because of who Christ is. Again, in closing, he's the
son of God because of who he is. He's the sinless sacrifice,
the sinless manifestation of the word, the one who selflessly
gave himself as the perfect sacrifice. He calls himself our brother,
our brother, the firstborn among many brethren. He's the one that
makes us to be called precious. Because we're given his name,
the Lord our righteousness. That's what the scripture calls
us, the Lord our righteousness. Wherein shall she be called? The Lord our righteousness. He
makes us precious and acceptable before him. With no barriers,
with no reluctance to save, with no reason to not save. Sinners
coming before a holy God in Christ, justice is served and righteousness
is given, it would be unjust for God to not accept a sinner
who comes before him for Christ's sake. It would be unjust, and
we would never, certainly never put that on a holy God. Let's
read again here in verse seven to close of 1 Peter 2, verse
seven, unto you therefore which believe, He is precious. Amen. Let's pray together. Our Father, we pray together
that your name was glorified in this place today and that
you go with us through our afternoon and our week. Put your word in
our heart. Let us, through the week, continue
to hear a word from you and be reminded of of all the wonderful
things that you've seen fit to do for your children, for your
great namesake, for us to be reminded of Christ, who is precious, and
that because of you and because of Christ's work, therefore,
we're precious at your side. Thank you isn't the right word. We say, praise your holy name.
And by your grace, we do. We pray for others that are meeting
even now that your name be glorified wherever you see fit and that
you take care of your flock as you promised and as you always
have. We pray this thankfully in Christ's name, for his sake
alone, amen.