If you will, turn back with me
now to 1 Peter chapter 2. This chapter is dealing with
men and women who have been born of God. He says, being born again. I read it to you a few moments
ago. 1 Peter 1.23. And then he begins chapter 2
this way, as newborn babes. 1 Peter 2.2. So let that be understood that
this chapter, though it may deal with other things, is primarily
dealing with men and women who have been born of God. Now the scripture said, except
a man be born again, he cannot see, that is he cannot perceive
the kingdom of God. It is an absolute impossibility
for a man to understand these mysteries except it be given
him of God to understand them. Isn't that what he told his disciples? They said, why do you speak in
parables? Don't you know these Pharisees are offended when you
speak in parables? And he said, it's given unto
you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but unto
them it's not given. It's not given to everybody to
understand these things, nor is everybody born of God. not born of God. And I know from
experience as a young believer trying to communicate truth to
a man who's not born of God and fully expecting him to perceive
what I'm telling him and he's just looking at me like I'm from
another planet. So this is what this chapter's
talking about, those who are born of God. And unto all such
men and women, he says this in chapter two, verse nine, you
are a chosen generation. You're not here by luck. You're
not here by circumstance. You're here because I chose you
to be here. You understand these things because
I chose you. God has from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation. You are a chosen generation,
and he said you are a royal priesthood. You're a holy nation. You're
a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him
who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which
in time past were not a people. but are now the people of God,
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Now, let me just talk to you for a minute before we get into
this message. Salvation, the new birth, sanctification, baptism,
the name Christian, and I could go on and on, are all words we
used when we were kids growing up in false religion. We used
every one of those terms. Words that were commonly used
and frequently spoken but little understood, if any. If I had one word to give, if
I was forced to give one word, To describe the difference between
false religion and real saving faith, I'd pick this word, knowledge. Knowledge. Our Lord said to his disciples,
it's given unto you to know, to know, to know the mysteries. all the way through the book
of 1st John, he just uses this tiny sentence over and over and
over, and we know, and we know, and we know. He tells us to know God is eternal
life. Listen to this, over in 1st John
chapter 5 and verse 20, he said, We know that the Son of God is
come and has given to us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true and that we're in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Eternal life is to know God. You shall know the truth. He
said, if you continue in my word, you continue in my doctrine.
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Believers are born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God. And this,
Peter tells us, is the word which by the gospel is preached unto
you. Men and women born again, hearing
the gospel, born of God. are brought to a knowledge of
the true and living God. Brought to a knowledge of how
this God can save fallen sinners. So if I was pushed to find one
word to differentiate the true saving faith from false faith,
it would be this, knowledge. Knowledge. And I was shocked
as a young man to learn that the message of the early church
was a person. A person. Morality, church duties and obligations
was what we heard most of the time. When I was growing up,
that's what we heard. Reformation of life, turning
over a new leaf, setting your affairs in order and such like
were the subjects that we heard expounded from the pulpit. But nothing dominated the pulpits
of the religion I grew up in more than decisionism. Ministers
telling folks that their decision to accept Jesus as their personal
savior is what made the death of Christ effectual. They didn't
use those terms, but that's what they preached. Let me give you just a couple
quotes from what I heard from the pulpit. That God votes for
you, and Satan has voted against you, and you cast the deciding
vote. For any man or woman to ignore
the invitation was to make the suffering and death of Christ
in vain, and that's what they told us. God has done the best He can
do. Now it's all up to you. He put everything in your hands. He did? When did He do that? You can't find that in Scripture.
I'll tell you whose hands he put it in, the Lord Jesus Christ
put it in his hands. I grew up thinking that the gospel
was trying to get men down an aisle, trying to get men to make
a decision, trying to get men to commit themselves to the church
and to the duties of the church. I thought the gospel was a message
begging men and women not to let God's efforts be a failure. And I thought the gospel was
a system of good works, legal obligations, ceremonial duties
and the like. I thought the gospel was encouraging
men and women to keep certain days and certain times and certain
ordinances. And I was shocked to find out
in the word of God that the gospel was about a person. It wasn't
about a day. The day was about the person. You know, when we was little
kids, let me put it this way, when my children were little
kids, Cindy's here this morning, she can bear witness to this.
They real little, and you give them a present, like for their
birthday or something, and they dump out the toy that you bought
and play with the box. They loved that box. They'd climb
in and out of the box. The toy they'd look at and throw
that aside and get the box or the sack and put it over their
head. That's what we do. All of these things that pointed
to Christ, we take Christ and dump him out and we play with
the box. We play with the empty sack.
We play with the shadows. We thought the gospel, trying
to get men to keep the Sabbath day. In certain events, in certain
times, in certain times of year, you couldn't eat meat. You had to eat fish. I don't
know how they differentiated meat from fish. Fish is meat,
isn't it? I know it ain't bread. But you could only eat fish on
that day. You couldn't eat meat. You couldn't eat a pork chop. I was shocked to find out in
the word of God that the gospel was about a person, faith was
about a person, eternal life was to know a person, and this
person, the scripture says, is all and in all. So you come here this morning,
and I'm going to tell you some things, but I don't want you
to play with the bop. What I'm trying to get you to
do is to look to Him. Because He is the fulfillment
of all things. All things were made by Him and
for Him and salvation's in Him. It's looking to Him, not things. It's to Him. He is the fulfillment of all
the days. If you have Christ, you love
Christ, you believe in Him, you trust in Him, you're keeping
the Sabbath. You keepin' the Sabbath continually. He is the fulfillment of all
the days we keep. He is the Sabbath. He is the
Jubilee. He is the Resurrection. You remember,
was it Martha or Mary he told that? I can't remember which
one now. But he asked him, he said, You believe that Lazarus
will rise again? Oh, we know in the last day he's
gonna be, he said, I am the resurrection. We wanna think about the resurrection
as an event, like Christmas or Easter or something else. It's
just gonna be another day. The resurrection is him. If you're
in him, you're already raised from the dead. Listen to this, Paul said, let
no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a
holy day, or of a new moon, or of Sabbath days. These things
are a shadow of things to come, but the body's Christ's. Larry
Brown, my friend, was walking along one day and a big old jetliner
had taken off and Dan was not very far from Lexington. And
this airplane was still kind of low and it was going over
and he said, look Carol, he said, there's an airplane. He was pointing
to the shadow. And she said, honey, that ain't
the airplane, that's the shadow of the airplanes up there. He
said, boy, that really went home to me. If you want to see the
body, look up. What you're looking at down here
is the shadow. These things are but the shadow. The body is Christ. These are a shadow of things
to come, but the body of Christ blotted out the handwriting of
ordinances that was against us. He blotted them out, took them
out of the way. And they were contrary to us,
and He took them out of the way, nailing it to His cross. And so, having exposed these
things, He spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of
them, an open show. He exposed their lying deceit
and exposed their clever tricks and their self-righteous religion.
Now, I'm telling you what I know. Religion filled our heads with
fables. Fables. Now, I don't know if
you know anything at all about how the scripture looks at these
things, but our heads was filled with biblical fables. They took
those beautiful pictures and types of Christ and turned them
into moral teaching, moral fables, like Aesop's fable. Paul said to Timothy, don't give
heed to fables. Now we see it. So they must have
been doing the same thing in his day that they're doing in
our day. Don't give heed to fables. He said, refuse profane and old
wives fables. I heard them growing up, cleanliness
next to godliness. My mother used to tell me that
all the time. She said, that's what scripture says. No, that's
an old wives' fable is what that is. God helps them who helps
themselves. That's a fable. God helps them
who can't help themselves. There coming a time, Paul said,
when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own
lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears,
and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and turn
them unto fables. Fables. God not willing for anyone
to perish. Huh? That's not what that scripture
said. That's a fable. That's what that
is. I look at religion now and I
see it filled with a carryover of Old Testament ordinances and
dress and organization and authority, everything patterned after the
Old Testament types. Preachers can't preach now with
a shirt on. They have to put on this robe.
It's a special robe. When they get ready to preach,
they put this robe on and come out with this big old robe on
and start to pray. holy days, a priesthood. They call themselves priests. Special buildings, altars, incense,
clergy and laity, the list goes on and on. It's filled with it. These things are carryover from
the Old Testament. Have these big candelabras in
some of these churches, and you walk in there and you can smell
the candles and you can smell the incense. That's a carryover
from the Old Testament. That's what that is. Go back
and read about it. When God spoke of a new covenant,
Paul said, he made the first old. That Old Testament, he made
it old when he began to talk about the new. and that which waxeth old is
ready to vanish away and vanish it dead. These things were all
figures for the time then present and patterns of things in the
heavens and shadows of good things to come. To him give all the
prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins. And our text is very
clear and to the point, 1 Peter 2.7. Unto you therefore which believe. Now we thought we believed back
then. And I've described it as best I know how to describe it
to you. We thought we were believers
back then. We thought we were born of God back then. We thought
we knew God. We thought we was walking with
God. Didn't you? So our text is very clear and
to the point. Now he's talking about those
men that God called out of darkness. He called them out of that old
religion. He called them out of that old covenant. He called
them out of that old deceit. Called them out of darkness into
his marvelous light. Now they're born of God. And
he said, unto you therefore which believe, he is precious. Not it. Not them, he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient,
whereunto also they were appointed. He is precious. Now I was delighted
to learn that the Greek word here for precious, teme, T-E-E
dash M-A-Y, teme. And it has specifically to do
with the esteem held by a person being ransomed or redeemed. He's not talking about Christ
being precious compared to a gold coin or Christ being precious
compared to a jewelry or a treasure, all which he uses to describe
these things. But here, this language was very
specific. And here he's talking about a
man who's busted. He's bankrupt. He's a beggar.
He's not saved. He has no righteousness. He has
no salvation. He has no hope. He's not a son. He's not an heir. And he stands
before God and sees the redemption of God. And the value, the integrity
in his heart that he feels when he sees that redemption is what
he's talking about here. And so Peter uses that word in
his first chapter of this epistle. He said, for as much as you know
that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without
blemish and without spot who barely was foreordained, before
the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times
for you who by Him do believe in God that raised Him from the
dead and set Him at His own right hand. You see what he's talking
about here? When a man born of God, he's
a man who has experienced, he's felt in his very soul, he has
a true understanding, he sees as that redemption blood was
poured out from him and that blood was sprinkled on his conscience. You can read about it in Hebrews
chapter nine. And purges him from his old works
to serve the true and living God. This is what he's talking
about. He's just not talking about admiring
the blood of Christ, but he's talking about as one being redeemed,
like Naomi and Ruth. Penniless beggars lost everything
they had by the drought, and they moved to a foreign country,
and all their husbands died, and the daughter-in-laws left
Naomi, all but Ruth. And here comes Ruth and Naomi
back. They heard that there was crops again and they all come
back. And they come back and here's
Boaz. And Boaz falls in love with Ruth. And now the time comes. The day
comes. And he gathers everybody at the
gate of the city where all the big main business was transacted. He got all the witnesses to gather.
And Boaz said, if anybody else can redeem them, redeem them.
And everybody held their peace. And he said, therefore, this
day, you take this to record, I'm going to redeem them. You reckon Naomi and Ruth knew
something about this preciousness of that man? Oh, my soul, that's
what he's talking about here. Unto you, therefore, which believe
he precious. I have nothing without him. What
have we got without Christ? Nothing. People used to say,
them old hypocrites down at the church, they're right. They're
right. But I'm not a hypocrite in him. He's everything. You see what
this word precious is? Oh, my soul. This is that preciousness of
Christ that sets him apart from all others and makes him special
in the hearts of all that believe. Now let me give you five things
this morning that declare how special. I'm going to use the
word special this morning because he was special. He was special. All of the aisle walking and
the prayers and the tears and everything that religion told
me to do and to shed was all for nothing until I saw that
precious blood and understood what it was and who it was that
gave himself for me. And I tell you, when he did,
he become special to me. Special. Well, how is he special? He's
special because he's God come into the flesh. If it was just
another man, I don't care if he was a prophet. Even the greatest
prophet God ever had couldn't reconcile one sinner to himself.
With men, it is impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. It's not just that Christ was a special man or that
he was a man prophesied beforehand in the scripture. So was John
the Baptist. But he couldn't redeem anybody.
Scriptures foretold his coming way back in the book of Isaiah.
But John couldn't redeem anybody. He's special because he's God
come into the flesh. If man is to be redeemed, if
justice is to be satisfied, if God is to be glorified in his
character, in the salvation of his people, God must come down
and become a man. He must take to himself human
flesh and walk among men and be made under the law, subject
to it. To redeem them that were under
that law. According to the Old Testament
Scriptures, the coming Messiah would be a child born and a son
given. That's what it says. He would
be born of a virgin. And the name he'd be called is
the Mighty God. Isn't that what it said back
in Isaiah? His name should be called the
Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. and the
government should be upon his shoulder. What government? All government. Any government. All on his shoulder. His name
shall be called Immanuel, God with us. John tells us that the
word was in the beginning with God and was God and manifested
his Godhead by the creation of the world and this eternal word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw him, we beheld
this God-man, we beheld Jesus of Nazareth, the God-man, and
we beheld his glory, and his glory was as the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. To see him was to
see God. That's right. Everything we know
about God, we know in this man, Christ Jesus, everything. Scripture calls Him God our Savior. Tells us that there's one mediator
between God and me and the man Christ Jesus. He's the brightness
of the Father's glory and express image of His person and air of
all things. And by His own confession, He
says, I and the Father are one. He's special because He's God
come into the flesh. Now listen to this. Paul said,
Verily, he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took
on him the seed of Abraham, flesh of our flesh and bone of
our bone. We see Jesus, the scripture said,
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory, crowned with honor, that he by
the grace of God should taste death for every man, that is
every man he came to represent. This is the reason he took to
himself human flesh was to taste death for all that he represented. For it became him for whom are
all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons
to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. That is, to make him a perfect
savior, he must suffer. In Galatians 4.4 it says, but
when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his
son made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law. that we might receive the adoption
of sons. So he's special because he's
God come into the flesh. And he's special, secondly, because
God appointed him to be the Savior and Redeemer of his people. There's one Savior, Russell.
One Savior. That's it. There's not another. Not in time or eternity. There
is no other. There's one Savior. Let that go home. There's one
Savior. Then how precious must he be? They'll come preaching another
Jesus and another gospel. But they're just one. They're
just one. And I'm going to tell you something.
It is absolute lunacy to speculate or give an opinion as to what
and how God will save sinners. Man is not his own savior. Man is not your savior and Mary
is not your savior. I was watching a Western the
other day, and this woman was trying to get this man to go
into church. And he said, I don't go to church
anymore. It's a Catholic church. He said, I don't go to church
anymore. And he said, well, there's a woman in there that'd like
to see you. Mary's not your savior, and the
church is not your savior. But the Bible said, thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. How often are we warned in the
scripture about man and his foolish ideas? Paul wrote to the Colossians
and he said, beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy
and vain deceit. After the tradition of men, after
the fundamental principles of the world, and not after Christ. Beware. There's a way, Solomon
said. A way that seems right unto a
man, but the end thereof is destruction. The Lord said, I am the way. I am the truth. And I am the
life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Through this man, Paul said,
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that
believe are justified from all things from which you could not
be justified by the law of Moses. Jesus Christ is special because
he is God. come into the flesh, and because
he was sent of God and appointed of God to be the Savior of his
people. And then thirdly, he's special
because he alone accomplished our redemption. Most religion, that is people
sitting out there listening to the preachers, I really don't
know what those preachers believe. I don't think they believe anything.
I think they're just in it for the money and in it for the show.
But most of religion, they believe that they are accomplishing with
their works, with their daily lives, with their prayers, with
their offerings, with everything they do. They feel as though
they are accomplishing or performing some part of their salvation. That redemption is out there,
and if you want it, you've got to work for it. But he's special because he alone
accomplished our redemption. It's already accomplished. It's
already paid in full. As a representative man, he was
made under the law to redeem them that were under the law. Do you think that the holy and
just God would disregard his law? I used to think that when
I was a kid. That's what the preacher told
us. One time he wrote up there, he
started writing the commandments. All the thou shalt nots, he wrote
up there. And he said, you did this one,
and he checked it, and you did that one. Now, he said, this
is salvation. He said, God gets a big eraser, and he erased those
things off that blackboard. My friend, will God disregard
his law? He said, the soul that sinneth
shall surely die, and die he shall. Our Lord accomplished our redemption. He paid the price. He gave His
life. He gave His soul in offering
for sin. I don't even have words to even
speculate on what it meant for God to offer His own soul for
our sins. You think He'll just forget about
our transgressions, wink at our sins. I thought that when I was
a kid, but not when I heard the truth. If the word spoken by angels
was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just,
recompensive reward, how shall we escape if we neglect, we overlook,
or go somewhere else to find so great salvation? Huh? How you gonna escape? Scripture
says, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down
on the right hand of the majesty on high. How did he do that? Did he do that in conjunction
with us? No. By himself purged our sin. Jesus Christ both honored and
exalted the law of God and satisfied divine justice by his life and
by his death. Paul said, being found in passion
as a man, he humbled himself and become obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. And so he tells us in Romans
10-4 that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believes. Fourthly, Jesus Christ is special
because he loved us and gave himself for us. And this one who loved us and
gave himself for us now sits at the right hand of God, making
intercession for us. Now listen to me. I don't believe
that Jesus sits at the Father's right hand in constant prayer
and continue tugging at the Father's scepter to keep him from casting
us out of the kingdom of God. That's not the intercession that
I believe is going on. And the Catholics pray to Mary
as an intercessor. And they say that women have
a special, that the woman has a special integrity with God. Nothing is going on in heaven
in a continual fashion. It's His presence in glory that
makes intercession for us. It is that accomplished redemption
and that perfect righteousness and that perfect love of the
Father and that perfect accomplishing of the Father's will. And now
this person who accomplished all those things sits at the
right hand of God and by His person makes intercession for
us constantly. The Father looks on Him, and
He's well pleased. He's well pleased. It's the presence as the God-man
mediator, and His nail-scarred hands and feet inside, and His
acceptance, His righteous rule, and His accomplished redemption
all make intercession for us. Fifthly, Jesus Christ is special
because there's none other name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved. That's why we preach. Well, surely
that's been told this world enough. It's not being told this world
at all. There's only a handful that I know of preaching the
gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ, just a handful. scattered
all over the world. The average pulpit down here
is not preaching these things that I'm preaching to you this
morning. They're not describing the same Christ or the same God. In Philippians chapter 2, where
I quoted from a while ago, speaking of His obedience unto death,
even the death of the cross, He goes on to say, wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him and given to him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow at things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That is that
everything he was appointed of God to do, he did in such a way
as to manifest the glory of God the Father. He didn't compromise
his glory in anything. The Father's holy character,
the Father's redemptive purpose and will, the Father's justice
and righteousness, and the Father's love and mercy and grace. His
lordship is that of the sovereign mediator whose rule was given
to him to glorify his father's name in the redemption of his
people. Now I want you to listen to me.
I'm going to read to you our Lord's high priestly prayer,
the first part of it. It says, These words fake Jesus,
John 17, 1. These words faked Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify
thy son that thy son may also glorify thee. What's he talking
about? He's talking about his death
on the cross. His death on the cross. The father
himself turning his back on the son. That's what he's talking
about. As Thou hast given Him power
over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many
as Thou hast given Him, and this is life eternal, that they may
know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou sent. His Lordship, Him being the blessed
and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, shall
be confessed by everyone in heaven, earth, and hell. Confess these things to the glory
of God the Father, that He was given this power and given this
authority and given this person to redeem His people to the glory
of God the Father. And everybody in heaven, earth,
and hell is going to say, Amen. Amen. Listen to this verse. Looking
unto Jesus. There's no other to look to.
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And the scripture says he must
reign. He must reign. He gonna sit on
that throne and reign until all enemies be put under his feet.
And death is the last enemy. May the Lord add his blessing
to the preaching.