1 Peter 2. Our lesson this morning is entitled
Stumbling Stones or Stair Steps. And I'm not going to just read
over to you that which you have, I trust, already read in preparation
for the study this morning. But I want us to look together
at this text here in 1 Peter chapter 2 and consider seriously
those things that are set before us in the scriptures. Now we
recognize, we understand, the scriptures clearly teach that
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save his people. We understand that our Lord Jesus,
by the power and virtue, the merit and efficacy of his blood,
took on himself our sins and has put away our sins. So that
all for whom he died, the debt of sin has been canceled. The
justice of God has been satisfied. Our sin debt has been paid in
full. and our sins had been put away
by our Lord's sacrifice. That means this. Every sinner
for whom Jesus Christ died at Calvary must, by the justice
of God as well as the grace of God, be with him in glory. God will not and cannot impute
sin to those whose sins were imputed to Christ when he died
as our substitute at Calvary. And yet this doctrine, this doctrine
of effectual substitution, this doctrine of what's called limited
atonement, is without question the most rancorous doctrine revealed
in scripture to unbelieving religious people. It is that which men
most vehemently despise and most vehemently deny. And that is
the declaration that Jesus Christ is not a failure, the declaration
that he has fully accomplished the redemption of his people,
and that there is no possibility that any sinner for whom he died
can perish after all under the wrath of God. You say, well,
why on earth would that cause anyone to be upset? That's a
good question. That's a real good question.
Hard to understand except for one thing. It is the message
of effectually accomplished redemption that finally conclusively and
totally takes salvation out of man's hands and declares that
salvation is in its entirety the work of God. Now look here
in 1 Peter 2 and verse 6. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, And he that believes on him shall not be
confounded. Now that word is variously translated
where this passage of scripture is given in numerous places in
the scriptures. It sometimes is translated, shall
not be ashamed. Sometimes it is translated, shall
not be confused. Here, shall not be confounded.
Those who believe on Christ shall never be ashamed before the bar
of God, are put to confusion because of their confidence and
shall never be confounded in time or in eternity. Their confidence
is a matter of certainty. Christ is our sure foundation.
All right, read on. Unto you therefore which believe,
and the key is believing, to you which believe he is precious. Oh, how precious the Son of God
is to believing sinners. Precious because of who He is. Precious because of what He has
done for us. Precious because He's made Himself
known in our hearts. He's precious. He don't. But
unto them which be disobedient. Disobedient to the gospel. Disobedient
to the revelation of God. Disobedient to Christ. Christ
is the stone which the builders disallowed. God's laid this sure
foundation stone, but the builders said no. That is, those who build
up the kingdom of God outwardly, those who are engaged in religious
activity, those who claim to be the servants of God, they
said, no, we won't have this foundation. We will not have
him. He's disallowed the same, however,
in spite of the fact that men said, no, we won't have him.
He's made the head of the corner. God has laid the topmost stone
in glory, declaring that it is His work and His work alone.
He's made the head of the corner. All right, listen to this. And
a stone of stumbling. A stone of stumbling. A stone
of stumbling. An offense. Paul said, if I preach
circumcision, then the offense of the cross is ceased. He tells
us that Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews. He's a stone
of stumbling. What's that mean? If you're walking
down the road, just walking casually down a lane, and you are just
having a conversation, not paying too much attention to what's
in front of you, and suddenly you trip over a big rock. That's
a stone of stumbling. That's exactly what he's talking
about. Something laid in the road by which you are tripped
up. A stone of stumbling. Read on
now. And a rock of offense. To who? Even to them which stumble
at the word, and this is because of their disobedience. And it
is also according to the purpose of God, whereunto also they were
appointed. Now turn to Romans chapter 9.
This is exactly what happened to the Jews. They had the word
of God, the oracles of God, the revelation of God, the prophets
of God, the tabernacle, the temple of God, the altar of God. They
had all the revelation given in the Old Testament. For 2,000
years, to them alone, the word of God was sent. But here in
Romans chapter 9, The Apostle Paul is reasoning with us, telling
us how that God has set Israel aside. He has put blindness to
Israel, that he might gather his elect from among the Gentiles,
so that all Israel, not the physical seed alone, but all God's Israel,
his chosen, would be saved and be brought to faith in Christ.
He says in verse 31, But Israel, which followed after the law
of righteousness, have not attained to the law of righteousness.
They missed it. They missed the boat. They have
pursued righteousness, they walked after the law, but they missed
the boat. How come? Wherefore? Because they sought it not by
faith. They refused to trust Christ
alone. But as it were, by the works
of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling
stone. Do you see that? They were tripped
up at the stumbling stone, Christ Jesus the Lord. They tripped
over Christ crucified and fell into hell because they would
not submit to the Word of God. Read on. As it is written, Behold,
I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and whosoever
believes on him shall not be ashamed. Same thing we read in
1 Peter 2. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. This is my heart's prayer, my
desire to God for this generation in which we live. This is why we labor as we do
in the cause of Christ. That men might believe God. That they might be saved. For
I bear them record. And I bear record to the generation
in which we live. I'm talking about religious folks
now. My family and yours. I bear them record. They have a zeal of God. They're
religious as all get out. They're sincere. They're not
hypocrites, they're sincere. They're sincere as they can be.
They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Their
zeal is the zeal of emotion, the zeal of sentiment, the zeal
of idolatry, the zeal of religious fervor, but not according to
knowledge. Look at what it says now, for
they being ignorant of God's righteousness. Merle, that's
the problem. That's the problem. This generation
is totally, listen now, totally ignorant of God's righteousness. They have no idea what the righteousness
of God is, what the righteousness of God requires, or how to attain
it. They have no idea. Men know and
understand moral righteousness. Men understand human righteousness. Men understand legal righteousness
as far as men are concerned. But no man, by nature, will ever
understand the righteousness of God. That's a matter of divine
revelation. That's a gospel revelation. I
recall years ago, Ruth Adkins, she was one of the charter members
at 13th Street Baptist Church up in Ashland. First time I went
up there, we met, name and Ruth, just delightful folks. And she
was at that time a senior citizen in the older group. And she talked
a little bit. She said to me, she said, Brother
Don, how good do you think a man has to be to get to heaven? And I responded, as good as God,
and she just beamed. That's how good you've got to
be. Good as God. But this world thinks God will
accept the best you can do. This world thinks God's going
to accept your sincerity. This world thinks God's going
to accept what you do to cause men to accept you. That's the
problem the Jews had. They were ignorant of God's righteousness. And going about, because they
were ignorant of God's righteousness, they go about to establish their
own righteousness. And as long as you're trying
to make yourself righteous, you have not submitted to the righteousness
of God. You see that? They haven't submitted
to the righteousness of God. As long as you're trying, by
something you do, no matter what it is, As long as you're endeavoring
by some effort on your part to make yourself righteous, to establish
righteousness of your own, you have not submitted to the righteousness
of God, and you don't know it. For Christ, look at it, is the
end of the law for righteousness. How? To everyone that believeth. The scriptures declare plainly
that the Lord Jesus, by his obedience and death, is the end of the
law. He is the fulfilling of it, he
is the conclusion of it, he is the cessation of it, insofar
as the believer is concerned, because he has by his blood put
away the sins of his people. And yet there are many who look
at those scriptures that give us great consolation and comfort,
and they find them causes for offense, and they just stumble
over them. And I want us to look at just
a few of them this morning. Let's look at some of those scriptures
that men commonly look at and twist and pervert, twisting them
out of their context, perverting them from the context of scripture
in the totality of divine revelation, and thus twist them to their
own destruction. And I'm doing this not to give
you ammunition by which you can go and argue with the Armenian
freewheeler. Just don't even try. Don't even try. Don't. Don't. Don't. dirty the things of God
by bringing them down to a level of debate with men. Don't do
that. Don't take the things of God
and bring them down into that snake's pit where men hiss and
spit at each other. Don't do that. But I am giving
these things to you to give you confidence in your own understanding
of Scripture and to clear up in your own mind those cavils
that men raise against the Word of God. Let's turn to John chapter
3. John chapter 3. I'm not going
to even attempt to look at all of the various passages that
I listed in our Bible study for this morning, and those were
just a few of the many passages that Ben objected to. But let's
look at some of the most obvious, some of the most glaring passages.
John 3.16, I suppose, is the most often quoted and least understood
single verse in all Holy Scripture. Folks quote it for everything.
I was in Stanton, Virginia one time back when they first started
this thing called the ERA movement, you know that women's liberation
thing. And some female preacher, I'll use the term because that's
what she called herself, she was pastor of some church up
there, she had written an article in the paper. And she was trying
to defend the idea of women's liberation and abortion rights
and all those things from John 3.16. Now, I've heard it used
for everything, but that took the cake. Folks don't have any
idea what it is? God so loved the world. Let's
see what it says. Begin in John 3.14. You see,
the gospel is not in verse 16. The gospel's in verse 14. Verse
16 simply tells us the source from which the gospel springs.
Verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now
the word world here does not mean everyone in the world. And when it says whosoever, it
does not mean whosoever won't, it means whosoever will. And
when it speaks then of these folks to whom the gospel is preached,
for whom God's love is eternally exercised, toward whom God is
eternally moved with compassion, it's talking about a specific
people within the world. Folks say, well, whosoever means
whosoever, all means all, and world means world. Let's see.
Hold your hand here and turn over to 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2,
verse 5. There are two worlds. There is
the world of those who are condemned, and the world of God's elect.
Let's see, let's know what the book says here. John 3.16 speaks
of a world loved of God. A world to whom God sent His
Son. A world for whom God sent His Son. But that can't possibly
mean every person in the world, because here in 2 Peter 2.5,
he tells us that he spared not the old world, but he saved Noah. God sent destruction to the world. Not everybody in the world. He
saved Noah. Well, world then doesn't mean
everybody. There is a world under the wrath of God, a world under
the blessing of God, a world cursed of God, a world blessed
of God, a world despised and hated of God in justice, and
a world loved of God freely. The world then of those loved
of God is the world of his elect. Our Lord was speaking to Nicodemus,
a Jew. And he was saying to this Jew
who thought himself such a proud, arrogant fellow, actually he
didn't think he was proud or arrogant to suppose that Jews
were God's favorites, God's special people. The Lord favors us because
we're Abraham's seed. You see, Nicodemus thought God
was a respecter of persons. How often you heard a fellow
say, God's no respect to persons. So that proves election not so.
That proves the effects of redemption not so. God's no respect to persons.
That's the proof that election is so. That redemption is so. God doesn't save you because
of who you are. He doesn't save you because of
the color of your skin. He doesn't save you because of
who you're related to. He saves you because He's no
respect to persons freely in Christ Jesus the Lord. Nicodemus
thought that the Gentile was just a dog, and Jews were God's
special people. And for the Lord Jesus to say,
Nicodemus, God's love is toward his people scattered through
all the world. That's kind of like going down
to southern Alabama, standing up in a Baptist church, and telling
folks God loves black folks just like he does white folks, and
watch them just Cringe. I know, I've been there. I've
done it. Just shut up. You can't be serious. Oh yeah.
And this is what our Lord told Nicodemus. God's love is not
limited to one race or one people. God's love encompasses men from
every rank and walk in society. North, South, East, and West.
Male and female. Bond and free. Jew and Gentile. Black and white. Turn with me,
if you will, then, to 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2 and verse 1. I may have time to get in one
more, but let's look at this one. 2 Peter 2.1. I'm referring to this specifically
this morning because our friend, Brother Bob Miller, out in Spring
Valley, California, wrote to me the other day and asked me
if I could explain this verse of Scripture to him. There were false prophets also
among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among
you, who privately, sneakily, false prophets are always sneaky.
They never open an above board. They're never just forthright
and plain. They never just plainly declare
the word of God, but they sneak in their doctrine. and bring
in damnable heresies, damning heresies. What's he talking about?
Works religion, free will religion, heresies by which men are taught
to trust in themselves and turned away from trusting in Christ.
Even denying, look at it now, the Lord that bought them. And in doing these things, they
bring upon themselves swift destruction. Now the Arminian, the wheel worshipper,
the freewheeler, he looks at that and says, there. That means
that Christ died even for the false prophets who bring on themselves
swift destruction. Well, it would, except the scriptures
don't teach that, do they? The Scriptures do not teach that
the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood for folks who perish at
last in hell. And this text of Scripture, when
it speaks of the Lord, and it speaks of Balt, uses distinct
words to do so. The word Lord here is not the
word Lord that is usually used whenever God's people refer to
the Lord Jesus. Kyrgios. It's not that word.
My Lord. My Lord. That's not the word.
It's not the word that was used when Mephibosheth saw David returning
after David had been so gracious to him. He said, My Lord has
returned. That's not the word. That's not the word. This word
is the word that would be used to refer to one who has absolute
power, but you despise him. And you have no reason to think
that He doesn't despise you. It's the word, if it were transliterated,
it's the word from which we get our word desperate. It is despotis. It is the declaration that Jesus
Christ is Lord over the false prophets just as fully as He
is Lord over His true prophets. He is Lord over those who hate
Him just as fully as He is Lord over those who love Him. And
the other word is the word bought. It is not the word ek agorazo. That is the word commonly used
for redemption. It is redemption, that word that's
translated redemption, actually there's three words that's translated
redemption in the scripture. But the word ek agorazo, it comes
from two Greek words. One means out of, ek agorazo
means by. And our Lord Jesus has brought
his people out of the curse Out of the slave market, out from
under the bondage of the law, He has bought us. It means deliverance
by price and by power. But the word here is not that
word at all. It's the word agorazo. It means
bought. Just bought. And the Scripture
tells us that our Lord Jesus is as a man who walks through
a field. And as He walked through the
field, Caught his foot on something. Oh, found a treasure. He found a treasure. And he covered
it up. And he went and sold everything
he had and bought the field to get the treasure. In that sense,
the Lord Jesus, as a man, bought this world. He bought the right
to rule over it, not as God, but as our mediator. He bought
the right to dispose of it, not as God, but as our mediator.
He always possessed it as God, but he bought it to get the treasure
of his elect. If our Lord is speaking of redemption
concerning his people, He speaks of his people using the word
ecagorazo, which means he not only bought them, but he takes
them home. He didn't just buy the right
to rule them, but he bought them and takes possession of them.
Our Lord Jesus Christ buys and delivers his people, but he who
is our Lord Jesus Christ bought the whole world as a man to save
his people. Therefore it is written, Thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as Thou hast given him. To this end Christ
both lived and died and revived, that he might be Lord both of
the dead and of the living, both of the false prophet and of his
own true people. He bought us. He redeemed us
specially, but He possesses all the world. Let me quickly look
at one other text. Turn with me if you will to 2
Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. Let's make it 1 Timothy chapter
4. Verse 9. This is a faithful saying,
worthy of all acceptation. For therefore we both labor and
suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the
Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. What on
earth does that mean? You know, if it weren't for the
perversity and the universal acceptance of free will works
religion, nobody would ever imagine that means anything except exactly
what it says. He's the Savior of all men, especially of those
who believe. The Lord Jesus Christ, our God,
is that one who preserves and keeps all men in life, but He's
especially the Savior of His people. He preserves and keeps
the whole human race, because he is long-suffering to usward,
not willing that any should perish, but that all his own should come
to repentance and knowledge of the truth. So our Savior, the
Lord Jesus, is that one who, having taken possession of all
men, rules them, governs them, sustains them, feeds them, clothes
them, sends His sunshine, sends His rain. He keeps them in life
because among the fallen sons of Adam, He has a people whom
He has determined He shall save. And He is specially the Savior
of you who believe. All right, I trust that's helpful
to you, and I encourage you to study the passages in your lesson
again, study them carefully. And if you have a question about
any of those passages, don't hesitate to let me know. If I
can be of help to you, I'll be happy to try to answer some of
your questions. All right, we'll assemble in just a few minutes.