Good morning. As Wayne was saying, my name
is Eric Lutter and I go to the New Jersey church where Brother
Clay Curtis preaches. Thank you for having me. I live
in Pennsylvania now with my wife Michelle. I can't escape the
fact that I was born and raised in New Jersey, so you might as
well know that. But I trust a sinner saved by our Lord's grace and
mercy. Turn to 1 Peter, Chapter 2. 1 Peter, Chapter 2. Thank you, Wayne, for your message
this morning. I really, really enjoyed it,
and I think it goes well with what the Lord has put on my heart
this morning. Can everyone hear me okay? All
right, that's good. First Peter chapter two, verse
one. And we're gonna read the first 10 verses. Wherefore, laying
aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and
all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk
of the word, that ye may grow thereby. if so be that ye have
tasted that the Lord is gracious. 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 or shamed. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
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. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people. that ye should show forth the
praises of him who hath 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 Peter addressed this letter
to the scattered strangers throughout much of the known world. And
in chapter one, he's just put his hearers in a very blessed
mindset and yet a sober mindset. And in chapter two, it begins
with an exhortation that we should lay aside a list of fleshly fruits. He tells us, lay these things
aside, which we shall indeed do by the Spirit of God, if indeed
we are led by the Spirit of God, much as you preached this morning.
And then he breaks forth into a glorious view of our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and what he himself has accomplished,
even being that one who is chosen of God, that precious living
stone whom God set forth to be the propitiation and the salvation
of sinners. But we see of this one who is
disallowed, rejected by men, put off by men. Men don't want
to hear it, even though this is the one who is chosen of God,
And then he goes on to speak of our blessed place and our
most holy, blessed Savior, and calls us a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. My title this
morning is Disallowed of Men, but Chosen of God. And we'll look this morning to
see the salvation of sinners by our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. We'll see what God has done for
us in His Son, Jesus Christ, that He does all the salvation
work from beginning to end, leaving nothing undone for us ourselves
to do. And we'll see how the Lord graciously
deals with us, us who have nothing to boast in. We'll see what He
does for us, unlike others who are left to themselves, who are
offended in our Savior. Our divisions this morning will
look primarily at these verses, but our divisions will roughly
be, the Lord is gracious, the living stone chosen of God and
precious, a word to the disobedient, and finally, briefly, called
out of darkness and called into his light. But before we get
into this passage, I'd like you to turn to 1 Corinthians 14.
Hold your place there, Peter, and turn to 1 Corinthians 14. The Apostle Paul. In verse 3,
he gives a wonderful outline of what it is to preach the gospel. Not so much the content, but
what it is to preach the gospel. What we're doing here when we're
preaching Christ our Savior. He says in verse 3, But he that
prophesieth, or preacheth, speaketh unto men to edification, and
exhortation, and comfort. So that we're to understand by
edification, we're building up the brethren. We preach, we're
building up the brethren. We're founded upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's our foundation. There's
no other foundation than can be laid, than that is laid, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so we build up, we preach
the Lord Jesus Christ to build up our brethren, that they are
raised up upon Christ and on Him alone. Then exhortation,
which is to encourage our brethren to draw near. We're summoning
our hearers, draw near. Not to me, but draw near to the
Lord. Hear what the Lord has to say.
What He has done for you, and what He's calling us to do in
service and in love to Him. And then to comfort. Our Lord
comforts us through the preaching. We need to be comforted. If you're
honest with yourself, you know that there's nothing good in
us, and we go through various trials and tribulations. He that
will live godly in this world must suffer tribulation. He shall
indeed suffer trials and tribulation. So, the preaching of the Word
calms us, consoles us, and comforts us in our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. And that's what Peter has done
in chapter 1. He's done this exact same pattern,
edifying comforting and exhorting the brethren throughout. And
he goes through that same cycle over and over again in this book.
But if you look there in 1 Peter chapter 1, just real quick, we'll
do a quick survey of chapter 1. You find in verses one through
six, he's edifying, he's establishing the brethren, building them up
upon Christ, so that if we look in verse two, he says, elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ, grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So he's bringing
us right back to our foundation. He's showing us what we have
in Christ. He's showing us what God the
Father has done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's laying
that foundation, all right? Now in the next verses, six through
12, he comforts the brethren. Just to choose a couple, if we
look in verse six, he says, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now
for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations. that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than a gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." He's comforting
us. He's showing us, I know, I hear
the trials and the sorrows that you're going through. I know
what you're going through. Your brethren, he says later
in this book, your brethren are going through the same trials.
And we're to understand that our Lord also learned obedience
through the things which he suffered so that you who are suffering
and going through trials, you're in good company. The Lord himself
was made to suffer for our sins and he suffered the will of unjust
men. You're in good company. Don't
be afraid. Don't worry. And then finally, in verse 13,
and on to the rest of the chapter, he concludes with these words. He says, wherefore, he exhorts
them, wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober,
and hope to the end. And he has other exhortations.
He says in verse 15, but as he which hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written,
be ye holy, for I am holy. But he says in verse 23, something
that's very important, he says at the beginning of verse 23,
being born again. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. And he reminds the brethren what
we are by nature. In verse 24, all flesh is as
grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. but the word of
the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you." So that now in verse two, he
says, wherefore, in light of all these things, wherefore,
laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies
and all evil speakings. So we see a pattern here, brethren.
There's edifying, there's comforting, and there's exhorting. Exhorting,
comforting, and edifying. And the reason why this is important,
the reason why I'm laboring to say this to you and to bring
this out is because We see edifications in the scripture, and the flesh
is so corrupt. The flesh hears these things
and thinks, I need to be doing something. And there's churches
today, I'm sure this morning, preaching just an edification. And when you preach just edification,
you leave the flesh very susceptible to what the flesh loves. The
flesh lusts. The flesh Desire is what the
flesh wants. And if you tell a religious man,
this is what you need to be doing, the religious man is going to
say, oh good, thank you for telling me, let me get to doing it. And
he's going to go out and he's going to start doing it. And
we don't want to lead our hearers to think that there's anything
that they can do to please the Lord in their flesh. So we preach
Christ and we want to show that these exhortations were never
just put out there all on their own, but rather when you look
in the context, they're always couched within what the Lord
has done. So that in verse 23, he said,
being born again, we do these things. And then in verse two,
verse three, he says, if so be that ye have tasted that the
Lord is gracious. So we always see that this exhortation
is in light of the spirit, that we walk in the spirit of God. So that, well, here in... Yeah, so that if you look there
at 1 Peter 2 verse 1, where he says that in light of this, he
says, wherefore, and just put these words in there, being born
again or by the Spirit of God, laying aside all malice and all
guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, if so
be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. And to quote from
Romans 8, as our brother did, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. So Peter says it, if you've tasted
the Lord as gracious, and Paul tells us, if so be that the Spirit
of God dwell in you. So the same spirit that taught
Peter is the same spirit that taught Paul. You see it all over
when you're reading word, especially if you're reading around a lot,
you see that the same Spirit is teaching these men just as
He's teaching us today. So we don't want to disconnect
the exhortation from the fact that we are utterly dependent
on the Spirit of God leading us and teaching us and dwelling
in us. Because the flesh, though it
tries, the flesh cannot please God. And the flesh tries. Even
those of us who know the gospel, that flesh is always rising up
and always thinking, maybe there's something more I need to be doing.
Maybe I haven't done enough. Maybe I, you know, it's always
looking at itself. And the Lord must deliver us
from that and save us from that. Our Savior said in John, it is
the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. But there are some of you that
believe not. That's the terrifying thing.
There's many people in religion who think they know what the
Lord is saying, and it's so simple and so plain, and yet they hear
these words and they think, all right, now I know what I got
to be doing, and let me get to doing it. And they miss exactly
that these words are spirit, and we are dependent on our God
to save us. Therefore said I unto you, the
Lord said, that no man can come unto me. except it were given
unto him of my father." If it was a work of the flesh that
we could do, then men could come unto him. But it's not. These
words are spirit and life, and they must be communicated to
us by the spirit of God. And it's so important, because
later on in verse 4, when we get there, we'll see, you know,
to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men. That's frightening in some sense,
that this is the one who is chosen of God, precious to God, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and yet men reject Him. Men push Him aside. Men lay Him aside. They despise
and reject the Christ, the Messiah of God, because by nature we're
in complete and utter darkness apart from the work of God in
us. Despite Christ being the hope of every man, for there
is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved, despite that he is the only hope of man, they reject
him and put him aside." It's a real testimony that just to
the deadness of our flesh and the darkness that we are by nature,
that there's nothing good in us and the dependency that we
have upon our God to save us and to deliver us from that very
thing. you know, look to their decision,
and they think it's by my decision that I know the Lord, that I
come to know the Lord. Or others who just outright reject
Christ and want nothing to do with Him. You probably have people
in your family, some on both sides, who just don't want to
hear anything about God, and then those who are so content
and happy in the decision that they've made for Christ, and
they don't hear what we're saying, when we're speaking to them the
gospel, because it's by the Spirit that any man who will hear must
hear. But we preach the gospel, and
this is why we preach the gospel, because this is the only hope
that we have. Even for us sitting here, this is the hope that we
have, is what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Lest we should, as well, like
Paul said, lest after I have preached to others, should myself
be a castaway. We don't want that. We desire,
we pant after the Lord. We desire the Lord, we need the
Lord. And the Lord has fixed that in
us and given that to us. Now Peter says in verse one,
wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies
and envies and all evil speakings. Now these are fruits of a self-righteous
spirit. When you look at them, they're
really fruits of a self-righteous spirit. They're works of the
flesh. That malice and that guile, That is hatred and that sly,
covetous tongue, that sly ability that one has to deceive, deceive
oneself, deceive others, and hypocrisy, it says. About 17 years ago was the last
time I worked in a factory. But when I worked in a factory,
I worked with a lot of Spanish Pentecostals. And these were
very religious men. And it was very near the time
when I first began to hear the doctrine of grace and to believe
what God had done for me through his son, Jesus Christ. So I would
speak a lot to these guys. And I remember there was one
gentleman in his mid to late 50s at the time. We were talking,
and I don't remember exactly what he said, but I said, so
you sinned. Something about, so, oh, you
sinned. And he was like, oh, no, no, no, no, not sin. I made
a mistake. I made a mistake. I didn't sin.
And that's just hypocrisy. He couldn't even own the fact
that his flesh is just sinful. That fear, that fear that has
to convince others that you might be convinced from them believing
you that you're saved and everything's all right. And that man died
a few years later, and I don't think he ever heard the gospel. I mean, I spoke what I understood
of it to be, but he never heard it. He never received it. He
never believed what God had done for sinners in Christ. So we
lay these things aside and envies, that desire that we have in our
flesh, when another is being recognized and you think, why
are they all gloating over him? Why are they looking at him?
What about me? What about what I've done? What about all the talents
I have and the gifts that I have and my labor, my service? How
come no one recognizes me? That's all those envies and then
we begin to speak evil of our brethren and try to cut them
and knock them down. But those are the works of the
flesh and when the flesh is overcome by those things, that's deadness.
Now brethren can fall into those things, but that's no place for
brethren to be. We don't want to be walking that
way. That's carnal. That's carnal,
and that leads to death, if you will. That's no place for a believer
to be. Now, if you turn to Romans 8,
we'll look at that. We'll be in a different part
of Romans 8, in verse 5. Because you're right,
in Romans 8, you can go just about anywhere in that chapter,
and you see this constant teaching of the Spirit leading the brethren,
leading the brethren. So we're just gonna look in verse
5 through 9. Verse 5, they that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are
after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally
minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh,
but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you.
Verse 10, and if Christ be in you, The body is dead because
of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Brethren,
we learn from Romans 8 and it's a great comfort to us. Our flesh
is dead. D-E-A-D dead. It's not getting
any better. And what we learn from Romans
8 is not that we're given the spirit that our flesh might be
improved and that our flesh might be able to keep the law of God. And there's other denominations
around where we live, there's a lot of reformed So they preach
law, they preach works that you come by the Spirit, and then
they take that sheep food away, and they start serving up the
goat food to you. And they start telling you, you gotta follow
the law now. You've been given the Spirit,
now you gotta follow the law. You gotta keep the law, that's
your rule of life. But that's not what Romans 8 is teaching. It's saying the flesh is dead,
the flesh isn't getting any better. And we draw comfort from that.
Peter says in 2.11, we won't look at that verse, but he said,
dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain
from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. Now why would
Peter say that? They had the spirit. I mean,
they saw things that we don't even see today, and yet they
have the same spirit we have, and yet their flesh was corrupt. Their flesh lusted after what
the flesh always lusts for. Whatever it is, whether you want
power or wealth or adulteries, covetousness, fornications, all
those things are works of the flesh and are still in the flesh
But we don't walk by the flesh. And we don't think the flesh
is getting any better. We walk by the spirit, trusting that
God has done all things for us. And we don't feed the flesh.
We don't go on serving the flesh. We turn away from those things.
But there's those that are teaching that the flesh is now getting
better, that we are sanctifying the flesh, that we are progressively
improving the flesh in some way, but not at all. That's not what
Romans 8 teaches us. So the flesh is dead. And the
Lord must form in us that new man, that seed of Christ, that
deposit, that earnest of the spirit, that down payment or
that earnest of the spirit. And we rejoice knowing that he'll
return again to receive that which is his. He's given us a
spirit that we might know and be comforted. He's not forgotten
us. He's not leaving us. He'll come again and take us
to himself. And then Peter tells us in verse
two, back in 1 Peter 2. He says, As newborn babes desire
the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. And the thought there, brethren,
well, that word is the gospel, but the thought there is, well,
let me say it this way. My wife and I, after we leave
here, we're going down to Lexington, Kentucky to see our grandbaby,
our just born. She's only one month old. We
haven't seen her, we saw her when she was born, but we'll
see her now when she's one month old. And when she was a newborn
baby, as much as we love to, we hope one day to talk about
her and say what she's doing and things like that, but when
she was born, She came out naked, having nothing to give to her
parents. She was naked, and not only naked,
but she was unable to provide warmth for herself, unable to
feed herself, unable to gather these things for herself. She
needs the kind, provision of her parents. If not for her parents
warmly loving her and caring for her, she must die if she's
left to her own self to provide for herself. She needs that provision. In the same way, Peter tells
us, we don't get to the point, you know how like a baby when
they get older they can hold the bottle up themselves? He says, not even
that young. Come as newborn babes, unable
to do anything for yourself where you are completely dependent
on God picking you up, swaddling you to warm you, bringing you
to his breast, and feeding you and nourishing you with this
gospel word. That's how we are to come, not
boasting and thinking that we're something or somebody, but come
just as a newborn babe, unable to do and provide for ourselves. And we'll do this, he says, if
so be, verse three, that ye have tasted the Lord is gracious. Brethren, are you here this morning
because of God's grace? Are you here this morning because
of some decision that you've made? Is it something that you've
done? Some choice of yours that has
brought you here? Or has the Lord done these works? We boast in what our Savior has
done. We don't boast in what we have done. We don't boast
in our faith. Now, some would say, well, wait
a minute. Then our Lord say, daughter, thy faith hath saved
thee. And you think, well, didn't he
say, your faith has saved thee? But no, that's the Lord saying
that. That woman didn't look up and
say, Lord, my faith has saved me. I knew it would come in handy
one day. My faith has saved me. No, the
Lord gave her that faith. And children of God, we don't
boast in our faith. We know that, yes, the Lord tells
us, by faith you are saved. We know that we must believe. We all come to a knowledge of
salvation and we believe what the Lord has done. But look,
because I'm sure you have family that speak of that, but look
in 2 Peter. 2 Peter, if you're there in Peter
already. This is a wonderful verse. I
just saw this the other day. First, he says in verse 1, he
says, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. This is 2 Peter 1. to them who have obtained like
precious faith." So that means, by nature, we don't all have
faith. We are those who obtained it. We came into possession of
it, all right? So we didn't have it in the beginning.
Now look in verse three. According as His divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life, Does
your faith pertain unto your life in Christ? Yes, it does. Absolutely. And right here it
tells us that according to his divine power hath given to us
all things that pertain unto life. So those who want to boast
about their faith and their decision for Christ, Christ accomplished
our faith when he died on the cross, when he was buried and
rose again, He drew with Him all the gifts and all things
necessary that we have to serve the Lord, to believe on Him,
including our faith. And we know, as we read in John,
born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God. That's how we're born. God gives
us life. The true child of God has tasted
that the Lord is gracious, and by him we have received all things
necessary. And so we continually come to
Christ. 2. THE LIVING STONE CHOSEN OF
GOD AND PRECIOUS In verse 4 Peter says, To whom coming? to whom coming, as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious
Brethren, I can't stress enough what a merciful and gracious
and kind God we serve that He would do this for us. Because
that would be us disallowing Christ, rejecting Christ, putting
Christ aside were it not for the grace and kindness and mercy
of our God toward us. We are to rejoice in what He's
done. Though Christ, the living stone,
chosen of God and precious, all men set Him aside, disallowed
indeed of men. This one who has so graciously
come down and done for us what we could not do for ourselves. He came, the scriptures tell
us, in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet he himself was without
sin. And he fulfilled all the law
of God, perfectly. He fulfilled righteousness perfectly. He suffered, the Scriptures tell
us. He suffered not only there on the cross, but even before
that when He lived and moved among men, He suffered. He suffered
our ignorance, our darkness, our lack of knowledge, our boasting
in what we think we know even though we don't know. We're just
as that flower in the field that is here today and looks beautiful
and then it fades and is gone by the next day. We used to have
a tree, it was like a tree, I guess it was a bush or something like
that, and it might even be called the Rose of Sharon sometimes,
but I don't know if it's the true one. But it puts out a flower
in the morning, beautiful, and then it shrivels and dies right
at the end of the day, and the next day it's worthless. And
that's what we are. by nature. We're here today and
gone tomorrow. It's so short. That's why we
remember that we're but flesh and that there's nothing for
us to boast in. But Christ, he suffers us, he
put up with us that he might take to himself a purchased possession
that he himself purchased with his own blood. The scriptures
tell us that God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And we rejoice in this. Christ
took upon Him our sin. As the scriptures tell us, by
His stripes we are healed. He left nothing for us to do. He bore the wrath of God. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. He did all things that we ourselves
could not do so that There's no, there's nothing, there's
no wrath. There's not a single drop of
wrath left for us to have to endure or bear or take into ourselves. Christ did that all. You say,
well I suffer. That's not the wrath of God.
You suffer for your good. Because it's all working toward
an eternal weight of glory that shall far surpass anything that
we have had to endure in this life. And he left no, bit of
righteousness requirement. He left none of that undone for
us. He did all things necessary so
that we and Him might be made the righteousness of God. In
Christ now we stand accepted, complete old, holy, righteous,
he's done all that for us. And so we rejoice in him, to
whom coming, not by my power, but by his gracious sovereign
power, calling me out of darkness into his marvelous light. But this is all of grace so that
we have to wonder, why? Why, Lord? Why did you do this
for me? Why me, a sinner? Because the
Lord teaches us. He shows us what we are by nature. In fact, I'm sure those of you
who believe and love the Lord, you know this, that your sin,
you see your sin for what it is even more now than when you
first believed. Like now, it's not getting any
better. Now you look at it and say, I can't believe how corrupt
and dark my flesh is, that the Lord should have mercy on me
and take me out of such darkness when I deserve to be like these
other men. So all of grace, just like that verse says, disallowed
indeed of men, that would have been us. Now verse five, ye also. Ye also, chosen of God and precious,
as lively stones are built up a spiritual house." Notice that
it doesn't say, ye as lively stones are building up a spiritual
house. We're not the ones building up
the house. Our gracious God is the one taking
us, and he's building up the spiritual house, a holy priesthood,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. We're the passive ones in this.
Being taken by the hand of God, being given gifts according to
His good pleasure, Him fashioning us as He desires, as it pleases
Him, according to His will, and puts us into that spiritual house,
the body of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As it says, and the Lord
added daily to the church, such as should be saved. so that he
has some here in Newcastle, Indiana, and he put some of us over there
in Rocky Hill, New Jersey, and there's some down in Kentucky,
and North Carolina, and Alaska, so that it's all over according
as God wills, according as God purposes to save his people. So that if we look at verse five
again, and we take out those little statements about us, it
says, ye are built up a spiritual house acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ. It's all of Christ that we stand
complete in him. Verse six, wherefore, 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. Christ is the elect of God. He is the precious one of God.
Do you ever think, we touched on this, but do you ever think
sometimes that maybe there's more that I should be doing?
Maybe, what if I stand before God and I find out that there's
something more I had to do? And you begin to fear and doubt
and worry. But what the scripture is telling
us here, what the Lord is telling us is that this is the one who
is precious to God. He's precious to God. God received
him. God loves him because he fulfilled
all the will of the Father faithfully. Faithfully, and God loves him.
Do you think that you who come to God in Christ will ever be
cast out? Will God say to his son, you
didn't do enough? Sorry, Jesus, you didn't do enough. No, he'll never say that. You
shall never be ashamed. You who commit these things,
you who pass on sin and say, I'm not going to do that. I'm
not going to shame my Lord. I'm not going to do those things
that my flesh would have me to do. I commit it to the Lord.
And when you get there, you shall have your inheritance with the
Lord Jesus Christ. You shall rejoice. It'll be far
more exceeding, glorious than anything you can have here. anything
that you can have here. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. As Peter said to Cornelius, he
said to him, give all the prophets witness that through his name,
whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins. He
left nothing undone. And you either believe it or
you don't. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious to you. He's precious, just as he's precious
to God. For it is God which worketh in
you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. God will ensure
that we shall come before him, and we come in Christ, standing
complete, holy, and accepted in Christ. Now, a word to the
disobedient. There in 1 Peter 2, 7, Unto you, therefore, which believe,
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 Now this scripture that Peter quotes
here is from Isaiah 28, and I would encourage you today to read Isaiah
28 because he's very much influenced by Isaiah in general when he
wrote this epistle, but especially Isaiah 28. It's talking about
the flower, they're all fading and falling off, and now he's
speaking of this stumbling stone that God has put before these
men that they should indeed stumble. And so just as Isaiah was witnessing
all this abundance of religious people who really didn't know
or understand the spirit of the word, so Peter is living among
this abundantly. There's Pharisees and there's
Sadducees and there's all these religious people around him that
he's witnessing daily. So he's writing this with that
very much in mind that man is full of this vanity and vain
religion. Man is so easily deceived and
willing to deceive himself and to believe a lie. That's what
Isaiah 28 is talking about. Man holding on to a lie and saying
to God, I won't be destroyed. I will not be overcome or overrun
by the flood in that day. You'll see. You'll have to swallow
your words. God, I know what I'm doing. I'm
going to prove to you that I am righteous, that I have a righteousness
of my own. And the Lord says, no, you're not. You're going
to be disappointed. You're going to be ashamed. You
who hold on to that lie, you who are the disobedient ones
who do not believe the salvation that I've provided for my people,
you who have rejected my Christ, They have a form of religion
and while they may take to themselves even the name of Christ, because
there's many that take the name of Christ, but they stumble upon
him and they get offended and they push him aside. Have you
ever been walking, I don't know, in your house, you who have children
especially, you maybe step on something or run into something
and it hurts you and you get angry or you fall outside or
something like that and you get angry because you're embarrassed
and you're offended now? Had you just made a fool of yourself
and you go back and kick that thing out of the way in anger?
Well, that's what religious men do all the time. They think that
they're somebody and that they're something and they stumble over
Christ and they get offended by him and so they move him out
of the way so that they can, they take him who is the living
stone, move him out of the way that they can get on with their
dead works religion, their dead letter religion. And they're
happy and they're comforted in this. They hold on to their lie. And for this reason, brethren,
let us take care. Let us take care what we preach,
that we preach the gospel of our Savior, Jesus Christ, knowing
the corruption of our flesh, knowing that this flesh, given
a chance, given an opportunity, it would deceive us and take
us down to hell. Thanks be to God that he won't
let that happen to those who are his true children. But let
us preach and preach and who teach, preach our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Let us preach the gospel because
that's that nourishing food. That's the word that which by
the gospel is preached unto us. We need that gospel because that's
how God sustains us. He gives us life. He continually
draws us to Himself and He continually comforts us all by this gospel. And also, let us take care from
whose fields we graze. It's so easy to hear preaching,
if you will. It's so easy today to hear it.
But there's so many good preachers, there's so many gospel preachers
that are preaching the truth, so let us be careful where we're
going to hear that gospel, and let's take care how we hear,
and what it is that we hear, lest we should be like those
who hold on or holding on to a lie and just believe in a lie
thinking that somehow we are safe. Because religion, dead
religion, is alive and well in our day just as it was in Peter's
day, just as it was when Isaiah wrote what he wrote. So brethren,
when we see these exhortations, let us always remember, they're
in the context of what God has, of the leading of the Spirit.
It's by Christ that we do these things. So never let us hang
these things out there as though the flesh could somehow do them
and keep them. Let us always remember to preach
Christ in everything we say, showing how God has done, made
all the provision. It's so subtle. Men start out
so well having an academic understanding of Christ. They may say many
good things that we say, wow, that's true. I believe. I agree
with what he just said. But before long, it becomes this
religion of do's and don'ts. As Paul said, having done the
spirit, I was now made perfect in the flesh. And before you
know it, they're just on to touch not, taste not, handle not. That's
all their religion because they just look to what the flesh needs
to be doing, thinking that's what it's saying. And that's
not what the Word's saying. It's saying put those aside,
but put those aside by the Spirit, being led by the Spirit. And
they go off, they write creeds and catechisms and books. They
have books out there like How to Be a Christian, How to Be
a Real Christian. how to be holy, how to lead a
disciplined life. You don't need those things.
They're going to appeal to the flesh, those books do. They appeal to the flesh, not
to the spirit of Christ in you. Just throw those things away. Peter tells us all we need to
know about such men at the end of verse eight. He said, being
disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. That's not company that we want
to find ourselves in. But beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you and things that accompany salvation though
we thus speak, as our Hebrew writer said, Paul. Now, fourth
point, called out of darkness, called into his light. Peter
goes on to encourage us who believe on Jesus for all our salvation.
In verse nine he says, but ye are chosen generation, a royal
priesthood and holy nation a peculiar people, that ye should show forth
the praises of him who hath 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. Brethren, our Savior Jesus Christ
makes us precious to God, just as He is precious. He makes us
precious to God that God should bless us with such kind words. A chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. You know, those words
were spoken to the children of Israel in the wilderness. And
so you might think, well, They didn't make it. They didn't believe. They fell in the wilderness.
What's the difference now? Why should I hope in Christ that
He loves me and that He did this for me? Those people were given
a covenant of works when they were there, that if you do this,
then you shall be to me a chosen generation. Then you shall be
to me a kingdom of priests, he said to them in the wilderness
there. But they didn't keep their end of the bargain. They were
given a covenant of works. If they do this, then God shall
do that. But notice here, there is no
condition given to us. It's all in Christ. Christ has
secured for us what we could not do for ourselves and we shall
never be able to do for ourselves. He did it all so that now, even
now, we are a chosen generation. We are now a royal priesthood. We are now a holy nation and
indeed we are a peculiar people. The Lord has made it so. He has
put us in such Such situations and such areas that we are but,
just, I can't even speak. We're nothing. We come to know
that we are nothing, and yet we who are nothing, and have
nothing to even boast in, all we can do is say, but our God
has done all things well. and all things needful, and I
trust the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's given that to me. And
so I continue to hope in Him, and move in Him, and walk in
Him, and serve and love my brethren, and just continue in. Him until
He is pleased to return and come again. We praise Him for His
works. We don't boast in our works.
We boast in what He has done, because He has called us out
of spiritual darkness and into His marvelous light. If Christ
is precious to you, then rejoice, for God has made Him precious
to you. And rejoice, because in Christ
you are now precious to God. Amen. Shall I pray? Would you like
me to pray? Or you guys? I'll pray. Our gracious
Lord, Father, we thank you for your kindness, your mercy, and
your grace. That, Lord, you should do all
things for us, that you put no condition upon us. that we should
do something that we might gain such a glorious title, that we
should be the chosen of God, that we should be a peculiar
people to our Lord, a precious people. But Lord, we thank You
for Your Son, our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is
precious to You. And Lord, that in Him we have
inheritance of eternal life, and that He has made us precious
to You. Lord, help us to remember this,
that our brethren might be precious to us as well, that we might
love them and serve them and gladly labor with them, rejoicing
in what God has done and putting us together. We thank you for
this, Lord, in Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior. Amen.