 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 12 We'll look at verses 4 through 8 introduce our subject and get into our study today living stones Beginning at verse 4 reading to verse 8 the apostle Peter writes coming to him as to a living stone Rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious you also as living stones Are being built up a spiritual house a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ Therefore it is also contained in the scripture Behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone elect precious and he who believes on him will by no means Be put to shame Therefore to you who believe he is precious, but to those who are disobedient The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense They stumble being disobedient to the word to which they also were appointed now Peter has been pointing out in first Peter especially the last few verses prior to to chapter 2 verse 4 He's been pointing out that believers are those who have purified their souls through obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ How can an individual be cleansed? How can an individual have a new life? Well the psalmist said Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way then he says by taking heed there too according to thy word And so the way that you are purified is through belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ The way that you have a right standing with God is not because you're religious. It's not because you had Certain rituals performed on you as a child It isn't because you were one of those kids who were always in Sunday school and Attended church all of your life The way that you got right with God is you heard a message called the gospel of Jesus Christ a Message that declares to us that we were at war with God That we were hostily in opposition to him by nature. We were children of wrath and So the only thing awaiting us was judgment the wrath of God Abides on the ones who reject Jesus Christ. We read in John 3 36 and so God did something about that He removed his wrath from us by placing his wrath on his son Jesus Christ Jesus is the Substitutionary death. He is the one who made atonement for us. He's the one who satisfied the righteous Indignation and wrath of his father. He is our propitiation And he did so by voluntarily taken upon himself human flesh dwelling amongst men Allowing them to behold his glory the glory is the only begotten Son of God full of grace and full of truth And he took upon himself my sin when he died on a cross He poured out his blood in order to make atonement for us blood being the cost of redemptions Buy me out of the marketplace of sin This is all contained in a message of reconciliation That is called the gospel the gospel literally means good news The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of what God has done through Jesus Christ So I became right with God. I purified my soul Not because mama took me to a small church outside of alvera street that every person in this room is probably familiar with it's called a little plaza church and Baptized me at the age of four months. That is not what got me right with God I didn't get right with God by going through my first communion classes either and I did not get right with God When I received my confirmation I read I got right with God when I was 20 years old and I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ a gospel of reconciliation a Gospel which it's declared that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and I was called to something called repentance where I Changed my mind metanoia means to change your mind I changed my mind concerning my lifestyle and what it means or what it takes for me to get right with God And I agreed with him when he said the way you become right with me is through accepting Christ and what he has done for you You receive him as Lord and Savior and you're washed by his blood. That's what we've been looking at in first Peter now When that happens there are certain things that happen one of those things is because I've been purified through the blood of Christ And received the gospel of Jesus. I Begin to obey what the gospel has to say and one of the things that Demonstrates that I actually believe is that I have something called love and Peter has been speaking about having a fervent love For one another and so there's an intensity of love that you actually have for the body of Christ It is a complete kind of love It's a it's a deep love and so we have been purified But we also now are loving one another now if I'm really beginning to love one another Then there are going to be things that I no longer do to somebody else And we saw that already in chapter 2 we begin to lay aside certain things certain ways of life things that we thought were normal And and just who we are we begin to put those things aside because these are the things that wound others and therefore We don't want to wound somebody else and destroyed the life of the body of Christ So I lay these things aside. I lay aside like we saw last time malice Malice is that ill will that destroys fellowship. I lay aside guile Guile is deceit. It's that acting on ulterior motives It's pretending to be somebody's friend all along collecting information about them that I can use against them later on. That's guile I lay aside the hypocrisy which is insincerity. It's a pretense. It's deception I lay aside envy envies that inward attitude behind hypocrisy and guile is usually associated with party strife And I lay aside evil speaking which is slander and gossip. I stop criticizing people behind their backs All of these as we pointed out last time our sins that destroy Christian community What God wants us to have is open and loving communication He wants us to have truth that binds us together in him That only becomes possible if we are as newborn babes Desiring the sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby if indeed we tasted that the Lord is gracious That's how that works. You see and so what we're looking at is looking at the life of a Christian We want to be doers of the word not heroes only deceiving ourselves as James said in chapter 1 verse 22 We want to be people who not only know the word of God, but we want to know the God of the word That's why in John 5 39 Jesus speaking to opponents said to them You search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and these are they which speak concerning me You search the scriptures that word search is a Greek word that literally means you ransack And we know the word ransack if we use it in this illustrative form Which is you came home your house has been broken into you walk into the front room and Everything's turned upside down you go into your bedroom your whole bedroom has been messed with your your your mattress has been Pulled off the bed all the dresser drawers have been poured out That's that you say my house has been burglarized, but the word that better describes it is it's been ransacked It's been searched thoroughly and Jesus was speaking to his opponents, and he said you search the scriptures You ransacked God's word because in the scriptures you believe you have eternal life But you're missing the whole point that they're directing your attention to me You wouldn't come to me that you may have life And so the scripture it's more for us than just to know the scripture is something for us to obey The scripture is something that we can know through faith and obey and that gives to Jesus opportunity to manifest himself to us And so if God really has grabbed hold of my life, it's going to be a transformed life I'm going to love with purity therefore. I'll put aside the malice and everything else and I'll learn to love People I'll learn to live in unity with one another which is greatly pleasing to the Lord And so it all is going to be hinged on love faith and obedience It's like what tozer said when he said our Lord told his disciples that love and obedience were organically united The final test of love Is obedience and so this is what we've been looking at in 1st Peter now beginning at verse 4 He continues by saying coming to him as to a living stone rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious Coming to the Lord is a phrase that as Christians we use when we speak concerning how we got saved I can still remember when I would speak to people and they would ask me when did you come to the Lord And that was just another way that's christianese for how did you get saved? When did you get saved and so he's speaking concerning the fact that he's writing to people who have come to the Lord These are christians he's speaking to these are people who heard the gospel message And they're the ones who received the invitation that was given in that message God desires to have relationship with man And throughout your bible from genesis to revelation you find god giving invitation to man All the way back in genesis chapter 3 when god asked adam adam, where are you? It's not that that god didn't know where adam was. I mean adam had such a great You know hiding place. He had a fig leaf. I mean that kept god That's the fig leaf. I can't see you. Where are you? It wasn't cosmic hide and seek When god was speaking to adam and said adam, where are you? He basically simply saying I'm giving you an opportunity To confess your sin so you can be reconciled to me because I know exactly what you did Oh, we you know we heard you as you were coming through the garden and we hit ourselves because we were naked Well, who told you you were naked? That's just an opportunity It's an invitation on the part of god to adam as he calls out in that garden with a broken heart When you read the book of genesis and the question is formed there adam Where are you? You might it might do you some good to to understand that That that the impact of that of that phrase is not an angry Arresting officer looking for a criminal that they desire to take to jail But it's rather the voice of a heartbroken father who has lost a son that he loves with all of his heart It's a tear in the voice of god that you have when he asks the question. Where are you? And the reason god's heart is broken is because adam had heard the word of satan and believed the word of satan over the word of god And as i've said to you many times when you read your bible just the punctuation and you begin in chapter one of genesis And you begin just to look at the punctuation. You see a period or a comma Whatever You go through it from chapter one you go into chapter two You're only going to find those kinds of punctuations and the first question mark you ever find Is found in the mouth of satan himself and the first question you find in the bible Is this hath god said so the very first question that you have in scripture is satan questioning god's veracity The first question you ever find in the bible is satan calling into question the word of god Which he continues to do by the way to this day and the second question is god saying adam. Where are you? First question has god said second question. Where are you? Now that you've listened to the voice of satan. Where are you? Now that you have denied me and have rejected my word. What has it gotten you? You see invitations from genesis all the way to revelation where the spirit and the bride say come invitations Any but if any man desired to come after me let him take up his cross daily and follow me Jesus says Any man desire that word desire speaks of a personal impulse something i have within myself a desire to follow him And jesus gives an invitation come pick up your cross follow me So you see that from genesis through revelation? And here we have this knowledge that we have actually come to god because god has called us to himself Isaiah 45 22 says look to me and be saved all you ends of the earth for i am god and there is no other Jesus and matthew 11 28 through 30 says come unto me All you who labor and are heavy laden i will give you rest Take my yoke upon you learn from me for i am gentle and lowly in heart And you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy my burden is light Invitation after invitation given by the lord come to me and so he's speaking concerning that coming to him So you responded to his invitation coming to him notice as to a living stone living So when we see the word living there, we know that he is alive He's a living stone. He's alive and not only is he personally alive Not only is he life and has life within him, but he is the source of life to all who follow him That's why jesus said i am the way The truth and the life No one comes to the father, but by me So jesus is that life. So he's the living stone In john 11 verse 25 we have a story there where jesus is Is coming to minister to the family of a man named lazarus as well as to raise lazarus from the dead And as he comes into town lazarus already being dead Jesus encounters his sister a woman by the name of martha And martha is in grief and jesus speaks to her and says to her I am the resurrection and the life He who believes in me though he may die he shall live In revelation 118 i am he who lives and was dead and behold i am alive forevermore Amen, and i have the keys of hades and of death He is the living not only the living the one who was alive, but he is the living stone That stone is the foundation on which the church is built And on which it must rest Now notice with me as we look at this he was rejected indeed by men rejected People rejected him as he walked the face of the earth I mean john tells us in john 110 and 11 He was in the world and though the world was made through him the world didn't recognize him He came to that which was his own but his own did not receive him The world rejected jesus the world rejected jesus then And it was the cause of him being put on across it was the reason they was actually crucified because they rejected him In mathieu chapter 27 verses 20 through 22 Jesus is standing before a pilot and it says the chief priests and elders Persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for barabas and destroyed jesus The governor answered and said to them Which of the two do you want me to release to you? They said barabas Pilate said to them what then shall I do with jesus who's called the christ They all said to him let him be crucified The world rejected the lord jesus christ then and rejects the lord jesus christ now Continues to do so continues to say he's not enough or he's not what I need They hear the claims of the gospel the word of god is it spoken clearly and they just reject him They did it then they do it now But though people rejected him the bible says though indeed he was rejected by men he was chosen by god and he's precious So god chose for jesus to be the savior of the world Though despised and rejected by men jesus as the sacrifice for a lost world Is infinitely honorable in the sight of god because he is precious Because he is preeminent. He's held in honor because he is prized and the father loves the sun But it's interesting how it says god chose for jesus to be the savior of the world He didn't choose anyone else to be the savior of the world. He chose only jesus to be the savior of the world Acts 412 says there is salvation and no one else There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them Jesus is the only savior And god chose jesus to be the savior of the world Now as this is taking place in verse 5 he continues to say You also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house a holy priesthood To offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ The church of god is his spiritual house Believers are building blocks for the house of god God intends to inhabit us And in the church of the living god, we are all so called not only his house, but his temple Know you not that you are the temple of god and the spirit of god dwells in you first chrithians 3 16 asks And the point is as god has chosen to dwell within us and make us into his house So he lives within us But not only are we his spiritual house notice he speaks of us as being a holy priesthood So in jesus every believer is part of what is called a priestly order God intended the nation of israel to be his nation of priests In exodus 19 verses 5 and 6 We read if you obey me fully and keep my covenant Then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession Although the whole earth is mine You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation These are the words you are to speak to the israelites So that desire to have a holy nation a holy people is Fulfilled in the church. We are a holy priesthood. We are called the priesthood of the believer So we have immediate access to god we serve god in a personal way And we minister to other people There's no need for us though as priests to offer up dead sacrifices You see in the priesthood during the time of christ They offered up dead sacrifices, but we don't have to offer up dead sacrifices because jesus is the sacrifice Hebrews 9 27 and 28 says it's appointed for men to die once but after this the judgment So christ was offered once to bear the sins of many So now we as believers have the ability to offer living sacrifices and we do so of praise of service and gratitude To god for what he's done my encouragement to you by the way as I make this point is this Spend some time with the lord Spend some alone time with god Enjoy his presence go outside if you can get away from your kids for a while Or get away from the noise or whatever of the home Go outside sit down by yourself make a habit of that If you can do that at night, it's a good thing too. If you do that early in the morning, that's great But as you step outside Look up at the stars and begin to wonder at the amazing creation of god Begin to think even as the psalmist said what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou should consider him What am I Compared to how great you are even as I look at the universe it screams out the glory of god because It reveals the immensity of the creative power and activity of god To look around and to see these things and to realize that god you created all these things and you Love me it ought to cause you to be grateful Instead of sitting down saying what you don't have and making a list of the things that you wish you had Instead of doing that Why not sit down and say god? Look at all you have given to me You've given to me a family You've given to me friends You've given to me and you can begin to list the things that matter to you You know you don't need to say oh by the way you gave me this but I don't really want that Can you take it back what you need to do is you need to just list the things that are a blessing Thank you god for if you're married. Thank you god for my my my spouse. Thank you for a husband. Thank you for a wife If you have children, uh, it's a little harder, but thank you god for the kids Thank you for the children. If you're a grandparent, it's not hard at all Thank you for these babies Thank you for my friends Thank you for people who call me up in the middle of the night and say to me are you okay? I've been praying for you Thank you for people who share my burdens with me People that I can speak my heart to who don't reject me but can say i'm with you in this Thank you for people who've been alongside of me in so many different ways and so many different things jesus Thank you for them. Thank you for the church that I get to go to Thank you for the worship team that helps me to learn to praise god You can thank god for so many things Or you can sit there dissatisfied about all the bad breaks you've had in life What we learn to do is offer up spiritual sacrifices to god And we thank him and we praise him and we glorify him because he indeed has been good to us You we have this earth and maybe it's not too much Maybe you don't like what you've got right now, but you've got heaven waiting for you You've got heaven waiting for you You have a place that you're going to go that that that the streets are made of gold That the walls are precious stones That that there's no need for light because the glory of god is going to illuminate It's going to be so incredible when you're there You're not going to sit down and say but man i wanted that new computer and and and that new ipad came out Just before i died and i really wanted that I promise you you're not going to do that I promise you I promise you when you see the face of jesus christ when you have a chance to look in his eyes And you get to see the one who wept for you in the garden I promise you you're not going to be thinking of the bad breaks you had on earth You're not going to be thinking of your health problems You're not going to think of the bills that you had you're not going to be thinking of any of that You're just going to be swallowed up in glory and your health and all of that It doesn't matter anymore because i get to see you and i just want to say thank you for what you've done for me I love you jesus that's what's going to happen And we need to understand that You see the lord jesus christ has given us great blessings in hebrus 13 15 through 16 It says therefore let him Let therefore by him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to god That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name Do not forget to do good and to share with others for with such sacrifices god is pleased He goes on in verse 6 and he says therefore it is also contained in scripture behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone elect precious and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame therefore To you who believe he is precious But to those who are disobedient The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and a stone is stumbling and a rock of offense They stumble being disobedient to the word to which they were appointed Now when he begins to quote he's he's referring to old testament passage is like like the book of isiah chapter 28 verse 16 To psalm 118 verse 22 isiah chapter 8 verse 14 And he's speaking of this chief cornerstone. He's speaking of jesus christ who is the chief foundation stone Upon whom the entire church is built And he's making the point those who refuse jesus are revealed as those who stumble over him Like a stone that is in the middle of a road that they're walking on And they're walking in by the way darkness There is a stone in the middle of the road as they're walking In their darkness that they stumble over And he says that they are disobedient, which I find very interesting in verse 7 to those who are disobedient. That's an interesting word Because when he speaks of them being disobedient that is a word that can Uh connotate or can note to not allow yourself to be persuaded To refuse to believe to withhold belief voluntarily It's it's a sense of knowing to do right but choosing not to do it Because I don't want to Because I don't want jesus christ Because if I follow jesus christ, I'm not going to have the fun of all these hangovers And venereal diseases. Look what I'm missing out on Man, I don't want to Listen There's so many commercials that we've seen on tv Where you have these young people are so cool and so hip the hipsters So cool so hip. They're at the bar. They're drinking all the beer. Not one of them has beer guts Not one of them does big old Beer gut. Well, I still have a 34 inch waist. Yeah, that's because you're wearing it on your thighs not around your waist Come on. Give me a break You know if they got up and they told you what really happens if you get addicted to alcohol If they told you you're going to lose your family. You're going to lose your marriage. You're going to lose yourself You're going to lose everything they told you that they wouldn't sell any beer. Would they If they said I've been told you what a hangover really is like But it's really like to wake up in your own vomit Which I've done many times at my age. I still remember it I still remember being put in jail. I drank three bottles of wine. I was 16 years old We went to a market on front street in norwalk And my friend bill who later became a police officer and I We both stole three bottles of very cheap wine Got very very drunk We're put in the sheriff's substation in norwalk. Some of you know that well You've been there plenty and I'm on the floor Because I can't move I'm so drunk. I'm paralyzed And bill is seated on a bench above me vomited on my face Yes, and I'm saying Stop at bill And he's saying I can't I remember that very well Hearing a sheriff say guys you got to see this And here comes these guys as bill's Vomiting all over my face man. I miss those days Oh, how I wish I could wake up in a pool of vomit one more time. Jesus you ruined my life You hear what I'm saying, don't you? I mean, that's what your life led you to one form or another isn't it waking up saying what did I do last night? And who's after me? Why did I do that? How'd I get this? How this happened to me? You know I was an alcoholic from the time I was around 16 till I was 20 I woke up in a lot of backyards not knowing how I got there. I woke up in my car more than once with vomit all around me my own I know what that's all about. I know what it's like to do that And the world does not tell you that's what you're going to get Satan tells you you're really missing out man. You took the the the stupid road man You had to be on the road with me right now. You'd be enjoying yourself really Really? That's a lie from satan I can put my head on a pillow at night wake up the next morning with no guilt No regret and only joy because of what god has done in my life that comes through jesus christ That comes through the power of the gospel And so god has done a work in us and and I don't want to refuse him I don't want to refuse to be persuaded. I I received christ as my lord and my savior But stumbling is all you can do if you don't You're walking in the darkness tripping over that stumbling stone that's left there in the path In verses nine and ten it says You are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation his own special people That you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light Who once were not a people but are now the people of god Who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy To that contrasts the obedient with the disobedient you are a chosen generation A chosen generation stresses god's loving initiative in bringing you to himself He chose you you are a royal priesthood a household of priests a royal house You are a holy nation because god has set us apart for his use And worship and honor the only true god while abstaining from the things that god hates You are his own special people Because you belong to him and to him alone and to no one else And you have a purpose that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light So you let people know we have been rescued from the heathen darkness. We've been rescued from idolatry and ungodly Superstition and we now walk in the light of jesus christ and we tell people that we share With people that we tell him how good god has been to us and what he has done in our life How grateful we are and we bring his praises to the people Our purpose is to bring glory and praise to god That's how god intends to reveal to people his plan of salvation. He does so through you through the church Isaiah 43 21 says this people have I formed for myself they shall show forth my praises So we do because he called us out of darkness into his light We've been saved through god's word and god's spirit working together And he has brought us to himself. We one time lived in spiritual darkness. That was The environment that we grew up in spiritual darkness But now we have the light of life In Colossians 113 it says he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness brought us into the kingdom of the sun whom he loves You see at one time we were not A people we didn't belong to him, but now we are the people of god At one time we had not obtained mercy, but now when jesus christ we have And he closes by saying in verses 11 and 12 beloved i beg you as sojourners And pilgrims abstained from fleshly lusts which war against the soul Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles that When they speak against you as evil doers they may By your good works which they observe glorify god in the day of visitation Now upon first reading you might not Realize this but can you see in verse 11 when he says i beg you i beseech you i implore you This humility and broken heart of the apostle peter there Why do you have to beg me to abstain from fleshly lusts? Because the danger is is that you don't Because the danger is is because you yield and can easily yield to the The lust of your own flesh the desires for pleasure today Because the world is constantly pounding at the door Trying to get you to do things that you shouldn't do and you can yield to those things I was sharing on wednesday night For those of you who are with me You'll remember this hopefully I was sharing on wednesday night how that We are the temple of the spirit of god And the spirit of god dwells in us So I used an illustration I said What do you think you'd feel like and I spoke in general as I am right now What do you think you would feel like if you came we'll say during the week You came into the foyer here in this church building sanctuary structure And you heard noise coming from in this room So you swing the doors open And as you're looking in here you got the strobes going You have a group up here singing some of the contemporary rap songs that are going on Some of the songs that go on that are so filled with anger and profanity And you hear that and you see in the front there are people they're dancing You look in the side into the pews and there are people making out and doing other kinds of things They're in the pews You look off into the corner and you see a bar set up and In people selling drinks And I asked the wednesday night group I asked them Would that bother you? I can ask the same question right now to us as a group right now I'd say would it bother you and I know the answer the answer would be of course So I asked them I said would that bother you you walked in there's all this music going on There are all these people dancing over there. There are people Involved in a variety of things in the pews. There's a bar over there. Somebody's selling drinks. Does that bother you? Yes, it bothers me and I asked why Why would it bother you and then they started responding because it's disrespectful to god It's not right. This place has been set apart for god I said that's all reasonable This is just a building This is just four walls That's all this is I said it's bad for that to take place here But it's not bad when believers go to bars pick up girls have sex with them and do all of that That's okay But it's not okay if it's in this building something's wrong. There's a disconnect here Because you are the temple of the spirit of god and the spirit of god dwells in you So just because you're in here right now doesn't make you any better It's what you're like when you walk out of here that matters And if you're going down to the bar if you're picking up the girl getting picked up by the guy If you're drinking party and listening to that garbage and you're saying that's okay How come it's okay? They didn't want to answer that question But it's true How come How come that's okay? It is not okay. Jesus christ the spirit of god dwells in me I am his temple. Therefore. I will abstain from fleshly lust that war against my soul Why because I have been called out of darkness into his light. Therefore. I will walk in the light. That's how it works That's what god has called us to do And that's what the apostle begs us to do I beg you See yourself for what you are You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation You have been called out of darkness into god's wonderful light. You're heaven bound. You are pilgrims You are sojourners. You're just passing through Live like that and the world will see that kind of life and will say truly god is amongst you Your lives have been changed in the day of visitation They'll only be able to speak of what god did in the church That's what peter wants us to live like and I would say amen to that Can you say amen to that amen to that may god work in us in that capacity