Stop what's going on. We are headed for destruction. There's no other option for you other than to destroy those who destroy your image. So Lord, we plead for our nation. We plead for the courts. We ask God that you turn the hearts of men and women towards you, open their eyes, remove the blinders, help them to see what's really going on. Father, we pray for your church. that we would stand strong in the midst of the battle and not give way to different winds that blow, winds of doctrine and winds of opinion, but instead, Father, that we would stand firm in the fact that you are the creator and that you have made us and that we bear your image for a purpose, to bring glory to you. And so Lord, would you please, oh God, please show mercy in Jesus' name. Amen. Many times I realize that the church, we talk about this issue among ourselves, but we need to be able to take a stand out in the public to be able to stand and give a defense, a reason for the hope that's within us. And that takes place in the public arena. We were not designed to be inside four walls. Sometimes the church looks at it that way. We're inside four walls, we're comfortable, and yet the world around us is where Jesus wants us to go. I'm gonna be looking at 1 Peter chapter two. And actually this has something to do with it. I'm gonna read, I'm gonna pick up at chapter one. And the reason I'm gonna pick up at chapter one is because there's a flow of thought that goes through here. And I'm gonna be looking secondarily at who we are. Who we are. But primarily at who is Jesus. Because we have no identity outside of him. If we don't understand who he is, we won't understand who we are. But if we understand who he is, then we will understand who we are and what we're to be about as far as our lives. And so beginning in verse, let me see if I can see here, verse 32, you may have to, or 22 of chapter one, you may have to put this up on the board because I can't read it with or without my glasses anymore. Peter says, since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. Now the Word of God, it's incorruptible, it lives and it abides forever. There's a new birth that takes place to the believer. We are born again, as the scripture says, and then go on from there. It says, because all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass and the grass withers and the flower falls away. It's talking about the temporalness of life, the temporalness of human beings. We're only here for a short time. But the Word of God abides forever. Now, what was the seed that we've been born from? I want you to think about what Peter was saying. What is the seed, the incorruptible seed that we have been born from? You got to respond to me, folks. We'll stay on this point until somebody responds. Huh? Well, Jesus, yeah, the answer to everything is Jesus. You know, it's like the Sunday school's teacher said to the class, you know, what's little and gray or brown and has four paws and a big furry tail? And somebody said, Jesus, you know? No, the answer is a squirrel. But, you know, sometimes we just come up with Jesus, but we've been born again by something, a seed. We've been, as it were, born from a source. That source is the Word of God. It's the incorruptible seed. It can't change, it can't wither, it can't pass away. The Word of God stands forever and ever. And if you've been born by the Word of God, you have what kind of life? Eternal life. Just like the Word of God is eternal, you have eternal life. And so, But the word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. Go on to the next verse. We're going to stay with this thought. Therefore, this is the first verse of chapter two. Remember it's connected. The therefore means it's connected. It's not a separate It's a separate chapter in your Bible, but it's not a separate chapter in the scriptures themselves. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil, speaking as newborn babes. You've been newborn, you're a newborn babe, and how were you born? Through the what? The Word of God, the incorruptible seed. Desire the pure milk of the Word. If you were born by the Word, now you're to be nourished and grow by the Word. Okay? That you may grow thereby. He's emphasizing the place of the Word of God in the life of the child of God. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. You have tasted that the Lord is gracious, amen? The Lord is gracious. Now I want you to, there's some things I want us to focus on as we go from this point on. Go on to the next verse. Coming to him, Now that's not a one time coming. That's, that, the word, the way it appears in Greek is, it's a constant coming to Him. It's not something you did once and it's over with. It's a constant coming to Him. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. This word appears, I think it's three, four different times in Peter, but three different times right here, this word precious. I want to ask a question. How precious is Jesus to you? How valuable? How costly? He's a living stone. Remember earlier Peter talked about us having a living hope. Remember he's talking to people who have been displaced out of their regular homeland and they're now strangers and pilgrims. They're in different places. They're like aliens living in different places. And he says coming to him as to a living stone. Stones are usually dead inanimate objects, right? But this is not a dead stone. It's a living stone. It has life in it. Rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. This idea of the living stone, and he's gonna refer to him later as the cornerstone. But notice what he says, he's chosen by God and he's precious. God's attitude towards Jesus should be our attitude towards Jesus. And our attitude towards Jesus should be the same as God's. We should think of Jesus Christ the same way the Father thinks of Him. Precious. When I hear some people talk about their relationship with Jesus, oh yeah, yeah I ask Jesus to come into my heart. And they say that, you know, but I don't really pay much attention to Him anymore. I don't walk with Him very much. I don't pray. you know, church, eh, you know, I'm a Christian. But if my heart is touched by God, truly touched by God, there will be a preciousness about Jesus that is sweeter than anything else. So let's go on a little bit further. I'm going to come back to these. You also, you also, Peter's replying, or responding, or not responding, but he's talking to the people that are there. He says, you also are living stones. And as living stones are being built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. First of all, Peter starts off with this idea of we're children of the same family, same father. You and I have the same father. If we've been born again, our father is God, right? We're in his family. But not only that, we are also being built up a spiritual temple. We're God's spiritual temple. Now remember, he's talking to Jews and Gentiles, but many of them are Jews. And what is the one thing that they've lost? They've lost connection with Jerusalem. They've lost connection with the temple. They've lost connection with the priesthood. All of the things that they held dear are behind them, and they can't go back there. And so what God is saying to them, look, Stop worrying about back there. Some of us, you know, we live in the past. And if we're ever going to move on with God, we have to look at what God has for us now and in the future. You know, it's like driving a car. If you try to drive a car, always look in the rearview mirror, you're going to end up in trouble. Probably in a telephone pole, or on a telephone pole, or in a ditch, or But he says, you're living stones. Jesus, he's gonna speak of as being the chief cornerstone, but you are living stones. And not only that, you're being built up to be a spiritual house, a temple. Not just the temple like the temple in Israel where you had the different courts and then you had the inner part. This is talking about the whole shebang, the whole thing. You're a place, you and I, as believers, and the people Peter was writing to, he was saying to them, you are the dwelling place of God. God is in you. Wherever you go, God goes. You're his temple. And you're being built up a spiritual house. But not only that, a holy priesthood. Israel had a priesthood. But in our life, now, we are the priesthood. The church is the priesthood. Every believer is a priest unto God. That's, some of you've heard the term, the priesthood of the believer. This is basically where that comes from. that you and I, if we're believers in Christ, we are priests unto God. What does a priest do? A priest comes before God and a priest represents the people, right? He offers up prayers for the people. He offers up sacrifices before God. And so here it says that you're a holy priesthood. Each one of you in here, if you know Christ, you are a priest unto God. You can come before God. The veil of the temple, if you know the New Testament, the veil of the temple was rent when Jesus was raised from the dead. That veil was a thick thing that was separated the most holy place from the outer section. But that's been torn away. And each one of us can come into the very presence of God in worship, in prayer, We can be in the presence of God, something that only the high priest could do in Israel once a year, once a year. But you and I have the privilege to do that every single day, every minute of every day. Now think of the privilege that you have as a believer. And what Peter's trying to remind them of is, look, you may have lost something back there, but you have something far better now. It's like the writer of Hebrews says, you know, we have a better priesthood, we have a better sacrifice, we have a better priest. You know, we have everything better. Go to the next verse. Therefore it also, it is also contained in the Scripture, behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. Again that word precious comes up. And he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. That word put to shame is kind of unusual. And basically what it means is that you won't be disappointed, but it carries a fuller intent to it. What it means is you will be vindicated. You won't be put to shame in a sense of like, like you'll be defeated, but you will be vindicated as one of God's children. But this chief cornerstone, who's that talking about? Now you can say Jesus. Okay. But let's look at some passages of Scripture. This idea of the chief cornerstone, go back to, well, put up Isaiah, if you can mark that and go to Isaiah. I didn't give them any script to read, so. Isaiah 28, verse 16. And then we're gonna go to Psalm 118 after that. Isaiah 28, 16. Isaiah, that's 15, I need 16. Oh, that's okay. Therefore thus says the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone. I find that unusual he's using that word precious again. A sure foundation, whoever believes will not act hastily. In other words, they won't be, they won't be running around, they'll be at peace. they'll be at peace. Why? Because He is their foundation. So Isaiah speaks about this. It's also spoken of before that even back in Genesis, but we're not going to go back that far. Go to Psalm 118. Psalm 118 verses 22 and 23. The psalmist says this. Now, how many of you've heard the verse of Scripture says, this is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Okay, that's talking about not today. That's talking about a specific day. It's the day that when Jesus comes, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Go to the next verse. This was the Lord's doing. It's marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. What is the day the Lord has made? It's the day when the cornerstone, the chief cornerstone is revealed. That's the day you rejoice in. It's the day of salvation. The day when the salvation comes to Israel. Now we should rejoice every day. God did make this day. We should rejoice in this day. But there it's a specific day. It's the day when the cornerstone is revealed. and it's speaking prophetically. Now go to Matthew. Actually in each of the gospels, this phrase is used, this cornerstone idea. In Matthew, in Mark and Luke, not in John though, but in Matthew chapter 21 verse 42, I'm gonna give them to you and then you can just look them up. 21, 42, Mark 12, 10, And then after that is Luke 20, 17. You don't have to put those up. Mark was 12, 10. Matthew is 21, 42. And Luke is 20, 17. Now why do I bring that up? Mark 21. Oh, I'm sorry, Mark 12, 10. I got my Marks and my Matthews confused. Okay, Matthew 21, 42, Mark 12, 10, and Luke 20, 17. Okay, now, the reason I bring this up is because Jesus is talking and he gives a parable about something, and it's really about Israel. In all the three of these passages, if you go back and look them up, he's giving a parable about Israel. It's basically about a vineyard, but the vineyard represents Israel. And when he gets done, He quotes this Scripture. He says, have not read. And then he quotes this Scripture that comes out of Isaiah and out of Psalm 118 about the cornerstone and the builders rejecting the cornerstone. And you know what all the Jewish leaders do at that point? They get ready to destroy him. They tried to kill him at that point. Why? Because he was identifying himself as this chief cornerstone, the one that's going to be rejected by builders, and the builders here represent the leaders in Israel. He's going to be rejected by the leaders, but he's precious to God. He's been set in place. He's the chief cornerstone. And so in each one of those verses in the Gospels, the leaders know what he's talking about. And they try to kill him right at that point. And he removes himself from their presence. Now, why do I bring that up? Because Scripture speaks about current issues. It was speaking to a current issue in their day. It speaks to current issues in our day as well. The Scripture doesn't just speak of times past, it speaks prophetically to times in the future. But it also speaks to things right now, here and now. The Scripture speaks to us about how we're to live. It speaks to us about things that will come to pass in the future. That's why the Scriptures, the Word of God is so important. Now, Peter, Remember who's writing this book? Peter. Go back to Acts chapter four, verse 11. And I want you to see something that Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost. Or not on the day of Pentecost. Yeah, when he's arrested. Go back to Acts 4, go to verse 10. Peter's preaching, he says, let it be known to you all, he was a Southerner that day, that to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands here before you." Remember, Peter and John had gone up to the temple, the lame man, they'd spoken to him in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. The man got up and so Peter is speaking to the people there at that point. And he says, this, in verse 11, this is the stone, he's referring to Jesus, this is the stone which the which was rejected by you builders. There are leaders there that are listening to this. Remember it's at the temple gate, the beautiful gate at the temple. There are leaders, Jewish leaders there at that particular time. And he says, this is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which was, which has become the chief cornerstone. nor is there salvation in any other. So what Peter does when he preaches at this time, he identifies Jesus as this chief cornerstone. Now we all know that as being here in the believers in the church. We all know who the cornerstone is, right? But what is the cornerstone? What is it? What is it for? My dad was a builder. I remember him laying out a foundation, and he had a formula that he'd lay it out numerically to where it was squared, perfectly squared. And I wish I could remember it, but he could do that, you know, without even thinking about it. But when you laid the first block, if you didn't lay it straight, if you didn't lay it properly, the whole, whatever's built on top of it's gonna be off, okay? The cornerstone was that which the rest of the building is built off. Everything else has to align with the cornerstone. If it doesn't align with the cornerstone, it will be out of shape, and other stones won't fit into it properly. Blocks wouldn't fit into the foundation of a house properly. So when Peter's talking about this chief cornerstone, he's saying Jesus is that cornerstone, and anything that's built has to be built upon him. If it's not built upon him, it's gonna have a bad foundation. Now, let's go on a little bit further. We're back to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter two, verse seven. Peter's just been speaking about the cornerstone. And then he says, therefore, to you who believe, he is precious. To you who believe, he is precious. Every person that's a genuine believer, Jesus is precious to them. If Jesus isn't precious to you, I would check your salvation. Because what happens is we will look at Jesus the same way the Father does. Precious, indispensable. He's indispensable for our life. We can't live life without Him. We can't get our life straightened up without Him. He is the very foundation of not only what we believe, but how we're to live. And so it goes on, 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 the stone of stumbling in a rock of offense. Jesus is either gonna be your foundation, or you're gonna get tripped up at Him. That's what He's talking about. Either He's gonna be the foundation that you build your life on, or He will be that thing that you trip your life up on, and the very thing that will destroy you. When we see in our day, churches or places they call themselves churches, and yet they leave, somehow they leave Jesus out of all the equation, leave the new birth out of the equation, leave spiritual growth out of the equation. They're not churches. They might be clubs. They might be cults. But Jesus has to be the centerpiece. God places him as the centerpiece. All the way from the Old Testament through, he's the centerpiece. And whenever we try to go around him or ignore him or don't put him in that place of honor that God puts him in, then there's something wrong with our relationship with him. I think I'm preaching to the choir here, but. But this is what this passage is all about. Now, what does it mean that, let's get down a little bit further to verse eight, the stone of stumbling, the rock of offense, they stumbled being disobedient to the word to which they also were appointed. Uh-oh, appointed, they were appointed to be disobedient to the word? No, that's not what it's talking about. They're disobedient to the word, and because of their disobedience, because of their rejection of the word, they are appointed for something to happen. They're appointed for destruction. Let me give you an example. I was trying to figure this out in my head, and I just asked the Lord, Lord, what's the biggest example of this? I'm a parent, okay? As a parent, maybe you're a parent, you say to your child, look, I want you to pick up your room. and then we'll go get some ice cream. If you don't pick up your room, you'll stay in your room until you clean up your room. You have just appointed to them either a blessing or a judgment. You've said to them basically, now if you will do what I tell you to do, and when God says, I'm telling you, you need to believe on Christ. If you will do that, you'll be blessed. But if you're disobedient, if you choose not to believe in Christ, then you will suffer the consequences of your unbelief. You will suffer the consequences of not believing on the rock. He's appointed the rock of our salvation, the stone of stumbling, he is appointed to either be our firm foundation or he will be our judge. And it is based upon the fact of how does our heart respond to him? Does it respond in faith or unbelief? That's the easiest way for me to explain it. Just like you appoint for your child either blessing, go and get some ice cream, or you appoint for your child curse, stay in his room or her room until it gets clean. You haven't violated the child in terms of their conscience or their will. You haven't made them do something they don't want to do. You've let them freely choose to do what they wanna do. And in freely choosing, they have the consequence of what they've chosen. Does that make sense? Okay. Go to the next verse. But you, Now remember he said, they're appointed to stumble if they reject Christ, if they don't receive him, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation. What was Israel supposed to be? A holy nation. Now I do not believe in what's called replacement theology, just so you know, in case anybody's wondering, I don't believe in replacement theology. where the church replaces Israel. My belief is that Israel as a nation is set aside until the fullness of the Gentiles, in other words non-Jews, until those come in to the body of Christ, those that come into, if you would, the kingdom of God, however you want to express it, people are saved. And then when that fullness of the Gentiles, as Jesus expressed it, when it is full, when God is done dealing with the Gentiles as a whole, then he will turn back to Israel and he will restore Israel. Because his covenant to Abraham about having a nation and a land is not broken. man may have broken it, but God hasn't broken it. It was an unconditional covenant with Abraham. God made the covenant, to your seed I'm going to give this land. So I know I may have confused some people with that, but the simple fact is The church right now, we are a royal priesthood. We're a chosen generation. We're a holy nation. God sees us as like a nation that's for him. His own special people. Did you ever wonder about your worth? Your worth is wrapped up in Jesus. It's not wrapped up in what you can do and what you've attained. According to man's thoughts, how good you do, how much you attain, is very important. That's not important to God. Now when I say it's not important, I mean, finesse that. God wants us to be faithful stewards of all that he's put in our care, which means if he's given us gifts and abilities, if he's given us talents, if he's given us influence, then we are responsible for that. So I don't want to make it sound like What you have is not important. But what it does mean is this, we're His special people. Our identity should be fully in Him. And when it is, we will find lives that are filled with joy and purpose. We were created for purpose. We were created to be God's people, bearing God's image, loving Him as our creator. And what Jesus has done is just brought us back to the Father. But he says, his own special people that you may proclaim his praises. What does it mean to proclaim his praises? I don't believe this is talking about worship. I think it's talking about proclaiming is a term that's used for prophetically speaking out the truth about God. We're supposed, the church is supposed to be the voice of God in the culture. We're supposed to be proclaiming who he is, how great he is, how wonderful he is, and how awesome he is. We're supposed to be proclaiming the praises, the glories of the one who's called us out of darkness. We were in deep darkness, pitch black darkness. We couldn't see our way. We couldn't go any place. We couldn't do anything because not only were we in darkness, we ourselves were blinded How dark can you get when you're blind and in darkness then? I mean, it's one thing to have eyes and be in darkness. Has anybody ever been in total darkness? I mean, have you ever been in a place where you were in total darkness? It's, and I'm not just talking spiritually speaking, I'm talking about where your eyes, you had no light beam, you had, You had no way of seeing anything. How many of you are familiar with... Huh? Well, not just caves. No, I'm thinking about... Purple, purple, purple. Huh? No, no, not purple and royalty. Their purple vision, it's purple vision, but there's another name for it. No, no, no, no, it's not ultraviolet. Okay, there, there, huh? Quit pointing to your wife there, man. I wouldn't wanna be driving with you if you... No, purple vision is a thing, the army calls it purple vision is that which the eye is able to see. Some people have more purple vision than others where you can see in dark places and others are completely, they have no vision at all in dark places. So it's called purple vision where you can see more because there may be a fraction of light you can actually see. in dark. My wife used to get all upset with me because I have a high degree of purple vision. And so at nights I can get up and walk around and I don't stumble over things and it drives her nuts, you know. Turn on a light, you know, I can see fine. So how I got off on that, I don't know. But we were called out of darkness. Not only were we in a completely black place, with no purple vision, There has to be a glimmer of light for purple vision to work. But when you're completely pitch black where there is no light, any fraction of light at all, it almost can make you feel claustrophobic in a sense of you, it actually affects your heart and your, what's the system? I can't even think of it now. It doesn't matter. But if you've been in pitch black where you have no light at all, it will actually affect you physically. It will affect you physically. Ken, you've been a firefighter. Of course, I don't know if that applies to you. I don't know in pitch black. But anyway, we're gonna move on. I'm not gonna belabor this any more than I belabored it already. But he's called us into his marvelous light. You can see, Jesus said, whoever follows me won't walk in darkness, but he has the light of life. So go on to the next verse. Who once were not a people, but now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now you've, what? You've obtained mercy, you've received mercy. I'll tell you what, I know this is a simple, simple message. It's not real deep, not real deep theologically or any of that. But you know, I think sometimes we overlook the simple things, the things that are so precious to God. And we forget things like this, that we've obtained mercy. We've obtained it. Not because we work for it. Not because we earned it. We've received it. When it says you've obtained, it means you've received mercy. Not that you've done something to acquire it. Go on to the next verse. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul. having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation." The day when God shows up. That's what the day of visitation is. It's when God shows up. One of the things Jesus said to the Jewish people, he says, when he came over Jerusalem and he wept over Jerusalem, in his final entry into Jerusalem, he wept. He said, because you did not know the day of your visitation. You didn't understand that God was right there with you, right there. You didn't understand it. And what Peter's encouraging these people who've been displaced from their land, to do is to live where they are in such a way that they're honorable before men, that they're giving glory to God constantly, that they're being priests, interceding for people. They're being a prophetic voice to the people around them. And at the same time, they're living in such a way that people see a difference in them. And that difference will make a difference in their life when God visits. God's going to visit. He might visit a community. He might visit a whole state. He might visit a whole country. He might visit the whole world. You know, God has a way of showing up in different places at different times. That's what we usually call revival. God shows up. God is there. God is present in a manifest way, different than normal. God is always everywhere. That's part of his omnipresence. He's everywhere at all times. But when God shows up uniquely in a particular place at a particular time and reveals himself where people are suddenly astonished that surely God is in this place. He'd been there all the time. You just didn't see him. And people will see when God's there, when God's people bear his image faithfully and truly. People will suddenly be astounded. God is here. And it will bring them to a point where they have to make a decision. That decision being, will I reject or will I receive the stone from my life? Well, I've gone on a little bit too long with this in a sense, but not long enough in another sense. You know, when the scripture talks about us being priests, we offer sacrifices. There's different sacrifices that we offer. Paul talked about that in Romans chapter 12. He said, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And the word service means worship. We're supposed to offer up prayers for others. We're supposed to offer up good deeds that people might see, not the good deeds, but they might see our Father who we're imitating Why don't you stand with me? I trust that everybody in here has trusted Jesus as your rock, as your foundation, and that you're living a vibrant Christian life with him. I trust that so. But if for some reason it's not so, God is just a prayer away. He's a decision away. He's just a decision. I will walk with God. By His grace, by His strength, I will walk with God. I will receive His love and kindness. And I will be what He wants me to be. Because He is gracious, because He's kind. And Jesus is so precious. Let's pray. Father, I thank You for allowing me the privilege of speaking about Your Son. The great delight of our heart, God, is to know Him. I pray, Lord, that we will never lose our first love. But our first love will be constantly a flame on our heart. You, Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And just like you, Lord, because of the joy that was set before you, you endure the cross. Help us to endure slander. Help us to endure unkindness. Help us, Lord, to endure whatever comes our way, that we might be faithful to you, because you're a faithful high priest. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen, amen. I bless the Lord, O my soul, amen.