Good morning everyone. If you will turn in your Bibles to 1st Peter, 1st Peter chapter 2. 1st Peter chapter 2 and let's read the first four verses. First Peter 2 verse 1 says, 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 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. Our subject this morning is Jesus Christ is precious. He is precious. In those four verses we just read, we just saw that we as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word. Christ, who is the word, we desire him. We saw that we have tasted, the Lord is gracious, we've tasted of his grace in Christ. That's where all God's grace is, in Christ. And we come to him, to whom coming? We come to him as a result of God's effectual call, his irresistible grace. We come unto him as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. The first thing I want us to see is that Christ is precious to God. He is precious to God the Father. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 42. Now the word precious here means of great value and highly esteemed. And that's what Christ is through God the Father. Look here in Isaiah chapter 42 verse 1. This is God speaking. He says, behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail. nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth and the aisles shall wait for his law." Who do you suppose that's talking about? Could it possibly be any other than our Lord Jesus Christ? He is God's servant whom God upholds. He is God's elect. God delights in him and he shall not fail and we rejoice to know these things. Over in Matthew 17, you may recall when the Lord took Peter, James, and John up upon a mountain, the Mount of Transfiguration, and there they saw Moses and Elijah transfigured with him. And it says Peter saw them talking. And then Peter said, Got to throw my two cents in. Lord, it's good for us to be here. And he was right. Anytime we're gathered together in the presence of our Lord, it's good for us to be here. But look what he said. He said, if thou wilt, let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. And we all know what happened, don't we? God said, I'm not going to have that. Can't have that. God the Father spoke from heaven. And he said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. And the disciples fell down sore afraid, and Jesus came to them. He said, Arise, be not afraid. Be not afraid. And I love this. They lifted up their eyes, and they saw no man save Jesus only. They saw him in whom God is well pleased. And the point here is Christ alone is well pleasing to God. Christ alone is precious in the sight of God Almighty. Now keep a finger here in Isaiah and turn back to our text. First Peter chapter two and look with me at verse four. Says to whom to Christ's 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, there we see it again, elect and precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Here, Peter is quoting Isaiah 28, verse 16. Look back there with me, if you will. Isaiah 28, verse 16. Isaiah 28, 16 says, Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste or be confounded. This verse tells us Christ, he here is referred to as a stone, a rock. And a stone, what I see here is strength. He's strong, he's sovereign, and he's durable. A tried stone. You know, Christ was tried by the law, kept it perfectly. Tried by religious men, they tried. They tried to trap him in his talk, but they never could. Tried by the adversary himself. If you be the son of God, take Take these stones and make them into bread. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Tried by God, and he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He was faithful to the end. He was a tried stone, tempted in all points like as us, yet without sin. And he is that precious cornerstone. I love that. A sure foundation. Christ is our rock. He is our rock. He is our hope of eternal life, our only hope. God has laid Christ in Zion as the precious rock of our salvation. And we read that he that believeth shall not make haste. I love what one of the commentators said. He said, he that believeth shall not be moved when trouble comes. If we're hoping in Christ, trouble comes our way, we will not be moved. Take the world, but give me Jesus. Nothing can separate us from him, nothing. I'll turn back to our text, 1 Peter 2, and now look with me at verse 7. 1 Peter 2, 7 says, 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." Christ is precious to them which believe on Him. And those who believe on Christ alone shall never be confounded, will never be ashamed believing on Christ. Everyone who refuses to believe on Christ, they shall be ashamed, and God the Father will be ashamed of them in that day. One of my favorite hymns says, here we have a firm foundation. Here, the refuge of the lost, Christ, the rock of our salvation, His the name of which we boast, Lamb of God for sinners wounded, sacrificed to cancel guilt, He removed our guilt. None shall ever be confounded who on Him their hope have built. Now while Christ is precious to those who believe on Him, what about those who do not believe? Here in verse 7 it tells us, "...but unto them which be disobedient." The word is unbelieving, those who refuse to believe God, who refuse to believe on Christ. Now it kind of, it goes without saying, Christ is not precious to someone who does not believe on Him. Christ is not precious to someone who's not hoping in Him, who's not trusting their souls in Him. It goes on to say that he was the stone which the builders disallowed. It means rejected. Rejected. Christ is not precious to anyone whose hope is somewhere else. And many people have some sort of hope, which is no hope at all, somewhere other than Christ. Turn over with me to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. Matthew 7 verse 24. This is the Lord speaking. He says, Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. That's Christ. Look at verse 25, it says, And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, the house is his soul. Christ is the rock, our house is our soul. Now look, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. If Christ is our rock, when the judgment of God comes our way, and it must, our house, our hope, our soul shall not fall, because we're founded upon a rock. But look at verse 26. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not, every one who hears God's word and believes not on Christ, what does it say about that man? He shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell. and great was the fall of it. If Christ is not our rock. We're gonna fall, and great will be our fall. You know, over in the Old Testament, it says, their rock is not as our rock. There's only one rock, and that rock is Christ. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is nothing but sinking sand. Christ is precious to them which believe. He is not precious to those who do not believe. But the sad truth is Christ is not precious to any of us by nature. None of us. I'll read you a couple verses in Isaiah 53. It says, He hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty. that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not." It's sad to acknowledge this, but as Christ is so precious to us now, we must confess that if God had simply left us to ourselves, which is what we wanted, Jesus Christ would not be precious to us at all. Not precious at all. Let me read you what Robert Hawker said concerning this. He said, O thou precious Lord of thy people, how is it that I was made to believe in thee, while thousands reject the counsel of God against their own souls? He went on to say, whatever stone of stumbling or rock of offense thou art to those that know thee not, be thou to me the rock of salvation, for blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in thee. Turn back to our text. Look with me in 1 Peter 2 verse 9. says, 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. Praise God, there are a people who find the Lord Jesus Christ to be precious. Who's that? Call his name Jesus for he shall save his people. That's who. He shall save his people from their sins. His people, whom he has loved with an everlasting love, loved us from eternity. His people whom He calls, look over in Isaiah 43 on your own time, whom He calls precious in His sight. You talk about amazing, He calls us precious. His people believe Him and we believe Him to be precious. Now I wanna go through these two verses here, verses nine and 10 and show you briefly Peter's description of who it is that believes Christ is precious. Now first Peter tells us in verse nine, he says, you are a chosen generation. Now we know over in Ephesians 1 where it says, according as God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. You know, that's why we're precious, because God chose us. There was nothing special about us, nothing precious in us. The preciousness is in Christ. He chose us, key words, in Him. That's where we're precious, in Christ. He told his disciples, he said, you've not chosen me, I've chosen you. How precious. He also told them, speaking of Judas, who would betray him, he said, I speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen. We saw this last week, the Lord knows them that are his, and that gives me great hope, to know that he knows whom he's chosen. He knows them that are his, and we shall never perish. One of my favorite hymns, Chosen in Jesus. It says, Chosen in Jesus, before earth was made, destined to glory that never shall fade. Holy and blameless before him I'll be, for God's rich blessings have fallen on me. Tis not that I did choose thee, Lord, I did not choose thee, for, Lord, that could not be. I never would have chosen thee. Has thou not chosen me? It says, my heart owns none before thee, for thy which grace I thirst, this knowing if I have loved thee, thou must, you must have loved me first. He must have. He must have. And for his, he has. He has. Who believes Christ is precious? It goes on and says, you're a chosen generation, you are a royal priesthood. I love that. I started thinking about this and it kind of confused me and then I thought, Christ is the only priest. A priesthood is many priests. He's made us kings and priests with him. Look back at verse five of our text. Peter tells us, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house. We're the family of God. We are the spiritual house of God. We are in holy priesthood. He's made us holy. To offer up spiritual sacrifice is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. We are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Christ, our priest, offered up himself for us. That's why we are a royal priesthood. Goes on to say, an holy nation. Now we know, we know that the scriptures don't speak of us in quite such terms. Over in Isaiah, he says, all sinful nation, that's us. a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors, and it goes on. That's us. That's us. We're evil, a sinful nation. We're laden with iniquity. We drink iniquity like water. There's none good, no not one. Then how does he call us a holy nation? Turn over to Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. Look with me in verse 3. Ephesians 1-3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. I told you, that's the blessing, is in Christ. Look at verse four, it says, according as He hath chosen us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. How are we a holy nation? God chose us in Christ, and by the person and work of Christ, He has made us holy. He has sanctified us, set us apart, made us holy and blameless before God in love. And look at verse five, it says, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Don't you love that? He's taken us nothings and made us the very children of God, accepted in the beloved. And look back at our text, look at verse nine again. He said, you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, peculiar people. I love that word peculiar. I probably don't pronounce it right but that's a beautiful word to me and I always just supposed it meant particular. A particular distinguished people whom God chose. But I love this looking at the concordance it says that that word there means purchased possession. Now that's good news to me. You are the peculiar people. You are the purchased possession. If you love peculiar, you gotta love that. The purchased possession, oh my, what does that mean? Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 6, he said, you're not your own, for you're bought with a price. And Peter went on to tell us what that price was. Look at 1 Peter chapter 1, excuse me, 1 Peter 1 verse 18, 1 Peter 1 verse 18. He said, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ. There's that word precious again, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God." Now I love how he told us you weren't redeemed with corruptible things, those useless things such as silver and gold. You see right there what he called corruptible, useless. Those are things that we naturally find to be precious. But the fact of the matter is, Christ alone is precious. Everything else is nothing. And just as he said, but with the precious blood of Christ, I ask you, aren't you thankful for that precious blood of Christ that removed our sins from us forever? Back in our text. Verse nine, he goes on to say that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Have you ever been in darkness? I'll just be honest with you, I hate being in the dark. Sometimes Rachel has to go to bed before me, she gets up early for school. And I have to turn all the lights off except whatever room I'm in and then I walk around, it's dark. And we live out in the boonies, I get scared. I hear noises. I hate being in the dark. Did you know that we all came into this world in spiritual darkness, spiritual death, alone in the dark. That's where we are. As soon as we take our first breath, we're in spiritual darkness and death. And sadly, we preferred it that way. Over in John three, we read that we love, light is coming to the world. Christ came into the world and we all loved darkness. We love to sit there in our darkness and death rather than the light. loved ourselves, and despised the Savior. The old hymn writer said, enwrapped in thick Egyptian night and fond of darkness more than light, madly I ran the sinful race, secure without a hiding place. But thus the eternal counsel ran, Almighty Love. Capital L. Arrest that man. You know, it's sad but true that we came into this world dead in sins, darkness, and we could not pull ourselves out of this darkness and death. We can do nothing to save ourselves. Thinking we're secure without a hiding place, building our spiritual house on sinking sand. God's judgment, our impending doom, it's coming. But thus the eternal counsel. Aren't you glad God does whatsoever he's pleased? Aren't you glad God has an eternal counsel and does what he's pleased to do? What's that? Almighty love, Christ, arrest that man. Arrest that man. And he has, and I'm so glad. You know, we read that we're the prisoners. Someone who's been arrested is a prisoner. We're the prisoners of Jesus Christ. And we love it that way, don't we? We're so glad to be servants, prisoners. Here's a beautiful verse. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts. to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's precious. God will not leave any of his people in darkness. That's precious. Look at verse 10. Peter tells us, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God. What does that mean? In time past we were not a people. I'll tell you what that means. It means we're nobodies. We weren't a people. We're nobody. We don't get any recognition. We're nobody. Back in verse 2, I think it was, it calls us newborn babes. We're just babies in the Savior's bosom. That's what we are. And people hate that. People utterly hate that. They say, I want to be wise and prudent. I'm somebody. What did the Lord say? He said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things. You've hidden the precious truth of the gospel. You've hid these things from the wise and the prudent. You've hid these from people who are somebody. You've revealed them unto babes. You've been so gracious to reveal your gospel, your precious gospel, to babes, to nobodies. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. You may recall the Pharisees, on occasion they They stopped in and crashed the party when the Lord was dining with publicans and sinners. They said, this man receiveth sinners. How terrible is that? He eats with them. Oh, is that not so awful? That's so wonderful. That's so precious because this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And we must see ourself to be the chief. We're either a sinner in God's eyes or a sinner in our own eyes, but we can't be both. Which are you? Which am I? The Lord told him, he said, the whole need not a physician. They that are whole, they don't need the physician. Christ is a physician. He said, but they that are sick, I came not to call the righteous. Didn't come for good people. Came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Am I sick? Bob told us last week the whole heart is sick and the head faint. I probably got that backwards, but we're sick. We're dead. We're nothing. We're sinners, and that's who Christ came to save, and that's precious. That's precious. And one more thing. Verse 10 goes on to say, these people, they had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. My only hope before a just and holy God in the day of judgment is mercy. That's the only hope there is. There is no hope other than God's mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Numbers 14 verse 18 says, The Lord is longsuffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty. Now, people often speak of mercy as being, if God is merciful to me, he's giving me what I do not deserve. And not wrong to say that, I suppose, but I must explain what that means. God is going to give us exactly what we deserve. One way or another, he's gonna give us exactly what we deserve. God cannot be merciful to us at the expense of his justice. God is just. Well, how then can God be just? and justify the ungodly, because in due time Christ died for the ungodly. But ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich. That's how Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin to make us the righteousness of God in Him. That's how God can show mercy to sinners, to guilty, hell-bound, hell-deserving sinners. I want to recall three wonderful brethren, whom we'll be with in glory, to our minds real quick, and then I'll close. You remember that publican? Smote upon his breast, wouldn't lift up his eyes into heaven. He said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. How did it fare with him? We read that he went home justified rather than the Pharisee. Went home justified, just with God. You remember, blind Bartimaeus. He stood by the highway side begging, Jesus thou son of David, have mercy on me. And everyone told him to hold his peace, stop. We don't want to hear that. People don't like to hear this message. And Jesus came, he stood still, and he called him. They said, he calleth thee, and he came, and the Lord said, what will thee that I do unto thee? He said, Lord, that I might receive my sight. How did it go for blind Bartimaeus? It says, immediately he, Jesus touched him, immediately he received his sight, and he followed Jesus in the way. The Lord saved him. And that thief on the cross, two thieves, they were both casting the same in our Lord's teeth, And then something miraculous happened for one. God saved one of them and he cried. This was his hope. Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. How did it end for him? The Lord told him, he said, verily I say unto thee, today. Is that not amazing? Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Would that not be amazing if today were the day when he took us home to be in paradise with him? My only hope is mercy, and Christ is precious to all those who need mercy. He never turned one away who came to him seeking mercy. Psalm 107 verse one says, praise ye the Lord. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. For his mercy endureth forever. Unto them which believe. Christ is precious. I pray God will give us faith to believe on Christ and to see Him as truly precious. Amen. You're dismissed.