I'm going to be reading and preaching this morning from 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 8 in particular. Before we read that, however, I want to just give you a reminder. It's been a while since we have been in 1 Peter, and I was reminded as I was thinking about this message this morning of the foundation that lies before this in 1 Peter chapter 1. that glorious and majestic gospel that has been proclaimed to us so that when we understand the gospel with Peter, we cry out as in chapter one, verse three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. As we understand the power of God in salvation, that God has brought this salvation. God has caused us to go from deadness to life and has awakened us to our need of Christ. This leads us to be filled with joy inexpressible that allows us to endure the trials and tribulations that come into our lives, as Peter goes on to talk about. And then it leads us in verse 13 to be sober, to prepare our minds for action, to be sober minded, to set our hope fully on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ and to live obedient lives to our Father through the power of the resurrection of our Savior. And that leads us in verse twenty two, having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love to love one another earnestly from the heart. And so it leads us from understanding the power of God and transforming us from deadness to life and bringing us from being unregenerate to regenerate now, having purified your souls to love one another. And so I want you to think about this morning sort of a progression, because that's the way we're going to see this as Peter unfolded for us in Chapter two, a progression from the outer to the inner. And so I want you to think about this as if you're standing on the outside of the sanctuary in the outer courts, if you will. I want you to think about what Peter is going to be presenting to us here this morning, as if we are going, moving from the outer court into the inner court. If you've ever been or seen pictures of the ancient world, an ancient temple, if you've ever been to Jerusalem, you know that the temple area is surrounded by monolithic stones. And we're going to see that even in Peter's presentation this morning. And I want you to think about the fact that we're all standing outside in the outer court, preparing to come in. And here Peter is encouraging us, having thought about our salvation. Now, the knowledge, the greatness, the glory of that salvation with that knowledge, we encourage one another. We build up one another in this most holy faith. And so, Peter says in chapter two and verse one, With that knowledge, put away all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander like newborn babes long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow and respect the salvation if indeed you have tasted. That the Lord is good. And now listen to these words. This is God's word to us this morning, verses four through eight. As you come to him, I want you to think corporately, because that's the way that Peter is thinking here. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stone. are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, for it stands in scripture. Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious. Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. About 85 miles from Beirut, Lebanon, there's an ancient temple structure known as Baalbek. It contains some of the largest stones ever moved. by human beings. Three of the blocks that make up this temple are great stones that vary in size between 63 and 65 feet in length, with a height of 14 feet 6 inches and a depth of 12 feet. These megalithic stones are estimated to weigh in at over a thousand tons or two million pounds. Each one of the stones, the one in the yard that is still connected to the quarry below it, they say, weighs approximately twelve hundred tons. Modern engineers have admitted there's not a crane that is on Earth today. There is not a piece of heavy equipment that man has made that would be able to move one of these massive rocks, much less able to move them into their current position with tremendous precision. Where did they come from? How did they move them? No one knows. Much of the studies that Doug has been doing recently has led me to believe that there may have been, in fact, some demonic involvement in the movement of these stones. And there is no earthly explanation as to how these stones were put into place. When verses 22 through 25, we saw that Peter emphasized the unity of the church based on our common confession of Christ, which resulted in chapter two, verses one and two are growing together in God's word, our love for one another. And now in verses four and 10, Peter changes the metaphor from that of purifying and eating longing of the heart for the pure spiritual milk of God's Word, now to this metaphor of being built up together into a living temple for the praise and the glory of God. Now, in this section before us, Peter emphasizes really three things to which we would do well to pay attention. In verses 4 and 5, Peter expounds upon the living stones of God's holy temple. In verses six through eight, we are confronted with the cornerstone of God's holy temple, Christ himself, temple. And then later, as we'll see in the future, in verses nine and ten, we're summoned by God as his chosen people to serve God within his holy temple, as I said, which we will examine at a later date. In the first place, in verses four and five, Peter addresses us. Notice he addresses us as living stones coming to the living stone together. We are living stones, he says, coming together as you come to him, Peter says, a living stone rejected by. rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Now, in this passage, it is evident that Peter himself is reflecting upon another passage of scripture. He's quoting directly from Psalm 118. I'd like you to go back over there with me. Keep your finger here in first Peter and look at Psalm 118 with me. Now, I don't know that I would call this in a psalm of assent for the whole psalm is not really geared to that, but I do want you to notice, picking up in verse 19, that it is sort of like a psalm of ascent, because here the psalmist seems to be, in his mind, going through this exercise that I brought you through just a few moments ago. This idea of ascending up the mount, the temple mount, and coming through the gates of the city of Jerusalem and coming along the road to the temple, the place of the temple. And then he's going to be thinking about the worship of God's people. And so notice, as he picks up here in verse 19, open to me the cry of the heart of the psalmist. He says, open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. And then Peter quotes directly from this in verse 22, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. I think that the psalmist, as he's coming through the gates, as he's approaching the temple, he looks at the temple and he sees there those giant foundation stones in the temple. And he says there, that's the stone that the builders have rejected. That's the stone that the world has rejected. But this is the only way that we can come to God through the worship that God himself has established. And prophetically, he was speaking of Christ. He was looking forward to Christ. And so Peter picks up on this very theme. The psalmist who looked at the temple and said, there is a stone that has been rejected. Peter says that stone. is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the focal point upon which all true worship must take place. All true worship is measured against and by the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other plumb line as we saw as Sean, our brother, went through Amos these past few weeks. There is no other measurement than Christ himself by which we can be measured right. And so the psalmist, he sees this and Peter picks up on this very theme. The first thing I want you to notice is that Peter paraphrases this verse in order to emphasize that God's choice or God's means of salvation compared to man's idea of how he may be saved before God and how he ought to worship God. They are completely contrary to one another. Listen to the cry of the psalmist in verse twenty five. He goes on and he says, Save us, we pray, O Lord, O Lord, we pray, give us success. Look at the psalmist knows it's impossible apart from the provision of God. He knows as he cries out, as he as he looks at the temple, as he thinks about the atonement of the sacrifice that takes place every time worship takes place in that temple. He knows that there is no way to approach unto God, except that God provides a way. And so he cries out and says, save us, O God, you have to save us. Man thinks that salvation comes from within. He says salvation comes from my own idea of who God is. There are many roads to God. There are many ways to God. Man says it comes from within myself. If I can only be good. My mom and I are driving along the road. The other day we're talking about a very Mother Teresa and and how the man's idea of good is contained only in the acts that a person does in the in the idea of helping other people of doing social justice. And as Sean pointed out a few weeks ago, how important social justice is to God. But it is not the way of salvation. It is not the way to approach unto God. Man thinks that salvation comes from within. God says it comes from without. Salvation does not come from within ourselves, but it comes from the proclamation of God that we are sinful and that he is holy and that only God provides the way for us to come to him. And so we see the psalmist reflecting on these themes, the theme of salvation, and he cries out, Save us, O God. Because he knows that only God can save us. And then look at verse 26 of Psalm 118. The psalmist rightly points to the only one who can save us. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. Now, this is the exact verse that was quoted in all three of the synoptic gospels with Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In Matthew 21, nine, for example, the crowds that went before him and followed him were shouting Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest. Now, what the crowds failed to do on that day of Christ's triumphal entry, they failed to quote the rest of the song. They thought that Christ would establish pure temple worship by becoming a stone that would crush the Romans. The psalmist rightly predicted that Christ would become the chief cornerstone of God's temple, not just because of his work of judgment in crushing his enemies, but because he became the festal sacrifice that was bound with cords to the horns of the altar and sacrificed as our atonement for sin. Notice what the psalmist says. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The Lord is God and he has made his light to shine upon us. Notice, he says, buying the festal sacrifice with cords. up to the horns of the altar. The psalmist rightly recognizes that the only means of salvation is the means that God has provided, the atonement of blood. the atonement that is brought through the sacrifice. And so this is a very powerful messianic psalm where he's looking forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus. I bring all of this out because I want you to have this in mind as we look back at first Peter to understand the whole context in which Peter is bringing forth these ideas in first Peter chapter two. The idea is that God is going to build a temple in the earth and provide the priesthood in that temple and provide the sacrifices in that temple so that sinful man may approach a holy God. And so God chooses for himself a choice stone, a stone of infinite value and usefulness in accomplishing God's purpose on earth. All of mankind, however, assumed that they are the architect of this temple that God is going to build. Every man, woman and child believes from birth that they are the captain of their own destiny, the superintendent of their own souls. And so all of these self-proclaimed architects of history walk by the cornerstone that God has chosen and they declare to one another, this one's not up to our standards, and so we will find another. But Peter affirms what the psalmist has said. It doesn't matter whether people accept his plan or reject it, because this is the Lord's doing. This is the way that the Lord has made. And of course, Peter is reflecting upon God's vindication of his own son, because he calls him not just a stone, but a living stone. We come to him a living Stone and as Christ as Peter said earlier, this is our hope that Christ has been raised from the dead That our hope is one an everlasting hope because of the resurrection of Christ from the dead He is the living stone that we as his temple stones approach unto Every time we come into worship of a holy God in first Peter 1 3 He had pointed out this vindication, as I said, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Notice Peter's emphasis on the living quality that God has brought through his son in chapter one and twenty three. Peter said that we have been born again through the living and the abiding word of God. And now in chapter two and verse four, we come to Christ, who is the living stone, although he's been rejected by mankind as the cornerstone of their lives and existence. Nevertheless, we who have been chosen by God in Christ, we who have been caused by God to be born again to this living hope. To us, he is choice and precious. We come to him and love him because he is the living stone and the living way and the only way that we can come rightly into the very holy presence of God through Christ himself. And so with the psalmist, when we understand that our salvation is found in Christ alone by no other means, we can say with the psalmist that this is marvelous in our eyes. This is a marvelous thing that we have seen. And then a few verses later in that same chapter, in verse 26, the psalm says, Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. Do you see the close connection of our salvation and worship that both the psalmist and now Peter bring together? Our salvation is not separated from our worship. Our salvation is tied to worship in the sense that there is no salvation apart from a right approach to God. And the only way that we may rightly approach to God is the means by which God has established through his son, Jesus Christ. And so when we think about our salvation, we do not think uniquely about our individual salvation, that we have been freed from sin, but rather we think about it corporately, as Peter is emphasizing here, that when we come together as the people of God, as we have talked about so often before, when we are lifted up into the very throne room of grace, as Hebrews 12 has it, when we are lifted up into the heavenlies, as we come together into the very sanctuary, into the throne room of grace, there's only one way to come. It is through the chief cornerstone, through our proclamation of Christ. It is through our recognition that Christ alone is the only means by which we may approach God. This is why so many churches today are going astray, because Christ is de-emphasized less than less, and it is our fellowship or the goodness that we do among men, our social justice and all of the kinds of things, all of the emphases that are made. And what men are really doing when they're doing this is de-emphasizing the only way that we can approach God, to the recognition that If we come to God by our own means, we will be crushed by Christ. We will be pulverized by the stone. Because he is the only way, his atonement is the only way, because he has been bound to the altar. He, with festal cords, has become the sacrifice by which we may enter into the holy temple of God. This is exactly the metaphor that Peter draws upon here. Next, in verse five, for here, he says it is in God's house, in the worship of God, that we are to give thanks and praise to God for his salvation. And so notice in verse five through seven, he says, You yourselves like living stones. are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, for it stands in scripture. Behold, I'm laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious. Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. And so here in verse five, we see that Peter expands upon this metaphor of Christ as the living stone, the cornerstone, and says not only is Christ the living stone and the cornerstone, but having been united with him, you also are living stones. He goes on to describe the church as a spiritual temple with a holy priesthood, which offers up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to notice that word that Peter uses there. It is the regulative principle of worship. It is the regulative principle of the church, as the author of one book has written. There is an acceptable way to approach God. Most people today, they don't want to hear that. They don't like to hear that. They don't want to hear that there is an acceptable way to come to God and in a way that's unacceptable, because that would deny their sense of democracy, would deny their sense of autonomy, that it's I who can decide how I want to approach God any way that I like. I can invent my own worship. I can come to God as long as I'm sincere in my heart, then I can approach unto God. But Peter says, no, there's an acceptable worship before God. There is a worship that God accepts and there is a worship that God rejects. And so we see, Peter says, we as living stones, having been chipped off of the old block, if you will, having come from Christ himself, the living stone, having given us life, And that's why I had us read this morning from Exodus and looking at the hardness of Pharaoh's heart, because we know that we ourselves, apart from regeneration, before God brought the newness of life, that we were hard in our hearts. We were hard in our hearts toward God. We were hard in our hearts toward the true worship of God. We wanted our own way. And our hearts were as stone. And that's why I had us read from Ezekiel this morning, which says that in regeneration, God has removed from us the heart of stone and has given us a soft heart. And Peter here now picks up on those metaphors and he says, look, this the stones of the temple, they're soft, they're alive, they're singing, they're rejoicing, they're praising God. offering up to God sacrifices that are acceptable to him. How do we do that? How do we offer to God sacrifices that are acceptable to God? Listen, the only reason that we're alive, Peter is emphasizing here is because Christ is the living stone. Our life is derived from him and he is the measure by which We know how we rightly ought to come to God. Apart from him, we can do what? Nothing. We don't have any life in us. But now, Peter says, because you've been given this newness of life together as God's people, loving one another, coming into the temple of God with a pure heart. Now, he says, look at these stones there. They're living stones. being built up, and not only are they living stones, but out of these stones, we're moving around in the temple doing the acts of worship that God has commanded. We're the priests of the temple. And so Peter uses this analogy to demonstrate what we truly are and what the church truly is and what we're really all about, what worship is all about. It's not just about coming to be fed. It's not just about coming to feel good. It is about the fact that we have been made priests in a living temple, the living cornerstone because Christ died on the altar. He was bound to the altar because of his blood. We've been given this new life, a truly the right new perspective. We will see also in verses seven and eight, the last part of seven and eight, that Christ will crush those who disbelieve. He says the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. A stone is stumbling in a rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. Now, as I thought about this, as I thought about the shame that Peter talks about in verse six, that he who believes in Christ will not be put to shame. I thought about the men who probably were taught by demonic spirits who took those stones from the ground in Baalbek to make that temple. They imported giant columns all the way from Egypt. No one knows how they could have done it. It's impossible as far as man is concerned. But they went to great lengths. Maybe men spent their entire lives. giving all of their efforts and their energies to building that temple in Baalbek. I can see the headline in the Beirut newspaper daily that says seven men died yesterday when a stone fell on them and crushed them. They gave their lives to building that temple to their god, Baal. And I tried to think In my mind, and perhaps you might think in your own mind's eye, the kind of pride those men must have felt at Baalbek when that last giant boulder was put into its place in the foundation of that temple, when the last pillar was raised up. And the temple was completed, they accomplished a feat that was unknown to man. And certainly unknown to man today, even with all of our modern technology, we can't do it. Yet they did it. What kind of pride must they have felt? Look what we have done. Look at our worship. Look at the greatness of our accomplishment. Now, if that were the case. And even if this feat was through some brilliant engineering feat, which I doubt, but how proud these men must have been, especially if they were spoken to by the gods, by demonic, angelic beings, how proud they must have been with all of the technology and expertise. But imagine also one of the men looking up at this temple with pride on his face. Participating in the worship in the weeks to come after that. Imagine when this man laid down on his deathbed. And he drew his last breath. And suddenly found himself in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only living cornerstone of the true temple of God. Perhaps when. These men looked upon Christ. God gave them the ability to see him for what he truly is, the cornerstone of all creation. A stone so large that those gargantuan boulders that they cut and moved looked like nothing more than marbles that children play with in the street. When they looked upon Christ, they saw him for who he truly is, but they saw him in judgment. And in that moment, they realized. This is the stone. That we, the builders. Rejected. Oh, we thought we built something so fancy and nice and wonderful and the technology and all of the greatness of our mind and all of the greatness of our ingenuity. And isn't this what modern man does? Modern man say, oh, our salvation will come when we achieve the greatness of technology and the unity of man. I read a book. I talked to you about some of you not so long ago about this man who says the day is coming in 2012 when three billion people on Earth will be connected on the Internet. And in that day, oh, what a great day it will be, because finally the creativity and the ingenuity of man will be complete. It will be unleashed. And we'll be unified across the world in a way that we've never been before. Oh, what a wonderful day that will be, this man wrote. And I thought of the Tower of Babel and I thought of this that I've just read about Baalbek and I thought of the pride of man, how man thinks, oh, how I can approach God, how I am God and I can make my own way. And God says, no. I have established. My cornerstone, there's only one cornerstone. The living stone that I have put into place. That moment, these men realized that Christ. Is the only way and it was too late for them. Because he fell on them. And he pulverized them and crushed them to pieces. The shame that Peter speaks of not only applies to pagans, to the Jews themselves. In fact, Peter's explanation of the church, think of it as the holy temple of God. It would have amounted to a blasphemous saying among the Jews. There's only one temple where the glory of God has been made manifest. That's the temple in Jerusalem. And that temple contained a properly ordained priesthood. To offer up properly ordained and prepared sacrifices, both for the sins of the people, as well as the thanksgiving of the people of God. Peter realized as much as any other apostle, if not more, that the Jews had rejected the cornerstone. They had rejected Christ. They hadn't heeded the words and the warnings of Christ in the parable of the landowner in Matthew 21. Jesus had made it quite clear that in rejecting him, the Jews were rejecting the kingdom of God and consequently God himself. In that same exchange in Matthew 21, Jesus also quotes from Psalm 118 and he applied it to himself in verses 43 and 44 of that passage, Jesus said, Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom will be taken away from you and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. In John 2, we remember that incident when Jesus went to Jerusalem and looked at the temple. He said, destroy this temple. Three days later, I'm going to raise it up. And the Jews, therefore, said it took 46 years to build the temple and you're going to raise it up in three days. But he was speaking of the temple of his body. When, therefore, he was raised from the dead, his disciples, those who loved him, remembered that he said this and they believed the scripture, the word which Jesus had spoken. Throughout the teaching of the New Testament and especially in the letters of Paul, the church is clearly identified as the body of Christ. And consequently, it's no jump for the apostles to recognize that as such, we are the temple of God. Since we have been baptized by God's spirit into Christ and now like the temple of old, we are indwelt by the glory of God, the glory cloud of God, we are indwelt by the spirit of God. Now, there are three main points of application I would like to address that are either explicit or implicit in what Peter is teaching us here this morning. The first is that there is no religion that is acceptable to God except that which is built upon the foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ alone. Any religion, including so-called Christianity, that does not emphasize the scriptures alone, that teaches us faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone, is not built on the cornerstone that is established by God. All of us need to be reminded of this again and again. As Paul said in Romans 116, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why Peter says, whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Why? Because we have been broken upon Christ. The hardness of our hearts has been broken so that when we come to God, we come not out of pride, not out of the hardness of our thinking, but rather in the softness of humility. We've been broken upon. All of our own efforts, all of our own ways, dust. And because of that, we have no shame when we stand in the presence of God, because Christ himself has delivered us. There is no other way. Secondly, there's no physical temple. There's no building that is a church. There is no building that is sacred to God. A building can be set apart for the purpose of serving God. A building can be built architecturally to remind us of the majesty of God. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, I would argue for it. But the building is not the church. The building is the building. We are the church. We are the stones that make up what the true temple of God truly is. All of us need to be reminded of this, because most of us grew up in traditions where the building was considered and talked about as if it were the church or the temple of God. It's not the temple of God. Rather, we are the temple of God. This is why Paul says in First Corinthians three, nine, we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. You are God's building. And then in verses 16 and 17 of that same chapter, don't you know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroyed the temple of God, God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy. And that's what you are. I agree, as I look out over the landscape of modern evangelicalism as so-called shepherds, Pastors systematically, it seems, destroy the temple of God because they destroy Christ himself. We are the temple of God, Paul says. If any man destroys it, God will destroy him. That's a sober thing to consider when we think about what is the church, what is true worship of God. It ought to sober us up, as Peter even told us earlier, to be sober minded. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul will emphasize our individual bodies as being the temple of God. There's no dualism. We as individuals make up the body of Christ with Christ as our head. So he says, you as individual Christians are also the temple of God. In order to emphasize our personal holiness, But here, as elsewhere, Paul emphasizes that the church is the temple of God that is being built up for the praise and the glory of God. In Ephesians 2, for example, verses 20 through 22, Paul emphasizes this theme. The same theme says you as individuals, having been filled with the spirit of God, your bodies are living temples. Now, you having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing. Into a holy temple in the Lord, isn't that a beautiful picture, brethren? As you long for the pure spiritual milk of God's word, as you grow in respect to it, as you grow in respect to your obedience to the word, as you learn to obey Christ more and more together as God's people, you encourage, you exhort, you build up. You do the thing that the things that God calls us to do together to pray for one another, beseech one another as you do these things. says you're being built up together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. It's a tremendous picture that God gives us. Well, we must thirdly, we must continually offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. I was talking this morning and last week about the cults in Sunday school and the proclivity of cult leaders. One of the marks of the cult leaders is that they turn worship into an individualistic higher life. charismatic kind of spiritual activity whereby God's love fills me up. And it's all about me. So I deny my flesh and I grow, I grow closer to God personally. And it's all about that. And. The third thing that Peter emphasized, we must continually offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable To God, what does Peter mean here? Well, I found five places in the New Testament that talks about what spiritual sacrifices are. Before I talk about these, however, I want to talk about one thing that ought to be clear to us about what a spiritual sacrifice is not. For Rome, the idea of a spiritual sacrifice might be applied to the atonement in their view of the sacrament, especially the Lord's Supper. I want to make clear with the author of Hebrews that a spiritual sacrifice, as Peter talks about here, as Paul talks about, is not the atonement for our sin. Our sins are not atoned for every time we come into the presence of God through a renewal of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As the author of Hebrews says, now where there is forgiveness of these sins, there is no longer any offering for sin. Why? Because as that same apostle testified earlier in that same chapter by this, will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ again and again every Sunday when we take the Lord's Supper? Is that what he said? Nope. Once and for all. And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his seat. For by one offering, he has perfected for all time those who now notice the spirit language are being sanctified, made in his image, made more and more holy. So a spiritual sacrifice, what Peter is talking about here, he's not talking about the atonement, the once and for all shedding of blood by Christ, which has once and for all atoned for our sins. His blood perpetually covers us so that when we come into the presence of God, it is through that one sacrifice that he has made. So what is a spiritual sacrifice? Well, first, it is accomplished by the indwelling and transforming power of God's spirit. And so John has it in John chapter four, verses 22 through 24. In that instance, Jesus told the Samaritan woman, you worship that which you do not know. We worship that which we know for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth." Now, this is not a distinction between enthusiasm and dogmatism. It is not a distinction between a profession of the right truth and being enthusiastic in our worship. I had a woman come to me, a pastor of a church in Michigan. She said, I'm quitting the church. Why? Because the Bible says that worship ought to be a verb. It ought to be an action thing. And it's not what Jesus is talking about here with this American woman. But this is the point I believe Peter is making. Worshiping the father in truth is worshiping the father through the son, because the son is a fulfillment of the manifestation of all truth about God. I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father except through me. Christ is the truth. And so any religion, any worship that is apart from Christ as being central to everything that we do is not the truth. So that's the truth in spirit refers to the fact, I believe that our worship is no longer in a temple made with hands. It's no longer in the walls of a temple made with hands, but rather, as I've been showing you this morning, we are the temple of God. Because we are indwelt by the spirit of God. Now, we know that there are other temples in the world today, aren't there? Aren't there other temples right now worshiping God, living stones through the living stone, lifting up sacrifices that are acceptable to God? Of course, there are in Indonesia and in China and in South Denver and in North Dakota and even in New York, I suppose, maybe even in California. Yes, even in California, there are a few. Living churches that are worshiping God through Jesus Christ alone, there are indeed little temples all over the world, and that's exactly, I believe, what Jesus meant. We worship him in spirit and in truth. Wherever we are, the spirit indwells as well as a spirit transforms us more and more. into the image of Christ as we grow in obedience to Christ, our sacrifices become increasingly acceptable to God. And so, our spiritual duties such as prayers, praise, thanksgivings, and works of charity are spiritual sacrifices, as the author of Hebrews says in chapter 13, through him then, and this, by the way, comes on the heels of chapter 12, which is a very clear picture of worship where we're lifted up into the heavenly, into the inner sanctuary through Jesus Christ alone. And then he says, on the basis of that, when you leave here today through him, then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name. Listen, this week is Thanksgiving, isn't it? And we're going to gather together as families and give thanks to God for his bounty to us, his blessings. And we thank him for his goodness to us. But Peter says, the author of Hebrews, excuse me, says that this ought to be the case every time we leave worship, that we ought to be giving thanks to his name. That's the fruit of our lips because we've been in the very presence of God, because we've been in the throne room of grace. We give thanks to his name. And don't neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices, God is pleased. That's what John's talking about. We do right social justice, we treat people right and we share and we love and we treat others with respect and dignity, and we're offering up sacrifices to God. Obey your leaders, submit to them. That's sacrifice, author Fieber says. For they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. In addition to this, I'll be done in just a moment. Revelation 5.8 tells us that the prayers of the saints are considered to be sacrifices rendered unto God. The Philippians For 18, Paul says, I have received everything in full. And talks about here that not only are our prayers a sacrifice to God. But that are giving. is a spiritual sacrifice. I have received everything in full, Paul says, and have an abundance. I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphrodites what you have sent, listen to Paul's language here, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. When we give back with the abundance that God gives to us, it is indeed. I think men of old, and as we practice in this church, who reverently bring forth the offering and set it in the front and give thanks to God for what he's given to us, rightly recognize that it is a fragrant aroma to God. When we give from what the Lord has given to us, and finally, Paul says in second Timothy four, six, Our suffering for Christ is a spiritual sacrifice, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering. And the time of my departure has come. Paul recognized, listen, if God ever should bring it into your life that you are persecuted for the name of Christ, you can look at it like I do. Paul says, I'm a drink offerings being poured out on the altar. It's acceptable to God. We have thanks to God, even in the times of persecution. And then, finally, in Romans 12, 1 and 2, as we read from earlier, any act performed in conformity to God's moral will can be considered a spiritual sacrifice. For Paul says, I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Don't be conformed to this world. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. As living stones coming to God through Christ, the living stone, when we come into the church and when we leave the church, we offer up to God sacrifices that are pleasing to him. We offer up to him sacrifices that he has provided and all of these he has provided in his son, Jesus Christ, who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Perfect obedience in the midst of scoff. The hatred of men, rejected by men. Hated by men. The only living stone. The only one. that God has chosen. And yet, because of his rejection, because of his death, because we bound him with festal cords to the altar, we have new life. We are living stones. We can worship him in spirit and in truth, with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Let's pray as we prepare to receive the Lord's Supper together. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have caused us to be born again to a living hope, for we know, God, that we were dead. We were dead in our transgressions and sins. We were without any life in us and any hope whatsoever. But because Christ has come. We can not only be free from the filth and the shame of our sins, but we can come as living stones into your presence to serve you with joyful hearts, with thanksgiving in our hearts. Oh, God, I pray that you would give to us an increasing thankfulness. That the shame of our sin has been removed and far as far as the East as from the West. And we are clothed in the very righteousness of Christ. We're a pure temple being made more and more pure, scrubbed each week by the cleansing of your word, by your spirit. We pray, God, that we would offer to you sacrifices that are acceptable to you through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.