This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. If you have your scriptures, would you open up to 1 Peter? 1 Peter, we are in chapter 2. We're picking up in verse four. We didn't finish this out last week, so we're doing the same section again. This is the reading of God's word. As you come to him, a living stone 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. For it stands in scripture, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and 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 a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. It's a reading of God's word. Let's open in prayer. Father, we offer this time to you. We pray that it is with your blessing that we gather. We pray that it's with your blessing that we seek to hear your voice in your scriptures. We pray that you would be mighty among us. Mighty to break down walls of stubbornness we've set up. Mighty to overcome our weakness and our tiredness. Mighty to build up a people who feels broken more often than they feel right. Our God, we ask that you would be with us. In Jesus's name, amen. You know, you may get this from my preaching, I hope you do, but if not, I love, I love the story of the gospel. I love grasping that one plan unfolding across all of time, all the way back to eternity, it stretches. I love this one story with its heights and its depths, with its heroes and its villains. I love that here we are, and then like this heavenly tidal wave, the gospel comes along and sweeps our stories up into its own. Our ordinary lives become a part of the story of all stories. Your story, your very ordinary story is included as one small thread of the redemption story of all humanity. I love it. Peter is here elaborating a little bit, giving us a little bit more of the story and of what it means He's going to say that because followers of Jesus are caught up in this one story, they have all these benefits that they would never have imagined. They wouldn't imagine that they would get them, but they wouldn't even imagine that they existed. That's how great these benefits are. Now let's be clear though, we have to lay the right foundation here as we go into this. He's not dwelling on us as individual Christians. That's something so hard for us to hear sometimes. He is not talking about just you or just me. He is talking about us. What Peter is going to do is to zoom back. to zoom back and to see who we are. Not just who I am, not just who you are, who we are as the people of God. So today, I want you to follow along with Peter. Follow along with Peter as he lays out just how great these privileges are because we are the people of God. First, he starts here. He describes how we have been built into a spiritual house. Let's do this bit by bit. Verse four again. Verse four and five. As you come to him, a living stone 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. Built up as a spiritual house, he says. Well, what's that, right? A spiritual house. See, this is Peter all over the place. If you are familiar with the Old Testament, if you're familiar with the scriptures, you're going to start hearing echoes. Echoes of the temple, the temple of God. Everyone from Solomon to Jesus at some point would describe it as the house of God. That is how they would describe the temple. So you're hearing these echoes just when he starts saying this. And he says it is a spiritual house, not in some fuzzy new agey sense. We're all spiritual in some way or another. I find that clouds more discussions than it clarifies. But it's spiritual in the sense that it is connected to the Holy Spirit. It is a spiritual house built on, and I gotta really belabor some grammar here, built on a living stone. And then there are a bunch of living stones, plural, built on top of that living stone, right? One living stone, a bunch of living stones built on top of it, dependent upon it. We talked about this a little bit last week. That living stone is Jesus, Jesus himself. He is that cornerstone. If you recall how they would build a building, you start with one very important stone that everything else will depend on. Jesus is that living stone. He is the one that everything depends on. And Peter says that believers are living stones, like Jesus is a living stone. And like the living stone, the living stones will be used to build the spiritual house. So you have this one spiritual house. Okay, what does that really mean? Okay, we've explained it a little bit more, but what does that really mean for us? Start with this. I already gave away my answer. You ready? Start with this. How many spiritual houses are there? Just one, right? Just one. Is it a city of spiritual houses? No. Is it a village? Is it a charming housing development with a nice school? It is one spiritual house. Every believer, every single believer belongs to the same spiritual house. It is a house that spans geography, right? You recognize it's not like there are houses for each continent or each nation or something like that. It spans them all. It's the same spiritual house in Mexico, in Africa, in Australia, in China. It's the same house that has spanned all of time. Christians today, you, today, you belong to the same spiritual house as the Apostle Peter, as the Apostle Paul. You belong to the same spiritual house as Augustine, as Calvin, as Whitefield, as Spurgeon. the exact same house. See, we describe the church, we say the church, and we think of this right here, the people in this room, this very building, but the church, it turns out, is so much bigger. It is so much more important than that. It is so much more impressive than that. If you were going to do any justice to God's heart as he's revealed them in the scriptures, you're going to see that God treasures who we are together. We miss that so often. We think it's just about me and my walk with Jesus. Your walk with Jesus is as important as it gets, right? But God treasures who we are together. Peter's point here is not who we are individually. Peter's point here is who we are corporately. who we are together, and who we are together as a people who has been knit together by Christ, bound together, united together, because we share that same essential cornerstone, Jesus Christ. We are indwelt by the same Holy Spirit, and we offer true worship and acceptable sacrifices together to the same God. And that's our purpose. That is our purpose together. It is God's worship that motivates us, that unites us, that drives us. Peter describes believers as on the one hand, sort of the stones of this temple, of this spiritual house. And when you think of that, you think of a special place for God's worship, right? And he also describes believers as the priesthood. They are the stones of the temple and the priesthood operating inside the temple, that people with special access to God. That's really what a priesthood is, isn't it? We together as a holy priesthood offer up to God spiritual sacrifices to him through Jesus Christ. A temple is about God's worship. A priesthood is about God's worship. We together, we are about God's worship. That unites us. And so he says, we offer up spiritual sacrifices. What are those, right? Lots of things to define. We open up our mouths and we speak of the Savior who rescued us. That is a spiritual sacrifice. We live lives worthy of the calling we have received. That is a spiritual sacrifice. I don't think you need to view this as some alien thing apart from your Christian life. I believe that the fruit God produces in us as his children, that is the worship we are called to. That is the worship we are called to. As believers then, We are the living stones that God is using to build up a spiritual house better and more glorious than any earthly temple ever was. And, and we are the holy priesthood offering true and acceptable sacrifices to God with our lives. You could stop there and think, my God, how much you've given us. That would be privilege enough right there. End of sermon. Go meditate on that, right? But Peter keeps going. He's just like, but wait, there's more, right? There are so many privileges of the people of God. You remember the context here, we talked about that there were the different reactions to Jesus, those who see him as precious and those who reject him. So the context of what we're coming up to is that there are some who reject Jesus. They cause themselves to stumble by doing that. But Peter says, there is honor for those who believe. And this is what it looks like, verse nine. But you, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You're like, whoa, that is a lot for one verse. And again, if you have that ear for the Old Testament, you might pick up, this sounds a lot like another passage, a lot like something from the Exodus. Hear this passage and see if you hear any of these echoes. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples. For all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. God's word to Moses, right? That's Exodus 19, five and six. This right here, these are the promises that were held out to Israel. God said, if you will keep the law, if you will keep my commandments, All these privileges will be yours. That's what he promised to Israel. And Israel, to an extent, they experienced this. They did enjoy some of these privileges because they were God's special covenant people. But unfortunately, they were as faithless as it gets. They agreed to a covenant that demanded obedience. And if they didn't obey, they were going to lose everything. And what do you know? They never were obeying. God was gracious that they had any special privileges because they were sacrificing those left and right. But here you have it. Here you have it this much further in history. Here, these privileges are held forth again to the people of God. but with one really big difference, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. If you compare the passages, there's a very big difference. Peter's language is not conditional. There is no, if you keep my commandments, you will get this. Peter's just saying, this is what you get. Why? Because Jesus kept the conditions. Where Israel was faithless, Jesus was perfect. The privileges are ours, there is no if about it. The privileges have been paid for, Jesus earned and we were blessed. We are blessed because Jesus kept the conditions. Israel never once kept the conditions perfectly, never once. We are blessed because our Savior kept them. And so was the people of God reaping what Jesus sowed. This is who we are, he says. This is what the people of God are. And then he just rattles off this string of privileges and of titles. In Christ, the people of God are a chosen race. A chosen race. You have to love whenever that language comes up. We've taught on this a couple of times, so I'll be quick here. But I want to remind you of how cool this distinction was. You recall that there was a two-person mentality among the Jews. There is us and there is them. It's really simple. If you're not a Jew, you're one of them. You're one of the Gentiles. You only need two classifications then. Jew, Gentile. After Christ, whether they had a Jewish or a Gentile background, you find the Christians saying, this doesn't fit anymore. They felt like what God had done was so profound that they were a third race. They were neither Jew nor Gentile, they were Christians. In Christ, the people of God are a royal priesthood. We talked about they're a holy priesthood, those with special access to Christ, but they are also royal. They are in the king's service. In Christ, the people of God are a holy nation. Believers are set apart as a nation for God. Like we described with this one spiritual house, a nation that transcends location in the world and location in history. We are one nation together, whatever your passport says. We are set apart and we are to live as those who have been set apart. In Christ, the people of God are a people for his own possession. Oh, this last part, let it work on your heart. God says, I make you mine. You are mine. We do this in marriage vows sometimes. I take you to be my lawfully wedded, right? This idea of I take you. And that should astound us. Not just on the day of your marriage, but forevermore, the idea you say, this person knows me and they take me. This is a marriage vow multiplied infinitely beyond. The privilege is multiplied infinitely beyond. God takes us. If spouses know each other, God so much more. He knows us and he takes us. We are every bit as unfaithful and weak and prideful and weak and selfish, excuse me, as Israel was to God. Every bit, yet he takes us for his own. We belong to God. Us. If you have any measure of introspection, if you have any idea of who you are and then who we are cumulatively, oh, that should impress you. That should bring you to worship. And as the people of God, we have a special purpose. We have a special calling. Peter says, we are to proclaim, to proclaim how great our God is. We are to announce how amazing he is and how amazing the things are which he has done. So how do we do that? I don't think we have to get all formulaic on this. We can start with something really basic. I'm a basics kind of guy. I encourage you, how do you proclaim the wonders of our God? The amazing things about our God? You start with a conviction that He actually is amazing. I mean, try that on for size. You start with a conviction that we do indeed have an amazing God. Because if you're not convinced that our God is amazing, and then Peter comes along and says, go tell everyone how amazing God is, that's going to be a burden. That's going to be a trial and a challenge. If God is just the divine rule maker, really, where is your passion going to come from? If God is just your family tradition, what excellencies are you going to proclaim? If God is just your controversial opinion, of course it's going to be hard to share this with the world. But if you know that your God is in fact spectacular, this is not so hard. It is not a burden to talk about them. We do this with everything else, everything else. I found a recipe the other day, three ingredients, and I put it in the crock pot and a gourmet meal came out. You have to try it. It's amazing. We do this with toys. Do you know my gun lights up and makes noises? It's incredible. You got to get one. My parents hate it. We do this with restaurants. I just had the meal of my life. You have to go try this place. We do this with cars. I get 500 horsepower and 500 miles per gallon. You gotta try this thing. Sell your car and get one like mine. Mine is so much better. Wow, my stuff is amazing. But you come to God. You come to God and, Um, yeah, I'm a Christian. You could call me a Christian. Yeah. Yeah. I like God. What is that? After the glories of your pickup truck and your crock pot, that's what you can give God, the almighty king over all creation. We will spring forth for the things of this world, but we freeze for the things of eternity. So. So pause. I want you to pause and take in some of the wonders of your God. This actually goes really well with Genesis. Consider the work of his hands in the moon and in the stars. Consider those who are pregnant And that inside that woman's womb, a human being is being knitted together by God himself. All the wonders of a human being, every day developing in front of your eyes. Consider what he's done in every detail, every detail of creation. Consider the flocking schools of sardines. Consider the majesty of a humpback whale. Consider the billions of bugs teeming over this earth going about their purposes. Consider the birds soaring so free overhead. Consider those ancient redwood forests. Consider that lily in your front yard blooming for just a week. Every detail invented by God. Every detail ordained by God. Every detail upheld by God. Don't you look around at creation and think, is not our God wondrous? Consider how he treats us, his people. Consider how faithful he is to us, even though we abandoned him. Consider how he's preserved us through our trials and our suffering. Consider how he has blessed us, even when we tried to run from him, even when we rebelled. not just his people. Consider how he treats those who reject him outright. They wake up in the morning and they still breathe that crisp, pure air. They go about their lives and their brains likewise bring order to chaos. They too know the joys of family and of home is not our God gracious. God's wonders are everywhere to behold. The amazing things about him, they're everywhere in his word, and it turns out they're everywhere in our lives too. If you have that knowledge flourishing, flourishing in your heart, will it be hard to proclaim the wonders of your God? If you even scratch the surface of God, you will have no shortage of excellencies to proclaim. You will have no difficulty talking about the God who rescued you out of darkness and brought you into his marvelous light. It will be effortless. And let's not forget the former darkness. Let's not forget it. The people of God, every single one of them, had a past. If we know where we came from, we will be grounded with our God. If we know where He brought us out of, we will have the right attitude toward Him, toward each other, toward ourselves. We didn't choose God, did we? He chose us. Whatever choice we felt, we exercised it, followed His choice of us. Before there was anything like, let there be marvelous light in your life, there was darkness first. And to illustrate that, Peter turns again to those scriptures and he calls to mind the men, the graphically vivid, story of Hosea, the prophet Hosea. To give you the miniature of this story, God tells Hosea in verse two of the book, man, talk about a book that starts fast. Go marry a woman of whoredom. Go take a prostitute, make her your wife, and have children with her. Then their children had these tragic names. A daughter named Lo-Ruchamah, that means no mercy. Hi, my name's no mercy, what's yours? A son named Lo-Ami, which means not my people. tragic names and this relationship, this marriage, these children, they were to illustrate how Israel had treated God. They were to illustrate that relationship because God, all through the Bible, he was always faithful. He was to them a faithful husband. He kept all his promises. He was good to them. He was merciful. He was forgiving. Israel, on the other hand, was none of these things. God would, in the Bible, he would describe Israel's faithlessness as whoring after other gods. And you just have to absorb that, the betrayal and the anger that God would ever say, and you went whoring after other gods. God looks on his people as his bride and they kept running off for other gods. The betrayal God has known was like a faithful husband to a faithless wife. Israel's betrayal was like someone who takes their wedding ring and sells it to finance their affair with someone else. That is the betrayal God has always experienced with his people. It's the deepest and then it's the most personal kind of betrayal you could have. But even in the depths of that kind of betrayal, God continues to come back to give them grace and to forgive them. Hosea 2.23, and that's what we quoted here. Hosea 2.23, God says, you know what? I will have mercy on the Ruhamah, on no mercy. I will say to Lo-Ami, to not my people, you are my people. They deserve to be cursed, but God in his mercy reverses the curse and he shows them mercy once more. And this, this is what Peter is citing right here. This is what he's quoting for us right here. To those who have been called out of darkness. And that's every one of us. He says, once you were not a people. And now because of Jesus Christ, you are a people. Once you had not received mercy, now you have received mercy. And remember the audience here, a group that feels like sojourners and exiles, like they don't belong anymore. Do you think it matters to a group that does not belong when God says, hey, you are my people, you belong to me. You are my treasured possession. You bet it matters to them. The people of God are those who have been called in from the outside. There are no insiders. They've all been called in from the darkness. Following Christ in our society and their society and these scriptures makes you feel like you're an outsider. But you're only an outsider during this time here because you belong to God. God has always had in his heart and in his plans, the rescue of the outsiders, the rescue of those who have been lost in darkness. Every single one of us who has believed in Jesus Christ has experienced this firsthand. Every single one of us. It doesn't mean, it doesn't matter if you came to faith when you were three years old, you know what he's talking about here. We were the broken and the rebellious, and he made us a part of his people. We were those who deserved no mercy, and he showered it down upon us. Bring this truth to the front of your mind, to the front of your heart right now. How many times has God forgiven you? Can you even add it up? Can you even count how many times today he has forgiven you? How many times has your God healed you, picked you up off the ground, built you up once more? How patient has he been with you? When in your stubbornness and in your sin, you just never seem to get the point. How faithfully, how faithfully has he loved you? When you have a clear idea of those questions, of the answers to those questions, when your heart is gripped by them, when your heart melts within you because of them, then don't stop there. Don't stop with a tear down your cheek right now. Wonders like these are meant to be shared. Wonders like these are meant to be proclaimed. Let a dark world hear about the marvelous light of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our God, what a God you are. And our God, what a salvation you've given us. What a savior you've given us. Lord, make real to us the depths, the depths of your beauty, of your wonder, of your grace. May we be so confident in how much has been done for us, certain of how good our God is. May we be astounded by the depths of the gospel and how much it means for us. Lord, may that knowledge well up in our hearts. May it overflow. May it be a challenge to not proclaim the excellencies of our God who called us out of the darkness and into his marvelous light. We ask this in Jesus's name. Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.