Dear congregation, in the Word of God, we read of many different precious things. We read of precious stones, we read of precious ointment, different things on earth that are precious. We also read of other things which are even more precious. We read, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. We read wisdom is more precious than rubies. We read that God's thoughts are precious. Especially Peter speaks of precious things. He speaks of faith, which is more precious than gold. He speaks of the precious blood of Christ that redeems. He speaks of great and precious promises which God gives. And above all these things, when he comes in our chapter to speak of Christ, then three times we read, he is precious. Notice. that God himself, in verse six, calls him. Or verse four, it already says, he's the chosen of God and precious. And verse six, he's the chief cornerstone, elect, precious. And in those words that we focus on especially this morning, unto you therefore which believe, he is precious. God declares him precious. And if God says that he is precious, then he is infinitely precious, full of honor and glory and value. Whether we see it or not, whether we feel it or not, he is precious. And exactly because he is, we may also, and we must also know and confess and trust and adore that he is precious. That's the central mark of grace. What does faith say? He is precious. So let us hear of the precious Jesus Christ. First, as the cornerstone, as the cornerstone, and second, to those who believe. The precious Jesus Christ as the cornerstone to those who believe. Peter is writing here to pilgrims who have been called out of the world and are on their way to fully enjoy that inheritance that awaits them. He grounds that in the grace of God in the first chapter, and then he goes on to exhort to the fear of God, and to holiness, and to walk in love, and all that grace comes through the Word, and that's why we heard last Lord's Day to desire the sincere milk of the Word as a newborn babe. And now if the images of a pilgrim that's travelling and of a newborn baby are ones of motion and of smallness, even of frailty, the picture changes in these next verses to something that is big, something that is stable. It's a great building. It's a temple. And this evening, the Lord's willing, we will spend more time on the temple itself. But this morning, our focus is on what is so fundamental for this temple, and that is the cornerstone, that first stone that would be laid, that massive stone which would be there at the corner on which and in line with which all the rest of the building would be built. this precious cornerstone. What we're speaking of here is that spiritual temple of God. It's that holy temple where God dwells, and it has a cornerstone. It says, wherefore also it's contained, verse 6, in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect precious. And that's an echo of Isaiah 28. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. Congregation, that for some time this morning, we would just forget everything else. And we would only listen to what God himself declares about his son. God's own evaluation of his Son and what he's made his Son as that cornerstone. Notice this is God's declaration. I lay a foundation stone. It's not about us. It's not about what we've done. It's not about what we ask God to do. It's not about what we planned. It's not about what we... We assessed, it's about God laying what he calls a precious stone. When God saw that all were fallen, when God saw that there was none to help, when he saw that all were about to sink down into the very depths of hell, he laid help on one that is mighty. He sent his own Son into this world to be born of a woman, to be made under the law, to fulfil the law, and redeem those who were under the curse of the law. God has established his Son as that cornerstone who satisfied his own justice. Christ is the one who kept every detail of the law in all its spiritual breadth and depth every moment. He is God's righteous servant, able to cover unrighteous sinners with his perfect righteousness. What a precious cornerstone. He's the one who offered up himself as that sacrifice for sin. He's the one who bore that curse and punishment of God as that substitute. He satisfied God's just demands that sin be punished, and he could cry out with a loud voice, it is finished. God has laid that foundation, that cornerstone. It's there in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Exactly when the builders cried away with him, when the builders looked at that stone and rejected it and said, it's good for nothing. Exactly then God was fulfilling his word. I lay a chief cornerstone. That foundation has been laid in him. Don't ask if Jesus is precious. Hear what the Father says. Here is my cornerstone, which I have laid elect precious. God knows the value and the honor of this stone. You set him as that foundation in the midst of this swamp of sin, in the midst Of all that we would sink through if we rest upon, here's the foundation on which guilty sinners may rest and not sink into perdition. Take away Christ. And there's nothing but sinking sand. Here is God's provision. That's why, because of his finished work, those weighed down by sin and those who cry for mercy, those who feel sinking in sin may find salvation and rest on this cornerstone. For Christ's sake, that song may rise. He pulled me out of a miry pit and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. And as Christ does this, God says, behold, see my precious cornerstone. He is precious as that immovable and firm cornerstone. To be built on him is to be safe, no matter what come. He's immovable. Earthly foundations, they may shift, they may crack, they may sink with too much weight, but this one, no matter what's built on him, he's of such infinite value that it can never be exhausted by anyone who rests upon him. He's the one who upholds all his people. If you're built on him, the attacks of Satan cannot destroy you. And sickness and death cannot destroy. He's a foundation. So precious. He's even called here, and we'll hear more of it, Lord willing, this evening. He's that living stone, the life-giving stone. who unites dead sinners to himself, so they become alive, so they become living stones. How precious is that life. How precious is this cornerstone, which is a living stone. He is precious in his work, congregation. All his work. We've just touched on a few things, and there's so much more about his work, but all his work is precious. God declares it so, and it is so. But is he not also precious in his very person? This precious one is none less than the Son of God, a real righteous man as the mediator. Has a more precious one ever walked on the face of this earth than this one who is the Son of God come in the flesh? Colossians 2 says, in him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This is that cornerstone. The fullness of the Godhead bodily, dwelling in him bodily. He is the one of Romans 9, which speaks of the fathers as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. No wonder God declares to us, here is my cornerstone elect precious. He's as precious, he's as full of glory as God himself is because he is God. And if you have Him as your cornerstone, you have a divine foundation under your life, divine strength, divine wisdom, divine grace, divine mercy, divine love, divine glory. As your cornerstone, what could be more precious than divinity itself? And the fact that he's not only God, but also man, doesn't make him less, but only makes him more amazing as a cornerstone. That God has ordained him to be the one who knows the feelings of your infirmities, knows your struggles, your cares, knows the effects of sin, One who can be touched with a feeling of your infirmity because he was in all points tempted like as we are. The fact that he's not only God but also man, does that not only make him the more precious? He is precious. God the Father declares it. I've laid this cornerstone, elect precious." And he is, because God never makes a mistake. God never exaggerates. God never says things which are less than absolutely true. He is this one who is that precious cornerstone. There's no question about it. If God declares it, then it is so. He is precious in his work. He's precious in his natures. He's precious in his person. He's precious in all that he is and all that he does. He's of infinite worth. The only question is whether he's precious to you. And that's why our second point is, he is precious to those who believe. Come congregation, is this Christ worth more than anything else to you? We sing. Whom have I in the, who in the heavenly dwellings fair can with the Lord himself compare? Or who among the mighty shares the likeness that Jehovah bears? Who can be compared to him? Is that your song? What possessions that I have or that I want to have or that others have? can ever be compared to this Christ? Will they last forever like Christ will? Will they give a joy unspeakable like Christ does? Will they give eternal life? Will they give comfort in the midst of sickness and hope in the midst of death and comfort in the midst of the grief over the loss of loved ones? How worthless are all the things of this earth compared to this Jesus Christ? Was that your confession? What are the greatest people on earth compared to him? What are your dearest loved ones compared to him? Do they have infinite power and compassion? Do they have a love like his that so loved enemies that he died to reconcile them and make them friends? Do they reflect a perfect beauty of character always? Who else never forgets and is so faithful as this Christ is? Who else is so glorious as this Christ is? Who can be compared to Him? Does He not have a preciousness and a value that outshines that of everyone else as much as you may love your loved ones? Do you say this morning, there's none like Him? Can you compare yourself to Him? Pride may fill us when we compare ourselves to others, but who of us dare compare himself or herself to Christ? He is all glorious. His voice is as a sound of many waters. He is clothed with majesty and strength. And what am I before Him but less than nothing? Is that your confession? there's none like Him, none so precious as He is. Friends, if you come to join in this evaluation of Him, He is precious. To you who believe, He is precious. We can talk a long time about faith and how it's worked and how it's experienced and what the marks of faith are, But at bottom, it comes to this. What does faith say? He is precious. Faith doesn't make Christ precious. He is already precious, but faith knows that he is so. Faith says amen to God's own evaluation of his Christ, that he is precious, and says, indeed, it is so, because God has made it so. God sets Christ before us in all his preciousness, and either you see it here in verse 7 and following, that either he's precious to you or you're disobedient, and you're one who rejects this head of the corner, and you find him an offense. It's one of the two and there's no middle ground. Are you still just paying lip service to this Christ? Are you still pursuing other things in life? You pursue what you value. And if your life is bent on pursuing other things rather than Christ and you're valuing other things more than Christ, And my friend, what are all those things? They're nothing compared to this Christ. And what folly, what madness to pursue other things and live for other things rather than Christ. What madness to see Christ as a stumbling stone, as an offense, as an obstacle on your pathway that you'd rather not have because He doesn't give you what you want. Oh, my friend, how can you live this way? Are you trusting other things rather than this Christ that you can manage in life? You can, you're okay. Or maybe on a religious level, you trust that you go to church, and you read your Bible, and you pray. Maybe even you trust the fact that you go to the Lord's Supper, but those things are not the foundation of your salvation. Those things that you do are not Christ. It's Christ, precious, as the Savior of sinners, as your only hope, as your only trust. Or is it other things that quiet your conscience? You come to delight in him as a pearl of great price. Or are you still the disobedient and have him as a stone which the builders disallowed? Your life doesn't square with him as a foundation, so you reject him and you build your life elsewhere. It comes with such a warning. to reject him, is to be making yourself ripe for destruction, is to be calling God to sink you down into the very depths of hell. If that is your description, then what a calling that is to confess that before God this morning, your blindness, your hardness, your disobedience to the gospel. in your heart that's so opposite of God's, which is delights in his Christ, and you don't. Confess that to God and plead the grace of this precious Saviour, who delights to glorify his grace exactly in people like you, so that all that's left is his preciousness and nothing of you. He delights to do so. That's why He calls to Himself, to reject Him no longer. The Father declares Christ precious, and the Holy Spirit is also determined to make Christ precious to sinners by working faith within them. Why is Christ precious to you who believe? It's because the Spirit has taught you that there's nothing precious outside of Christ and that He is a sum of all preciousness. He's it all. What a mercy it is when He strips away all those other grounds we rest in. and that we can't see value in any other resting ground, and that we can find nothing else to have our lives built according to and aligned with and resting on, because it's all. Remember Paul. He used to pride himself in so many things. And that point came where he came to realise all those things he gloried in were but loss and dung, compared to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, his Lord. And he counted them all as such as loss and dung, with that one desire, that he may be found in Christ, having his righteousness, that he may glory in him and in him alone. to you who believe He is precious. Because you find sin in yourself, and you find redeeming love in Him. You find unrighteousness in yourself, and you find a righteousness in Him. You find unholiness in yourself, and you find holiness in Him. You find foolishness in yourself, and there's wisdom in Him. It's all in Him, and that's why He's precious in the midst of all that you lack. And maybe you've found that also in this past week, as you reflect upon yourself, as you examine yourself, or maybe even sin has come up in this past week, and it so discourages you, and you say, to me belongs shame and confusion of face because of what I am. There's not honour in me. But there's honour in Him, and there's value in Him, and there's preciousness in Him, and therefore you have nowhere else to go. But to Him, to you who believe, He is precious. God's people are described here as you who believe. Some may struggle to confess he is mine and I am his. Some may hesitate to say all his riches are for me. But the weakest exercise of faith can confess, can it not? He is precious. That I know. And there's none I desire more than him. He is precious. You look at yourself and you feel many infirmities and miseries in yourself that you do not have that perfect faith. Your hope is not in your faith, but in this precious Christ, who He is and what He's done. And there's times when you miss the enjoyment of this precious Savior and you say, how can I be so dull towards such a precious Savior? And you're a riddle to yourself, but it's exactly even in such times in the missing of Him that you, you realize how precious He is. To you who believe, He is precious. Irrigation, whether we're confessing members or not confessing members, this is a question for each one of us, isn't it? Is Christ precious to you? More precious than anything you own? More precious than anyone you know? Is he everything? So take away all as long as I may have Christ and him who is preciousness. The answer to that question is not simply the answer to whether you may attend the Lord's Supper, but whether you have faith. A religious person can do duties and go through religious motions, but it's only by faith that Christ is precious to us. And for such Christ displays his preciousness in the signs of bread and wine this morning. There he shows his precious blood that cleanses from all sin. There he gives his body which feeds and nourishes spiritual life. There he himself says, here I am in my preciousness to commune with you. With you, with desire, have I desired to have this supper with you. To you who believe, he calls out, behold, here I am. Taste and see my preciousness for you. You don't find preciousness in yourself, but in him, the Father declares it. And the Holy Spirit delights to use those means of grace, not only the preaching of the word, but also the supper of Christ in order to assure of it, in order to show more of this Christ in all his preciousness. So that we'd say, there's none like him, amen.