If you would grab a Bible and turn with me to first Peter
chapter 2. While you're turning, I'm going
to ask the Lord's blessing on our time.
Lord Jesus, we want to hear your voice.
You are the Word of God that became flesh and dwelt among us,
that called your sheep by name. So Lord, as we've gathered under
your lordship, baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, we've gathered to you, Father, in the name of your Son
Jesus, and in the power of your Spirit.
And so we ask you to teach us. We ask you to take up your Word
and build us up as living stones this morning.
And we pray, Lord, that you would use me to do it and that
you would build your people. We trust you for this and we ask
it in Christ's name. Amen.
OK, you are in First Peter chapter 2.
And I have a really great announcement to make about this
sermon. I don't have a great sermon.
I just have a great text. And so my, my purpose today is
to observe our way through the text that Mister Trey read to
us. And then see if there are three
big ticket sort of applications that we need to that we need to
deal with together. And so I just want you to
meditate with me on and through this text so that it can do its
work in us. So in first Peter chapter 2, he
says in verse one, so and that's a really important word because
that that dictates to us that we need some context.
And so we're not going to read any further in chapter 2 until I
give you the context of chapter one, verse 22.
So read this with me and and we'll we'll make our way to
chapter 2. Peter says having purified your
souls by the obedience to the truth, by your obedience to the
truth, and I would just stop there and ask you, does that rub
you wrong for a moment? Having purified your souls by
your obedience to the truth. I thought we were a sila gratia,
silafide church. I thought we were a church that
believed that a soul is purified by the grace of Christ alone and
faith alone in that Christ alone.
I thought that's where we were and it is where we are very,
very much where we are. And So what in the world does
Peter mean by having purified your souls by obedience to the
truth? Well, let me say it this way.
This is what he's not saying. He's not saying you have
purified your soul by your obedience to the commandments.
That's not what he's saying. You have, you have obeyed the
truth. There has a there's a
proposition has been made about the person of Christ, and by
embracing that through faith, you have had your souls
purified. And so the question is, what is
the proposition? What is the truth that has been
declared to us? And the best place for me to go
is to take up the very first Christian sermon by a Christian
man in the Christian Church. It was at the day of Pentecost
and it was Peter himself. And when he preaches about the
person and the work of Christ, he gets to the end of that
sermon and he tells Israel this assertion.
Therefore, let all the House of Israel know that God has made
him. God has made him both Lord and
Christ. This Jesus whom you crucified,
that's the truth. That is our obedience.
Christ is Lord, He is seated on the right hand of the majesty on
high. And all of those who are glad in
that assertion, all of those who believe that assertion, who call
on Christ as Lord, they have obeyed the truth of the gospel
and therefore have their souls purified.
Now he gives a purpose statement our souls purified for a sincere
brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of
imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.
It's a really amazing thing. He says that we having had our
souls purified by our our obedience to the truth that that
God did that for us so that we would have a sincere brotherly
love for one another that in the church that we would love one
another as brothers. And then we might ask, well, how
is that going to work? Because it's it's people from
all different ages, all different backgrounds, all
different, different lives. But he says, Peter says, but you
have this one thing in common that you that's a y'all have
been born again, not of perishable seed, but of
imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.
So nobody likes to think about this, but we could, if I, if I
got everybody's birthday, we could write down your birthday.
And generally speaking, we could rewind the clock about nine
months and, and know what happened.
Nine months before your birthday, nine months before
your birthday, without your permission, without your
request, without anything else like that, you were not even
there, but you were a gleam in your daddy's eye, as they say.
And so your father sowed seed into the garden that is your
mother. I know you can hate me for that,
but I'm telling you that's what happened and therefore 9 months
later you were born. Peter says something very
similar but not saying happened when you've been born again
according to the word of God, that you have been born not of
the seed of your Father on earth, but of imperishable seed
through the living and abiding Word of God.
The Word of God is the seed that causes men and women and
children to be born again. And if you have obeyed the truth
of the Lordship of Christ, then brother, sister, you were born
again by the imperishable seed of the Word of God.
Peter goes on to say all flesh is grass, it's glory like a
flower of grass. The grass Withers, the flower
fades, but the word of our Lord remains forever.
This word is the good news that was preached to you.
So you see that we, we have been born again, He's placed us as
brothers and sisters in the body of Christ because we all have a
common Father who has caused us to be born again by His word.
Therefore, Peter is going to give us a strategy for how we're
to continue to hear the word of God.
So let me ask you a question. What do you do to prepare to
hear the word of God preached? Or what do you do to prepare to
read the word of God for yourself?
How can you prepare your heart, your mind, your soul to to hear
that word? Well, well, I'm glad you asked.
There's two things that he tells us in verses one through three.
First off, you put some things away.
You, you, you knock some things off that are normal to us, he
says. Put away all malice, all deceit
and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
Like newborn infants long. That's the second thing.
So put away those things and then like newborn infants long
for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into
salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
So we're going to have to, we're going to have to put some things
away. So let me just tell you what
Peter teaches here is that your positioning and mine towards
people in the body of Christ will dictate to you whether or
not you can hear the word of God rightly.
Our positioning towards others is going to impact how we hear
the word of God. And so he says, put these things
away and I'll just say a brief word about each malice.
Malice is the desire to injure somebody.
You've ever been around anybody who has malice, they're just
marked by I just want to beat you.
I want you to lose and I want to win.
I just, I'm not for you. It's malice.
It's deceit. Deceit is misleading others for
their harm. So in the ancient world,
Odysseus was the master of this, you know, the story of the
Trojan horse. That was his plan, that we're
going to deceive our enemies to think something so that we can
lead them into a trap that will cost in their lives.
Peter says lay aside for the way malice, deceit, don't do that to
people. Don't lie to them for their own
hurt. Put away hypocrisy right that
that thespian term of you've got a mask.
You're on stage and you're speaking from underneath the
mask. You're playing a role which is
trying to conceal yourself from others.
Peter says put it away. Be who you are, be who you are.
It doesn't matter who you are. Just be who you are.
Like stop faking in the church to present a a facade of what
you are not. Be don't be a don't speak from
underneath the mask, he says. Put away envy, which is a sin
rooted in being bitter about what God has given to others.
And brothers and sisters, we are a culture.
Increasingly, all of our political strategy and decision
making is based on this sin of envy that there are some who
have and some who do not. And so those who do not are
envious of those who have. And so we want to power over
everybody that's not God. It's the government to take from
some and to distribute to others instead of realizing that godly
contentment is content with what God has given me and what God
has given my neighbor. So put away envy.
Put away slander. Slander is kind of a mixture
sin. You're, you're you're
misrepresenting someone so that other people will think less of
them. It's really, it's really
terrible. Have you ever been slandered?
Have you ever been misrepresented where somebody is
talking about you and you're not around and they said that it
went down this way and it really didn't and you've been
slandered. Well, Peter tells us if you want
to benefit from the word of God like a baby benefits from breast
milk, then you these sins must be put away.
The context here is, is in case you were wondering, we're going
to see as we work our way through the context is the
unbelieving Jewish people that were marked by these things when
Christ came. If you think about the Passion
week of Christ and you think about how the crucifixion went
about, they were marked by malice.
This was their biography. They wanted him gone.
They wanted to destroy him. They were marked by deceit.
They lied, they cheated all they could to get him crucified.
They were marked by hypocrisy, right?
Do you remember the story where they're they're getting the Jews
had the ability to stone Jesus at any moment, but stoning was
not good enough. What they wanted was Roman
crucifixion, A shameful, painful death so that no one would ever
think well of this man again. And so though we could stone
him, now, we're going to go through all of this deceit and
and mock trial to get him crucified.
And so they need the Romans. They're going to use Pilot.
They take Jesus to Pilot's headquarters in John's gospel.
John in his gospel tells us that the Jews did not enter Pilot's
quarters so that they wouldn't be defiled.
They could still keep the Sabbath.
How do you like them apples? You know that you are lying
about an innocent man in order to get him tortured and killed.
But you're still going through the scrupulosity of we're not
going to associate with Gentiles so that we're not disqualified
from enjoying the Sabbath. They were marked by malice,
deceit, hypocrisy, envy. The the gospel writers tell us
again and again, it's even in the in the mind of Pilot that
the Jews were jealous and envious of Christ, his power,
his popularity. They were envious of him.
They slandered him. So all of these things were
their biography and the passion week.
And therefore when Christ came to them, they whipped.
They could not they could not be born again by the imperishable
seed of the word, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so they missed out on Christ altogether.
And that's becomes his mega theme of this of this text.
So you are to put those things away and secondly to long for to
long for something to desire something he says long for the
pure spiritual milk that by you may grow up into salvation.
Martin Luther said it this way. He said to progress into
Christian faith is to begin again.
You want to grow up into the Christian faith begin again.
Go back to the to the reality of your sin.
Go back to the reality that you deserved the just judgement of
God. And instead of condemning you to
a devil's hell for an eternity like you deserved, instead the
Father sends His Son into the world to take your sin upon
himself and to die in your place for your sin, and to rise from
the dead and to a sin into heaven where He sits and rules
and reigns and intercedes for you, pouring out His Spirit upon
you. By grace.
You have been saved through faith.
You deserve none of that. So if you want to progress in
the Christian faith, we go back again and again and again to who
Christ is and the result of this work and and when we do that, we
get to grow up into our sonship, our daughterhood.
I love this and he says long for the pure spiritual milk like
like newborn infants. Some of you, unfortunately, have
never experienced the blessing of a hippie birth.
Do you know what a hippie birth is?
OK. My first four, two sons, two
daughters, they were born a scheduled C-section.
We went in a doctor. It was on the clock, cut Meg
open and delivered these babies. And it was great, right?
Because I get to be a father. This is this is awesome.
But when Lucy Pearl came along, something vastly different
happened. We went to the hippies.
We didn't go to the doctors. We went to the hippies.
I'm calling them hippies because they they don't know sometimes
they don't know how to root those things.
They just believe in sort of Mother Nature.
Just trust Mother Nature and everything is going to be fine.
We don't we don't necessarily accredit it to God as though a
woman's body that can take seed from a man and build it into an
eternal image there of God with the most majestic, glorious
happenstance ever. They don't give God credit for
that. But what they do do is they do
say, man, it's just natural and your body's going to do, it's
going to take care of business you, it'll be fine.
And so they're all chill and calm and hippie and it's
amazing. And they told me something was
going to happen that I frankly disbelieved.
They said when when your daughter is born, she's going to
find her way to the food source. OK.
And I knew because of scripture, the scripture that scriptures
that say again and again uses the the metaphor of a woman in
childbirth feeling like she's just pain, pain, pain, pain,
pain. And that everything gives gives
way to joy. It's my favorite picture that I
can never share with anybody but Gracie where the just moments
before Lucy is born, she told me I'm going to die.
I can't do this, I'm dying. This is it, This is the end.
And it felt like the end. I'm sure moments later they they
pull Lucy Pearl out and I had this picture of Gracie and just
madness of joy is the only way to describe it.
I wish I could show you, but I can't.
But what they did is they took Lucy Pearl and they just turned
her over and put her on Gracie's summit.
And Lucy, I swear to the heavenly powers, she crawled her
way to her mother's breast to to eat.
What is that? What is how can that be
possible? Well, that's how Peter says we
are to long for the milk of God's word.
The same thing is true of all believers that there's this
mysterious move of the Spirit of God where from a fleshly
perspective, we might look at somebody and say they're never
going to come to Christ. Then it's never happening.
But we pray, you know, sort of half hearted Lord, you're like,
would you do something? And then all the sudden they
repent and they see Christ for who he is.
And what's the first thing that they always do?
They come to an open Bible and say, what does this mean?
What like help me understand, they are newborn babes longing
for the milk of God's word for the gospel and it is beautiful.
And so Peter tells born again believers to long for the pure
spiritual milk that by it by that gospel, you may grow up
into salvation. Lucy is growing up into Martin
hood. She was as much a Martin in the
womb as she is right now, but she's growing up into that
reality. And that's the metaphor that
we're growing up into Christ. Christ by his grace has adopted
us, has made us sons and daughters of God, has has
grafted us into the vine that is himself.
And we grow up into that reality when we feed upon the milk of
God's word. And let me just say as well,
this maturity that's growing up into, we tend to read this as
Americans and just say, this is me and my quiet time.
No, it is not. Is us as a people growing up
together in the Word of God. Let me ask you something.
When your love for the word of God wanes, what do you need most
of all? You know what you mean.
You need a brother who still loves God's word.
You need a sister who still loves God's word.
You need you need the church, you need a preacher who still
loves God's word who will help you to to redevelop that taste
for God's word. So so we are to this is how we
hear the word of God accurately and benefit from it.
We put away these sins, we long for it and then as a summation
of all Christian doctrine of what does it mean to become a
Christian. This is what it means.
It's the simplest phrase ever. As you come to him, you just
come to Christ. Like how how complicated have we
made the Christian life? And there is mystery, there is
complication. There's really important
doctrines over which we ought to debate and and war and do all
number of things. But ultimately at the end of the
day, it's coming to Christ. You come, you come to Christ.
OK, so let me read these verses and then I'm going to simplify
them or try to. Peter says as you come to him,
notice not as you come to church, as you come to the
sermon, as you come to anything else, as you come to him, to
Christ, who is a living stone rejected by men, but in the
sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves like
living stones. But which one is it, Peter?
Is Jesus the living stone, or are we the living stones?
And the answer is yes, yes, He is the living stone.
And when we come to him, we're made like him.
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.
OK, so simplify this just just for a minute so we can kind of
catch what he's doing here. Christ is a living stone that he
said is rejected, rejected by men, but in the sight of God,
chosen and precious. That's the theme is that Christ
is the judgment. Remember at the end of John
Chapter 9 for judgment, I came into this world that those who
are who can see would be blind, and those who are blind could
see. And it all has to do with how we
respond to Christ. Christ was rejected by men, but
in the sight of God, he was chosen and he was precious.
When we come to Him, you yourselves, like living stones,
are being built up into a spiritual house.
What the world has despised, God has put on the throne.
Say that to you again. What the world has despised and
hated and crucified and rejected and ignored.
That thing that man God has put on the throne.
That's who reigns and Peter exhorts the church to long for
the word of Christ. He reminds them of the
fulfillment of this prophecy that Jesus made in John chapter
21. That has to do with this idea of
of what of God of God of the the world rejecting Christ, but God
putting him on the throne, making him the the cornerstone
and all those who are in him being built up into a temple.
Peter is calling to our attention, reminding us of a
prophecy that Jesus made. You don't have to turn here,
just listen to this. This was in the In Passion week.
Peter is right there listening to Jesus talk to the religious
leaders that were getting ready to crucify him that had already
begun the rejection process. And Peter heard Jesus tell this
parable ending with a prophecy. Listen to this.
Jesus said to them here, another parable.
There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a
fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a
tower and leased it out to tenants and went into another
country. See the picture?
There's a master who does all this.
It's, it's his vineyard. He put a fence around it, he dug
a winepress in it. He built a tower and leased it
to tenants and went into another country.
Now when the season for fruit drew near, he, being a master,
sent his servants to the tenants.
Watch this, listen close to get his fruit, not their fruit, his
fruit. It's my vineyard, it's my
garden, it's my wall and everything is mine.
And so I'm sending my servants to my vineyard to get my fruit
from my tenants. And the tenants took his
servants and beat 1 and killed another and stone another.
Jesus says again, he sent other servants more than the first.
Why? Why would they have done that?
Why would they have killed my servants?
I'll send them more servants to go get the fruit, and they more
than the first. And they did the same thing to
them. And finally the master said he,
the master sent his son to them saying they will respect my son
by God, they're going to listen to my boy.
They're, they're, they're killing my servants.
They're disregarding my prophets.
They will listen to my son. But when the tenants saw the
son, they said to themselves, this is the heir.
Come, let's kill him and have his inheritance.
It's the envy, it's the jealousy of what belongs to Christ needs
to belong to us. And so we're going to kill him
so that we can have what is his. Verse 39 And they took him and
they threw him out of the vineyard and they killed him.
Now listen to the question Jesus asks the religious Jewish
leaders. When therefore the owner of the
vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?
And Christ, like just the the wisest man in the world, gives
the Pharisees, gives the religious leaders enough rope to
hang themselves. He lets them pronounce their own
judgment. They said to him, He will put
those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard
to tenants who will give him the fruit in its season 2 things.
He's going to kill those men and then take what he entrusted to
them and give it to other men who will bear the fruit and
yield it to the master. Do you see that it's not magic?
This is not doesn't take wild interpretation.
He will put those wretches to a miserable death and he will let
out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the
fruits in their seasons. Jesus said to them, See, this
sounds familiar from first Peter 2.
Have you never read the scriptures?
Brothers, you got to read your Old Testament.
You got to read your scriptures. Here's what he quotes to them
from Psalm 118. The stone that the builders
rejected has become the cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our sight.
Therefore I tell you, red letter, in the words of Christ.
Therefore I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken
away from you and given to a people producing its fruit.
What does that mean? It means just what it says.
The Kingdom of God was taken from Israel when they rejected
Christ and was given to other men to produce its fruit.
And then he goes on to say, and the one who falls on this stone
will be broken to pieces. When it falls on anyone, it will
crush him. When the chief priests and the
Pharisees heard this parable, they perceived that He was
speaking about them. So as you come to Christ, Peter
tells us you are being built up as a spiritual house.
Now I want you to watch this in first, Peter.
He says you yourselves, like living stones are being built up
as a spiritual house. Brothers and sisters, what's our
magic biblical word for a house that is a spiritual house, a
house where you, where you meet with God.
What is that called? What's our name for that?
It's a temple. It's a Tabernacle, he says
you're to be a holy priesthood. Wait, wait, who is it in
Scripture? That's a priest that gets to
offer sacrifices? It's the Levitical priest.
And Peter is saying no longer is it the Levitical priest.
You are being built up into a temple, into a priesthood.
You offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ. There's no sacrificial system
that's acceptable to God any longer because Christ has come
and he's made an end to all sin. And now his people, as we're
going to see, who have been made a temple, who have been made
priest to the living God. We offer acceptable sacrifices
to our Father through the name of the Son, acceptable
sacrifices like living bodies, the sacrifice of praise and of
gratitude, but nothing dies. OK, So we need to remember that
Christianity in its simplest form is nothing but coming to
Christ, and that the Jewish rulers would not do that.
And so they are on the outside of the purposes of God.
OK. Christianity is not primarily a
list of do's and don'ts. It isn't a strategy for making
yourself acceptable to God. It is simply coming to Christ
and receiving from him everything you need.
As I was reading that to you, when they when they see Christ,
they say, here is the heir, let's kill him and let's have
what's his. And all of you who've been
married to that man by faith, who've become one with him, you
might say you don't have to kill him to get what's his.
He wants to give it to you by grace, right?
So we don't have to steal anything from Christ when he
offers us covenant fellowship with him.
And he says all that is mine is yours.
So we come to Christ, receiving from him everything we need.
Are you lonely? Then come to Christ.
Are you sinful? Then come to Christ.
Are you confused in this world where we can't tell male from
female up from down? Are you confused?
Will come to Christ. Are you weak?
Come to Christ. Remember that in coming you are
coming to the One This is important.
You are coming to the one that the world has hated.
He was rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and
precious, He was the living stone and is the living stone.
And in coming to Him as the living stone, you yourselves,
like living stones, are being built up.
God has chosen you. In Christ you are precious, even
though the world despises the people of God and so we should
not be surprised when the people of God, the real people of God,
those who by faith in Christ are in covenant with Christ, that
the world tends to hate us. This word that you received
Christ is the rock of offense, right for judgment.
I came into this world. They stumbled over him, but we
stand on him. Look in verse 6 and I'm, I'm,
I'm almost done observing and then I'll apply this for it, for
it stands in verse 6 for again, notice the four.
So we have become the temple, we have become the priest.
We are the ones that offer sacrifices because it stands in
Scripture. Behold, I'm laying in Zion, a
stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious.
I love that Peter just lifts those beautiful words right out
of Isaiah and he applies them straight to Christ.
Christ is a living stone, rejected by men, but chosen and
precious. Now we hear the the basis of
that in the Old Testament that Christ is that God has laid a
cornerstone chosen and precious. Whoever believes in him will not
be put to shame. So the honor listen in verse 7.
So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do
not believe, that's the Jewish people of Peter's day.
The stone that the builders rejected has become the
cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.
Peter says they stumbled because they disobey the word as they
were destined to remember this whole the context of this having
purified your souls by your obedience to the truth by
receiving the proclamation that Christ is Lord.
They stumble because they disobey the word.
It's not commandments. They disobey the the reality
that God has worked into the world that he has put his son on
the throne. Now look in verse 9.
But you are a chosen race. I I hope this sounds familiar to
you. If you don't know your Old
Testament very well, it might just be like Peter's just trying
to go through his mind and figure out ways to encourage the
people. That's not what he's doing.
He's doing something very important.
He says to the church, You are a chosen race.
Oh, do what now? We're a chosen race.
None of us are the same race. How can we be a chosen A chosen
race? You're a chosen race.
You're a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's
own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him
who called you out of darkness into his marvellous life.
You. This is what you are and this is
what you're for. You are a chosen race.
You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation.
You are a people for his own possession so that you can
proclaim the excellencies of him who called you, that Christ
called you to himself, and we are to proclaim his
excellencies. He says, once you are not a
people, but now you are God's people.
Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
If you write in your Bible, write Exodus 19, These are the
very words. I'm going to read it to you.
You don't have to turn here with me.
But Exodus 19, these are the very words that God spoke to
Moses to tell the children of Israel right after the Exodus.
He says, 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.
You shall be to me a Kingdom of priests.
So, so, so, Peter, hang on. You're talking to the church and
you're saying they're a royal priesthood.
No, that that applies to Israel. And Peter's saying, yeah, yeah,
Israel is Christ and all those who are in Christ, he says to to
Israel in Exodus 19. You're a Kingdom of priests, a
holy nation, a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Peter takes up that same, that same phraseology, chosen race,
royal priesthood, holy nation, people for his own possession.
Once you are not a people. Now you are God's people.
We are a people for proclamation.
He has so united us to Christ and to one another as a people
that we are to proclaim the excellencies of them who called
us out of darkness into his marvelous life.
OK, so three things, one theological and a couple of
pastoral. OK, first all First off, like
what does this mean? So what how should we think in
terms of these things? We need to make these we need to
not make we need to allow these verses to make a theological
course correction for for ourselves.
OK, as Peter describes those in Christ, all the things as he's
describing us in terms of everything that Israel was
supposed to be but failed to be the first word of God to Abraham
is in you. All the nations of the earth
would be blessed. It was always to be God's grace
through Abraham to the nations, meaning through Christ to the
nations. But Israel had had become
ingrown. They'd made it about themselves.
They weren't a lie to the nations.
They were abusing the nations. This is Christ cleansing the
temple. This is supposed to be a House
of prayer for all nations. You're making it a den of
robbers. You've done the very opposite of
what I created you for. So if we would allow these
verses to be for us what they ought to be for us, we need to
look for no further redemptive dealings tied to racial
identities. Not Jew, not Gentile, not white,
not black, not any other race. We do not look for racial grace.
Grace tied the grace of God coming tied to a particular race
of people. There is Christ and there are
those who have been born again in him and there's no other
category of being except for those who are outside of Christ
of all of all nations and all people.
Listen to the way again, I want to read.
This is not a OK. I was given a lens when I was a
young man coming up in the faith.
I was given a lens of of a dispensationalist view of
Israel, a start bifurcation of a separation between Israel and
the church and we need to keep that we need to keep that wall
of separation between between the the church and between
Israel and what it what it did for me is it made it impossible
to see the very simply what the word of God teaches everywhere
in the New Testament. So I just want to read you a
couple of verses. They won't need any comment.
But before I read these, let me just tell you there will there
are some who will say what you're preaching is called
replacement theology that that the church has replaced Israel.
Listen to me, brothers and sisters.
That is in our in our culture. It's been said that the way you
define racism, what is a racist? Well, it's anybody winning an
argument with a leftist, with a wokey, right.
I'm winning an argument. And so they say, well, yeah, but
you're a racist. And so then argument over.
It's just a name calling. What people will say when they
hear clear teaching of the of the Scriptures concerning Christ
as the Israel of God, as the true vine, they'll say that's
replacement theology, which is just slanderous.
No, it is not. The Scriptures, Old and New
Testament, preach what is called fulfilment theology, that Jesus
doesn't come on the road to Emmaus and take them from Moses
and all of the prophets and teach them the things concerning
the Jewish people in the Old Testament.
What does he teach them? The things from the beginning of
the Old Testament to the end of the Old Testament.
The things concerning himself. The entirety of the Old
Testament is all about Jesus Christ.
We're not replacement, we are fulfillment.
Christ is the tell us the end, the purpose of the law.
So listen to Paul in Ephesians 2.
He himself, meaning Christ, is our peace, who has made us both.
1 And he's broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of
hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in
ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in the
place of two, so making peace, and he might reconcile us both
to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the
hostility between Jew and Gentile.
And he came, and he preached peace to you who were far off,
you Gentiles, and he preached peace to those who were near the
Jews, and through Him we both have access in one spirit to the
Father. So then you are no longer
strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the Saints,
members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the
cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together,
grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
There is not another temple coming.
Brothers and sisters, by the decree of the one who sits on
the right hand of the majesty on high, you are the temple He is
building, not a physical temple in Jerusalem.
In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place
for God by His Spirit. Galatians 3 Know then, that it
is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the
Scripture. Listen to these words,
foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
preached the gospel beforehand, saying to Abraham in you all the
nations of the earth will be blessed.
So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham
the man of faith. It was never about the Jewish
people. It was God's grace through the
Jewish people to the coming Messiah, and that through that
Christ all the nations would be blessed in him.
Listen to John the Baptist speaking to the Jewish people,
Matthew 3. He tells them bear fruit in
keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to
yourself, we have Abraham as our father, as though you can stand
before a holy God as a Sinner and say, but my mom was the
right race and my dad was the right race.
That that John the Baptist says, you have no presumption to say
that we have Abraham as our father.
For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up
children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the
root of the trees. That's plural.
That's not singular. It's not the tree of Israel,
it's trees within, it's those people.
It's it's whoever is is considering the proclamation of
Christ. He says every tree.
Therefore, that does not bear good fruit.
Bearing fruit and keeping with repentance means trusting in
Christ. Every tree that does not bear
good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
I baptize you with water for repentance.
He who is coming after me is mightier than I, the sandals of
whom I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the
Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his
hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his
weed into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with
unquenchable fire. And then Jesus came.
So we do not look for any further ethnic favoritism in the
world. We don't look for a temple in
Jerusalem, we or for a continued distinction between Jew and
Gentile when God has made them one in Christ.
Christ. The Bible teaches us that Christ
is the singular seed of Abraham and that all those in him have
been given the promises of Abraham.
For in Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed,
and all of the promises of God find their yes in Christ.
Secondly, Christ is the light of the world that shines through
his people, who he called out of the world into his marvelous
light. So we are remember Peter says
he's the living stone, and you are being built up as living
stones. So he calls us the light of the
world. We must proclaim and we must
portray. We have to declare the mercy of
Christ. We have to declare the good
news, and we have to display the good news in our in our lives.
So the Word of Christ is still an Incarnate word by the means
of his people. We are his body in the world,
but not of the world. And it will not do to have our
works undo our words as we testify to the reality of
Christ. We cannot, brothers and sisters,
declare the the excellencies of them who called us out of
darkness into light while we're still walking in the darkness.
We cannot do it. We can't do it because it
compromises our testimony. So let me just invite you to
look around and ask, why are you here?
Why did you come here to this church this morning?
I've got an answer for everybody.
It's because the pastor's so good looking and he preaches the
greatest sermons ever. That's why you're here.
No, you are here because Christ called you out of darkness into
his marvellous light, that you might become a living stone in
the midst of living stones, the very temple of the living God.
Christ is building his church, and he's building it right here.
Glory to his name. Our love for one another is the
most important work and the most powerful proof of the reality of
Christ of his reign. He is building us up.
We exist as a proclamation in Word and deed.
So brothers, let us love one another not in Word only, but
also in deed and and listen to me.
I'm preached to the choir. OK, the the way that that
myself, my family, the way that we love one another, one another
in this church is breathtaking. Can we do better?
Of course we can, but I am very much preaching to the choir.
So like brothers who have all been born again by the
imperishable seed of the same Father, Jesus prayed this for
us. I do not ask for these only, but
also for those who will believe in me through their word that
they may be one, just as you Father, or in me, and I in you,
so that they may be in us, so that the world may believe that
you have sent me. Our oneness in the body of
Christ is a testimony to the world that Christ indeed was
sent by the Father. The glory that you have given
me, I have given to them that they may be 1 Even as we are
one, so, brothers, let us love one another.
Lastly, Remember, Remember that the sum total of the Christian
faith is simply to come to Christ.
It man just come to Christ, we come to Him.
He is the living stone. He was rejected by men, but in
the sight of God he was chosen. He is chosen and precious.
Peter said beforehand, I didn't read this to you, but that he
was foreknown before the foundation of the world, the
elect of God. How fitting that we get to come
to the Lord's Table as we remember these things, the table
of His presence with and His provision for His people.
We get to come as newborn infants longing for pure
spiritual milk. Think about this with me.
Ask yourself, how many infants can explain the molecular
structure of a mother's milk? Do we require that of them
before we breastfeed them? No, we do not.
No we do not. How many?
How many babies can explain the metabolic process of ingestion,
digestion, excretion? How many can understand the
mystery? How many, how many adult human
beings can understand the mystery of the bond that is
formed in between a a nursing baby who doesn't even know
they're in the world and the mother who is bodily pouring
herself into the sustenance of this baby?
Do you know that mystery? No, I do not either.
Nobody can understand these things.
Nobody. Nobody.
And the Lord's Table is just like that.
When we try to describe in close detail or scientific detail what
God does for his people, and with his people at the table, we
get into all kind of trouble. OK, so we need to be really
careful. Let us say authoritatively what
the Lord says in his Word. This bread is his body broken
for us. This cup is his blood poured out
for forgiveness of sins. We do this in remembrance of
Him, and by coming to the table we really participate in the
body of Christ. And so come, beloved, come to
the living stone as living stones, and be built up into the
body of Christ by Christ himself who promises to feed you right
here you come, welcome to Jesus Christ.
Let me pray for us, Lord, there is not a deserving man, woman,
or child in this building, but by Your grace you have called us
out of darkness into Your marvelous light.
And therefore, all of us having been, having been born again
within perishable seed, the word of our Father, the good news of
Christ, and through the power of the Spirit, all of us having had
our souls purified by obedience to the truth of the Lordship of
Christ, all of us get to come here as as infants longing for
spiritual nourishment. And so we come to you, Lord, as
the God who always feeds your people.
And we ask you by your Spirit to make this table what we need it
to be for us, a real participation in the person and
the work of Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray for any who are
here that have not yet come to you that you would give them the
power to do that, to just come and to receive from you all that
you offer. And Lord, I pray for any who
have come to you but who struggle with guilt and shame
and any of the things that that keep us from your table.
I pray that through the through the preaching of the good news,
that you love them and that you've welcomed them and that
Christ is real provision for them.
Pray that you would grant that they would come and find
nourishment here at your table. So we ask you, Lord, to come and
meet with us and minister to us, and we ask it in the mighty name
of Jesus, Amen.