First Peter 2:6-10 God's Corner Stone pt 1

So, Roger has given me the assignment, which I'm glad to do, in First Peter. We find, I don't know who taught the cook class last week, was it Miles? Miles, yes.

"Yeah, so what we found was, behold I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone. He who believes in him shall not be disappointed. This precious value then is for you who believe, but those who disbelieve the stone which the builder rejected, this became the very cornerstone. "

So I think that's pretty clear. Everybody understand the stone laid as a cornerstone, the whole building, the whole frame is dependent upon that stone. And so what Peter is doing here is he's drawing a contrast between believers and rejecters of the living stone, and using a metaphor of a building and the cornerstone. And he says to those who believe It is all the preciousness of Christ. That's how they view him. And all the blessing he secures is made good to the believer.

And he's writing, and this probably will come up later, he's writing to what we call the dispersion, which primarily were Jews who had been dispersed out of, who had become Christians. and were dispersed out of Jerusalem because of persecution so he's writing to Christians which means he's writing to us too and so thus he talks about those that rejected him and the word was interesting rejection means they were unpersuaded it's an interesting word verse 8 says in a stone of stumbling a rock of offense for they stumbled because they are disobedient to the word and to this doom they are appointed. So I think we have to talk a little bit about the appointment of the doom to those who rejected, to those who were unpersuaded, or the followers of those who formerly rejected Christ. So if you think about it, Christ is pictured as a stone, and the Word of God makes six applications to the word stone as applied. I'm going to just go through these and if you want the verses later, but the stone sometimes is used as an application like in Exodus 17 and 1 Corinthians 10-4. Foundation, like in 1 Corinthians 3-11. The stumbling, like here. where human righteousness is built on instead of divine righteousness.

It also has a messianic application 1st Corinthians 1.23 and it has to do with the second coming Zechariah 4.7 and then the sovereignty application which is Daniel 2.34 and the last one if you look at Matthew 21.44 it has to do with the judgment application So this stone, as a metaphor, is used quite a bit in scripture.

So the word stumbling stone are the translation of lithos, which is just a loose stone. I was walking around yesterday up in the mountains with my canes, tripping over everything that was on the ground, stones and roots. and it would end with the word prokomatos meaning to cut against, which put together means an obstacle against which one strikes. The Word of God is an obstacle, the Son of God is an obstacle in which one strikes. And then he's called the rock of offense, Petra, It means a ledge rising out of the ground, a scandal, a trap set to trip one.

The word scandal comes from this word. So those who are disobedient, literally the Greek has it, non-persuadable, and I think that's a really great word, are appointed to do what? To stumble at the word, which is the penalty for refusing to believe him. but now how about believers?

Believers understand that in Hebrews 11 23 that God ordained a way unbelievers find a living stone see if this is here unbelievers find a living stone which is precious to believers an obstacle against which they strike and a scandal which offends them I'm sure that in your experience and talking to non-believers, this really is what takes place.

You know, the first go around, they're polite. The second go around, you begin to realize they're stumbling over this information about the Son of God. And so, it's almost, I think we're the only people who feel sorrowful about that, about these people who are unpersuadable because they throw away really what they do is they throw away and think the Lord Jesus is worthless and so because of that the exalted son of God that we love who is a cornerstone they've thrown all his benefits away it's pretty strong because It's all based on the most important thing, which is believing Him. So, to those who became a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, the natural man stumbles at his word. You know, if you have gone to a non-believer and said, do you have a Bible? Look up so and so. He stumbles over that.

They would not believe the truth and therefore to this end they were appointed. So they're not appointed not to believe. They were not appointed to sin or to disobey, but being rebellious and disobedient, they were destined by their unbelief to stumble at the humiliation of Christ.

You see that? Because you can't say that, well, God, reformers might say, well, they've been appointed to perdition. No, they haven't. No, they haven't. Now, he switches. He says, but you, you are the dispersion believers in 2026, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. Do you view yourself like that? Do you believe that you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for God's own possession? I don't think we do, but that's what Peter is telling believers.

And then he says, here's why That's true. And there's a purpose in this verse that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So he says you are, and then he gives you the purpose. And then verse 10 says, for you were once not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So the four descriptions of believers is derived from Exodus 19, 5 and 6. God's purpose for the church bears a similarity to God's purpose for Israel. God at all times has desired to have people on earth to represent him and to honor him. Do you think that's right? the church gets confused by these verses.

Yes. Oh, we are the new Israel. Yeah. Because it's close in language. Yeah. Close in terminology. Well, there was a young lady a couple years ago that was involved in our Wednesday night study and she thought that the purpose of the church was to members of the body of Christ should go out and save souls. And I disagreed with her. I said, well the purpose of the church is to prepare you to go out and save souls.

We're going to see even another aspect here, and it's all wrapped up in this verse. Israel, had they obeyed God's voice, and kept his covenants, they would have been God's peculiar treasure. They would have been the kingdom of priests and a holy nation, Exodus 19, 5 and 6. They would have been that. They were here to represent God and the earth.

But they failed, and the nation, now what's the problem with Israel? They've been set aside. They haven't been destroyed, they've just been set aside. bring up what I put in my notes. Are believers now viewed as taking the place of Israel as a witness to God before the world? That aspect, what do you think? Two different entities. So let's go through the four things and see if this question is a yes or no answer.

If you're a chosen race, this is my definition, you're a legitimate offspring of the God of the universe. That's way more than he created Adam. You've been recreated in Christ And now you can say I'm a legitimate offspring of the Creator, the God of the universe. Vine's definition denotes a chosen race as an offspring or a family or a race, a nation, a kind of species, and it's translated countrymen.

So, you know, we all look the same as non-believers, but we aren't the same. We're different. because we're a different race. Now I wish the race baiters would race bait us about this. Race is the word genos, which refers to a group with a common origin. Do we have a common origin as believers? Yeah, is the origin the same as non-believers? No, it's not. It's different. And chosen shows the distinctness of a believer. He's different. And not just because he changed his clothes. He's totally different as a believer.

To be a chosen race, one must be born from above, with a new life, a new heritage, that was created separate from all of Adam's race. That's why we study identification truths because that's the mechanics and how God did this. So I think it's important for us to pay attention to what God is doing or has done, let me put it that way. All believers are viewed as on another side of creation that wasn't created in the garden. They only are the chosen race, and at the very time when the elect nation had proved itself more than ever guilty to its own ruin, if Israel's place was for the time forfeited, the believing remnant gets the blessing and is promoted or pronounce the chosen race.

So okay, so we start out, we're the chosen race. Then he's gonna say, oh, you're also a kingly priest. The exercise of the heart by faith is toward the God who brought us to himself by his grace. I think I know where I got this quote maybe from Kelly. Can any privilege be higher or more intimate than to be in his presence?

Walking in the light as he is, delivered from the self-centeredness which breaks out into the variance of a separate will and cleansed by the blood which takes away every sin to adore the Father and the only true God, Do you appreciate that privilege that we have? The sons of Adam, what the sons of Aaron did in the sanctuary after a material type, which derived all its value from being a shadow of Christ and his acceptance to God, as a perfect and constant aroma of rest, the saints are now exhorted to do. as the Epistle of Hebrews says, by him therefore let us offer sacrifices of praise continually to God, that is the fruit of our lips, the fruit of lips confessing to his name. So the Lord Jesus is the center and the substance of everything the Christian does and without a cloud or a change the Holy Spirit has been given to us to do what? Why has the Holy Spirit been given to us? to implement what God has ordained for his chosen race and king-royal priesthood as their function.

So, back to the question. It's a wondrous adaptation to the everlasting worship which shall be in heaven throughout eternity. But you know what? We own it now. Have you ever thought about when I go to glory, what am I going to be doing? we are invited to it now and it's just not a title merely but it's a joyful occupation especially as gathered to his name. I would say this, as you grow spiritually and the Holy Spirit works in you, you become this intimacy with Christ has developed, he develops it and what do you do in response to that? I mean, if the glory of the Lord Jesus, He showed up right here, right now, what would you do? You would do what Paul did, right?

And so, but we get to start this behavior now. So, when we go to glory, it will be, well, I can't say a day, daily, because there won't be days, but it'll be with constant beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus And we look forward to that. And it fits us to prosper in that now.

The reason, 2 Corinthians 3.18, beholding us in the mere what? The glory of the Lord. It's difficult, I think, for us to wrap our arms around the fact that beholding reading God's Word is really beholding Christ that's really what it is because that's what the Spirit does so we get a taste now as priestly as a royal priesthood we're actually not after the order of Aaron we're after the order of Melchizedek why is that? because we know that Abraham paid tithe to Melchizedek and Aaron did it in the loins of Abraham. See that?

So the priesthood of Melchizedek is the order in which Christ is, which is the royal kingly priesthood, which we're members of. What's the main idea of being a priest? In the Jewish system, what was the main idea of being a priest? What did you do? Would you say it's access? That's the main thing. They had access. What's the main emphasis of a kingly priest? It's access and authority. Because if you're a king, you have authority. So those who are his are even now said to be royal priesthood to manifest his praises before the day of his power.

Now, where did I get this from? Here's another quote about this. As he, according to scripture, is the sole and great high priest, become higher than the heavens and seated at the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens, the sole priestly house, the same scripture acknowledges, consists of all the saints of God. That's us. They are alike washed and sanctified and justified. All of them. Perfect tense or eros tense. They, have and had also access by faith in the favor of God in which we stand permanently.

I want you to notice that he's gone from non-believers who stumble to this exalted position that all of these people have. And so what he's doing is he's putting together the tenets of how they should walk by faith. You guys hot out there? They had a like-worship. In Christ Jesus they became near by the blood of Christ. Whatever the distance between the Jew and the Gentile and between God and both, all men who believe have through Christ the access by one spirit unto the Father.

So Maybe I ought to come up here, it's kind of cooler up here. You know, if you just pointed that fan and got it, if it would point one way, it'd probably be more effective. I want you to think about how near we really are to the Lord Jesus, and how near we are to the relationship to God as a high priest, an honor put upon us, even when passing through this world. You'll find that it requires a corresponding responsibility on all who are there. So if that's where we are, there's a responsibility tied to that. We'll talk about that in a minute.

If you look at Revelation 1.6, John says, and he has made us to be a kingdom of priests.

To his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. where you really study this subject is in the book of Hebrews it's really really strong there and when in Hebrews 3 when if you remember when we studied Hebrews that Hebrews 3 6 that Christ is the son over the God's house whose house we are in 1019 having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holy place the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus a new and living way which is dedicated for us through the veil that is his flesh having a great high priest over the house of God let us approach with a true heart and full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from wicked conscience and having our body washed with pure water.

You know what's great about that verse in the corresponding verses. There's not a verse anywhere in Hebrews that says, after 15 minutes you have to come out. Once you go in, you stay in. You're always there. So would you say that this privilege that we just talked about is attributed to every single saint, which would put us in a position much higher than the priesthood of Aaron? Absolutely, it does. So it applies to us at all times, and the boldness of Aaron never knew about this.

Now he talks about, okay, so we're now a holy nation. when the nation who ought to have been so stood with the stamp on it of evil to the utmost and not of idolatry alone but of scorning the Holy One of God the Messiah. That's what the nation of Israel did and they were God's chosen people. Had they not cried in their blind and mad hatred His blood be on us and on our children. That was probably a mistake on their part. The remnant of believers, which we are, who owned him and were washed from their sins in his blood were now a holy nation, accepted in his name.

Again, I ask you, do you view yourself as a holy nation? You know, somebody just set apart for God's own use. My note says God's purpose for Israel and the church are similar. King, priest, Israel, the church should also bear the same characteristics of holiness.

One more thing and then we'll get into answering that question. Finally we were the people of God for a possession. We are dearer because our faith broke through the manifold hindrances by which unbelief, pride, and judicial darkness encompassed the Jewish nation in the world. Few as we are, and there aren't a lot of us, compared with the mass rushing on to destruction, they were a people for the possession of God. So God owns us. What was the price? His blood. His son. That was the price, which was already paid.

So these four things are interesting to me. A chosen one, a priest, people for his own possession. a holy nation. When you just sit down and think about what he's saying, what Peter is saying to the dispersion, but really to us today. When's the last time you heard a sermon on these four issues?

You don't. You know it's interesting. I don't recall anywhere else in scripture that says that we are a nation. We're not a defined nation, as all the nations of the world are, but we're a different kind of nation, a holy nation. It's interesting to see it that way, but it's so true. Think about when we say that God is holy, what do we mean? He's righteous. He's just. He's all by himself. Holy. He's unique.

And we are set apart all by ourselves. And that holy God created Adam and Eve for the purpose of having fellowship with Him. So Adam sinned and the whole creation fell. And then here comes the nation of Israel It's almost like God said, well, I'm going to go to plan B. Well, that didn't work either. So now I'm going to have to send my son. And we're going to start a new creation of human beings who have the very resurrected life of the Lord Jesus.

So what does that make us? It makes us holy. I mean, you can't be in the presence of a holy God if you're not holy yourself. Well, with the Holy Spirit in us, we're holy. And as we've been studying in the last part of Romans over the last month or so, what the new creation is, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God and all the blessings that we have, and the fact that the very day that God has chosen for each one of us to go to glory, to go to this place where God is, We belong there. We would not be comfortable any place else other than in the presence of God. And conversely, unbelievers would not be comfortable there because it's not holy.

I was just thinking about that. Yeah. I mean, if you think about what, when you talk about the Lord Jesus, I was talking to a couple of people yesterday that weren't believers and I could tell it was like, they were polite to me. But if I kept it up, they weren't going to be polite anymore. So it's really interesting because you don't think about very often how much opposition there is. And it isn't just because I don't like Republicans. or I'm a racist.

No, it's totally one creation looking upon the other and the person in the middle of that, the stone, is the Lord Jesus and he's an offense. You know why? Because he represents you're not relevant and you're not going to be with me for eternity. Wow. And you know what I think is so unique is we are a people for His own possession. Yeah, isn't that cool? Do you think He's going to let you go?

We're His slaves. And you know, a master in Rome and in the United States had the right, if you ran away, to go and drag you back. And that's exactly what Jesus Christ is going to do. If you run away from Him, He is going to come after you. You are His possession. You cannot lose your salvation. You can reject your salvation. But you cannot lose it. God is going to hunt you back down. It may take until the day you die. He is going to bring you back. On the other side of that coin, as you grow in this understanding as a believer, You realize that for most Christians, what's the doorway into this? Faith. Believe it. How do you physically get there? You have to die. What happens when you physically die? You go straight to heaven.

I'm right here, where I've been positioned all along, where I'm spiritually learning about even though I'm not there, but this is home. So I told the guy, I said, keep hanging around that door, you'll get to go through it pretty soon. We hang around that door by learning about him and studying him. I really like this Romans 8 that we've been studying is all about hanging around with the Lord Jesus, just waiting, serving him until he's ready And when you finish, you get to go through the door. And being a people that's owned by God, you realize after a time, well, he can do with me what he wants. I belong to him. The world can't touch us. The world can do whatever they want to this body. It can't touch our soul. Yeah.

Just a thought here, the word ethnos there for the nation, a unique nation that we are. That's what new tribes chose to take for their new name. They call themselves ethnos, using the Greek term there. We're a mission to the ethnos now. Just a thought, it goes into this message that we are a holy nation now. okay that mission now is to bring the nations into the holy nation okay was that garbled i'm to me it was go ahead wow what'd he say uh the the he was talking about the greek word ethnos oh yeah yeah yeah Yeah.

He explained it much better. Okay. Awesome. To bring the nations into, to be part of the holy nation. Yeah. That's what he did for us. Okay, so now we're, now we're down to the last part of this. The purpose is that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called us out of darkness to his marvelous light. So here, here's our, here's his purpose for us.

Now watch this. This is the Christian position here below. Now, while rejected, Christ sits on the Father's throne and the Spirit is sent forth to glorify Him for a spiritual sort in a world of darkness and rebellion against God. Those who confess Christ are to tell out His excellences.

That's our job. Isn't that something? It's not to recruit It's not to add numbers to the church rolls. It's to do this. Now what's interesting about doing this, in my mind, is being a person, a priest, a holy nation, a people of his possession, he wants us to talk about the glories of him. And if you don't know him, how can you talk about him? You can memorize scripture. It's not the same thing. How can you introduce somebody to the God of the universe if you really don't know him yourself? You can't. It's pretty simple. So this isn't something that, maybe put it this way.

As one of these souls who is his possession and all the other things, priests and the fish, one of the benefits that you have, we have, is that we've been taken into his marvelous light now and through his word we get to become acquainted with him. That's who we tell people about, him. And you use the scripture to do it because it describes him better than your own mind can come up with it.

Does that make sense? So in the contrast to this, which is Matthew 28, 19, where the Lord Jesus said to the disciples, go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe. All that I command is you. Lo, I am with you even to the end of the age. Is that the purpose for a believer? Compare it to this. Is it the same thing? It's not the same thing. It is not the same thing.

The universal purpose of all believers, God has only one will and one purpose for every Christian. The context of the verse, apart from all other consideration, forbids this. These verses are directed to the 11 apostles who were to have a special ministry, but 1 Peter 2.9 is the Great Commission. The Great Commission is specifically addressed to the entire body of believers that sets forth in his word. It's the same for all, for every believer, to proclaim the excellencies of Christ. the Jews didn't have that order so we don't replace them in that sense we have a new we have a new a new mandate and then at the last verse that I have today is that you were not a people not a people but now you are the people of God you have not and had not received mercy but now you have received mercy so he's writing to believing Jews of the dispersion and he's telling them you know the Jews thought this way that well if you weren't Jewish you weren't one of the people. Well he said now there's a whole new plan of God and the people like you are now the people of God and you have received mercy and so it doesn't matter he's talking to Christians only So, I better sum up here.

We were once not a people, a reference to pre-salvation. We had no relationship to God. We now have a new calling into his marvelous light. Our new relationship is stated as the people of God. What Israel lost in rejecting the Christ was theirs only in a more eminent degree and even a far higher sphere in God's sovereign grace. So it's a wonderful thing to be the people of God. So I think all believers can lay aside all malice, all guile, all their accomplishments or effects, and to desire earnestly, as he said, as Miles taught a couple weeks ago, the pure milk of the word, that thereby they might grow to the salvation of the glory ready to be revealed.

So this last part is just an exhortation to believers that here's what your job is. You're to manifest the glory of the one where you're placed. It's like if you, let's say you go to a music concert and the person that's giving the concert is really the top person. When you come out of that, you can't stop talking about them. I mean, their skill and everything about them. Well, imagine what it's going to be like as we the Spirit of God begins to show us who the Lord Jesus really is in His glory. You're going to come out of that and you won't be able to stop talking about Him.

Any more questions? Father, we thank You for Your Word. I guess today we thank You for the position and all the blessings that You have showered on us. A lot of times we pray for and thank You for the possessions, not really knowing or convinced or resting in the glorious position you placed each one of us in. So our desire is to continue to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. And we pray in his name. Amen.