What Christian’s Are (Part A)

It speaks of all that goes into the structure, all the building, all the effort, all the planning.

It points to the completion of the work from its foundation to the pinnacle. That is Jesus Christ. Metaphorically, the cornerstone is Christ. He sets the lines in place. He joins the walls together. Everything that goes up, everything that belongs to the structure of our faith, He is the foundational stone of it all.

to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in 1 Peter chapter 2 as he begins a new message called What Christians Are. We are in 1 Peter chapter 2. If you have your Bibles, please turn. 1 Peter chapter 2, we will take verses 6 through 10. Therefore, it is also contained in the scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame.

Therefore, you who believe, he is precious. But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble being disobedient to the word to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people but are now the people of God who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. Early in the church's history, when the motions were running high, they created all sorts of outreach, well, a particular outreach program to feed the hungry, and it wasn't going so well.

It created more problems, it seems, than it did solutions, and they wanted the apostles to do something about it. Well, Peter stepped forward, representing the apostles, and he said, We're not going to give ourselves to certain ministries, to the waiting of tables, is what he said, but we will give ourselves to prayer in the ministry of the word. Therefore, choose from among you seven men, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, who we may appoint over this business, and that they did. But the point that stands out concerning this portion of scripture this morning is that Peter said we will give ourselves to the ministry of the word. And here is this apostle, this martyr-to-be, who will die for Jesus Christ, and he knows it. Here he is, a student of the Old Testament, and not only is he a student of the Old Testament, he is applying its lessons in the power of New Testament Holy Spirit preaching. Since the day of Pentecost, this has been a different man. It is not the same Peter we met walking through Galilee and Capernaum with Jesus and all those other places.

This is another man, and he is so because he walked with Jesus, not only in the days before the crucifixion, but the days after the resurrection. And so he goes and he quotes Isaiah frequently in his letters, because he is a man of God's word, which is God's will. How do you know what God wants unless you find out what he says? Of course, we live in a world where people think they can imagine what God is like and what he says.

They can imagine what is beyond the grave, and they don't have a clue. They just make it up, and they fuss at those of us who say, Thus saith the Lord. God loves you, but God will not accept you if you do not accept him. And so that is what is happening in this little section. This moment has led to this in this apostle's life. I want to talk to you this morning about what Christians are, because that's what Peter's going to tell us, looking again at verse 6. Therefore, it is also contained in the scripture.

Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes in him will by no means be put to shame. This is the second of four therefores in this chapter. And all that Peter has said, he joins with what he is going to say, like links on a chain.

It's not fragmented. It is all going somewhere. And what he has already said is we're born again. We are born a second time. We are kept by the power of God through faith, a genuine faith that is going to be tested. We are redeemed with the blood through the word of God. Those are some of the things just in what we call the first chapter that he's already covered. And so when he says, therefore, he's built on what I just said to you, I am saying more to you, because there's more to be said. He also says in verse 6, it is also contained in the scripture.

There's a biblical basis for what he has to say. Now I know, we Christians have been around a while, you've learned the scriptures, you've had such hope and ambition to serve Christ, but you've met with so much opposition from so many places, even from within your own heart. And yet here you are still. Hell hates it. Hell hates that you've met with opposition and resistance and defeat, and yet you're still plowing, you're still showing up for formation, you're still in it. So don't be discouraged, be encouraged. Yes, it has not come out the way maybe you have envisioned it.

That does not mean you're not being victorious. Where he says it is also contained in the scripture, Peter is saying the Bible says, and I have a reason for what I'm about to tell you, Peter is saying to his audience, until sin becomes archaic, don't tell me the Bible is archaic. Until critics of the Bible stop sinning, well when they stop sinning, maybe, maybe then we'll have some interest in what they have to say about the Bible, but they won't.

Man can't stop sinning because he's born a sinner, needs to be born again, needs to be put in right position with God in spite of his sin. And so he says, what is in the Bible? Behold, I lay in Zion, chief cornerstone, elect, precious.

Again, frequently quoting Isaiah, that great and prolific writer of the Old Testament. Now this chief cornerstone, that's in the days when buildings were made of stone, they were masonry buildings. Originally, that was the stone that set the direction for the rest of the building. It joined two walls and it began the work.

Everything was laid off that first stone. All the lines radiated from that cornerstone. Today it's largely symbolic, but not insignificant, important, especially in the application of the scripture. Webster's dictionary says the cornerstone is the stone which lies at the corner of two walls and unites them. That would apply to Christ.

Paul was talking about that to the Ephesian church, where he said that there's no longer a wall of division, but Christ has brought in Gentiles and Jews alike. So the cornerstone, it speaks of all that goes into the structure, all the building, all the effort, all the planning. It points to the completion of the work from its foundation to the pinnacle. That is Jesus Christ. Metaphorically, the cornerstone is Christ. He sets the lines in place.

He joins the walls together. Everything that goes up, everything that belongs to the structure of our faith, he is the foundational stone of it all. He continues here in verse 6, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. A little different from the Hebrew where Isaiah says will not act hastily. Well, there's a whole story behind Isaiah's application. The bottom line is they bring us to the same place. That haste that Isaiah speaks of where those who are running in the wrong direction for the wrong kind of help in the days of the Assyrians coming against Jerusalem.

It would go up to Egypt to look for help, and God said, You need to come to me. You've been careless in your rush, in your hurrying off to get what you want. You have been reckless with me. The result of that is shame. Profound failure. That is the idea. We are dealing with superlatives here. We're dealing with words of a prophet that were given to him from God who sits on the throne forever. It has a meaning.

It has an application. It is for God to know and for us to find out. We can't find out the meanings to Scripture if we're busy licking our wounds. We have to get up. Move forward.

Insist to ourselves that we will continue to move forward. That is the story of the Bible. It's the story of Naomi and Ruth. All was lost away from home, so they went back home. God rebuilt their lives. They did not stay in the land of idols.

They went back to the land of promise. And so, when Isaiah wrote these words, the northern kingdom was about to sweep away everything in the southern kingdom as they had already done to the north. Catastrophic is the result of rushed judgment in rejecting God.

And it happens way too often. Reject Christ? Christ rejects you. It doesn't mean much unless he is the Son of God, and he happens to be.

Now it means everything. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine, Jesus said, and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended and the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house and fell.

It fell and great was its fall. How can anyone miss the deity that Jesus is God the Son when he says, everyone who hears these sayings of mine? Well, the objection should be, who are you if he's not God the Son? The objection should have been, who are you? You're not God, but he is God.

And no one objected. You hear these sayings of mine. Luke chapter 13, 27, but he will say, I tell you, I do not know you, where you are from, depart from me. You work as of iniquity. Not depart from the idea as Jesus spoke it, not depart from God, but me, because he is God. My point is, these two verses speak of God rejecting those who rejected him.

He is the chief cornerstone, and if you reject him, the shame is on you. Well, we Christians know this, but so often we are so preoccupied with just trying to find joy in our lives that we can't work. We can't serve. Again, we're too busy licking our wounds. You can't shoot a rifle. You can't swing a sword if you're licking your wounds all the time. Hopefully, this is an encouragement, not a rebuke.

I'm not rebuking anyone. I'm in the same boat that you're in. I have the same challenges, maybe a different brand, but the same intensity that you have. I face the same doubts, the same boogeymen, the same monsters that you face.

We're in this together. And if we can look and see men like Peter facing these things, aware of his soon-to-be martyrdom, and yet still, still hold to every word that has proceeded from the mouth of God, then we can too. That's the idea. Don't let, but I don't feel like it, sweep away from you the things you know to be true and right. Verse 7, therefore, to you who believe, as me, and hopefully that's all of you, to you who believe, he is precious, but to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Peter, shut your mouth.

This is negative. This is all, this isn't very friendly to tell people coming into the church. That's what Satan would say. The Holy Spirit says, what do you think I wrote this for? Why do you think I put this on this man's heart?

Because it needs to be said, and when it's not said, the catastrophes, they just were avoidable and aren't worth it. Therefore, this is the second, therefore, believers adore Christ, he said, to you who believe, he is precious, believers adore Christ. If ever I loved you, my Jesus, tis now. What a manly song that is. Next time we sing that, you men, bookmark it. That's a time for you to barrel, barrel into that song.

If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, tis now. Why? Because he's precious. You see, the ladies say, well, why don't you tell us something later? Because you don't need any encouragement. You sing. The men are the ones that, what time is it?

Okay, no joking, I'm coming up here, I'm not fooling around here. He is precious. He is the reason why we work to love the unlovable. Why would I love anybody I don't like? One reason.

Jesus Christ. Because he did that to me. Why would he love me? What's likable about, well, let's just use you for an example. We can learn much about a person by what they hold to be precious, to be dear to them. What is dear to you? What is the most dearest thing to you?

Create a list in your head, and what's at the top, and how far up is it? If you're honest, you might say, I know it should be the Lord, but I have other passions. I don't like that I have these other passions, but they are there. That's an honest answer.

That's where the fight is. There's nothing wrong about being honest. There's something very wrong with pretending that the truth is not the truth. And so we learn much about ourselves by what we hold to be precious, Jesus said, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Well, you go through a long stretch of time in your Christian walk where Jesus is just this radiant, beautiful Savior, but then tough days come, and they last a long time sometimes. And you may find yourself struggling to find that same zeal in the faith that you once had.

You are now mature. You're expected to work through this and be victorious because of the Scripture, because of your faith. And so the thing we hold precious, what will it do to us? It is more of an act of our will than it is our emotions. You see, the lesser precious things, it's emotional.

The loved ones, the children, you know, we can feel that. But when we're struggling and it seems that Jesus is not helping like we had hoped He would, the emotions begin to betray us if we're not careful. And so He says, but to those who are disobedient, in contrast to those who have willfully come to Christ, willfully have Him as Lord and Savior, in contrast with those who are disobedient, people will face consequences for disliking Christ.

They will face consequences for not accepting whom He says He is. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Again, stone, metaphor for the Christ, Messiah, God's Son. By the time Peter wrote this letter, the Jewish nation had finalized as a nation their rejection of Jesus Christ. Yeah, there were Jews that were Christians and there were still Jews coming to Christ, but as a people in their synagogues, at their temple, they had rejected Christ completely.

And these were different days now. Christ and the church, God and the Holy Spirit, was now center stage as far as the light of the world. And whether it be in Jerusalem or Israel or the diaspora, the Jews dispersed throughout Gentile lands, He was rejected. We read about it in Acts chapter 18 for example. Luke is writing about Paul's experience in Corinth.

Acts chapter 18 verse 5, when Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is Messiah. But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, Your blood be upon your own heads, I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles. They had rejected as a people the chief cornerstone. They had forfeited their calling as builders of righteousness. This is not against the Jewish people, it is a fact. It is a fact not only of biblical history, but world history. Their refusing the chief cornerstone has brought upon them much unnecessary sorrow, perhaps more than any people that have ever been. Because not only are they battling the world, but the Satan behind the world that is determined to destroy them to prove God's promises are not sustainable. Satan will fail of course in that endeavor, but because he is insane with his own ambitions, he doesn't believe it. Verse 8, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, they stumble being disobedient to the word to which they also were appointed.

So he continues to develop it. A stone of stumbling, a rock of offense. What would have been the most crucial component of the structure, that chief cornerstone, that symbolic stone of their faith, it became the cause of injury and not salvation. 2 Corinthians 2 16, to the one we are an aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. To the unbeliever the message and the Christian himself is a message of death and judgment if they remain unbelievers. But to those who have become believers, the message of the cross is life, it is light, it is a sweet smelling aroma. This is what it always comes down to.

One or the other. And in your most difficult times as believers, that is what we cling to. That we believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the son of God, that he died and rose again, that he is coming again, that he has given me his Holy Spirit to preach the truth concerning God and salvation and the state of man. This is what makes us believers, amongst other things.

Not an exhaustive list, nor is it intended to be. They stumble being disobedient to the word. That's what it says, look at verse 8. A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

That means things got ugly. They stumble being disobedient to the word. How many of you wish, the sermon's here, now don't answer this. We're at 10 minutes. So, alright, go ahead answer it, tell me more. But you see, there are many places, like tennis elbow, but it's wrist elbow, from looking at their watch every two minutes.

When's the 10 minute going to end? Because the word's not preached, nor is it desired. This is a tragedy.

This is not something, we're going to be critical of them, we're better than them, that's not it at all. It is what has happened here. Our own Bible is loaded with these sorts of exhortations concerning God's word, but they're just dismissed. They stumble being disobedient to the word. Hell is packed with those who treat God's word as though it is not God's word.

That's how they got there. And by the way, hell is never booked up. There's always room for more. It is an abyss.

It's endless. And that's what concerns us. When we say we love Jesus, that he is precious to us, then what is precious to him must be precious to us too. And if it is just our lives and the circle of our loved ones, we are missing it. We've been hijacked. It must go beyond the church doors, the home, it has to get out into the world.

You say, how does it do that? You hand out my CDs. You and I, when we are with the world, we're not on our best behavior. We're on our Christian behavior.

We do as best we can. But if we're dishonest and abrasive and unlikable and grumpy, especially all the time, we can't win. We can't win friendships. And you can't win friendships with the lost out in the world.

You don't get opportunities. Opportunities to preach the truth are greatly diminished. We're so glad you tuned in today to study the book of 1 Peter on Cross Reference Radio. Cross Reference Radio is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. And we're blessed to bring you God's word with each broadcast. If you'd like more information about this program or want to listen to additional teachings from Pastor Rick, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never have to miss a program. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. We hope you'll tune in again next time to join us as we continue our study through the Scriptures, right here on Cross Reference Radio.