The Spiritual House (Part C)

If you said you believe in Christ, you're going to want the Word. Now, you can sink so low under some pressure in life that you struggle. You become depressed and your grief hits you hard. God gives us some space there.

But it is because leading up to that moment in life you've been built up that you have reserves to make it through. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1st Peter.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. 1st Peter chapter 1 is where Pastor Rick will be teaching today in his continuing study called The Spiritual House. Doing without hearing is not the idea that God has in mind for His people. Mary's concept was on hearing before doing. She did because of what she heard. That shaped her actions and Martha had it the other way around.

And so the day came when the Lord brought this out and He was very gentle with Martha, very gentle. But He stings her. And you know, it was mentioned to me yesterday, one of the brothers, someone mentioned that I, in speaking stepped on toes, I have never aimed at anyone's toes.

I have gone for the heart and the head every single time. And so if I stepped on his toes or anyone, I'm sorry, I missed my target. It's like Mickey Mantle. Mickey Mantle was told, don't try to hit a home run every time you're at bat.

And Mickey Mantle said, every time I got up to bat, I tried to knock that thing out of the park. That's preaching. Whether you are sharing the gospel with someone, you are going in for the kill of the enemy, not, oh, let's just see if we can make them comfortable. Well, Jesus does this. He gives us an example. He does it, but He doesn't do it with brutality.

That won't stop people from charging you with brutality for speaking the truth, but make sure we are innocent as best as possible. Luke 10. Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she approached Him and said, Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help me. And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha. See, that's He's just getting her ready. But He's gently doing it. And He says, You are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.

Right between the eyes. And she got it. She learned her lesson.

We never hear her complaining again. But you see, she was distracted by much serving. If you can't sit under the word, you want to be a busybody in the church, it's not good.

And that's why we try to keep a ratio here, so that you don't hide behind serving. You sit with a heart and the head can be ministered to through the washing and regeneration of the word. You say, well, I've been sitting under the word and I'm not any better off than I was. Well, a statement like that proves that you might be right.

Or maybe you're just a little thick in the head and you don't notice that you have grown, you have done well, that you are doing better. Learn to thank the Lord for His patience and His gentleness and His determination to never give up on us. 1 Timothy 4, Paul writes to Timothy, Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. It's the word of God.

I mean, you don't exhort without the word of God. And the doctrine and the reading is the scripture. Throughout the Bible, God insists on His word, that it be exalted and that it be pursued.

Peter emphasizes it seven times in his two letters, and we're going to take all seven of them. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 23, Having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. 1 Timothy 1, 25, But the word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. You know, we don't sing people into salvation. Well, maybe little kids, it's a big part in a little child's life. You know, you sing to a little child that the love songs of the Lord, they're very important, very helpful.

But as adults, we have to use the word. 1 Peter chapter 2, of course, our text, I won't take that one off for time's sake as newborn babes. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 8, They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. 1 Peter 3, 1, Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives. 2 Peter 1, verse 19, And so we have the prophetic word, that's prophecy, confirmed, that's fulfillment of prophecy, which you do well to heed. I love that part.

You did be good for you to listen to this. As a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. You see, we are supposed to be this temple, this shining light. We are supposed to be part of this process, not walking around, as A. W. Toja said, acting as though we've been baptized in lemon juice, some in vinegar.

You know, it's hard. I mean, things will steal our joy, but they don't have to steal our faith, too. 2 Peter 3, 5, For they willfully forget that by the word of God the heavens were formed of old, and the earth standing out of water, in the water.

This is powerful. It's the word of God that formed physical creation, because it is the mind of God, it is the will of God. And so we move to this very important point, so vital is scripture, that Satan is committed to distracting the ministry of the word, distracting us from the ministry of the word, especially in the local churches. If the local churches are cut off from scripture, pretty soon everyone's going to be cut off from scripture.

And we know we've got little petri dishes of this all around the world, all throughout history. We know what happens when the local church abandons the word of God. Acts 20, verse 27, Paul writes to them while he was speaking to them, this is the Ephesian elders, he's talking to them, and Luke, make sure he gets this down, he says, Paul, to the Ephesians, For I have not shunned to declare to you the entire counsel of God. I have not held it back. I don't care what I faced, that's what he said, I have not shunned.

There were times when I could have backed down and I did not. I gave you the scripture, popular or not. Verse 3 now, of Peter, chapter 2, so he goes on after telling them, I forgot what he said, I look back up, oh yeah, desiring the milk we're back into the word. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Oh, to taste is to experience, to live through.

I mean, you taste something, you've experienced it. Of course he's quoting Psalm 34. Our Lord, we're told in Hebrews, he, by grace, tasted death for us, for everyone, he says in Hebrews chapter 2, 9. But again, here's the point, Peter is just dictating the letter and he says that we are to abandon these things, we're to crave the word of God as the little baby does the milk from its mother.

If you're Christians, that's what verse 2, 3 is. None of the commentators want to say that. They go on to these long things about, well if, and I think it's just, I don't know, that makes me sound like I'm the smart one and they're not. It's true. On this one, I think I'm happy with my view. I should put it that way. And if you don't know me and you're visiting here, I am really arrogant.

No, I'm not. That's what allowed me to have fun with it. But anyway, if indeed you've tasted, it can't mean, it doesn't mean anything else, but that to me is very simple. If you said you believe in Christ, you're going to want the word. Now you can sink so low under some pressure in life that you struggle. You don't want, you become depressed and your grief hits you hard and you just got to take a, you know, and God gives us some space there.

But it is because leading up to that moment in life, you've been built up that you have reserves to make it through. Now verse 4, he says, coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. Best thing I ever did was come to Jesus Christ. The best thing any human being can ever do is come to Jesus Christ. It's not about the best thing I ever did was save my child. No, the best thing you can ever do is get your salvation.

There's nothing higher. John chapter 6, Jesus adds this concerning he doesn't leave us or forsake us. He says, all that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out. So while you're casting out these vices, Christ is not going to cast you out. He says that coming to him as to a living stone, well Jesus Christ is a living stone here.

There's more to it, we're just getting to the first part of it. He's not dead. He's a risen, reigning Savior on the throne in heaven and he will come and take this earth back to himself and reign here also, but just not yet. But he reigns in the hearts of believers, rejected by men, but chosen by God, Peter says in verse 4.

Why? Well, what is in Jesus Christ to reject? What is it to not like about him?

I mean, he doesn't even say go do your homework and clean up your room. What is it to not like about him? Because he exposed their hypocrisy. How dare anybody, have you ever exposed somebody's hypocrisy?

Did they love you after that? Because he was not the kind of Messiah they wanted. They had their minds made up what the Messiah should be, just like those who are lost in their sins have made up their minds what God should be like, or what Jesus should be like. Never mind what the Bible says about him, I know more about God than God knows about God. And I think, God, how could a loving God, here they go, blah, blah, blah, blah, shut up. Because you're wrong. We should find you for talking wrong things about God.

You've got to be 85 cents. Say another word. Ah, God. Okay, you can have fun in church as long as I'm the one controlling it. Well, the word says this of Christ in Isaiah 53, there is no beauty in him that we should desire him. See, that's the prophetic word. Isaiah long, over 700 years before Christ came, Isaiah said when he comes, his beauty is going to be missed. They're not going to look at him and say, wow, he's one of us.

Of course, not everybody, but in the big picture. And the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Christ is the Son of God, God the Son. His splendor is divine. There's never been anybody like him, there never could be. That's why in the wilderness, under those three examinations that are recorded by Satan, it wasn't that oh, what if Jesus had failed? He couldn't fail. That's the point.

That's what he's showing you. It's impossible for me to fail. Death couldn't even hang around him.

Sickness could not be in his presence and remain. 1 Timothy 6, this is our king. Paul writes, the king of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. You cannot fully see Jesus Christ. What we have of him is not watered down, but it is failed somewhat. We cannot see all there is to see of him. There's just too much. And what we can see is so much beauty in that.

And the world misses it. But we as living stones, as he is the living stone, are to be part of that process, verse 5, of bringing them to him. You also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. It would be nice if God asked me what words would I like to remove from the Bible. Sacrifice would be one of them. I don't want to sacrifice.

I like being comfortable. But these things are out of our hands many times. Here the Greek word again for stone is used of a stone that is cut for a building in the Greek, that is. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. But you know what also he said to his followers? You are the light of the world. He said you are the salt of the earth.

You're the light of the world. And here Peter is saying he is the living stone and he's made us living stones also. The church, not made of adamant rock, but stone cut for a purpose, living stones. Again, Ephesians chapter 2. Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built up on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.

We'll get into that next session. In whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. You're being fabricated for placement.

It is an honorable thing. It is the work of the Lord, the church of Jesus Christ. It's not built of wood and stone and other materials that are available. This is of course the mystical church, the body of believers, the universal church and the local church of believers. We are his building materials, as defective as we are.

Because of him, we are able to be used in his hands because he is the master craftsman. His spiritual temple on earth is built out of saved sinners. The angels aren't preaching the gospel in this church age.

Defective people such as us, we're the ones doing it. The motley crew that defeats hell and its purposes. The holy priesthood, and somebody said, I'm not motley.

This is your opinion. As a body of sinners saved by grace, we're not the cream of the crop. Whatever beauty we have comes directly from his touch. The psalmist said, my goodness is nothing apart from you. All my springs are in you Jerusalem. All my springs are in Jesus Christ. If there's any life flowing out of me, it is because of him. And a simple way to prove that is just remember when you were lost in your sins, what was coming out of you then?

Expletives, profanity, selfishness, envy, malice, hypocrisy, strife, and the list goes on. We are, as he says, a holy priesthood. You know what a priest speaks of?

Get out of your mind the Roman Catholic priest or the Anglican or any other human. The priest has given to us in scripture, this holy priesthood. The priest represents this great thing, access to God. That's what the priesthood represented to the Jew. I can get to God.

I've got to go through a priest to do it, but I can get to him. Now that's the Old Testament. In the New Testament, he is our priest and we have direct access to him through him. And we, to the unbeliever, we are a holy priesthood.

They have access to God through us because they can't get there on their own in their lost state. And as we share the gospel, the temple, the veil that separates them is torn and they're no longer strangers. Now they come behind the veil. They're part of the priesthood once they are saved.

These are, this is a pictorial on what is going on. This imagery is rich. It is robust to see ourselves as, you know, I am part of a royal priesthood. I serve a king. And in the service of this king, I am supposed to live in such a way that someone who does not have access to God can gain access to God through my life, through the preaching of God's word.

It is a beautiful picture. The Old Testament priesthood has been replaced. It will be restored in a sense in the millennial reign, but this is the church age we live in now.

And all of his blood-bought people, all of us, are ordained to function on behalf of God as priests down here on earth in that sense. We don't have to get robes. We don't have to light candles.

We don't have to burn incense. We have to preach the gospel and have a testimony to back it up. To offer up spiritual sacrifices. It's that testimony.

Our ministry is an extension of his ministry. I'm going to read a few verses to get to the point that I think these verses add to this section of scripture. 2 Corinthians 12. And I will very gladly, I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. Now, when I first became a pastor in the Bible, in those days we actually used Bibles.

Nowadays everything's digital. And there's benefit to that. But, you get your new Bible and you put your favorite verses, well at least I did, I'm sure you had to do your thing too, but put my favorite, this was one of them as a young pastor, well, I don't know if I've ever been a young pastor, but as a new pastor. I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. It was such a romantic moment. Writing that into, I will be spent. Until I started getting spent. Until I found out that people didn't love me as much as I love them. Until I found out how much it hurts to serve the Lord emotionally. The pain, physical pain, you know, you deal with that, but emotional pain. And Paul said, I will very gladly spend and be spent. And when he wrote this, he was already hurting.

It wasn't, he wasn't like me going into this kind of, I got an idea of what this is about, really not getting it. This is a spiritual sacrifice that God requires of us. But too many Christians are too thin-skinned to stick around to pull it off. And at this instant of pain and suffering and a broken heart, they're gone. To know no advantage for the Lord in that. If we could just remember some time to suffer, if we could just suffer, I think we'll be stronger.

And I'm not telling you that because I read it in the book. Because it's, I've come to a point in ministry where, okay, this is how it is now. It's not going to change until I get to heaven. So it is in my own best interest to find out what is going on and to face it. And so suffering, I have to learn how to embrace this thing instead of running from it.

Because there's no escape. Unless I take the road of cowardice. And that is a suffering that I would like to opt out of. Romans 12, 1, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

You see what I'm saying? Acceptable, acceptable to God, to God. Now look again at 1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 5.

He says, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. We need acceptance from people. We can't live without that.

I don't, it's a dangerous thing to our teens, our youth, you get influenced by the wrong crowd. It can be life-changing in a very horrific way. But in a positive, on a positive side, we need acceptance.

It's a good thing. But more importantly, we need God to accept us. Our sinful nature is entirely unacceptable to Him. He's made a way, Ephesians 1, 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. That Beloved is Jesus Christ. When Paul says He made us accepted in Jesus Christ, the Beloved of God, powerful verse, John, John's Gospel, chapter 1, but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. We haven't sung that song in a while.

Hint, hint. As many as received Him, He gave to them the right to be children of God. Well, we close with, through Jesus.

Just that simple. Through Jesus. You want to be accepted to God? It's through Jesus.

There's no other way. Well, what about the pygmies? What do you care about the pygmies?

You don't even take them sandwiches, acting like you're so interested. What about you? God will always do right. So we close with this verse, John's Gospel, chapter 1.

He said to him, most assuredly I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. I am the road. Spiritual information is trafficked through me.

And aren't we glad? 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.