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Okay, we're on. I can tell. But anyway, she said, and then when she heard my name, she said, yes, she said, I've been in your Bible classes, and uh, uh, we had a nice time of fellowship together, and that made all the difference. Who is it? A m- a lady by name of Mrs. Smith. Her husband did, she came here a number of times. They attend Northside Presbyterian Church, and uh, uh, he was involved in prison ministry. He'd uh, he had a van that he went to a number of the prisons in the area, and he was involved in that. And um, they had been in our home a couple times as well.
So that was a blessing. And then, of course, Mrs. Vanderford, I think, is a bit better. Um, she had a another bladder infection in the last, uh, week, and uh, uh, whenever, every little while she gets a bladder infection, and it's something that needs to be watched continuously. And then there's a reaction to the antibiotics that they give her. And of course, Jamie Smith is just about the same. Now, I'm not sure whether Mr. and Mrs. Kester, or whether Mrs. Kester got back home. I don't know.
She broke her ankle at three places she was in, and it happened at the, at the, uh, hospital in Chapel Hill, and that's where she's in the hospital. And, uh, I was down Thursday morning, but I haven't been able to be down since, so I'm not sure she was still there at home. I know they were taking her for therapy while we were there. Uh, and then, uh, of course, Brother Ara, he was out at the Lord's Supper this morning, and uh, it's always good to see him. And uh, we can pray for one another. Mrs. Montgomery, I understand, has the stitches taken out of her, uh, leg where she had the knee replacement, and I believe that she was getting along pretty well, so we can just praise the Lord for that.
I don't know if I've missed anybody. Who? Oh, Mrs. Sutton, yes. Mrs. Sutton had sudden eye surgery this week, uh, for a detached retina, and uh, uh, I could tell when I was there that, uh, she wasn't quite, uh, the bubbly person that she usually is, and uh, I believe it has set her back a bit, but uh, remember to pray for her, and of course, uh, remember to pray for the other person with a detached retina. Uh, I hope it's attached by now. I hope they're both attached well.
I hope that he did a good welding job. But anyway, we need to continue to pray that the Lord will restore sight. Sight is a wonderful thing. I think about it when I read. Imagine what it's like to be blind. We had a man in our Bible study in Lebanon who was blind. He was the most outstanding blind man I ever knew. He could go anywhere without a, any help. You'd tell him to go to the courthouse, to the register of deeds, he'd get, he'd get up and go. You'd see him go down the street.
You'd see him wait. He depended on his hearing, and uh, he said, all you have to do is not be afraid, and he'd just go. Uh, we had him read one night to us. We had him read the fifteenth chapter of Exodus in the Bible class, braille. You know, he didn't make one mistake. He was excellent in uh, the Bible study. He knew his Bible real well, and so we just, uh, can say that, well, some people can get along being blind. I thank God for sight, and vision is a wonderful thing.
It's a wonderful thing. When you go through the Gospels, I believe our Lord healed more blind men. We have a record of that than of anyone else. So thank God for those who can see. Well, we're in First Peter chapter two. Pray one for another, beloved. First Peter chapter two, and it's amazing, the connection between chapter one and chapter two. See, chapter two takes into consideration that you pass through the end of chapter one. And the end of chapter one, it speaks of being born again. When we come to chapter two, we're newborn babies, and what we desire as newborn babes, uh, desire, as you have in verse two, the sincere milk of the word.
Verse three, if so be, ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. If we've been born of God, beloved, we have tasted that the Lord is gracious. And that's a quote from the thirty fourth Psalm, where the Psalmist says, Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed are they that trust in him. Now we come to verse four. To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also as lively or living stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him should not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the conner, and the stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
May the Lord bless the reading of his word. When we get to page number seven, we'll read some more. Let's pray together. O God our Father, as we bow in thy presence, we bow before because we are that people who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. We have obtained mercy from thee, our God, that has opened our blinded eyes to behold the glory and the grace of our blessed Lord. And not only so, but you have brought us into fellowship with thyself. We possess thy life. We are living stones in thy holy temple.
We thank you that one day the temple will be complete, and we shall be forever with the Lord. We will hear thy dear sons say, behold I and the children which thou hast given me, they are all here, not one of them is missing. We praise you for it. And now, Father, we mentioned many names from Miss Smith to Mrs. Cooper to Brother Ara to Janet Kester and all the others who were listed. You listen to all our conversations. Lord, the needs vary, but thou art able to meet them, and we commend them to you.
We miss them when they're not here, and therefore we ask to restore them to good health and to fellowship with thy people soon, that we all may rejoice in thy sovereign mercy. In Jesus' name we give you thanks. Amen. You'll notice the introduction on the top of page six, which I mentioned last week, God's people are highly honored, and the high honor of God is manifested in these verses that we read together. Now, we went over, number one, the relationship of Christ to his people.
Uh, in other words, he's the God of all grace. He is the living stone that is chosen of God and precious. But then we have the relation of Christ to the ungodly. He's a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. As we read in First Corinthians chapter one, the Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, but unto them that are, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them that are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. So we find to the ungodly, they who do not believe, he is a stumbling block.
He is a stumbling block today. He's even a stumbling block to many who sit in church. For they have not believed, they know not God. Now, uh, notice number three, the relationship of the believer to Christ. As living stones in the building of God, where we read in verse five, ye also as lively stones or living stones are built up a spiritual house. How can we be called living stones? Well, number one, we possess his life. We have been born again, as we read in verse twenty three of chapter one.
And in chapter two, verse two, we are newborn babes. We desire the sincere milk of the word. Why? Because we are alive as living stones in the spiritual house. We are the temple of God. We are the building of God. But notice, uh, we are a holy priesthood, and under that a, large a, this is our birthright. Now, I want to deal with that just, uh, for a little bit this morning. Now, last week I skipped over it, but and I went on to what do we offer to God as holy priests, and we dealt with the offerings that we give to God as holy priests.
But we want to deal with our birthright this morning. Remember Esau and Jacob, they were twins. Esau despised his birthright. What was connected with a birthright? The r- the privilege of being the family priest. It was a family priesthood in those days. Israel was not yet a nation. Israel as a nation was at the beginning. They were once a family, the family of Abraham, the family of Isaac, the family of Jacob, before they became a tribal people with their twelve tribes, their tabernacle, and their priesthood, you see, but there was a family priest, and because he was a firstborn, he had the privilege of ascendancy in the family as a family priest.
But you remember when we studied Hebrews in chapter twelve, we're warned, it's one of the warnings of scripture, not to despise our birthright, as Esau despised the birthright. You remember Jacob longed for it. He wanted it, and he got it for a mess of pottage. Ja- Esau said, well, what good would it will do me? I tell you, anything that will not do you good in time or in eternity will do you no good in time. Maybe I said that wrong.
That which won't do you any good in time will not bless you in eternity either. Now, now I said it right. Let me say it again so I get it in my mind. That which will not do you any good in time will not do you any good in eternity. That which will do you good in time will be a blessing in eternity. See, heaven begins in the heart before it's consummated in a home. Hell begins in the heart before it's consummated in an eternal home, and we got to remember that.
Esau despised the birthright. He thought, what good is it? You see? And we find many, when it really comes to the things of God that count, they despise the things that are most important. In other words, under the Old Testament economy, to be a priest depended upon the family that you were in. It depended upon that. Aaron was designated by God as Israel's high priest, and he manifested that in one of the emblems that he put in the Ark of the Covenant. Remember the gainsaying of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Numbers chapter sixteen.
They said, well, we're all holy. You see, all thy people are holy. Who gave, gave you the privilege of, uh, being the priest? You took this honor on yourself. That's what they said. And God opened the, uh, I tell you, it's one of the strangest things in the word of God to me. How the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them, their tents and everything. They went down to the pit alive, and then it closed up again. But God said, I'm going to put to silence this foolishness. And he had to bring twelve sticks, all dead sticks, and he said, tomorrow, put them up before me, and they were put up before the Lord.
Tomorrow, when I go, oh, uh, tomorrow, you examine them, and the stick that has life upon the, for the house of Levi, you write on Aaron and his sons. That shall be the priest. And you remember Aaron's rod that budded. It budded, it blossomed, it brought forth almonds, because this was designated of God. And to be a priest under the Old Testament economy depended upon the family you were in. Now to be a priest under the, under in the New Testament, you see, we began with verse twenty three, being born again, being born from above, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.
Chapter two, verse two, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, we're in a family, and who is the great high priest? None other than our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's because we're in his family, he's our great high priest, he is a living stone, you and I are lively stones or living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. This is our birthright. And beloved, if we mi- let us not despise it. If we miss our birthright.
You don't need to be a preacher to be a priest. All God's children are holy priests. We're not in the priestcraft, we are in the priesthood, and there is a difference. Priesthood is our birthright. Now, not only are we a holy priest, but notice number three in parenthesis, and we're going to verse nine, we are a royal priest. A royal priest.
Verse nine, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. We are something that Aaron and his sons never were. We are a royal priesthood. Now I want you to watch this. You remember King Uzziah in the Old Testament? Under the Old Testament economy, God separated the priesthood from the kingship. There was only one king that was both a, there was only one priest that was both a king and a priest, and you meet him in Genesis chapter fourteen, Melchizedek.
And our Lord is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He was both a king and a priest. Uzziah, he was one of Judah's great kings. You read about him in, uh, chapter six of Isaiah of his death in the year that King Uzziah died, but his death was terrible. He was a leper. He died a leper, even after he reigned in Judah for fifty two years, and Judah prospered under his reign. He became proud, and he wanted to go in and offer as a priest. He was a king, but he wanted to be a priest also.
And they tried to stop him. And it's amazing, you know, do you ever read the prophecy of Amos? Amos states his prophecy as two years before the earthquake. Two years before the earthquake. What earthquake? Josephus, in his history of Israel, he tells us that when Uzziah intruded into the priest's office, he became a leper, but God demonstrated these reactions with a terrible earthquake. In other words, uh, when you read in Zechariah concerning a future time, at the return of the Lord, there's going to be an earthquake, and the people are going to flee as they fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah the prophet.
It was when Uzziah intruded into the priest's office. Beloved, these are holy things. These are things that mean a lot to God and to his people. Now, our Lord is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He's a kingly priest. He's king. He's priest, as in the short of Westminster Catechism, we read what three offices does our Lord Jesus Christ have or possess. He possesses the office of prophet, of priest, and of king, is the answer in the shorter catechism.
And things which we should have in our minds, because we are a royal priesthood. Now notice, what do we do? Notice C under three in parenthesis. As royal priests, we show forth the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. As royal priests, in other words, royalty shows off. We expect that of royalty, to show off what it means to be king. And since God has made us a kingdom of priests, as we read in Revelation chapter one, unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us a kingdom of priests unto God and his Father.
To him be glory forever. Amen. Now notice, uh, uh, we show forth the praises of him who called us. But notice number four, It is written of us, we are a chosen generation. I remember as a boy getting a tooth filled one day by Dr. Groh in Lebanon, Dr. Samuel B. Groh. Uh, and uh, I was sitting in his chair, and uh, I think he knew my parents real well. And uh, I think my dad had talked to him about the Lord, and he said, uh, Israel is called the chosen people, but I don't know who did the choosing.
You know, I don't know what he was getting at. I was just a boy, but it's stuck in my mind, I tell you that. When I read, ye are a chosen generation, I'll tell you something, I know who didn't do the choosing. It wasn't us. It was him. Ephesians chapter one verse four, as you read under A, we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Uh, furthermore, this is the seed. We are the seed who shall serve him. Psalm 22 in verse 30 and Psalm 24 in verse 6.
In Psalm twenty two we read, a seed shall serve him, it shall be accounted unto the Lord for a generation. You see, uh, it's the answer to Isaiah fifty three and verse eight, as you have under C in your paper. The answer, you know, in Isaiah fifty three verse eight, he was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation, for he is cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. You say, who shall declare his generation? When anyone looked at our Lord, what did they see? They saw a young man of thirty three years of age. At the time when most men have a family and are involved in the rearing of a family that's going to bear their name, he's cut off out of the land of the living.
Who's going to declare his generation? I tell you, the answer is given in Psalm twenty two when we come to Calvary. Oh, a seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted unto the Lord for a generation. And as holy priests, as royal priests, we are a chosen generation. We serve. And how do we serve him? Well, we offer spiritual sacrifices, for we're not only a royal priesthood, we're a holy priesthood. We present our body as a living sacrifice.
We present our praises. We present our fellowship. We present our service to him. Royal priests. Thank God, a seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. But more than that, we're a holy nation. Verse nine. Verse nine. Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. A peculiar people. Uh, uh, notice, we are a people of his own possession, is what that really means.
We belong to him. Just as, uh, if you have an automobile, and uh, that automobile has a certain feel to you, you know, when you get in it. You could drive another model of the same make. If you were to drive it, you would know it's not yours. Your car is peculiar to you. And I tell you, we are peculiar to Christ. He knows us as his sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
But I want you to notice something here. It's, uh, we are now the people of God. In verse ten. we move on from verse nine to verse ten, which in time past were not a people. We're going to stop there and turn back to Exodus chapter nineteen. You got to, uh, study this in relation to Exodus nineteen. In Exodus nineteen, God is giving to Israel the privilege of living under law. He's proposing law to them.
Uh, in Exodus nineteen verse four, we read God speaking to them. He says, ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, how I bare you on eagle's wings and brought you unto myself. Now watch. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation. Notice God is proposing law to them.
God promised Israel to be this on the principle of keeping the law, but Israel couldn't keep the law. But now God doesn't have an if with us. There's no if in First Peter chapter two. Ye are, ye are, ye are a chosen generation. Ye are a royal priesthood. Ye are a peculiar people. Ye are all these things. What makes the difference?
What makes the difference? You mean our Lord is better to us than he was to Israel? No. Our Lord, on our behalf, he bore, he completed the law. He fully obeyed it. If ye will obey my voice indeed. Our Lord could say, I do always those things that please the Father. And on our behalf, he fulfilled it all. And now we can say we are. I tell you what, you and I have obtained mercy.
As we read in that uh tenth verse of First Peter chapter two, We have obtained mercy, the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. What Israel couldn't do, what the law could not do, as we read in Romans eight verse four, what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. Israel said to God, and you have this especially in chapter twenty four of Exodus, all that thou sayest we will do and be obedient. Oh boy. Can you imagine that? They said that, trusting in their own ability to do it, and what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh.
We read in Romans eight verse four, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. Notice he didn't send him in sinful flesh. It was just the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. You see. Now, just because God has already made us this, doesn't leave us off the hook of obedience. Oh no. We should want to obey God because we now have the want to within us.
We desire to bay, to obey him. We desire to love him. Uh, you see, Israel, the builders, the stone which the builders disallowed, as you have on under B in your paper. They rejected the chief cornerstone. They rejected the keystone of the arch. They stumbled over that stumbling block, the stone which the builders rejected. He was rejected by Israel of old, but the scripture says, as we read in ver- Roman or John chapter one and verse ten, he came unto his own, or verse eleven, he came unto his own, and his own received him not.
He was not received, he was rejected. But we read verse twelve, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right or the authority, the privilege to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, who were born. The reason they believed on him is they were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. They were born from above. Therefore, they were babes. They were related to the one who took our place, the Lord Jesus. And we are a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a chosen generation, a peculiar people.
We are all these things. I don't know if that gets you excited, but it does me. So we have read under see, but now from every tongue and tribe and kindred and nation, there are those who make up the people of God. Israel as a nation failed. They stumbled at that stumbling stone, our Lord Jesus. If they had paid attention to the law, the law showed the need for a coming redeemer. The law promised a coming redeemer. All you need to do is read Deuteronomy eighteen, where Moses said, the Lord shall raise up unto you a prophet like unto me in the midst of you, and unto him ye shall listen.
They haven't listened to him yet as a nation, but there's a day coming when they will. And we read Zechariah chapter twelve verse ten: they shall look unto him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his firstborn son. They will look to him. That day is coming. But that tenth verse of first Peter chapter three is a tremendous verse. See, that's why we're told in Ephesians chapter two verse thirteen, Remember. Remember that ye were once aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.
So I read in verse ten, which in time past were not a people. God says, remember, you were without hope and without God in the world. You were aliens and strangers to all the blessings of God. But now he says, but are now the people of God. We are the people of God, not because I say so. See, talk is cheap. But we're the people of God because God says so. And we're the people of God because we've been born into the family of God. We are a holy priesthood. We are a royal priesthood. We are a chosen generation. We are a peculiar people.
Uh, you see, we have this relationship, but it's not on the principle of law keeping, but it's on the principle of grace. If so be that ye have tasted, we read in verse three, that the Lord is gracious. Have you tasted that? So be that you've tasted that the Lord is gracious. Now notice, we have this relationship. Why? Verse ten: We have obtained mercy. We have obtained mercy. God had mercy on the nations, on the Gentiles, and we have obtained mercy.
Are you delighting in grace today? I tell you, the more I study grace, the more delighted I am in it. There's nothing like it. Nothing. Okay, we move to the next page. Page number seven. We got this far. I don't know how far we'll get. But I li- I like the introduction on the top of the page, and we're going to read Alexander McLaren this morning. Alexander McLaren said, the world takes its notions of God most of all from the people who say they belong to God's family.
You know, that takes us back to the priesthood. What do people look at? Our body. That's what they see. And what should we do with our body? Present it as a living sacrifice. Alexander McLaren said, the world takes its notions of God, most of all from the people who say they belong to God's family. They read us a great deal more than they read the Bible. How true that is. They see us.
They only hear about Jesus Christ. He was right. This is what Peter is saying in the portion before us. So let's begin our reading at verse eleven. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your manner of life, for that's what that word conversation means, having your manner of life honest among the Gentiles, that whereas, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme, or unto governors as unto them which are sent by him, for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
In order to accomplish what we've just read from First Peter, it calls for inner discipline. God expects us, who are his people, to not be afraid to discipline ourselves. That's what First Corinthians eleven says, let a man examine himself. That's what we read in Second Corinthians chapter thirteen, I think it is, where he says, examine yourselves. The, in other words, whether you're in the family of God. In other words, self-discipline.
Put yourself to the test. By the way, that's the same thing that you have in the first epistle of John. The tests that we can apply to ourselves to know that we are the people of God. In the will of the Lord, we're going to take this up next Lord's Day. Let's pray together. O God our Father, as we bow in thy holy presence, we thank you for the name of the Lord. It's a strong tower to which the righteous run and are safe. We thank you that we have obtained mercy. We not only thank you that we have obtained mercy, but because we have, we are now the people of God.
We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that we should show forth the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. We pray, our God, that our deportment will manifest that inward discipline that we apply to ourselves. Now we ask that you'll take this word and bless it to every heart, for Jesus' sake. Amen.