1 Peter Sermon Series 3 Babes and Stones

Stone Babies or Baby Stones

We Have A Living Hope and a Sure Salvation. We are going to go through pain, great hardship, trial and tribulation… but we will have the proper perspective. We will have the Mind of Christ and endure hardship like a good soldier.

We will tie up the loose ends or our minds, fixing our eyes on Jesus, His promises, and our Great Inheritance that is secure and eternal, or eternally secure.

We will be alert, prepared for action, fixing our hope completely on this grace we have received, be obedient as we struggle through, and grow in holiness as we abide in Christ’s love and His everlasting Word.

Now, verse 23, for those who have been born again… Christian...

Read 1 Peter 2:1-9

1 Peter 2:1–10 (ESV)

1. So put away - Meaning to lay aside, once and for all take off or put off this garment you use to wear. You are a child of God… wear righteousness… not malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy or slander.

That’s what what you use to wear before you belonged to God. There was wickedness before, no love for others. You were selfish and had selfish ambitions; you lived for yourself. You delighted in people’s pain. You were a fake and a phony, eager to put others down and lift yourself up. You wanted what others had and despised them because they had it and you didn’t. You gossiped about others, spreading rumors and the like...

That is the garment of this world, the garments of Satan. Take this off once and for all and put on the garments of godliness and holiness; put on the garments of praise and brotherly love. Be children of the Kingdom. Act like children of the Kingdom. Look to your Father and imitate Him. Dress to please the Father and the Son.

Don’t you want to Christian? Don’t you want new clothes, unstained, smelling of Heavenly Gain? Don’t you hate the smell of sin, the garments of works righteousness, hate, immorality?

Put off the old dress or uniform and put on the new.

2. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk… This is for all Kingdom Kids, all Children of God. Crave the Word of God. Crave good Christian teaching/doctrine. Eat up the word of grace, the Gospel of Christ, the teachings of Christ… like a child tearing up a bottle of milk… consume the truth of God’s Word.

Desire it, long for it, and consume it. You don’t have to tell a fat boy to eat… You don’t have to tell a baby to eat. They will eat. There will be a growling within the spirit that yearns for spiritual drink, and only the spiritual drink/food will do.

Some Kingdom Children will grow hungry and be convinced from time to time that other things are just as good, things of this world… and they are led into malnutrition.

Have you found yourselves here before? And then you got back into consuming the word again, prayer again, and you began to grow again? Maybe that is where you are today.

Why do we eat? Because it tastes great and we get to grow up… Listen to verse 2-3 - that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Where does this come from? Psalm 34:8. What does this mean? Try the Lord and experience the Lord. Hope in the Lord; trust in the Lord; experience the Lord… Isn’t He Good!

Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is Good?! Don’t you want to grow up in the faith? This food is good. This food is going to lead you to spiritual growth… and there is not other menu or diet plan to choose from and get the same results… So, eat up, enjoy, and grow!

Isaiah 10:27 - Speaks of a fatness that leads to freedom. There was oppression and persecution in the land of Israel and Israel was a slave to the oppressor, yoked to the oppressor. and was in misery.

But there was this picture that was projected that one day, the yoke of slavery would be broken off by the fat… like a healthy ox that has eaten well and has grown to the point that oppressor cannot hold him, Israel will be set free when God makes her healthy.

What will happen when the word grows inside of us and we grow in the word? What will happen to all the lies, deceit, oppression and persecution of the evil, as we continue to eat the truth of God’s word and commune at God’s table?

We will be set free! We will experience an abundance of life!

We come as babies, but we are to grow up into mature Christians.

How are we going to do that? Eat, work out, and rest!

Eat good spiritual food. Work out faith by practicing the Word of God, and rest in the promises of God. And grow!

3. So get this picture: Stone Babies - As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

There is only One Foundation and One Corner Stone: Jesus Christ. Everything is safe and secure on this foundation. Everything is straight and perfect on this foundation. You can’t build a church or a life on anything other that will last or endure… unless it is built on the Rock of Ages.

Now, who is being built up upon Jesus? Christians are. You are living stones being built up into a spiritual house.

The temple of God, behind those those big beautiful stones, was the sacred place where God would meet with His people. This is where you offered sacrifices and worshipped. How beautiful they were to the people of God.

But what is beautiful to God through Christ? His beautiful people, made in the image of God, who are now being built up into a spiritual house together by the Spirit of God.

Now, through Christ, the Spirit of God dwells with man, inside of men. The Church is called the Body of Christ.

The Jerusalem temple has been destroyed, but God has called and is building up a New Temple, a spiritual temple made up of Christians, born-again believers, who come to Christ fall on Him together and are being built up as One Big Church on the One True Foundation, Christ Himself.

Living stones have a Life Stone. We are united and ties together with Him. All living stones are on the Rock. All living stones make up the spiritual temple. All living stones support one another… for we are One Body, with One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, with One Heavenly Father. One.

And together… We are God’s priests - You are called by God and for God. You are cleansed by God for God. You are called to serve God. Together, we worship in spirit and in truth. Together, as we have given ourselves to the Lord, we offer up spiritual sacrifices: prayer, thanksgiving, obedience, giving to others, love, praise and the like...

Together we are being built up, in every nation and every tribe, by the Gospel of Christ and by the Spirit of God.

A people are coming to God through Christ to love Him and to glorify Him in all that they do.

A people, every day, are coming to Christ and are falling on Him being united to us through Christ, and being joined together as the One True Church of God.

But there are many who are tripping over and are rejecting The Living Savior that has been laid down for you. You can either be built on Him, trip over Him, or reject Him. But in the end, you will be crushed by Him… if you continue to reject.

Christian, lay aside the old garment, put on the new. Like newborn babies, consumed the word of God and grow into maturity. As Christians, stay on your Foundation, support one another, worship your God together, and glorify His Name as His Holy people.

Are you a child of God? Are you being built up on Jesus?

Is the Lord calling you to Him?