1 Peter #4

Introduction:

Connection:

Understanding how precious something is will increase our delight in it as we enjoy it as ours—we value, esteem, enjoy, and cherish things that we understand to be precious and good. As we understand more about what this precious thing is, and how it relates to us, our joy should increase, our delight should flourish, and our love should overflow.

Theme

Tasting that the Lord is Good in Christ

Need

Who are the people of God? This is a question that seems to be bouncing around in many of your minds. What is the relationship between Israel and the Church? The answer to this question is in our text this morning and if properly understood it leads us to praise and adoration—tasting the goodness of God in our Messiah.

Purpose

To exhort the church to put off sin and grow into our delightful salvation; to comfort the church in the Messiah and Cornerstone of Israel; to urge everyone to believe in this Messiah for salvation; and to leave us in awe as to our identity as the true Israel of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Read Text:

1 Peter 2:1-10 ESV

PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY

(1) Those who’ve Tasted God’s Goodness must Grow in God’s Salvation by God’s Word and Spirit - v. 1-3.

1 Peter 2:1–3 ESV

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Last week we saw the wondrous hope that we have by the ransom and resurrection of Jesus Christ! We look forward to the grace that will be fully brought to us when he returns in power and glory.

But Peter reminds us: this hasn’t happened yet, Jesus hasn’t returned—so what shall we do while we wait patiently for him? We shall grow in holiness and love, growing into our salvation, tasting and delighting in the goodness of God. Peter is grounding us in our calling as elect exiles, so that he can propel us on mission. We need to know who we are and what we are called to—and we need to gather this from Scripture alone—from the living and abiding Word of God.

Here Peter builds on his previous exhortation to pursue brotherly love sincerely from a pure heart—and now he shows us the negative side of this command, what we must not do. Notice that he says that we are called to put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

What a list. Here Peter must be mentioning sins that these churches were wrestling with in their communities. Peter says—look to what God has done for you in Jesus Christ by his sovereign grace, then live in true love amongst yourselves in response. In order to truly love one another in God’s church—we must put away our social sins which destroy the unity, love, joy, and peace of God’s people. And the word in Greek for putting away is the idea of throwing off a garment, or a coat—just like we would take our coat off, so too must we take off such sins by the grace of God. If we fail to do this we are effectively tearing apart what God has joined together in his local church @Calvary.

We must put away malice. Malice is a social wickedness, evil, and trouble-causing spirit, with sinful goals in mind. Malice is purposeful evil to harm the people of God. Malice brings division to God’s unified church. We must put away all malice.

We must put away deceit. Deceit is deception, fraud, lies, false witness, and a failure to stand for the truth in love, and to uphold one another’s reputations behind closed doors. Deceit is an evil spirit of lying that causes tension in the unity of God’s church. We must put away all deceit.

We must put away hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is phony and pretended and double-faced living. It is living righteously at church but like a pagan at home. It is proclaiming that Christ is Lord and his Church is one but then living as if that makes no difference throughout the week. Hypocrisy makes for shallow church members and a false sense of unity in the church. We must put away all hypocrisy.

We must put away envy. Envy is a sinful jealousy and spirit of coveting which leads one to have resentment toward the success or possessions of someone else. It is wanting what someone else has while rejecting godly contentment with what God has given us. Envy destroys contentment and unity in the church. We must put away envy.

We must put away all slander. Slander is evil speech toward another. It is using words to tear down someone’s reputation. It is gossiping and speaking behind our back. It is giving an evil report that is not good, true, or beautiful. Slander disrupts and tears down the unity of the church. We must put away all slander.

Oh would God help us to be a church who loves sincerely, who is growing in purity, who is striving to be more like Jesus Christ, who seeks to cover offenses and forgive seventy seven times, who seek to march onward in the mission of our King! This is what the Holy Spirit desires for us through this text—the putting off of sin, and the putting on of love! Putting off the old man, and putting on Christ, putting of our flesh, and putting on the Spirit.

But how? how do we do this? Peter says: like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation!

How does one find strength and nourishment and healing and power to grow into our salvation, growing in Christ to be more Christlike? It is through the same Word of God that caused us to be born again as God’s children, which is the same Word of God that causes us to be nourished as God’s children.

One scholar says: “The Scriptures are not only the seed of the new birth, but are also food for the newborn soul.”

The analogy that Peter is using is that of an infant and their need of breastmilk. A child will not grow if they do not receive the pure milk which contains all the nutrients needed in these years of infancy. Likewise, Peter is saying that as God’s children we must long to drink deeply from the wellsprings of the pure spiritual milk of the Word of God. The Word of God is living and active, living and abiding: as we open this book and read and pray and meditate we are coming face to face with God, filled with the presence and power of God, strengthened and nourished with the spiritual vitamins and nutrients needed to grow and be healthy and mature. Here are some questions for us all:

Q - How much of a longing do we have to be in the Word of God each and every day? And how much time do we actually spend in the Word of God each day? And if we know that this is the only source of spiritual nourishment, why do we neglect it almost every day? When will be learn that our lack of nourishment and maturity is directly related to our lack of saturation in the Word of God? And when will we learn to prize the Lord’s Day in the presence of God under the preaching of his Word above all else?

Oh that God would help us to cherish his Word, to read his Word, to meditate on his Word, to love his Word, to long for his Word, to chew on his Word, to digest his Word, to enjoy his Word, to delight in his Word, to memorize his Word, to understand his Word, to hear and do his Word, to feed on his Word—for man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God. That is why the Word has power—because it is the mouthpiece of God—because the Spirit of God inspired it, speaks through it, and works through it. The Word has power because it is the living Word of the living Spirit of the living Christ of the living God. We need to hear the Word preached, live the Word out, read the Word ourselves, study the Word, pray the Word, sing the Word, share the Word, and cherish the Word. God help us to like up to our name as Calvary Bible Church! That we would be Bible men and women all of our days!

Peter says that we should put away our sin and long for the milk of the Word to grow into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good!

If you have come to Christ, then you have tasted that God is good. If you have been born again then you have been filled with the Spirit of God. If you have been made a child of God then you have a love for your Father. Salvation is not merely intellectual—salvation grips the heart and soul and puts a spiritual affection for the Triune God within us. If you have not experientially tasted that God is good then you have not trusted in the goodness of God in the Gospel. But if you have tasted, enjoyed, delighted, savored, loved, and cherished God’s goodness in saving you by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, then your heart has been stirred with love divine and all excelling, you know what it is the fellowship with God, to praise God, to enjoy God, to love God—you know what it is to experientially taste the goodness of the presence, power, and promises of God—not just in the mind, but through the mind into the heart—you don’t just sit here in a church service dull as a nail—you come to commune with your God and to enjoy Him by the Word and Spirit.

Peter says that if you are born again, if you enjoy God, if you have indeed tasted that God is good and gracious—then you know that this is your chief delight, and you know that you want more of the sweetness of God in your soul. Oh like the Bride in the Song we do not rest content with past enjoyment of our Groom, but we long for more enjoyment of Him in the present! We long for his kisses, presence, fellowship, love, delight, and joy.

The Christian who knows the sweetness and loveliness and beauty and glory of their Christ, their God, their Saviour—they long for a greater enjoyment of their Bridegroom, and together we must pray and strive and long for a greater enjoyment of the taste and sweetness of the goodness and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us not rest content with where we are—let us wrestle with God in prayer until he comes to us by the Word and Spirit and ravishes our hearts with love. This is why we put off sin, this is why we grow into our salvation, so that we may enjoy a greater communion with Christ through the means of grace, and that we may enjoy a greater communion with his Church in the means of grace.

And as Peter continues he wants to increase our spiritual joy by showing us the nature of the people of God in our Messiah.

(1) Those who’ve Tasted God’s Goodness must Grow in God’s Salvation by God’s Word and Spirit - v. 1-3.

This takes us to our second point for this morning:

(2) Jesus Christ is the Living Stone and through Him we are the True Temple and Priesthood - v.4-5.

1 Peter 2:4–5 ESV

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.

Peter has just quoted from Psalm 34 about tasting that the Lord is good and now he tells us that the Lord is Jesus Christ—as we come to him, the Lord of Psalm 34, we are coming to Jesus Christ! This is an explicit place where we see the Deity of Jesus Christ—Jesus is the living stone, who is the Lord of Psalm 34 that became flesh and dwelt among us, and who is now in heaven interceding for us.

Peter says that it is Jesus Christ that we taste and enjoy by faith in His Gospel, by coming to Him, by believing in Him, by trusting in Him, by repenting of sin, by turning from sin, by hating our sin—as we come to Jesus we find salvation from the curse of sin, we find salvation from the power of sin which leads us to enjoy Christ Jesus, and we shall find salvation from the presence of sin when Jesus returns. This is the Lord whom we enjoy—God in the flesh, our Messiah, the living stone: Jesus Christ.

Though he was rejected by men on earth—he is in the sight of God chosen and precious! He is elect and treasured! He is the royal diadem of the Father, the beloved Son in whom he is well pleased. Though the entire world scoffs at Jesus Christ—He still remains the infinite treasure and jewel and prize of all creation. Though sinners turn him away—in the sight of his God and Father he is eternally chosen, delighted in, cherished, enjoyed, and glorified. This is why we can enjoy Jesus—because He is the infinite God and eternal Son of God who is worthy of our love, enjoyment, and worship—because He is infinitely precious, we can enjoy him as our precious Christ.

Peter says that in him, Jesus, the living stone (because He is resurrected and alive and ascended into heaven)—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.

Jesus is a living stone because he was resurrected from the dead as the foundation of the new temple, the church, and we too are living stones because we have been spiritual resurrected, born again, and united to Him—so that we too share in his resurrection power, life, and position. We are living stones because we are one with the true living stone, Jesus Christ.

He is ours, and we are His. We are in Christ, and He is in us. And what does Peter say: he says that if you are truly born again you are born into the people of God, into the temple of God, into the household of God, into the priesthood of God—to serve God through our Messiah and Mediator for all of our days.

Jesus himself told us that He was the true and better temple: John 2:19-22

John 2:19–22 ESV

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

And because we are united to Jesus the True Temple then Paul says to the church that we share in this identity:

2 Corinthians 6:16 ESV

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Peter picks up on the same theme—Jesus is the true and everlasting temple, the fulfillment of the physical temple in the physical Zion. He is the real, better, and greater temple in whom the fullness of God dwells bodily. And because we are in Him, we too are filled with the fullness of God. Peter says that as we come to Jesus in faith, we are joined to His Body, the church, to His Temple as living stones, as we are being built up as the church of the living God, the household of God, the true Temple and dwelling place of God. To neglect membership in a local church is to forget that salvation is not just from God wrath, but is also into God’s covenant community.

And why? What’s the purpose of God building us into the true temple? So that we can offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

This is the purpose of our salvation beloved, that we would worship, praise, glorify, and enjoy our God and Father, through God the Son, by God the Spirit—that the Holy Spirit would sanctify our praise and make it a pleasing aroma to our God who reigns in heaven—that we would worship him, not with the fear that it will be rejected, by in spirit and in truth, through our Mediator Jesus Christ, we can know that God is pleased with our love and worship because we are his children by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

God accepts the feeble and stained worship of our hands and hearts because he has forgiven us in Jesus—and therefore he looks past its blemishes and receives it with exceeding joy. As the true temple of God the Lord accepts the true sacrifices of our hearts.

(2) Jesus Christ is the Living Stone and through Him we are the True Temple and Priesthood - v.4-5.

This takes us to our third point:

(3) Jesus Christ is the Precious Cornerstone and through Faith in Him we are Honored and Saved - v. 6-8.

1 Peter 2:6–8 ESV

For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

Peter continues to nail home the point that Jesus is the Cornerstone of the New and True Temple of the Heavenly Zion. He quotes here from Isaiah 28 and proves that Jesus is the living stone, the cornerstone who is chosen and precious—and that to become apart of the true temple of God’s household is not to remain concerned about the physical temple—but to believe in Jesus Christ! Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame, says Peter!

Whoever trusts in Jesus will not be cast away. Whoever trusts in Jesus will never come under the wrath of God. Whoever comes to Jesus for salvation will never be torn asunder. Whoever casts themselves upon Jesus will be honoured, esteemed, lavished, blessed, and given the riches of salvation and eternal life and fellowship with God.

Peter says that the honour is for those who believe. The honour of joining God’s people, the honour of the eternal inheritance, the honour of salvation, the honour of God’s saving love, election, delight, and joy, the honour of the resurrection—this is for those who believe, not for those who reject the Messiah and persist in old covenant worship.

The irony is that Peter says that it was the builders of the physical temple who didn’t realize that they were building the foundation of the true temple in Jesus Christ and his church—and because they were so stuck up on the physical temple they rejected what it was pointing forward to: Christ and his Church.

Whoever believes in him will join the true temple and receive the fullness of God’s covenant promises. Paul says this of the Jews and Gentiles in Eph. 2:18-22:

Ephesians 2:18–22 ESV

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

True temple worship is the worship of Jesus Christ in the church! To make divisions between Jews and Gentiles, between the physical temple and the spiritual temple is to bring back hostility, division and separation between Jews and Gentiles—the very thing Jesus came to abolish by forming one new man in place of the two, by bringing both Jews and Gentiles into the church, the true temple and household of God who share equally in the commonwealth of Israel, as the Bride of Christ. There is no plan of God for the Jews that is separate from the plan of God for the church—because the church is God’s plan for both Jews and Gentiles, both now and forevermore!

Does God have a plan for the ethnic Jews? YES! To save them and bring them into the church of Jesus Christ, through faith in Jesus which brings salvation and eternal life. But to posit that God’s plan for the Jews still involves a physical land with a physical temple with physical sacrifices and physical distinctions is to revert back to the weakness of the old covenant and to in effect deny that the fullness of the new covenant has come.

Hear from the Holy Spirit himself speaking in the Book of Hebrews who says in various places:

Hebrews 8:6–7 ESV

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

Hebrews 8:13 ESV

In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Hebrews 10:1 ESV

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

Hebrews 10:19–22 ESV

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

The honour, Peter says, is only for those who believe in their Messiah and join the new and true temple of God’s people in the church of Jesus Christ. Those who disbelieve in Jesus or return to the old covenant, Peter says, are stumbling over the Rock of Christ, are in effect rejecting the true purpose of Jesus as the Cornerstone, and are forgetting that as Peter says, Jesus is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to those people who thought that the Kingdom of Christ was a physical-geopolitical-national entity to be joined by physical descent or privilege—Peter says that such people stumble because they disobey the Word, as they were destined to.

Don’t stumble over the Rock through disbelief because you would rather have the shadows of the old covenant instead of the substance of the new covenant!

Beloved, stick with Jesus who formed the new covenant, the new temple, and the new people composed of all who truly believe. We are all one in Jesus and one in the Church—the New Jerusalem is the Bride of the Lamb, the church of Jesus Christ—the true Israel of God (Rev. 21:9-14). Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise!

But some of you are thinking: are you sure pastor? Is that really what Peter is saying? Yes I am sure because Peter doesn’t leave us with this text alone but continues and gives us the final conclusion which brings home this point like nothing else:

(3) Jesus Christ is the Precious Cornerstone and through Faith in Him we are Honored and Saved - v. 6-8.

This takes us to our fourth point:

(4) Those who’ve been joined to Jesus Christ in the Church are the True Israel of God - v. 9-10.

1 Peter 2:9–10 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

This text silences all of our opposition and objections to Peter’s point. Peter says: hey you believing Gentiles! You are the true recipients of God’s covenant promises and grace, and you are joined to the true Israel of God, believing Israel, and are made true Jews who are born again, circumcised in the heart, believers in Jesus Christ, united to Jesus Christ, and sharing in the faith of Abraham. Peter is writing to a predominantly Gentile Church and says: you are the true Israel of God. That should baffle us! What? How? Only by grace alone as we are united to Jesus who is the true and faithful Jewish Messiah. If He is the true Israel, and we are in Him, then we share in His identity. That’s what the church is, right? The bride of Christ who is one with Christ.

All believing Jews and all believing Gentiles, in the church, are the true Israel of God, the true Jews—they are the true people of God—they are the true temple and household of God. There are no divisions—whosoever believes in Jesus joins this spiritual temple and people. Peter doesn’t say whosever from the Jews who believes—but whosoever believes, Jews and Gentiles, any and all who come to Jesus are joined to the people of God.

Peter here quotes from Deut. 10; Isa. 43; Ex. 19; Isa. 61; Deut. 7; Mal. 3:17; Isa. 42:16; Ps. 36:9; and Hos. 1-2—which are all texts that were originally spoken to the physical nation of Israel—and here Peter applies them to the spiritual nation of Israel, the true Israel, the believing Israel, the church of Jesus Christ, composed of physical Jews and Gentiles who believe and are both equal in God’s eyes through faith in Christ.

Peter shows us that the fulfillment of these verses is found in the new and true Israel: the church. The church does not replace Israel—the church is the fulfillment and extension of true Israel, the true and faithful children of Abraham who trust in the Messiah and receive all the promises of God as Yes and Amen in Jesus Christ our Bridegroom. One scholar says:

Thus, both Jewish and Gentile Christians are seen to be fulfilling a prophecy about Israel, since they are identified with Jesus who is true Israel. Christ has not only died on behalf of believers to restore them to God, but in His resurrection, when He was “made alive by the Spirit” (3:18, 22), He caused them to be made “living” people (2:5) and to be restored as true Israelites to God (3:18).

Peter says to the church—you are the true chosen race of Israel, children of promise, children of Abraham. You are the true royal priesthood, servants of God. You are the true holy nation, set apart by God with faith in the Messiah. You are God’s people who are his possession, his peculiar treasure. You are his people who are called to proclaim his excellencies and marvelous light of the Gospel. You are you true people of God who receive eternal mercy through faith in Jesus Christ.

You are the faithful and true Israel of God—the church of Jesus Christ is not plan B, it is not a parenthesis, it is not a side goal or separate people of God—the church of Jesus Christ is the eternal plan of God, the true assembly of God’s people, the recipients of the new covenant whom Jesus died to save, wash, redeem, and restore—the church of Jesus Christ, the assembly of the true Israel, are all those who belong to the Cornerstone, who are built upon the Cornerstone, who have joined the true temple of God’s people—Jews and Gentiles equal and alike—who are all united to Jesus the faithful Jewish Messiah.

Hear from the Apostle Paul making the same points:

Galatians 3:26–29 ESV

for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Romans 9:6–8 ESV

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

Galatians 4:28 ESV

Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

Galatians 6:15–16 ESV

For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

Paul says that to make circumcision or uncircumcision, Jewish distinctive or Gentile distinctives, to make any of these things count for anything anymore is to fail to recognize that in the new covenant the only thing that matters is not ethnicity, but being made a new creation by being born again unto a living Hope in Jesus Christ—these people, Paul says, are the Israel of God who receive peace and mercy from the triune God. Let me give the final word to a scholar and theologian much more intelligent than myself:

“The new community within humanity brought into existence by the cross of Christ in its uniting of Jews and Gentiles into one new people of God—is the community that may be designated as the Israel of God. Combined into one body, they represent all those who refuse to distinguish between Jew and Gentile. All believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, are united into one church. This new body of people constitutes the Israel of God. It is these people who are given the treasured apostolic benediction of peace and mercy … There is no second-rate citizenship in the kingdom of God. Whatever the promises of God’s redemptive grace may include, they are shared equally by Jewish and Gentile believers … The mystery of Christ is that God has incorporated Gentile believers fully into the true Israel of God.

(4) Those who’ve been joined to Jesus Christ in the Church are the True Israel of God - v. 9-10.

Thus we come to our conclusion:

(C) God’s True Israel Pursue, Enjoy, and Believe in the Precious Cornerstone, Jesus Christ.

As we come to grasp this rich truth of the new covenant church of Israel—the one body of Jews and Gentiles who share equally in the covenant promises and covenant Saviour—then we will be able to taste and see that God is good with a greater delight and satisfaction! A true sight and grasp of this truth will raise the affections to a joy unspeakable and full of glory.

So what does this mean? It means you don’t need to be freaking out about the middle east and red heifers. It means that you ought not to support rebuilding the third temple. It means that if you are truly someone who stands for Israel—then you will stand for the church of Jesus Christ, the true temple, household, and people of God. If you truly stand for Israel then you will evangelize the Jews and seek their salvation and pray that they would believe in Jesus, with a desire for them to join the church of Jesus Christ, and to be engrafted back into the true temple, the true household, the true Israel of God, the one olive tree of God’s people (Rom. 9-11). Oh trust in Jesus, run to Jesus, and love Him for all of your days!

Peter says that if we understand the new covenant and the Gospel and the new temple and new Israel—then we will have a joy unspeakable and full of glory, as we taste and see that God is good in Christ Jesus the Cornerstone. Now let us grasp this joyfully in our hearts so we are zealous in our mission as we proclaim the Gospel in all of life, for all who believe.

(C) God’s True Israel Pursue, Enjoy, and Believe in the Precious Cornerstone, Jesus Christ.

Amen, let’s pray.