This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:00] I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the book of 1 Peter 2:4-10. And if you love study in the Bible, this is gonna be a good time right now. We got all kinds of cross references at commentators here, and we're praying that this is gonna be one of those moments where the words of scripture by the power of the spirit come straight off the page into your life. And so I hope you're with me. And 1 Peter 2:4-10. This is now our seventh study from the book of First Peter together. As we are scattered and we are being tested. God is speaking to his people. And I want to invite you, please, if you will stand up for our scripture reading everybody stand up where you are out of respect for God's word. And let's give this our full and undivided attention.

[00:00:58] You're going to see that this is a major theme in Peter's life, and he's something he wants to put on the hearts of those who are suffering and being scattered to lift them up, to encourage them. And I pray this will really encourage you today. This is first, Peter, chapter two, verse four.

[00:01:18] As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious.

[00:01:27] 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, for it stands in Scripture.

[00:01:42] Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

[00:01:53] 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 a fence. They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race. A royal priesthood. A holy nation.

[00:02:17] A people for his own possession that you may proclaim the Excellency's 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. Go ahead and have a seat. That's the reading of God's word. And that is the good news of the work that God does to build us up as a spiritual house. You. The Scripture says, are a living stone.

[00:02:52] Now, if you look here at verse for the first stone that gets talked about, the first living stone here is Jesus Christ. And you can see he's rejected by men, but God sees him as chosen and precious. So there's the Jesus is the difference maker. People have their opposing perspectives. People reject him. But to God, he is the holy and anointed one. And then it says in verse five that you yourselves like living stones are being built up. So first, Jesus is referred to as a living stone. But then you are referred to as living stones, everybody who is being built in to the spiritual house of God. And now look at how Peter goes off here. We've seen Peter quotes scripture already in this letter. We saw him quote, Leviticus Isaiah refer to Psalm 34 and the goodness. But look what he does here. He quotes Isaiah 28 16 about the cornerstone. And then he's got two references about the stone being rejected or it being a stone of stumbling.

[00:04:02] The first one, Psalm one hundred and 1822. And then Isaiah eight 14.

[00:04:07] So clearly, this idea of the living stones is something that Peter has a lot of thought about, something that the scripture has really renewed his mind about. And he wants to put that thought into the scattered, into the disperse. God is going to speak to us to give us this thought here today. What is this idea? This imagery here of the Stones, starting with Jesus then us. And it seems like it's throughout scripture. And so let's go to one of the passages that Peter brings up. Let's go back to the Psalm Psalm one hundred and eighteen. And let's start to see here what Peter's trying to show us as the scripture speaks about this stone. And if you want it, there's more cross references than we're going to be able to get here in our time together. This morning, so if you want to go for Bible nerd, if you want to look even how King Nebeker is dreaming about a stone that's going to come in and crush this statue and become a kingdom spreading through all the earth, I mean, there's a lot of stone imagery in scripture. Let's just start with this one reference here. Psalm one hundred and eighteen, verse 22. And this is what Peter was quoting. The stone that the builders rejected has become the corner stone. And so he says, here, look what he says next. This is so important that you see these following verses, because this is the context. Peter just quoted that one verse. Look what it says after that. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. There's a key word right there, a key word of the day. Marvelous. So there's something that our eyes have been opened to see. There's something that God is doing that is marvelous through this cornerstone, the cornerstone. It got rejected by the builders, but it actually became the foundation for everything. And if you can see what God's doing. It's gonna be marvelous to you.

[00:06:07] In fact, look at the response, verse 24. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

[00:06:15] Save us. We pray. O Lord, O Lord, we pray. Give us success.

[00:06:22] Maybe you've heard that verse before, it's often quoted. This is the day that the Lord is made. I will rejoice and be glad. And it's put into song, right? We sing it in round sometimes, right. You know what that's really talking about? It's talking about what God's doing with the stone.

[00:06:38] It's marvelous if you can see it.

[00:06:40] The day that the stone is the cornerstone and everything is being built on that foundation. That's the day that we should rejoice and be glad in the day of salvation. And so they cry out, Hosanna! Save us, God. Wow. There's something going on. The stone gets rejected, but it becomes the cornerstone. And now there is a lot of excitement. It is marvelous if your eyes have been opened to see what God is doing through the cornerstone.

[00:07:08] Now, where you're going to see very clearly why this reference in Psalm 118, verse 22. This is personal to Peter.

[00:07:18] This is not just scripture that he knows that he's quoting. It's not just like a cross reference that he's given a little booyah bible nerd moment here. This is so personal for him. There was a moment when he, under the inspiration of The Spirit, said this verse to the builders who rejected this stone.

[00:07:38] Turn with me to ax. Chapter four. Let's go back to this moment where Peter and John are on trial in Acts Chapter four, starting in verse eight. And Peter is going to make a defense here.

[00:07:50] Remember, they healed a man and now they're on trial in front of the same Jewish religious leaders who falsely accused Jesus, who brought him to pilot, who shouted crucify him. So let's think this through. Peter, who was in the outer courts denying Jesus three times to Servants', is now standing before the court that had Jesus killed.

[00:08:14] And instead of denying Jesus, now that he's filled with the Holy Spirit, he is boldly confessing the name of Jesus, not only in that court, but to all the nation of Israel.

[00:08:26] This is an amazing response that Peter has here in Acts Chapter four, verse eight, it says, Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed. Let it be known to all of you.

[00:08:47] You can imagine him looking at the big counsel there of all the elders of the people of Israel, all the scribes there, these Pharisee guys who say let it be known to all of you and let it be known to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but God raised from the dead, he's preaching the gospel now. We did it in the name of Jesus, who is the Christ? And you killed him. But God raised him up from the dead. And then he says this right here.

[00:09:22] Verse eleven. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. Mike, drop. Walk away. But actually, he comes back for more verse twelve. And there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under having given among men by which we must be saved.

[00:09:47] And the Council of the Elders.

[00:09:52] Who killed Jesus when they hear Peter say that?

[00:09:56] They have really no response. They're overwhelmed, they're astonished. Peter just brought out Psalm 118, verse 22. And it just cut right to real life. It just cut straight to their hearts and they saw that they were actually the fulfillment of the stone prophecy and they were on the wrong side of history.

[00:10:19] Wow, what a powerful word rejected by God's own people, by the Jewish leaders. And yet now the cornerstone, the foundation for this epic spiritual house that God is building on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Point number one. Let's get it down like this. Jesus is the cornerstone. Jesus is the cornerstone.

[00:10:45] The whole the whole stone imagery and all of the prophecies. It is about Jesus Christ. And he was rejected by the Jews at that time, by their by their leaders. And yet he became the foundation for all of us who have been saved for the church. That has got now gone through all nations. And he's going to represent all tribes, all tongues, all peoples are now being built on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ. Can I get any man from anybody on this right now?

[00:11:18] OK. They tried to shut Jesus down. They killed him. God raised him up.

[00:11:23] And now God is building something, a spiritual house. Our text says he's building something on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ. And Peter, it's so personal for him.

[00:11:37] I mean, he is the messenger here.

[00:11:40] You're the builders. You rejected him. But he was actually the cornerstone, just to make it clear in the architecture of the time, the cornerstone. It's that piece that's in the corner that everything else is built off of the cornerstone. It's the foundation. It's the first piece. And everything else goes on top of it. That's the idea here. Jesus has now started a building that cannot be stopped. You tried to reject him. He actually became the cornerstone.

[00:12:09] And he says it straight to their face.

[00:12:12] Now, that's not the only passage where this idea of a stone is so personal for Peter term with me to Matthew, Chapter 16, everybody. You got to go to this passage.

[00:12:23] This is this is so important that all of us look together right now at Matthew 16, because what we see happening in the news is telling us what's going on in our nation.

[00:12:35] But what Jesus is going to say here is telling us what's going on in the spiritual Rome, what's going on in the souls of men?

[00:12:44] What's really happening behind the scenes of what you can see with your eyes? What you have to have your eyes open to see? And it's marvelous. If you can see what God is doing, all it could be terrible. It could be disheartening. It could be discouraging when you see what men are doing. But if you could have your eyes open to see what God is doing, it would be marvelous to you today.

[00:13:04] And Jesus here in Matthew, 16 versus 13 to 18. He's going to tell us what he is going to do and that no one is able to stop him from doing it. He takes the 12 disciples away to see Zarya Phillip II, and he asked his disciples, who do people say that the son of man is?

[00:13:24] What are people saying about me? What do people think? And they said, well, some say you're John the Baptist. Others say Alija and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And then what Jesus always does is it doesn't matter what other people say about him.

[00:13:37] What do you say about him here? You ask the question here. Who do you say that I am? And Peter. Now, Peter's are our character that we're following here through first, Peter. And in the Gospels, we everybody loves Peter, everybody can relate to him because he says foolish things, a lot of times in all of us can relate to saying things that we wish we could immediately take back. It's sometimes, Peter says, some of the great Cringely statements of all time here in the Gospels. And then sometimes Peter just says it and you're like, Yeah, man.

[00:14:12] Yeah, right on.

[00:14:14] And this is one of those moments when he gives an answer. That is the answer.

[00:14:21] Simon, Peter replied, You are the Christ, the son of the living God. He is identifying Jesus not just as a prophet, but as the Messiah, the holy and anointed one that all the prophets were prophesying about.

[00:14:35] You are God. You are the son of the living God. And look what Jesus says to him. Verse 17. Blessed are you, Simon. Bar Jonah. That means Simon, son of Jonah says, Wow, you're blessed to give that answer for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. You didn't just pick this up yourself. You didn't just get this from somebody else. My father, who is in heaven. That's who revealed this to you. God has to open your eyes so you can see what he's doing and how marvelous it really is.

[00:15:09] And so God has opened Peter's eyes so he can see Jesus that Jesus really is the holy and anointed one who has come from God to save us all. And he says, you're blessed that God open your eyes to see that that God reveals that to you. And then here's the promise. Matthew 16, verse 18. And I tell you, you are Peter.

[00:15:31] And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell or Hades shall not prevail against it. This is the promise of Jesus Christ, the cornerstone that he is going to build his church.

[00:15:50] Now, there's a wordplay going on here. If you look at verse 18, he says, you are Peter and the Greek word there is Petrus. And then he says on this rock. Well, Petra is the Greek word there. Kaso Petroff is the masculine form, referring to Peter. And then Petra is the feminine form. And so he sat on this rock, Petch Ross, Petra announced. There's people have different interpretations. People are trying to say, Well, I think he's going to build the church on Peter. And a lot of people who say that. Think Peter is the first pope. And so this is Jesus telling Peter he's going to be the pope and we're going to build everything through the leadership of Peter.

[00:16:34] What's interesting is when we read first, Peter, later on, Peter seems so mature, so sanctified when he's writing first Peter. And he's doing anything but talking about himself. He's saying Jesus is the cornerstone and we're all stones that are all being built. Peter doesn't act like this is about him.

[00:16:53] No, the rock. The Petra is the answer that Peter gave. It's the revelation that God gave to Peter. It is the truth that you are the Christ. Jesus is the cornerstone. Everything's gonna be built on the rock of Jesus Christ, on the living stone, Chosin and Precious.

[00:17:11] Everything will be built on the fact of who Jesus is and what he did for us when he died and rose again on the foundation of the Gospel. Every soul is saved. Every one of us grows up in maturity and sanctification. Every one of us reaches out to others in the name of Jesus. Everything spiritual happens on the cornerstone of Christ. That's what this is say.

[00:17:37] And Jesus says on that rock, on the cornerstone that I am the Christ, I'm going to build my church and nothing can stop the gospel of Jesus from ringing out. Corona virus can't stop it.

[00:17:51] All the current events in America can't stop it. When Jesus says he's going to do something, you better believe that's what's going to happen now.

[00:18:00] He says the gates of hell. Will not prevail against him building his church.

[00:18:07] Now, people you could kind of think through that different ways. One way that it's often thought about is Satan and the rest of the demons, the spiritual forces of wickedness are in a war against the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, the church of Jesus Christ, the spiritual house that God is building. And so Satan and the Demons would love to destroy the church, but they're not going to be able to do it. You could take it that way. But remember that, hell, here is really the idea of Haiti's the place of death.

[00:18:38] And so is it death, like all these disciples that Jesus is investing his life into, all these disciples are going to die. Is is the church going to end when the disciples die out? Is it just going to be one generation of believers? So you could take it either way. He's saying Satan and the demons can't stop what I'm doing or death in time. And one generation dying and another one rising up. Can't stop what I'm doing.

[00:19:06] Either way, I will build my church.

[00:19:12] Now, go to first Peter, chapter two, verse five. OK.

[00:19:16] So that's got to be if you're Peter, with the fact that you answered that question and Jesus said that to you and he made it so personal, I gotta imagine that is one of the most important moments in your life. If you're Peter is when you got to answer who Jesus was and Jesus said that promise to you.

[00:19:36] And look what Peter's says here in First Peter to five. He says, you yourselves notice it, says it two times there to emphasize it. He wants these scattered believers, these dispersed Christians. He wants them to know I'm talking about you right now.

[00:19:53] You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house. Jesus promised he would build his church. And you are the church. That's what he's saying. You are the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus. Jesus said he was going to build it. And you're the stones that he's building. You've come to believe in Jesus. You know that he is the Christ.

[00:20:18] You know, he paid for all of your sin when he died on the cross. And you know that he rose again from the dead. And you have now been made a living stone. And you've been placed on the cornerstone, on the foundation of the gospel.

[00:20:31] And you are now a part of this house, the spiritual house, not a physical structure. But a spiritual building that Jesus promised to build and it now includes you. See, do you see how personal this was for Peter? I got to tell you, this was really personal for me. This is leapt off the page here and it's become really something that defines my life.

[00:20:59] Like I was there on September seven, 2014, right down the street at Marena High School when we had our first service. There was just a a few of us who were there and maybe compared to how many people are watching right now. But I know some of you watching. You were there on that day. Do you remember it? Do it if you remember it. There's one thing that you probably remember which was sweat, because it was like the hottest day in Huntington Beach history. And we're meeting outside in the bowl at Marina High School. I'm literally getting a sunburn while I'm preaching. I'm watching people like take notes and their papers, like getting soggy from all of their sweat.

[00:21:34] It was an absolute failure, our first service as a church. There's no other way to describe it. There were people they came to that they're like, I'm not coming back to be a part of this church like these guys. They need to turn on some air conditioning. That was brutal.

[00:21:49] And I remember saying very clearly from Matthew, 16, 18, that we're going to drop the rock of who Jesus is. We're going to preach the gospel.

[00:21:57] The gospel is going to ring out. We're going to pray that it echoes that it resounds. The ripple effects spread everywhere and on that cornerstone of Jesus Christ. We're going to see him build his church. And I've seen it.

[00:22:13] I've seen it in many of you who are watching this right now. I've seen you get built up on the cornerstone of Jesus.

[00:22:23] And you are being built up into this spiritual house and I can see so many different people coming from so many different backgrounds and I've seen God save so many. I mean, it's been overwhelming to get to see people that you knew in one way.

[00:22:36] And they're a radically different person today, all by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[00:22:41] I've seen brothers and sisters that were already Christians, but they came to this church. They've united with us. They've grown up. They've matured. They're God's using them to minister to other people to make more disciples.

[00:22:54] I mean, when you can see it, you can't see it. See? And this has made it even more clear these last 12 weeks. It's not about coming to the building. It's a spiritual house. It's something that's happening in our souls.

[00:23:08] It's something that you can't see with your eyes. But when you look at all of the souls that Jesus is saving, that he's building up together to be his spiritual house, just even in our one little church. Not to mention what he's doing all over the world in all different nations and languages when you can have your eyes open to see what God is doing through his son, Jesus.

[00:23:31] It is marvelous in your eyes and you are rejoice and be glad because you and I are living in the day of salvation.

[00:23:41] What an exciting six years it has been since 2014, when we just said, based on the promise, we're gonna drop the Jesus Rock and we're going to see him build a spiritual house to actually seeing what he's done so far.

[00:23:58] I just got to tell you, when I see many of you, all I can see is Jesus building his church.

[00:24:07] And the words here, spiritual. It's like of the spirit, if you look there at verse five where it says you can offer spiritual sacrifices. That's like the Holy Spirit is doing now.

[00:24:18] His work in you, the Holy Spirit of God is now in you. And so what you're doing now is acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

[00:24:28] Now, we've got to get into the mindset of the people that are receiving this letter from Peter, these scattered believers here in what we would think of as Turkey today and that area of the world, when they hear this phrase spiritual house, what they're thinking about right away is definitely either the tabernacle that we've already read about in the law or the temple that we're going to read about that David wants to build. Got a house and then his son Solomon builds this amazing temple where the glory of God resides, where his presence is made manifest.

[00:25:04] And all of God's people come to this place to worship him because they know this is the place that God dwells with, man. This is where God has a relationship with his people.

[00:25:17] So when they hear that phrase spiritual house, they would think of one of the holy places like the Tabernacle or the temple of old. So for Peter to say that not only are you living stones, not only is Jesus building us the church, but you are actually the spiritual house.

[00:25:33] You are now the temple. You are now the place where the holy God lives is now in you.

[00:25:41] I mean, this is a mind blowing concept to these people. See, we come at it a little bit different today. We're used to the idea of you have a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, and we expect that we can have an intimate relationship with our father through his son, Jesus.

[00:25:59] But at this time, if you wanted to go near to God, you got to go to a holy house. You got to go through sacrifices. You got to go through priest. You got to go a very certain way to get to that special holy place where God lives. That's not about you at all. That's something else.

[00:26:17] So for Peter to say that you are the spiritual house. That's like saying you are the temple.

[00:26:23] You are the very holy residents of God. God dwells in you. If you're scattered, if you're isolated, if you're alone, it doesn't matter. You're the spiritual house of God. That's what he's saying to these people.

[00:26:42] I mean, I got to think that there were people who were going through such a rough time. They were suffering. And when he said that, it was like light bulbs went off.

[00:26:53] It was like there was an explosion.

[00:26:56] Was like, oh, I'm I'm struggling because we're scattered and we're being persecuted and I've never experienced, like, this trial in my faith. Wait a minute.

[00:27:06] I'm the temple.

[00:27:08] Wait a minute. I'm not missing it now that I mean, think about this when the church got started. You know, people say, oh, I wish it was like the early church. Let's think about the early church for a moment. I mean, when the early church was going off, this guy prete Peter, he was preaching in the temple and I mean, thousands of people were coming to hear the apostles teaching and they would just walk. I mean, in the old city there of Jerusalem, they would walk up these steps towards the temple and the apostles would be there teaching. And then they would go into each other's homes and have dinner and break bread and probably talk about do a little fellowship group about what they just heard from the apostles.

[00:27:44] And this is Peter. Peter used to be the guy at the temple who used to be the one standing up in front of thousands. And he sang the word of God. And thousands of people are listening to him. Three thousand people got saved after one sermon. Day by day. More were being added to their number. And now the guy that everybody respected as the preacher there at the temple, the guy speaking on behalf of God. Now, that guy is saying you don't even need to come to the temple because God is right there with you. You are the temple. He's saying it's OK to be scattered because God is with you. You're not missing out on anything. If you can't go to a physical temple because God's building a spiritual house in you, I mean, that's revolutionary thinking.

[00:28:33] I'm sure that the dispersed, the scattered we're thinking, oh, for the good old days when we could be in Jerusalem hearing Peter preach.

[00:28:42] And now we've got to just read a letter. And I bet when they were reading the letter and they got to that moment, they realized, we don't need the temple. We don't even need to be there because Jesus is building in us. And he's with me right now.

[00:28:58] I am the church. That's what they're thinking.

[00:29:03] Point number two. See what Jesus is building and you see what Jesus is building in you.

[00:29:13] I mean, he you have everything you need, you're on the cornerstone, you have the Christ, the son of the living God, he's died for all of your sins. He has risen from the dead. He has saved your soul. And he is now building you into a spiritual house. And yes, we are all connected. And yes, we want to assemble. But the point here is, look, you know, Jesus is doing and you yourselves, you have been built. You are the answer to the promise. When Jesus said, I will build my church. He was talking about you, brother and sister.

[00:29:50] Use specifically.

[00:29:52] But there would be this church in Huntington Beach where many of you would get saved, where we would get united, where we would see Jesus building his church together.

[00:30:03] Not something that you can see with your eyes because it's a spiritual house.

[00:30:09] But those of us who have our eyes open to see the Holy Spirit dwells within us, illuminates our understanding, causes us to see the truth from the scripture, and we can now see into the spiritual realm, into the kingdom of heaven. And we can see how Jesus is saving many souls and building his church. Is it not marvelous in your eyes? Luke Liquidy, he goes on to say here in verse nine after after he says that you're the ones being built and after he goes through how the cornerstone. It separates everybody. It's causing some to stumble because they're rejecting Jesus. But for those of us who have believed in Jesus, in his gospel, we are we will never be put to shame because we're on the solid rock. We're on the living stone, the cornerstone. Jesus Christ. And then he gets to this. And after he's been talking about those who reject and those who stumble over the stone, he says, but you. And now he's going to use a lot of language here from Exodus 19, verse six. This is first Peter to nine. But you are a chosen raced, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.

[00:31:19] Now, the way he uses those phrases, that would make you think if you knew the old covenant, if you knew about the Ten Commandments, the context, that's what God said to Israel when they were going to be his people, when he was going to have a covenant relationship, where he was going to dwell among them in the tabernacle. All of that getting started right there in Exodus 96. The fact that that is now being said about you. See, some of these people that Peter's riding to. They might be Jews. They might have always thought of themselves as the people of God, as Israelites. But some of these people are gentiles and now they're being referred to, even though they are not Jews.

[00:31:59] They're being called PREECE. They're being called a holy nation. They're being called the people of God. He's talking about you.

[00:32:11] You are one of God's people. That's what he gets to down in verse 10. Look at verse 10. Two different thoughts that we really need to remember, that we need to resonate in our souls today. 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. Can I get any man from anybody on that right there?

[00:32:34] I mean, can you remember? When you were begging for mercy.

[00:32:40] When you knew you were a sinner, that you were apart from God, that you deserved judgment and you cried out to him for salvation, do you remember that conviction of sin that the Holy Spirit gave to you, how you saw yourself as a sinner and you saw your need for Jesus, that he would shed his blood to pay for your sin on the cross, that he would rise from the dead to give you a new life and your eyes were open.

[00:33:02] You saw yourself as a sinner. You saw Jesus as your savior. And that was the moment that you received mercy.

[00:33:08] Do you remember that you did not get what you deserved? You deserved the judgment of God for your sin. But you did not get that. God withheld his judgment from you. I mean, if you don't receive mercy, let's actually go there for a second.

[00:33:23] No mercy. Is the worst case scenario, no, mercy is the absolute worst thing that can happen to you. What no mercy means is outer darkness. No mercy means weeping and gnashing of teeth.

[00:33:39] No mercy means you are apart from God and eternal death in a lake of fire.

[00:33:45] It's you reaping what you have sown. That's what no mercy is. But you have received Mersea. You will never experience any of that.

[00:33:56] God has taken all of that judgment away from you because he put all of the judgment for your sin on Jesus and Jesus paid it all. And so instead of getting judgment, you will receive mercy for ever more.

[00:34:12] You will never know condemnation in Christ. His perfect love will cast out any kind of fear of judgment in your soul. Once you were on your way to hell. But now you have received mercy. Then he says, once you were not a people, but now you're God's people.

[00:34:34] OK? No one not wants to be not a people. And you need to write down next to verse 10 if you're taking notes. You need to write down Hosain one and two. OK. Hozier is one of the prophets and we actually went through Hozier. If you scroll down, you could actually find sermons about these ideas here from the Book of Osier, sermons about mercy, sermons about God's people, because really what happened was Hosanna. He married a woman named Gomer. And this was a picture that God was was using to his prophet Osia to be a picture of the people of Israel.

[00:35:10] And and Goolma was actually a prostitute who did not love her husband, who cheated on her husband. And that was a picture when the prophet married the prostitute.

[00:35:20] It was a picture of how God loved his people, Israel. But Israel was worshiping idols. Israel was committing sexual morality. Israel was cheating on God in spiritual adultery. And so God had a prophet, Mary Gomer, as a picture of how his people were cheating on him and Ozio and Gomer. They had a child and he said, name the child, no mercy as their sweet little girl's name, no mercy. And then they have a son named him, not my people, no mercy and not my people. They're the kids of the Prophet because God's trying to say to the Jews, yes, you might be my holy nation, you might be my chosen race. But if you're going to turn away from me and continue in your sin, there will be no mercy for your judgment is coming and you will not be my people.

[00:36:14] And so this is something that there's a huge. Meaning to everybody who's here in this, they're going straight to Osier.

[00:36:24] And they're thinking about how God loved his people, but his people turned away from God and how we were those people apart from God, ungodly sinners, and now God has given us mercy. And now God has made us one of his people. Can you see what God's doing? Is it marvelous? In your eyes, I mean, do you remember the whole of darkness that you lived in before you were a Christian? Do you remember the call of God?

[00:36:56] We got to we got to just make it clear none of us did anything to climb out of our hole of darkness. Can I get any men from anybody on that? Can I get a man from you? I mean, you didn't do anything to save yourself.

[00:37:07] Can we all give the full glory to God here today that God is the one who saved all of us? And he gets all of the glory. And the only reason any of us are saved is because we were lost in the dark. And God called us by name and he brought us into his marvelous light.

[00:37:24] He placed us on the cornerstone. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, he built us up as living stones. And we can see there's all spiritual house that God is building. And it's marvelous to see.

[00:37:38] So what should we do about it?

[00:37:40] If we're ones who have received mercy, if we're God's people, if we're no longer in the darkness, but we now can be hold, we can see in a spiritual way his marvelous light.

[00:37:53] What should you and I do about it? Well, it says in verse nine, here's the application point of our sermon. Here's the takeaway that Peter wants to lead them to. He says, because you are all of these things, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

[00:38:09] You are the people for God's own possession. Here's why that you may proclaim the Excellency's of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. What should you do about the marvelous thing that you can see God has done about the Excellency's of how he saved you all of his attributes, all the things he's done for you coming together? Is it excellent when you see how God has saved you? What can you do about it?

[00:38:36] Proclaim it X song glow here, X song glow gay. So you can hear in that Greek word there's a word that you can get right away. Angel, what are angels do?

[00:38:48] They are messengers from heaven to earth, bringing the good news of God. You know what you're supposed to do as a response.

[00:38:58] Spread the message.

[00:39:00] If you can see the kingdom of heaven here on earth, let the whole earth know, declare it, proclaim it.

[00:39:09] Tell of his glory. Day by day, proclaim the good news of his salvation. Get you up on a high mountain and say to the world around you. Behold. Ah, God. Look what he's done for me. It's marvelous. I want everybody to see it.

[00:39:26] That's what he says we should all be do.

[00:39:29] If God's done something marvelous in you, if he's building you into a spiritual house, if he saved your soul out of the darkness and into the light, can you see it then? Proclaim it.

[00:39:39] He says, declare it like an angel sent from the throne room of God to go give somebody the word of God here on Earth.

[00:39:48] You are an official ambassador and official representative of heaven. And your job is to proclaim His Excellencies here on Earth. Are you a proclaimer?

[00:40:03] Do you declare the glory of God? The heavens do it. The gospel does it. And so should we as people who have saved. And can see his glory. We should proclaim, in fact, point number three is a hashtag, tell the glory, tell the glory.

[00:40:22] We just had a week of reading the Psalms, of drinking them up, of eating them up, of taste the good. Well, if you've seen the goodness of God, it's marvelous in your eyes. If you've seen the goodness of God in your own life and he's saved, you will tell the glory.

[00:40:40] Tell it to everyone who will listen to you. Tell it personally one on one. Spread it on social media, write people letters about it. God is building a spiritual house. You don't have to go to a building. There's no physical place you can go to see his glory. But look at his people. Look at how he's changing their lives. His glory dwells in his people. He's doing something marvelous.

[00:41:05] Let's proclaim his excellencies. You are called here today in this passage of scripture.

[00:41:13] To be a proclaimer. To tell the glory. But you have to have seen it. To Sherry.

[00:41:22] And when you're proclaiming it really your passion, your goal is that other people would see it, too. Maybe it's a brother or sister who have already seen it and they would see it afresh and be encouraged. Or maybe it's somebody who's lost that they would see, hey, turn turn with me to ax 26.

[00:41:38] Everybody go to Acts 26. And let's get into that moment where you're called out of the darkness and into the light. That's a moment that's described in scripture. It's the moment that we say people have their eyes opened. Right. And that's what we want to do. We want to pray for God to open people who are in the darkness, who are blind.

[00:41:57] We want their eyes to be open, that they can see what God is doing, that they could see Jesus is the cornerstone, that he's building all the souls he's saving into the church, and that it would be marvelous in their eyes so that they would rejoice and be glad with us in the day of salvation.

[00:42:13] Here's what Paul said his ministry was all about. This is Acts 26, 18, acts 26, 18, that he was sent by God to preach to the Jews and to the Gentiles, to everybody that he could that he was sent by God, verse 18, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

[00:42:45] I want to go and I want to proclaim his excellencies so that more people are called out of that darkness and there in the light with us that they're out of the kingdom of darkness, run by Satan and there in the Kingdom of Heaven, run by Jesus. I want more people to be built up into a spiritual house. And so he's sent me to go and have people have their eyes get opened.

[00:43:07] So they could turn from the darkness. To the light. See, that's really what Christianity is. It's the gift of sight. It's being able to see.

[00:43:19] Blessed are you, flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. The father in heaven revealed to you that Jesus is the cornerstone. And he built you up. He saved your soul.

[00:43:30] You are now what God is building. Can you see it? Is it marvelous to you? Is it excellent? Do you let everybody know about it?

[00:43:42] Now, I know it's pump, some people are thinking.

[00:43:45] They're thinking even right now in this service, there are people think, well, this is a pretty upbeat message for the dark times that we're live in.

[00:43:57] OK, we'll turn it means Second Corinthians, Chapter four. I hear what you're saying. It seems like a lot of people are distracted. It seems like, ah, a lot of people gonna turn off the news and stop talking about everything that's that's going on around us. And it's a lot of important, serious things that are going on right now.

[00:44:15] And are they really going to see something spiritual when there's so many physical, evil, dark things going on? Are people really going to see Marvelous Excellency's of spiritual things?

[00:44:28] And he just got to realize this is always the battle. There is a battle going on between darkness and light in the darkness is always trying to blind people so they can't see the glory. So they can't worship Jesus. That's what it says right here. Second Corinthians, chapter four, verse four.

[00:44:48] It says in their case, in the case of those who do not yet believe in Jesus, their eyes have not been open.

[00:44:53] The God of this world, Satan and all of the demons with him, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel, of the glory of Christ. Who is the image of God? So there's a war going on, there's a battle going on, and it's not just that people are in the dark. There are forces of evil, spiritual forces of wickedness that are blinding people to keep them in the dark.

[00:45:25] You hear people say, well, I think there's a conspiracy going on. I think this is all about the election. I think this is all about that. There's some new world order.

[00:45:33] There's some secret agenda. I'll tell you what the secret agenda is. I'll tell you what the conspiracy theory is.

[00:45:39] It's keep everybody in the dark so they can't see Jesus. That's what's going on. Blind them. So you don't see the glory. So they don't see. It's marvelous. So they don't come over here and worship Jesus with us, all of his excellences, to proclaim them forever. Now keep them in the dark. Keep them looking at the news. Keep them focused on the world. Keep them hating one another. Distract them with today so they don't see eternity. Keep them focused on the physical. So they're blind to the spiritual. It's a conspiracy happening. There's a lower case g god of this world blinding everybody.

[00:46:19] So they can't see Jesus. They don't see he's the cornerstone. They don't see. All the souls that are being saved.

[00:46:29] There's a big spiritual house that's being built to when you see everybody clothed in their robes of white and they cry out worthy is the lamb. You're gonna be like, where did all of these people come from? And they came from right now what Jesus is doing.

[00:46:46] But most people can't see it. They're blinded to it.

[00:46:51] And here we are, the people who can see it, The Proclaimers, and we're saying things like, I don't know if they're going to see it. Of course they're not going to see it if we don't proclaim it.

[00:47:02] That's what he goes on to say. Look what he says right here in verse five for what we proclaim is not ourselves. This isn't about me, this isn't about you. This isn't about us here at CompassHB, a bit h.b. This is about the cornerstone. This is about what he's building. This is about something that is excellent and praiseworthy. We're not proclaiming ourselves. We're proclaiming Jesus is the Christ.

[00:47:28] He's the Lord, and we're just servants, for Jesus sake, for God who said let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[00:47:46] You and I would be just as much in the dark as anybody else. We would be blind. We would be deceived. We would be under the kingdom of Satan. There is only one reason that you and I can see anything, because he called us out of the darkness into his marvelous light.

[00:48:04] Because he said to us, let there be light and our eyes were open, the father in heaven revealed it to us. And we could see Jesus is the cornerstone.

[00:48:16] It's all about what Jesus is building. And we became living stones ourselves.

[00:48:23] All because of the saving work of God. Can you see what God does? Can he? You see how he saves people, that it's all by grace, that it's not of us. It's all a gift from him. It's the gift of sight to open your eyes. Can you see it? Is it marvelous in your eyes what God is doing? Do you want to proclaim his Excellency's? Who's last time you shared your testimony with somebody, when was the last time you preach the gospel to someone? Was the last time you just said to people, do you know how good God is?

[00:48:54] He talked about his steadfast love. How is Mercy's new every morning, how he's always faithful to do what he says? I mean, in the world right now, today, with all that's going on. Do people not need to know that there is a God who is just and he does everything right. In fact, he cares about justice so much that he was willing to judge his one and only son.

[00:49:16] He of all the punishment that you deserve. He poured out on his son Jesus so that he would be just to judge sin. And so that he could justify you. So he could declare you righteous by the blood of Jesus. He could wash you from your sins. He could forgive you for what you've done. He could declare you clean and righteous forever. That someone, a sinner like you, could be pure and righteous in God's sight for eternity.

[00:49:42] Is it not marvelous to you? Is it not praiseworthy? Should we not proclaim it day after day?

[00:49:52] You got to tell the glory. That's what the world needs. The darker it gets, the more clear the light can shine. You think? Well, I don't know if it's likely that people are going to get saved right now. Let me just tell you, it wasn't likely that you were going to get saved when you got saved. God did. He does the impossible. He is. He says let there be light. And it comes out of nothing.

[00:50:13] That's our gut.

[00:50:15] It's not about the times. It's not about the hard hearts of the people. It's not about the darkness around us. How bright is his glory? Does his light reside in you? Are you the place? His glory dwells. Can you see?

[00:50:29] The glorious light of God. In the face of Jesus. And proclaim it. Let it be known. I mean, what can you do to proclaim God, who could you talk to?

[00:50:42] Who could you set up a meeting with? Who could you write a letter to? What could you post on social media? That would get people thinking not about us, not about what's going on on Earth, but would actually take their mind to think about God in heaven.

[00:50:55] What could you do to proclaim his Excellency's? We're gonna do a craft here at church. Everybody's invited. I don't know if you're a crafty kind of person, some of you are very artistic, very gifted. Then there's people like me. I understand. What we're gonna do is everybody's gonna get a rock. We we're all living stones. That's what the scripture says. Well, we're all going to get a rock. You say, well, where would I find a rock? Have you looked around planet Earth lately? We've got rocks. We got lots of rocks. We got rocks at the beach. We got rocks at the stream. We got rocks. You could go by bags, rocks its stores these days. I don't. You can buy them on Amazon. Go search. There's a whole rock industry out there. We're gonna have rocks right here at our church Tuesday to Friday. Our church offices open. It'll be open from 9:00 to 5:00. You're like, I don't know where to find a rock. We're gonna have rocks here. It's a church. We got all kinds of living stones. We'll give you rocks. We'll give you paint.

[00:51:43] We'll give you everything you need. But here's what you gotta do. These aren't these stones that we want you to make are not just memorial stones. It's not just something about the goodness of God. Something from the scripture. No, it's a testimonial stone. It's about proclaiming his excellencies and saving you from no mercy to mercy, from not a people to one of his people, from darkness to light.

[00:52:05] This is about the fact that God called you out of the darkness that you were in and he brought you into the glorious light of Jesus Christ. He put you on the cornerstone. He built you up in his spiritual house so that you could proclaim his excellencies.

[00:52:23] And you can't see it.

[00:52:25] You can't see it even when we're gathered together at church, you can't see the kingdom of heaven that Jesus is building, it's spiritual. Your eyes have to be open through the scripture to see it. But we thought, wouldn't it be great to have stone? We hope our whole planter is filled out here.

[00:52:40] Stones representing the people are getting saved, that Jesus is keeping his promise to build his church. So all of us, all of us who can see should be proclaiming the excellency to those who are in the dark, who are blind.

[00:52:57] You are called today to be a proclaimer. So let's go and let's tell the glory.

[00:53:07] And let me just say, while the band's coming up, well, we're going to sing now a final song, a song of response, where we're going to ask God to to build our life on the foundation of Jesus Christ. Let me just say, hey, in the future. Someday. In the future. When we look back on the year 2020, I want you to think about this with me, because there's a lot of jokes, a lot of comments, a lot of statements being made about how bad the year 2020 is. Corona virus injustice against George Floyd lootings, riots on the streets, people trying to make their way, having a really hard time. Lot of things going on. You realize that someday in heaven.

[00:53:48] If someone were to bring up the year 2020 here, honor. You know what, it would be referred to people and talk about the Corona virus. They wouldn't talk about what's happening in America right now. No, in heaven, in the kingdom of God in the future, you say, hey, what was going on in the year 2020? They'll be like, that was the day of salvation. That was the time when Jesus was building his church.

[00:54:10] That was the time when all over the world the gospel was being revealed. The light was being shown. God was opening people's eyes and revealing to them who Jesus really is. And they were believing in him. And they were being built up into a spiritual house knowing heaven.

[00:54:26] Someday we'll call this day the church page, the day of salvation, a glorious time to rejoice and be glad in because you were in the darkness. And he called you into his marvelous light. Can you see it? Proclaim it. Praise him for it. Let's pray right now.

[00:54:44] Oh, Father in heaven. Oh, Father. We pray that you will open our eyes today. That you will remind us.

[00:54:51] That you will that you will help us to see who Jesus is is the cornerstone that he's building his church, that all of us are living stones being built up as a spiritual household.

[00:55:01] Father, can can we see spiritual things right now instead of physical things? Can we see the glorious things of your light rather than the darkness all around us? God, I'm just asking if your scripture right now could come off the page and it could come into real life.

[00:55:17] People looking at screens and devices right now could have their eyes opened up to remember how glorious it is, this good news of Jesus. There's hope for all mankind, the salvation that we can experience in our soul, that we go from death to life, from darkness to light, from Satan to you. And it's all because of the cornerstone. Jesus you've got build our life on that solid foundation, build our church on who Jesus is, and use us to proclaim the Excellency's of Jesus Christ that salvation is marvelous and open many eyes to see.

[00:55:58] Your glory in the face of Jesus head is on us.

[00:56:05] Your spiritual house. We pray this in Jesus name.