The living stones in Christ..

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What a great privilege it is to worship the Lord Jesus Christ with you. If you have your Bibles, would you please open them up to the first letter of Peter. The first letter of Peter, chapter 2. So this evening we are going to be addressing that which is containing verse 4 and 5. Primarily addressing the first section of verse 5.

I know that we addressed this a couple of weeks ago when we came together. There's another aspect of this verse that I want us to address together in verse 5. But what we're going to do is that we're going to read the whole section. I've told you many times that the Apostle has a section in mind that comes from chapter 1 verse 10 and that goes through chapter 2 until verse 12. I always say that you should pay attention to each one of the words, but this time I really mean it, because the context is going to help us to understand and to elaborate the argument that I'm going to present before you, beloved brothers and sisters.

So let's read with reverent hearts and paying much attention to each one of the words. 1 Peter 1, verse 10. Concerning this salvation, The prophets, who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. And if You call on Him as Father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds. Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, Love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since ye have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.

For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And these words, the good news that was preached to you. 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 might grow up into salvation. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Pay attention to verse four and five. 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. 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. But you, are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellences 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.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your souls. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Amen, brothers and sisters. And the verses that we're going to be addressing, I hope that by the grace of God and with the help of the Spirit, is the portion in chapter two, verse four and five, that says that as we come to Him, that is Christ, a living stone, a living stone that has been rejected by man, but in the sight of God is chosen and precious. You yourselves, the Apostle will say here, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, as a holy priesthood.

Brothers, every time that I come to this section of this book, of this letter of the Apostle Peter, I cannot help but try to put myself a little bit, take a step back and see the whole argument that the Apostle is actually doing and how he's writing here. He's coming from an argument that is completely individual. He's speaking about the new birth of the Christian. And now in verse four and five, he's going to speak about the collective reality of the Christian. So the person who has been born again by the word of God, by the power of the spirit, by the power of the gospel.

Now he's going to bring that person into a collective context. And then he calls that, or he makes that part of the identity of the Christian. So those who are in Christ, the living stone, are like living stones who are chosen and precious. And those living stones are being built up as a spiritual house and as a holy priesthood. And I want us to meditate upon the importance of those two terms, that if you are truly in Christ by grace, through faith in the Savior, in the resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, then you are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.

Very difficult two terms that we have in front of us. May the Lord give us grace to have clarity and then also a humble heart to receive that which comes from the scripture. Brothers and sisters, the apostle Peter is using two terms that belong to all covenant language. And he's applying those two terms to new covenant people. He's speaking of the house of God or the temple of God or the tabernacle of God or the sanctuary of God.

And then he's applying that to Christians. They are the spiritual house. And he's also taking this old covenant term of a holy priesthood. And he's applying that to those who have been born again of the spirit by the word of God. He's taking terms of the old covenant and using them in the new covenant.

So it is very important that we remember, beloveds, It's very important that we remember that the audience of the apostle is not people of the old covenant. When he's writing this letter in chapter 1 in verse 1, he says that he's writing to people in Pontus, Galatia, Asia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. These are peoples who are living in places that are different to the people of Israel. He is writing to new covenant believers. Not to old covenant people.

He's writing to new covenant believers. And beloved, understanding the relationship between this old covenant, this Old Testament that belonged to the people of Israel and this new covenant or this New Testament that is for the church of Jesus Christ. It is foundational not only for us to understand what we have in the argument of Peter, but in all our New Testament theology and understanding. If we care about what God has said to us, if we care about the word of God, and if we are going to hold with faith and trust in the word of God, then we are to make every effort to understand the word of God. You see, when Paul was writing to the Corinthians, he said, I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

I came to you not with wisdom of men, but I came with trembling so that your faith, with a demonstration of the power of the spirit, so that your faith might not rest upon the wisdom of men, but that your faith might rest upon the spirit and power. Sometimes we stop there, but the apostle continues. And then he says, but among those who are mature, I speak wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden before the ages, a wisdom that has been kept for us, revealed for the church. The same apostle in Ephesians 3 would say that this wisdom is being revealed through the heavenly places, through the church. So brothers and sisters, If we are going to endeavor to be like Christ, as our brother exhorted us today, if we're going to try to be like the servant who saved us, then we are to wish and we are to long and we are to desire his word and to understand and apply it by faith.

The only thing that I'm trying to do is capture your attention because the topic that we have in front of us is complex. So I want your attention because if we understand this, beloved, if we understand this, then we will understand why the apostle Peter is calling us a spiritual house and why the apostle is calling us a holy priesthood. You see, when you're talking about terms like this or concepts like this, you have risk and danger of misapplying or misusing these terms. And in our carnality, in our flesh, in our human wisdom, we can go two directions. We can go the direction of the Romanist, of the Church of Rome, the Catholic Church, in which they will take this term of a holy priesthood and they will apply it literally, offending the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in which they apply or they establish actually a priesthood that offers sacrifices.

Or you might take the other direction and the other extreme, which is to be indifferent to these terms, to be indifferent to what the Word of God says of who Christians are. Both sides in different ways are sinful. because they are not taking and applying the Word of God as it is written. So now, brothers, very important that we understand what the apostle is doing. He's taking terms of the Old Testament and then he's applying those terms to the New Testament.

And this is not the first time that the apostle has done it. And it's very important, brothers and sisters, that we understand that there is a foundational truth that the apostle is going to try to communicate through chapter one and through chapter two. And this is it. From my theological point of view, please pay attention to this, that from the beginning of time, from the beginning of time, God has had a redemptive plan. From the moment that sin entered into the world through the disobedience of Adam, and through that disobedience, and through that sin, death entered into the world, and death spread to all people because all people sinned, that from that very moment, God had a plan of redemption, and therefore, God had a people.

God has always had a people for himself. From the moment, from Genesis 3 15, when God himself proclaimed the first gospel to Adam, when he says that the offspring of the woman is going to be in enmity with the serpent and that the offspring of the woman is going to crash the head of the serpent, but that the serpent is going to bruise the heel of the offspring of the woman. From this first proclamation of the goodness of redemption, and from the moment that Adam responded in faith, because the first one in proclaiming the gospel was God himself, and his irresistible grace in the proclamation of that message pierced the heart of Adam, so that Adam will call his wife the mother of the living. From that very moment, God had a people for himself. And God related to his people.

He pleased God in the wisdom of God and in the sovereignty of God to relate to those people or to that people through different covenants. And when you step back, you see in history the old covenant given to Moses. And then you see the new covenant given to the person of Jesus Christ. Why am I putting so much effort on this, brothers and sisters? Because the hermeneutic of the Apostle Peter is simply taking Old Testament or Old Covenant truths and speaking of New Testament, New Covenant realities.

He is going to say in the verse that we read in verse 10 in chapter one, concerning this salvation, remember that he's writing to Gentiles. And he says, concerning this salvation, the prophets of the Old Testament who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, Gentiles of the new covenant of the New Testament, they search and inquire carefully, asking what person and time the spirit of Christ that was in them was telling or was predicting of the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. They knew, he says, that these prophets of the Old Testament who were speaking these things of the people of the New Covenant, they were serving not themselves, But they were serving you, people of the new covenant. In what? In the things that have been now announced to you through the preaching of the gospel or the preaching of the good news through the Holy Spirit that has been sent from heaven.

The Old Testament prophets were speaking of this grace that was to be of the people of the new covenant, of people of the church, of the Gentiles. Think about that. These are people that are going through tribulation and difficulties and trials, they're being persecuted, and the way that the apostle is going to offer this comfort to them is by saying, this Jesus Christ that you do not see, but you believe in Him. This Jesus Christ that you love and that you believe in Him, He says that in verse 8 and 9 of chapter 1. This Jesus Christ is the source of your hope and your peace.

Why? Because the prophets of the Old Testament spoke about Him. He is the Messiah that the prophets wrote about. Our hope is in that which God has spoken. So what is going to do the apostle after that is going to demonstrate the brothers that all covenant truths inform new covenant realities, that all covenant writings speak of new covenant or church, the church that is in the new covenant realities and information.

So these two covenants, inform one another, or better, the Old Covenant informs the New Covenant. We are not able to understand the New Covenant if we remove the Old Covenant. We are not able to understand the realities of the Church and the people of God under the New Covenant if we simply do away, I think is the way that you say it in English, with the Old Covenant. We are supposed to relate this to and the apostle is doing particularly that he is taking realities of the old covenant and applying them into the new covenant so he starts set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of the lord jesus christ and he says so be holy as the one who called you is holy why because it is written what isn't written is written in moses so peter is going to take Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. And it's going to take information from Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms to speak of realities of new covenant people.

Be holy as the one who called you is holy. the Lamb of God, like that, the blood of the Lamb without blemish or without spot from the Leviticus quote, quoting Moses. Then he's going to go and quote Isaiah and speaking of this enduring, this abiding Word of God. That is the means by which we are born again, taking the utterances of the prophet Isaiah to apply them to the reality of new covenant people. Then he's going to finish in verse 3, quoting Psalm 32 or Psalm 34, I think.

He's going to say that if you have tasted the goodness or the grace of the Lord, speaking of New Testament people, he's going to take all covenant realities, brothers and sisters, and he's going to apply them to new covenant people. He takes Moses, he takes the prophets, and he takes the sons. to speak of the realities and the glories. He calls it in his vocabulary. These are the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories that the law, the Old Testament spoke of the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

And this has to bring, it has to bring to your mind the same words. of the Lord Jesus Christ in Luke 24, when he was with two disciples walking towards Emmaus, or Emmaus we say in Spanish. He was with these two disciples and he was explaining out of his scriptures. And he said, was it not necessary that the Messiah may suffer and then enter into his glory? It was necessary that the Messiah may suffer and then enter into his glory.

After leaving these two disciples, he appears to the eleven. And then he's going to use the same vocabulary, brothers and sisters. He's going to say that the things that were written in Moses. in the prophets and in the Psalms, that it was necessary that they come to a fulfillment, that they were speaking of this Jesus Christ, that it was necessary that he may suffer and that he might be powerfully resurrected on the third day, and that this message may be proclaimed to the nations, this message of repentance, this message of forgiveness. Brothers and sisters, the hermeneutics of the apostles and the hermeneutics of the Lord Jesus Christ is bringing the truths of the old covenant and applying them to new covenant people.

He's taking this truth of that which is given to the prophets and making it clear to the people of the church. Because in other times and in diverse manners, God spoke to the fathers through the prophets But in these last days, New Testament days, New Covenant days, God has spoken to us, New Covenant church, New Covenant people, through the Son, Jesus Christ, who is the image of God. He has revealed everything the Old Testament was pointing to him. And let me submit to you that the glories of the Messiah are the glories of the church. The glories of the Savior are the glories of those whom He redeemed.

We are partakers of His divine nature. We are heirs with the inheritance that our Savior has obtained on our behalf. This is the promise that we have, that we are kept by God's power through our faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. Why? Because after the sufferings of the Messiah comes the subsequent glories, which are the glories of the church, the glories of Jesus Christ are the glories of his bride.

Now, brothers and sisters, this is vital and important because now in the verses that we have in front of us, the apostle is going to take another two terms of the old covenant and the Old Testament, and he's going to give them, he's going to pass them, he's going to speak of the church. He's going to say, he's going to mention this spiritual house of a temple, tabernacle, the sanctuary of God in the old covenant. And he's going to say that the church, that those who have been born again, that they are this spiritual house. that they are also this priesthood, these men that were called in the Old Testament to serve the place where God dwelt, the place where the presence of God was manifested, the priests that were called to minister that place, He's now calling those who have been born again, He's calling them a holy priesthood. Now, brothers and sisters, I'm going to submit to you that these two terms, this spiritual house, which speaks of the dwelling place of God, We know that because the Apostle Paul will speak of that in Ephesians 2, in First Timothy, speaking that the church is the abiding of the living God, or that when the Apostle is speaking of the union between Israel and the church, that Christ has destroyed the wall of hostility between Jews and the Gentiles and has made one man from the two.

He then speaks later on saying that this man is the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. So we know that the spiritual house in the Old Covenant and also in the New Covenant is the place where the presence of God was manifested. This is the place where God abides. There is a sense in which I just could stop my sermon there and just get us to meditate upon that. Because he's saying that we, born-again Christians, by grace through faith, that we are the abiding place of God.

In the Old Testament, he said that the temple of God or the dwelling place of God is not built with hands of men. And now he's saying that sinful earthen vessels are the dwelling place of God. The Apostle Paul will repeat something similar in 1 Corinthians, saying that we are the temple of God, that we are the house of God. Just meditate upon that, that earthen vessels have within themselves the treasure of the dwelling place of God. And not only that, but we also are a holy priesthood.

Beloved, I'm going to submit to you. that in order for us to understand, there is a sense in which I could finish my sermon in 10 minutes, but in order for us to understand the importance of these two terms, that we are a spiritual house and that we are a holy priesthood, that we need to understand the relationship between the old covenant and the new covenant. that if we understand the biblical teaching of the relationship of the old covenant and the new covenant, then we are going to understand with a greater understanding, with a greater light, the relationship between Moses, the prophets, and the sons, and the doctrine that has been given to us through the son, through his holy apostles and prophets. When the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking to the 11 disciples in Luke 24, verse 44, 45, and 46, he says that he opened his eyes because they did not understand the scriptures. That when he was speaking these things from Moses, from the prophets and the Psalms, that the eyes of their mind were opened.

And the other two disciples that were walking towards Emmaus, they said that their hearts burned within themselves when the Lord was speaking of these things. So may the Lord give us and help us to understand the connection between that which is contained in Moses, the prophets and Psalms, and that which is given for the church. So I'm saying, beloved, that these two concepts, that the dwelling place of God and that the role of a holy priesthood are better understood when we understand the relationship between old covenant and new covenant. And the reason why this is important is because when New Testament writers are speaking of the relationship between Old Covenant and New Covenant, they use the concept of the dwelling place of God and the priesthood of the Old Covenant. So I'm going to take you to the chapter that speaks of that glorious relationship between the old covenant and the new covenant that is found in the book of Hebrews.

So go to Hebrews chapter 8 and let's ask ourselves What does the Bible say about the relationship between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant? Because I'm submitting to you that if we are going to understand the implications of this term that the Apostle is assigning to us as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, that our eyes will be enlightened if we understand indeed that relationship. Now I'm just going to get you to read the whole chapter. So pay attention in light of that question, brothers and sisters. the relationship of the old covenant and the new covenant let's read chapter 8 and it's very interesting we don't have the time to read chapter 7 and to read chapter 9 but chapter 7 is speaking of the priesthood of the old covenant and christ being a better priest or the higher priest and then chapter 9 speaks of the place of god which are the two terms that the apostle peter is using in verse 6 He's speaking of the spiritual house, or the dwelling place of God, and he's also speaking about the holy priesthood.

The author of Hebrews uses these two topics, these two themes, to speak of the relationship of the old covenant with the new covenant in chapter 8. He puts that before, and then he puts that after. And he's going to say in chapter 8, now, he's like kind of like summarizing here, now the point in what we are saying is this. We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven. This is the high priest Jesus Christ, a minister or a servant in the holy places, in the true tent, in the true tabernacle that is, in the true temple that the Lord set up.

And I love that, not men. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus, it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now, if we were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.

For when Moses, this is the old covenant, was about to erect the tent, or the tabernacle, or the temple, or the dwelling place of God, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. 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. For he finds fault with them when he says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. Why?

For they did not continue in my covenant. And so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord now for this reason it says in verse 10 for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall not teach each one each one his neighbor, and they shall not teach each one his neighbor, and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, for I will be merciful toward their inequities, and I will remember their sins no more." Pay attention, in speaking of any covenant, he makes the first one obsolete, and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. There is so much in that chapter, brothers and sisters. In fact, many people have written so many things about the relationship of the old covenant and the relationship of that covenant to the new covenant.

My beloved, the Bible, let's just keep it simple and see what the Bible says. In verse Six, it says. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old, as the covenant that Christ mediates, that is the new covenant, is better. Why is it better? The question follows.

And then scripture gives the answer. The answer is, since this new covenant has been enacted on better promises. The promises of the covenant that has been given to Jesus Christ are better promises than the promises given under the old covenant or the promises that were given to Moses. The covenant given to the Lord Jesus Christ, given to the seed of Abraham, is a better promise than that which is under the law. So one should ask him or herself, what is that promise?

Or what are those promises that make the new covenant a better covenant than the old covenant? Brothers and sisters, this is everything that Paul writes about in Galatians 3. in Galatians 3 and 4 the apostle is going to write about the promise that was given to Abraham that in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And to your seed, I will give this land." And then Paul interprets that saying, he does not speak of seeds or offsprings as many, but he speaks of one seed being that Jesus Christ, because that is the promise that was given to Abraham before the law.

And then 430 years afterward, Moses will come with the law that it was given to him. So then one will ask the question, so is the law contrary to the promise that was given before? By no means! They are not contradictory, but they serve one another. The law of the old covenant, brothers and sisters, serves, is a servant, is a witness to the promises and to the new covenant that is going to be given in Jesus Christ.

The law is a servant that helps to accomplish that which will come under the new covenant. So why was the law given? Then the Apostle Paul asked himself. And then he will say, because of the transgression. Because of the abundance of sin, then the law was given.

What is the purpose of giving the law to the people of Israel? So that the offspring, being Jesus Christ, this is Galatians 3, will come and be born under the law. But as he did that, as the Lord did that, He operated and he worked everything in the old covenant so that he will be not only serving to restrain the transgressions of the people and to serve so that the Messiah will be born under the law, but brothers and sisters also serving as a shadow, as he says here, as a shadow, as a type of the things that were going to come. Now think about this, and I hope that by the grace of God, at least that is in your mind. The Old Covenant is a servant, just as the prophets of the Old Testament were not serving themselves, but they were serving the church.

The Old Covenant is a servant that speaks of the fulfillment of the things that were going to come. So, brothers and sisters, when we see in the Old Testament that the Lord speaks of a spiritual house or the house of God, or when the Lord speaks of a priesthood, yes, that was true for the immediate audience of the people of Israel. But all of this concept was serving the fulfillment of a truth that will come under the covenant given to Jesus Christ himself. So now think about this. The people of Israel were chosen among the nations, but the dwelling place of God was not the people of Israel.

There was an election within the elected ones. There was a specific place and there was a specific area in which the presence of God would be manifested. Israel was the people, the chosen people of God. But the manifested presence of God will abide in the tabernacle or in the temple and not even in the temple, but in a section of the temple that is called the Holy of Holies. In the same way, brothers and sisters, Israel, where the people of God.

but those who have access to the immediate presence of God were not the people of Israel but rather there was an election within the election there was chosen ones between the chosen ones because Israel were the elected and the chosen ones but it pleased God that those who will enter into his presence as priests will not be everyone but will be the tribe from The Levites, they will be the ministers of the temple. And not even them, but from them it will be the family of the descendants of Aaron. Brothers and sisters, not all the chosen people under the old covenant had access to the covenantal blessings that were given to them from God. But there is a better covenant. There is a better covenant, a better covenant that defines now the relationship of covenant members to God.

Covenant members under the old covenant did not have access to the immediate presence of God other than through the obedience to the law. But covenant members under the new covenant, under the church, they are called the spiritual house in which God dwells. And all of them are priests. There is no distinctions. There is no difference.

There is no election within an election. All covenant members under the new covenant are recipients of the blessings that Christ has obtained for them. So the covenant that is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is a greater covenant. And then here, as we have just read it, in the old covenant, they did not continue in the covenant. They disobeyed.

But speaking of the new covenant, he says, I will write my laws in their minds and in their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. Because the relationship that the new covenant defines is a stronger, a better, an eternal relationship between covenant members and the covenant head, Jesus Christ. That's what the author of Hebrews does in chapter three. He speaks of the house of Moses under the old covenant, and he calls him a faithful servant.

But then he says, Jesus Christ is of much more glory because he's also faithful in the house of God, who is the church, who is us, because he is not a servant, but he is the son. Brothers and sisters, now think about that. Think about the implications of Christianity. You see that this is not a religion that happens in the mind of people. When a person is born again of the Spirit, that person becomes the dwelling place of God himself.

But please, don't keep it only there, because the Apostle says something. You, plural, you are being built up as a spiritual house. The individuals that are born again become a spiritual house. And this spiritual house become the priesthood of God that offers sacrifices, spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God by the will of God and by his grace. I hope that we address these spiritual sacrifices next week.

But brothers and sisters, the profession of your faith happens in a covenantal and in a collective context. You see the importance of the church? Not the church as a building that has been made by the hands of men, but the importance of coming together one with the other, because there is no distinction. There is no one greater. We are different in our roles, but we are all members of the same body, and we are all holy priests in the sight of God.

Not because we have the ability to offer sacrifices in and of ourselves that are acceptable before God, but rather Christ has made us priests just as he is the living stone, and we are living stones that are being built up as a spiritual house. We are priests just as He is the High Priest of this new covenant. And we are accepted before God. This has to change, brothers and sisters. First of all, our perception of what being born again is.

And second of all, what our perception of church is. Do not allow the traditions of men and the perceptions of Western Christianity to define that which church is. We have to submit to that which is written and that which is contained in the words of God. And when we see that our church is not in the point that it should be different to Old Testament or New Testament doctrine, then it is the responsibility of all the members of the church to offer spiritual sacrifices individually and collectively. Because in the collective offering of ourselves to our God, there is sanctification and conformity to Christ, the High Priest, and the Living Stone.

And a couple of things that you want to think about it. Brothers and sisters, the Church is not comprised by people that walked through the door. The Church of Christ is comprised by those who have been truly born again by grace through faith. This is a calling for those who are not in Christ, and this is a calling for those who are in Christ. Because if the Lord was so concerned with the holiness, as our brother was saying, if the Lord was so concerned with the holiness, of the temple and the priesthood in the Old Testament that served as shadows of the fullness of the temple or the spiritual house and the real priest of the new covenant.

If he was concerned about their order, their purity and their holiness, you think that this is going to change in the new covenant that has been established by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? He is equally concerned about the individual holiness of the members. And when I say members are not those who sign a document or who regularly come to church, but those who have been born again of the Spirit by grace through faith. He is concerned with the holiness of the individual and the holiness and the conformity to Christ of each one of them contributes to the holiness and the building up of the Church as a whole. The purpose of the individual is the same purpose of the Church, to be holy and blameless.

Ephesians 1. The Church is to be holy and blameless. Ephesians 5. This is the purpose of the Church. And the second thing that I want you to think about, brothers and sisters, the psalmist many times will say, how lovely it is to dwell in your temple.

How lovely is to dwell in your temple. And then David will say in another psalm that the desire of his heart was to abide in the temple of God. Brothers, we live in times of individualism. We live in times of materialism in which my life is mine and perhaps it will reach those who are around me, my family and my close friends. This is not biblical type of life.

The life of a person is lived within the context of the church so that when we come to the dwelling place of God, the church, not this building, but the church, we can say, how lovely. is the dwelling place of God. This should be our vision. This should be the aim of our hearts, brothers and sisters, not to do religion. If you are, you are sinning.

Not to do or to play religion on a weekly basis of coming to church, but to desire to be in the presence of God, to receive the Word of God. Because by doing so, all of us, we offer individual sacrifices and collective sacrifices that are received by our God because they are through the Lord Jesus Christ. May he give us grace. Amen.