'I Believe In The Church And The Communion Of Saints' (1 Peter 2:4-12, Leviticus 19:1-4, Leviticus 20:7-26)
Rev. William L. Barron, March 3, 2024Part of the Morning Worship at North Greenville Church series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
Jesus is the Stone, rejected yet now a stumbling block. Some people try to take another way to find peace with God. The writer of Hebrews warns Jewish converts to not turn back; there is no other way to be saved. This writer calls Christians a “holy nation,” same as we read in the Old Testament for God’s people then. Unfortunately, Old Testament people rejected God as King. Old Testament Israel saved by grace were God’s people, and New Testament Christians are now God’s people. Deuteronomy 7 describes believers as slaves who were called out by love for His own good purpose. They were termed a chosen race and a people for His own possession. It is the same today. Christians are called a holy nation—set apart. Worship and testimony are our calling—we are a holy priesthood, priests for Jesus. We are the sacrifice that will glorify God on Judgment Day. In the first centuries, life was divided into the sacred and the secular. There was a division between priests and people. Now, we are priests to one another before the Lord. The “priesthood of the believers” is actually the “oneanotherness” of the believers. We are all ministers. In vs. 11 we are exhorted to abstain from fleshly desires when we are tempted. We accomplish this by prayer and confession. Ours is a higher calling, a way that is honorable by putting on Christ. Bill VanDoodewaard exhorts us to pursue a close walk, pursue a changed lifestyle in repentance and to feed upon Godliness by means of scripture. By this, we can let the light of Christ shine through us as He commands.
| Earlier: | Same day: | Later: |
|---|---|---|
| « 'I Believe In God The Son' | None | 'I Believe In Jesus Christ Who Suffered' » |
1 Peter 2:4–12 (Listen)
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 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. 6 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.”
7 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,”
8 and
“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 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. 10 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.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 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.
(ESV)
Leviticus 19:1–4 (Listen)
19:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. 3 Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. 4 Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the LORD your God.
(ESV)
Leviticus 20:7–26 (Listen)
7 Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God. 8 Keep my statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you. 9 For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him.
10 “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. 11 If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. 12 If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them. 13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. 14 If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you. 15 If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. 16 If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
17 “If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity. 18 If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people. 19 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for that is to make naked one’s relative; they shall bear their iniquity. 20 If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. 21 If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.
22 “You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. 23 And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. 24 But I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples. 25 You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. 26 You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.
(ESV)