Calvary Road Baptist Church
“PRECIOUS”
First Peter 2.7
While you are finding our text for today, First Peter 2.7, let me relate to you an old story: When time shall be no more, there will have been built on Mount Moriah, in Jerusalem, a total of five Temples. The first Temple, of course, was built by King Solomon. It is typically referred to as Solomon’s Temple. After about six hundred years, Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the invading Babylonians and was rebuilt 70 years later under the leadership of Zerubbabel. Almost 350 years later, the Idumean king, Herod, extensively remodeled the Temple, giving us the Temple that existed in Jesus’ day, Herod’s Temple. But that Temple, too, was destroyed, this time by the Romans in 70 AD. There has been no Temple on Mount Moriah from that day to this.
There will be found on Mount Moriah two more Temples in the future. There will be a Temple built by the Jewish people during the Tribulation, desecrated by the antichrist. Then, when Jesus comes again to establish His millennial kingdom, the Millennial Temple will be erected on that site where all the previous Temples once stood and will be the central place of worship for all peoples of the world during Christ’s 1000 year reign here on earth.
That’s a brief overview of all the Temples. Now let’s go back to considering the second Temple, Zerubbabel’s Temple. The Babylonian army surrounded and laid siege to Jerusalem, finally taking the city, sending the surviving inhabitants into the Babylonian captivity, removing all the furniture and utensils used in Temple worship, and then wholly leveling the Temple that Solomon had erected, leaving no stone unturned.
When Zerubbabel and his scraggly band of captives returned to Jerusalem after seventy years in Babylon, they set about to rebuild the Temple so that some semblance of worshiping God in the manner set forth by Moses could resume. Tradition tells us of an interesting occurrence with one particular stone.
C. H. Spurgeon quotes Henry Drummond as telling of a particular stone that was lifted from below, where all the other stones had been rolled by the Babylonians when they destroyed the first Temple. But, try as they might, the Jewish rebuilders could not find where that stone properly fit, so they rejected it. Then, as the second Temple was being completed it was discovered that the stone the builders had rejected was, in fact, the chief cornerstone, having the place of greatest prominence.
Is the story true? I don’t know. I am convinced, however, that you will find the Scriptural record more astonishing than unsubstantiated tradition. Let us now stand to read First Peter 2.4-8:
4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
Peter is describing the Lord Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone of a spiritual house, a spiritual temple if you will, rather than a stone structure, Who was rejected and refused His place of prominence by those who are disobedient. Peter’s reference to Scripture in verse 6 shows that he is reminding his readers of Psalm 118.22:
“The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.”
Though despised and rejected of men, especially the prominent and influential He came into contact with, the Lord Jesus Christ “is become the head stone of the corner.”
With this Scriptural background information properly in place, I want to focus your attention on a single word that’s found in First Peter 2.7, the word “precious.” The Authorized Version suggests that to we who believe Jesus is very simply “precious.”[1] But 46 words in verses 7 and 8 detail the feelings of those who are disobedient toward Jesus.
What a very simple, yet stark, contrast exists between believers and unbelievers with respect to the Lord Jesus. I would like to take a few minutes to expand on this, how believers feel about Jesus Christ versus how unbelievers feel about Jesus.
First, HOW BELIEVERS FEEL ABOUT JESUS
In a word, He is “precious.” But ask yourself, “If Jesus is precious to believers, how is their estimation of Him expressed in the way they behave?”
Consider the past. Do you suppose Moses thought Him to be precious when he removed his sandals in His presence and bowed before the burning bush?[2] Do you suppose Joshua thought Him to be precious when he removed his sandals in His presence and bowed before the Captain of the LORD’s host?[3] How about when the three Hebrews were cast into the fiery furnace and the Lord Jesus stood there with them to protect them from harm?[4] Do you suppose they thought Him to be precious? How about when Lazarus, dead for three days and with a body that stunk with rot, heard the Master’s voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” Do you think Lazarus esteemed precious this Jesus, Who, after having wept for him, had just raised him from the dead?[5] And then there was the thief on the cross. Condemned to die for thievery. Fully expecting to spend eternity in Hell. Do you think he found Jesus precious when he heard Jesus say to him,
“To day shalt thou be with me in paradise”?[6]
I think it was because He was to them precious that Stephen and Peter and Paul and all the others willingly suffered martyrdom for Him. Don’t you?
Now, consider our day. Don’t you think it’s because He is precious to them that the Christian Hmong tribesmen in Vietnam were so willing to die for Christ fifty years ago, and are even now being persecuted for their commitment to Christ?[7] And how about the Christians who are being slaughtered in South Sudan by the Muslims,[8] India by the Hindus,[1] and Afghanistan since President Biden’s debacle last year?[9] Is it not because to them Jesus is precious? This word “precious” translates the Greek word for “honor.” How does one show Jesus to be “precious?” Are you willing to do anything to show Him “precious?” If you believe He is “precious.”
How about attending Church, this Church, regularly? Would not honoring your mother and father include a willingness to seriously consider their view of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Exodus 20.12? Is it possible to honor your dad and your mom while dismissing out of hand their views of God, Christ, sin, and salvation? How about honoring God with the first fruits of your increase, which is tithes and offerings, Proverbs 3.9? How about showing Christ to be precious by sitting at His feet during your morning devotional time, and when praying to His Father and your Father? To believers, He is “precious.” Ask yourself if there are distinct and recognizable ways in which you express in your life that Jesus is “precious” to you. Because saying, “I love Jesus,” really means nothing at all if it isn’t backed up by action. Amen? To a person who believes Jesus is “precious.”
BUT TO THOSE WHO ARE DISOBEDIENT, JESUS IS NOT PRECIOUS
As you can no doubt see for yourself, Peter did go into considerable detail in describing the attitudes toward Jesus that are held by those who are unsaved, by those who are not converted, by those who are unbelieving, by those Peter says are disobedient. But I prefer to stick with our single word, “precious,” noting that “precious” is what Jesus is to those who believe. But those who do not believe do not see Him as “precious.”
Oh, to be sure, it is common in these days of false Christianity and decisionism[10] for just about everyone to say “I love Jesus” and to protest that Jesus is “precious to me.” But let’s consider not the words of any man or woman, but the deeds of those who are disobedient.
How does disobedience show Jesus to not be “precious,” thereby exposing a lost individual? Because, if Peter’s words are to be believed, Jesus is “precious” to those who believe, but He is not so esteemed by those who are disobedient. Can you imagine a person holding Jesus as “precious” refusing to support Christ’s Church with voluntary gifts? I mean, how can Jesus be “precious” when that which is important to Jesus is not important to you, when that for which He shed His blood is not important enough for you to shed your shekels? Perhaps it is possible to be a believer and not give tithes and offerings through Christ’s Church, but I have a difficult time seeing how one can hold Jesus to be “precious” while at the same time crippling the Gospel ministry, crippling Christ’s cause, with such thievery.
How about prayer, devotions, and witnessing? Such is the inhaling and the exhaling of the soul. This is spiritual metabolism. So, how can one effectively maintain such a life without devotion to Christ, holding Him to be “precious?” Notice that I said “effectively.” Lots of lost people engage in such activities, but without a precious Savior, how can such efforts be effective? Didn’t Paul write,
“for me to live is Christ”?[11]
And then there is attending Church. Used to be that if you were a Christian, you attended Church faithfully and that if you didn’t participate in Church faithfully, you likely weren’t a Christian. But all that seems to be changed now. For the first time in human history, large numbers of professing Christians allow government diktats to rule how they worship and serve the living God. Somehow and in some way, devotion to Christ, holding Him “precious,” has become disconnected from Church attendance in people’s minds. But though devotion to Christ may be disconnected to Church attendance in people’s minds, the two are very much connected in God’s mind. And one of the ways in which you can tell that you do not hold Jesus as “precious” is your low estimation of Christ’s Church, which is His body. Throughout the Covid lockdown, God has given us a season of clarity rather than confusion for those who have the eyes to see.
I could go on and on. I could expound on First Peter 2.7-8 at great length. But my design is to stay very simple, remain bread and butter basic, and drive home a single nail with this topical message. There is a fundamental distinction between those who are saved and those who are lost, those who believe and those who are not believers, and it has to do with our estimation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If He is to you “precious,” really “precious,” it is and can only be because you are a believer. And if He is not to you “precious,” if He is not the chief cornerstone of your life, if He is to you a rock of offense, and if you stumble at the Word (which is to say, you will not treat Jesus as “precious” in these few ways I have described), then it is evidence of that to which, as Peter writes, you have been “appointed.”
Let us leave behind this confusion and error that allows for those who believe in Jesus and those who do not to pretend to live the same, pretend to believe the same, and pretend to esteem Jesus the same. That is not so. “Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.” To unbelievers He is not “precious.”
The thrust of these introductory remarks are directed to the way people feel about the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think it’s appropriate to describe whether Jesus is “precious” or not to you in those terms. How do you feel about Jesus? What do your feelings for Him prompt you to do?
Some people say that Jesus is “precious” to them, but they don’t want to hear anything about the story Jesus told of a boss who hired different workers and paid each of them different rates for their work. Different rates of pay to guys who did the same type of work? That’s right.
Other people say that Jesus is “precious” to them, but they object to what He said about being able to judge a tree by the fruit that it bears and that “by their fruits ye shall know them.” They say Jesus is “precious,” but they’re always spouting, “Judge not lest ye be judged.”
Other people say that Jesus is “precious” to them. Still, they are so much in love with family members or spouses and feel so indebted to them that they are willing to go to Hell rather than admit to themselves that if what Jesus says about salvation is true, then the loved one is bound for Hell for sure. They’d best not follow their lead or accommodate them. Yet others say that Jesus is “precious” to them. Still, the idea of surrendering lordship over your life to someone else, anyone else, even the Lord of glory, is so repulsive that you will not really, that you will not truly, that you will not genuinely consider coming to Christ.
And then there are those of you here today who openly, admittedly, publicly reject Jesus. I don’t think any of you here today would stand up and badmouth the Savior or would like to consider yourself His avowed enemy. But for some reason, you have not come to Him for forgiveness and cleansing and life, because He is not “precious” to you.
Setting aside, for now, the issue of a sinner’s depravity and an inability to see spiritually, much less to do spiritually, let me spend a few minutes talking to you about the Lord Jesus, moving from the way you “feel” about Jesus to the Jesus about Whom you feel. I am absolutely convinced that who and what I think Jesus is compares in no way to who and what any unsaved person thinks Jesus is. I think that somewhere in this grand transaction called conversion there is a revealing by Jesus of His true nature, His real essence.
Or should I say, there is an illumination of truth already contained in the Word of God so that the Jesus of the unbeliever is never exactly the same as the Jesus of the man or woman or child who is a believer.
First, THERE IS THE JESUS OF THE UNBELIEVER
This is your Jesus if you are unconverted. This is your Jesus if he is not “precious” to you. And I must think that, about Him, you must be wrong in some way, since it is sometimes so very difficult for me to grasp why a sinner does not come immediately to Christ.
What’s wrong with the One Who breathed into Adam’s lifeless body the breath of life? What’s wrong with the One Who wrestled with Jacob until dawn so He could save him from his sins? What’s wrong with the One Who stood with the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace and who stopped the mouths of lions to save Daniel’s life?[12] Why is He not “precious” to you?
I think I know. You ignore that He kindly offered Himself as the water of life to the woman at the well.[13] You ignore the fact that He was Rahab’s scarlet thread hung out the window that saved her and her whole family from slaughter.[14] You ignore the fact that He is the Great Physician Who gives sight to the blind, Who repairs withered hands, Who casts demons out of afflicted and affected children, Who makes the lame walk again, and gives life to the dead.
You completely overlook the fact that He is the angel of the LORD, Who encamps round about them that fear Him and protects them.[15] Such things as walking on water don’t move you or faze you at all. That He can quiet the storm and calm the waves, that He fed Israel for forty years with manna in the wilderness, that He parted the waters of the Red Sea, that the Tabernacle in the wilderness was a picture and type of Him, means nothing to you.
I know what it is with you. I know what you see when you ponder Jesus. Turn to Hebrews 11.24-26:
24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.
Jesus was “precious” to Moses because Moses wanted deliverance. So Christ was Moses’ deliverer. He delivered Moses from the pleasures of sin, from the damnation of sin, and eventually from Egyptian bondage. But you don’t see Jesus as deliverer at all. You see Him as the depriver, for Jesus would deprive you of the pleasures of sin, would deny you the sin you so greatly enjoy, or the sin you look forward to enjoying some day.
Yes! You don’t come to Jesus because you see Him differently than a converted person does, differently than any believer does. That’s what it is. You don’t want to be delivered from sin, so of course, you don’t want Jesus. He came to save His people from their sins! But you are one of those who love darkness rather than light because your deeds are evil, John 3.19.
Then, THE JESUS OF THE BELIEVER IS SEEN VERY DIFFERENTLY
The believer knows that the fire of judgment is coming, so he wants a savior to stand by him the way Jesus stood by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. The believer knows he deserves the death of the cross just as much as those two thieves on Mount Calvary did, so it’s important to him that Jesus has heard his “Remember me in thy kingdom” when he looked to Christ for forgiveness, for cleansing, for life.
The lost child or teen, or young adult may think he will enjoy the pleasures of sin forever. But the maniac of Gadera knew what sin is like once the thrill is gone, and he was left in the clutches of the demons who ran him naked and defiled.
Too many girls think its cute to act sexy and to tease and entice men with their looks. But ask Mary Magdalene, or the woman at the well who’d had five husbands, or the woman caught in the act of adultery, about the accompanying shame and humiliation, about the destruction of other people’s lives caused by their sins. Do you not think those women were persuaded that Jesus is “precious?” Do you not think they were thankful for the shed blood of Christ? Think again.
Consider and ponder a sinful lifestyle and its pleasures. What activity can you dream about that hasn’t been done by numerous members of this Church before their conversion? There was a time when our members thought like you that Jesus was one who deprived them of fun, who ruined their plans, who interfered with their success at sinning. The wildest and most evil sins you can imagine have been committed by some who are now members of our Church, from homosexuality to whore mongering, from drunkenness to drugs, and every other kind of corruption you’ve thought of.
But look around you now. Do you see anyone griping about Jesus the depriver, Jesus the One Who takes the fun out of life? You see here only thankfulness, only gratitude, only rejoicing. As well, you will see regret. Regret that they ever committed such sins. Oh, they are sorry they did those things, even as they now hate such sins. There is also regret for those innumerable others who committed those same sins, but who will never come to Christ, who are either already dead or who are irretrievably bound by those sins.
A friend of mine was absolutely correct when he declared so often that “sin will take you farther than you want to go, and will keep you longer than you want to stay.” Jesus is “precious” to believers because He saves sinners from their sins ... but not many, and certainly not all. And maybe not you, unless you come to Him now.
So much turns on only one simple word, the word “precious.” First Peter 2.7 declares to us that to those who “believe he is precious.” Face it, my friend. Jesus is not “precious” to you, and you cannot by an act of will make Him “precious” to you. He is only “precious” to those who are believers, who know the joy of sins forgiven, who have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
If you will come to Him, if you will cast yourself upon Him for the forgiveness of your sins, for cleansing in His precious blood which was shed for you, then He will become “precious” to you. You will esteem Him greatly when He has forgiven all your sins. You will think much of Him when He has given to you His precious Holy Spirit to indwell you.
And you will see Him to be as “precious” as He is when, after you’ve been converted, you know in whom you have believed and are persuaded that He is able to keep that which you have committed unto Him against that day, Second Timothy 1.12.
Come to Christ, my friend. Come to Christ, young person. Come to Him now. And we will soon speak with each other about how “precious” Jesus is to each of us.
__________
[1]This understanding of the Greek text is challenged by A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures In The New Testament, Vol IV, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1933), page 97,J. Ramsey Michaels, 1 Peter, World Biblical Commentary Volume 49, (Nelson Reference & Electronic, 1988), pages 104-105, Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle Of Peter - NICNT, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1990), pages 89-90, and Wayne Grudem, The First Epistle Of Peter - TNTC, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988), pages 104-105. It is not my intention to expound on the meaning of the verse, but to deliver a topical message about the Savior.
[2] Exodus 3.5
[3] Joshua 5.15
[4] Daniel 3.24-25
[5] John 11.43-44
[6] Luke 23.43
[7] https://vomkorea.com/en/2019/09/24/vomk-report-72/
[8] https://www.persecution.org/2022/01/14/28-murdered-jihadist-attack-south-sudanese-christian-community/
[9] https://www.foxnews.com/politics/afghanistan-most-dangerous-place-christians-following-biden-withdrawal-watchdog
[10] Decisionism is the belief that a person is saved by coming forward, raising the hand, saying a prayer, believing a doctrine, making a Lordship commitment, or some other external, human act, which is taken as the equivalent to, and proof of, the miracle of inward conversion; it is the belief that a person is saved through the agency of a merely external decision; the belief that performing one of these human actions shows that a person is saved.
Conversion is the result of that work of the Holy Spirit which draws a lost sinner to Jesus Christ for justification and regeneration, and changes the sinner’s standing before God from lost to saved, imparting divine life to the depraved soul, thus producing a new direction in the life of the convert. The objective side of salvation is justification. The subjective side of salvation is regeneration. The result is conversion.
[11] Philippians 1.21
[12] Daniel 6.16-22
[13] John 4.7-26
[14] Joshua 2.12-24; 6.22-25
[15] Psalm 34.7
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