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Amen. Amen. 1 Peter chapter number 2, and just a couple things here. Now chapter 2 emphasizes a lot of the things that we see, topics that are covered in chapter 2, deal with the replacement of the priesthood in the New Testament. You'll see the importance of showing forth His praises through holiness, abstaining from fleshly lusts, and submission to God's ordained authority, but also to employers. And in fact, in chapter 2 is where we find the famous passage in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9 regarding the chosen generation, the royal priests, and in fact, that's the verse that we have on our wall here. And it's a great passage of scripture that just kind of deals with all these topics but just bundled up together, and they all have one to do with another. Now look at verse number 1 of chapter 2, it says, Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile, and hypocrisies and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. Now why is he stating there in verse number 1, Wherefore, laying aside, and then he goes through these list of sins, malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, evil speakings, well, he says, Wherefore, he's referring to what's just previously been said at the latter end of chapter number 1. Look at chapter 1 and verse 22, we didn't get a chance to really cover this last year, or last week, excuse me, got my days off. Seeing you have, look at verse 22, Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of men as the flower of grass, the grass witherth, and the flower thereof fath away. But the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. So what is he referring to here? He's talking about the fact that the word of God, specifically the gospel, is that which purifies the soul. What is that talking about? It's talking about salvation. Because when we get saved, our flesh doesn't get saved, but our soul gets saved, right? It's purified. It becomes sinless. That's the only aspect of our being that is actually without sin, is the soul. It's the spirit. And he's using that, he's talking about that, and he's using it in tandem with the word of God. And then he goes into verse one of chapter two, saying, Wherefore, because you're saved, lay aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy, envying, and all evil speakings. Verse two, as newborn babes, now that should ring a bell, shouldn't it? John chapter three, in order for us to see the kingdom of God, we must be born again. It says there, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow into salvation. No, it just says, grow thereby. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. So notice that in chapter one, verse 22, it says, Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth. Now when people think about that, a lot of false cults who believe in a workspace salvation they'll use that to say, see, you have to obey in order to be saved. You have to obey the commandments, you gotta obey the truth. But that's not what it's talking about. In fact, the Bible tells us that there are people who do not obey the gospel of Christ. What does obedience to the gospel look like? Well, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved is a commandment. And in fact, it's the only commandment that we have to keep once, right, in order to be saved. We have to believe on Christ once and we can purify our souls. But then it deals with this matter of sanctification because then it says, wherefore lay aside all these things, okay? Now this is important because a lot of false versions of the Bible in English and in Spanish render verse number two as saying, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow into salvation. A lot of them say that. Because in English, these modern perversions of the Bible, they'll say not grow, they won't stop it at grow, they'll stop it at grow into salvation. And in fact, the most notorious one for doing this, in my experience, from the Spanish world is the reign of Valera 1960, where the reign of Valera 1960 will literally say, para que creescais para salvación. Now look, you don't have to be a Spanish professional, just have your bachelor's degree in Spanish language in order to understand what that's saying there. Salvación is saying salvation. And I've talked to many people about this problem in the 1960 and they will try to tiptoe around the tulips and say, well, you know, it doesn't really say, you know, salvation, we understand in context, in context what it's saying. And knowing context, salvation means salvation. And we're not gonna say salvation in regards to this matter of sanctification because in context, you don't read the Bible in order to grow into salvation, right? You believe the gospel in order to be saved, but you don't even believe the gospel in order to grow into salvation, does that make sense? And look, people have used every excuse under the book as to why the 1960 says, you know, salvación, you know, others say salud, look, at the end of the day, it's wrong, it's just wrong. Oh, back in the Greek, it says this, well, actually, in the Greek, it does not say that. The only time the Greek text will say that in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 2 is in the corrupt text. Because I have both of them, I have the text and I have the corrupt text and guess what the corrupt text says, it says sotirios, and guess what sotirios says, salvation. You know, so don't come at me with, oh, you know, in the Greek, you don't even know what it says in the Greek. And if you did know Greek, you would understand it says sotirios, which means salvation. You know, what you need to do is take that Reina Valera 1960 and throw it in the trash where it belongs, or use it as toilet paper. Because the Reina Valera 1960, you know, it's equivalent to like the New King James version of the Bible, okay? And yet you have independent fundamental Baptists all across the country with their Spanish ministry, which I'm not against the Spanish ministry, but they'll, you know, these independent fundamental Baptist churches who are King James only, be it their Spanish pastor, uses a Bible that's equivalent to a New King James Bible in a different language. Yeah, that's wrong. The 1960 has many problems, I mean, primarily the one that basically just removes hell completely out of the Bible. You know, it never uses the word hell once in the Bible. You say, what does it use, adés, céol, oh, you know, people know what that means though. And that's funny because I just led a lady to the Lord a couple months back in Spanish, and when I was explaining to her the second point about, you know, her going to hell because of sin, she said, well, hold on a second, hell exists? I said yes, and I showed her from the Bible, she said, wait, wait, my Bible doesn't say that. I said, what kind of Bible do you have? Pulls out in 1960. She goes, this Bible, I've read it many times, she goes, it doesn't have the word hell in it. I'm like, yeah, well, that's a false version. And I was very kind of her, I wasn't, you know, trying to like just jump all over her, but I was explaining to her, hey, that's a false version. The Bible here says hell exists. And you know what, because of that, she ended up getting saved. They know what it means. No, they know what infierdo means, you know. They know what hell means, they know what infierdo means, céol, adés, whatever you want to call it, no one knows that, okay. And it's wrong. You know, here we see that as newborn babes, as a newborn, again, child of God, we ought to desire the sincere milk of the word so we can grow. Now look at verse number, or I'm sorry, go to James chapter one, hold your place there. So before salvation, we don't have to lay apart, you know, malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, evil speakings in order to be saved, amen. Because all we have to do is obey the gospel. But you know what, after salvation, if we're going to grow, we have to lay apart those things. See, in order to grow as a Christian, you do have to repent of your sin. Most Christians just have that backwards though. They believe in order to be saved, you have to repent of your sin. No, once you're saved, you have to learn how to repent of your sin. Why? In order to grow, in order to be able to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you do have to lay apart some things from your life. Why? Because ye that love the Lord hate evil. You know, you need to depart from evil, you need to clean up your life in order to live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord. And in fact, look at James chapter one, verse 21 says, it says, Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholden his natural face in a glass, for he beholded himself and goeth his way and straightway forget of what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continue with therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. So what is this telling us? The person who deceives himself is the one who hears preaching about sin but doesn't lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, they're not getting right. So they like hard preaching. They like to, you know, hear preaching against the fags and, you know, preach against Zionism and preach against the pre-tribulation rapture and amen to all of that. But that person, when they walk away, if they're not cleaning up their life, they're deceiving themselves. Why? Because they're looking into the perfect law of liberty and they're not doing the word. Be not hearers only but doers also. Lay apart all filthiness. And why? For you to be saved? No, in order for you to grow, okay? You know, if you're not careful, you can get so caught up in the dynamic of preaching, the dynamics of preaching, but you don't actually try to clean up your life. You know, that's not gonna profit you anything. You need to make sure that you receive with me this thing, grafted word, but that you're also repenting of sin, you're getting right. And look, don't come to a place where you're like, well, I've already repented of my drinking, my fornication, I'm good to go. You know, you're like a vehicle, okay? Why? Because once you fix something on a car, something else breaks down, right? Once you like fix one thing, it's just like another thing is just like, oh man, it's just one thing after another. One thing, especially if you have like a junky car like myself, amen? You know, one thing is messed up, another thing, or you fix one thing, another thing gets messed up, it's a continual process until it just dies and you give it to the city as a free gift, amen? Go to Ephesians chapter four, but don't be a forgetful hearer, be a doer of the word. Grow thereby, and notice the Bible tells us in 1 Peter chapter two, desire the sincere milk of the word. It doesn't say you'll naturally desire it, right? It just says you need to desire it in order to grow thereby. So what does that take in order for you to desire the Bible? Well, it takes you working on not desiring that which is wicked, that which is sinful, that which will take your attention away from the Bible. It's called replacing your appetites, amen? We believe in replacement theology, amen? You know, we don't come into the Christian life with the right appetites. We desire worldly things, we desire movies, we desire the wrong type of music, and all these things drown out our desire to read the Bible. So therefore, you need to discipline yourself to get rid of those things and read the Bible till you can get to a point where you're not just reading it out of discipline, you're reading it out of what? Delight. Well, you desire to read the Bible. The Spirit is being fed, the new man wants to read the Bible, the new man is growing, it delights in the law of God. But that happens as you put away certain things. Put away the rap music, put away the rock music, put away the movies, put away the things that will kill your desire for the Bible, okay? Look at Ephesians 4 verse 22, it says here that he put off concerning the former conversation, the old man. And that's not talking about like your speech, when it talks about conversation, it's referring to your conduct, okay? Conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. So notice that the order of sequence here. He says you need to put off the old man and then you need to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. You know? That's why the Bible tells us even in James chapter four, you know, cleanse your hands you sinners, purify your hearts, you double minded. So often what God wants first is a physical putting away of the flesh, physical putting away of sin and then we get our hearts right afterwards, okay? Why? Because your walk walks and your talk talks but your walk talks louder than your talk talks. You know, God wants to see some action. You know? If you're just, you draw nigh unto God with your lips but your heart is far from Him, you know, it's a different story. Look at verse 24. And then you put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man's truth with his neighbor for we are members one of another. Be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil, so on and so forth. So it gives us instructions of what to do, how to put off the old man and we understand according to this list, the old man is referring to the things that we do, lying, right? Deceit or lusts, giving place to the devil. And lust doesn't always mean sexual desires, lust is just desiring something that doesn't belong to you. The Bible would also use the word covet to desire something that doesn't belong to you instead of being content with the things that you have. Now go back to 1 Peter chapter 2. So he says, wherefore lay aside all these things. He talks about malice, envings, hypocrisies, guile and evil speakings. He says as newborn babes, because you obeyed the gospel, you should desire the sincere milk of the word so you can start growing. And look, that's the goal. That should be your goal. After you get saved, start growing. And it starts with just coming to church obviously, you know? Coming to church, hearing the preaching of the word of God, but then applying that what you're hearing. And look, mark it down. When you talk to anybody who has grown a substantial amount, they'll tell you, obviously it's because I'm reading my Bible, but it's because I started coming to church faithfully. Look, in my personal life, when I first got saved, I was a Sunday morning only Christian. I would only come to church on Sunday morning. But not because I didn't want to come Sunday night. I didn't even know Sunday night existed. And then they told, you know, my old pastor got up, he was the assistant pastor at that time and he said, nothing will help your Christian life more than just coming to church faithfully. They called it four to flourish. You know, you go to Sunday morning, Sunday night, or excuse me, you go to Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Thursday night. You're like, oh, you went to Sunday? Yeah, I went to Sunday school. I was a Sunday school student for a long time. But you know what? They taught the Bible and they helped me a lot. Now, we'll never have Sunday school class here because there's no reason to have it. Why? Because when you get enough Bible in one sermon, then most churches have both in Sunday school class and in their sermon, okay? So we'll just put them all together. We'll just teach you as we're preaching, amen? And then the kids can stay in the service too, amen? So you know, when he said that, I was like, I want to grow. And if he says that's true, look, and at that point, at that time I lived in Downey and my church was in Long Beach. So I would drive there Sunday, I would go there Sunday morning, come back to my house during the afternoon, drive back there Sunday night, and Thursday after work. And you know what? It helped my growth more than just being in church because I began to learn, I began to grow, I began to get the fellowship that I needed. I began to, you know, my sins were starting to get preached against, which helped me to lay apart all filthiness, amen? So that's what it's for. Not to grow into salvation like the 1960s says, and look, don't use the 1960s when you're on so many. You know, there's some Bibles back there that you can use, but for the most part, you know, never use the 1960. If you don't, we don't use any other versions of the Bible other than the King James. In Spanish, it goes the same way. You know what I mean? The only difference is you just don't use the 1960. Use the Reina Valera, Gomez, use the 1602, look, the 1543 is a good version of the Bible, right? Is it the 43? 59? La Bibli del Oso, that's a good Bible to use. You know, pick that Bible up, buy it online if you have to, use that, but stay clear from the 1960. And that offends a lot of Spanish pastors today. I mean, I've talked to Spanish pastors where I show them that difference, and they're just like, I don't know, I don't know, I'm like, why are you even a pastor then? What do you mean you don't know? In fact, one of the reasons, I used to be a Spanish ministry pastor, one of the reasons that I stopped was because I was using the 1960, and I'm preaching around, I'm like, this is wrong. All this is wrong. They're not gonna let me use another version, then I don't wanna be the Spanish pastor. So here's the option, just step down, is that, I mean, is that, oh, but then I can't be a pastor. Then you're being a pastor for the wrong reasons. You know, throw that thing in the trash, it's better to be right with God than to receive the acclamations of your pastor buddies. You know, forget the 1960, it's trash. And I say that proudly and loudly, it's garbage, it's trash. And if you have a problem with that, come to me with the 1960, and I'll show you where it's trash. I'll pick it up, I'll say, here's where it's trash, boom. And I'll quote you the verses, you can look it up later on, where it's wrong. I mean, look, when they say that Jesus Christ is like unto the gods in Daniel, you know, when it says the fourth is like unto the Son of God, and it says the fourth is like unto the gods, that's blasphemy. You know, you're speaking blasphemy, try to explain that away, okay? Don't even get me started. Look at verse number four. To whom coming as unto a lively stone disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Now the word disallowed simply means rejected, okay? You'll see that multiple times in the Bible, and you'll see it used also in tandem with rejected, or I'm missing the other word that it uses, does anybody remember? The stone which the builders rejected, disallowed, refused, okay? Now this statement is a fulfillment of the prophetic chapter in Isaiah 53. Now go to Isaiah 53, hold your place there. So the lively stone is referring to Jesus Christ, and the Bible tells us here that Jesus Christ was disallowed indeed of men. What does that mean? He was rejected of men. Now this is true, of course, of just mankind in general, but obviously we'll see later on that it's more specific towards Israel and the Jews. But it's a reference just of mankind in general, because look at Isaiah 53 and verse number one. It says here, who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we did hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Now a lot of times we focus on the Jews, and rightly so, and I'm gonna do that in just a little bit, but this is actually applicable to just people in general, because the vast majority of people in the world reject Jesus Christ. I mean, when we go out sowing, we see a lot more people reject us than accept Jesus Christ. Right? And the Bible tells us that that's just the way it is. It's always gonna be that way. You know, broad is the way, narrow is the way that leadeth them to life, broad is the way to destruction, and many there be that go there at, right? More people are gonna go to hell than are actually gonna go to heaven. Why? Because more people are gonna reject Christ. He's disallowed of men. He's rejected of men. And this is important for us to understand because so that you don't get discouraged when people reject you. You know, this concept of let's win the entire world to Christ is not factual, it's not biblical. Let's preach the gospel to the entire world, that's a better phrase. You know, let's preach the gospel to every creature, that's far more biblical than let's win the world to Christ. Why? Because the whole world's not gonna win Christ. You know, you got a bunch of reprobates out there that are not gonna be won. You got a bunch of God-hating, you know, atheists and fagnostics that hate God, and they're never gonna get saved. So it's an unrealistic statement to say let's win the world to Christ. And you know, I used to say things like that, just my zeal was misplaced, I didn't really understand. But when you come to terms of what we see in verse number four, that he's disallowed indeed of men, he's rejected of men, it goes to show you not everyone's gonna accept Christ. Now, a lot of them are, but the vast majority of them are gonna reject him, okay? Go back to 1 Peter. So it tells us there that he's the lively stone disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God. By the way, that's a great phrase to meditate upon. He was rejected of men, but guess what, he's chosen of God. And like men are with us, we're rejected of men, but when we're rejected of men, we're accepted of God, okay? As long as we're right with God in God's eyes, it's all good. Look at verse five. Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Brother, Mark, thank you. So what is it telling us here? Well, the phrases that it's using here is obviously eluding to the fact he's using phrases from the Old Testament, because he talks about the spiritual house, the holy priesthood, spiritual sacrifices. These are things that are associated with the Old Testament. And the Old Testament priesthood was made up, if you remember the sermon that I preached a couple weeks ago, the Old Testament priesthood was made up of who? Not of all Israel, right? But specifically of the tribe of what? Levi. And of the house of? Here we go, who said that? Who said that? I'm just kidding. Yeah, it was Aaron. You're right, you're right. Yeah, the house of Aaron. So the office of a priesthood was not just for everybody. It was only for the tribe of Levi, and more specifically than that, I mean, it was narrowed down more than that, it was for the house of Aaron. And more specifically than that, they had like requirements, like you couldn't be crooked back and you have to make sure you had your stones working. I mean, I'm not being inappropriate, that's what the Bible says. You couldn't have a flat nose, you couldn't have any blemishes or imperfections about yourself in order to fulfill the office of a priest. Now this is significant because in the New Testament, the Bible tells us that we're born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of men, but of God. So in order to become a part of the New Testament royal priesthood, you have to be born into the family. Just as if you wanted to be a part of that Old Testament priesthood, you had to be born into the house of Aaron. That's what the Bible tells us here, that it's a spiritual house. It's not the house of Aaron, it's a spiritual house. You know, in the Old Testament, you had to be a part of that nation, and more specifically, a part of the tribe of Levi, whereas in the New Testament, it's a holy nation made up of all believers. So now the priesthood has completely changed, okay? Now it's those who are believers, we're not born of blood. It's not because we're part of some, you know, the tribe of Levi, house of Aaron, because you know, by the way, it says dwarfs, right? It says anybody who has any kind of blemishes, and if you're any kind of, if you're a person who has any kind of blemishes, hey, you're in good company, amen? Because none of those things are required for you to be a part of the royal priesthood. You can be tall, short, you know, fat, ugly, beautiful, whatever it may be, God's not looking on the outward appearance. What is he looking at? He's looking to see if you have the righteousness of Christ imputed upon you, because that's the only thing that matters, okay? And that's a wonderful thing there. Now, the priesthood back then was a fleshly house, a physically separated priesthood offering up what? Animal sacrifices, right? But things have changed, and now it's not a physical house, it's a spiritual house. You say, what's changed in regards to the sacrifices? Well, the Bible tells us that the sacrifices that we're offering up today are spiritual sacrifices. Now, go with me, if you would, to Romans chapter 12. He said, what sacrifices are we offering? Well, keep in mind that the high priest was the only one who was allowed to go into that holy place, right? Just as in the New Testament, who's our high priest? Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus Christ was not only our high priest, he was actually the one who actually sacrificed himself, right? Because he's the lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world, so he fulfilled both of those offices, the high priest as well as the animal sacrifice. He was the lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world. Well, in that manner, we're not the high priest, but we are the priesthood. Well, he said, what are we offering up? Well, we're not offering up animal sacrifices, we're actually offering up ourselves, okay? Now, in Romans 12 verse 1, it says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So what is the sacrifice that we're offering up? Ourselves. It's a living sacrifice. You say, well, how does that look? Well, it says right there, holy, acceptable unto God. And in the beginning of 1 Peter chapter 2, what does it say? Wherefore lay apart all filthiness. So how do we offer up a spiritual sacrifice of ourselves? By being holy. Because remember, the sacrifices in the Old Testament, they had to be without what? Blemish. They couldn't be all diseased and like missing an eye and looking, you know, just limping and stuff like that. You know, it had to be physically without blemish. Well, in like manner, we ourselves, you know, we need to lay apart all filthiness as well in order to be meet for the master's use. Okay? In order for us to be used of God, to show forth the praises of Him who have called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, we have to live clean lives. Because, you know, obviously we're not saved by works, but you know what? The works are the only thing that people can see. So if you're saved, you know, you believe on Christ, but you're living a stupid, wicked life, you're being a little hypocrite, and you're propagating to everyone that you're a Christian, you're being what's called a bad testimony. You know, they see you living your wicked life, involved in your vices and your drugs and your alcohol, whatever it may be, you know, and if they see that you call yourself a Christian, guess what? You're not showing forth His praises, who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. What are you showing forth? Sin? Superfluidity of naughtiness, filthiness, you're not being a good testimony. So obviously we understand that when we fight against those who believe in a workspace salvation, we need to emphasize faith only, right? But when we're talking to believers, what do we got to emphasize? Works! Clean up your life, have a good testimony, stop being a hypocrite, be the type of person that people may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Because that is the only thing that people can see, they can't see your heart. And that's why James chapter 2 even exists. You know, you say that I have faith, show me thy faith, without thy works, I will show thee my faith by my works, okay? And that's exactly what we see here. Being a living sacrifice is basically dying to self. What did the Apostle Paul say? I die daily. Does that mean he was just being killed and then they're resuscitating him? He's like, dude, I died yesterday, I'm probably gonna die today. You know, there are times in his life when it was like that, but it wasn't every single day. You know, when he says I die daily, he's talking about taking up his cross and following him. Because when you see someone taking up their cross, it meant that they were gonna go die. You know, you see someone walking with the cross, it meant that they were gonna be put to death. Well, when Jesus Christ said this prior to the crucifixion, he said, you know, if any man follow me, let him take up his cross, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Denying yourself means die to self. And that's difficult at times, isn't it? You know what's difficult about a living sacrifice is that if it's living, it keeps coming off the altar. Right? If you have a dead one, it's just there, it's not gonna move. But a living sacrifice has the option of whether to hop off the altar or not. And a lot of the times, what do we do as Christians, we just, we don't wanna die to self. We'd rather just be selfish, you know, have, fulfill our own ambitions, not have God's agenda on our planner, we'd rather just do what we wanna do. And at that point, we're not being living sacrifices wholly acceptable unto God, which is what the Bible says, our reasonable service. That's the least you can do, is to live for God, live a life that's pleasing unto him, and you do that by laying apart all those things that are displeasing unto the Lord. Now go to 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1. So this, we like to talk about, yeah, we're the royal priesthood, okay, well so are you a living sacrifice though? Are you offering up those spiritual sacrifices? You know, are you fulfilling your responsibility as a Christian to clean up your life? If not, then you're forgetful is what you're doing, you're deceiving yourself. Now you're a royal priesthood no matter what because of the fact that you're in Christ, you know what, there's a priest in the Old Testament that didn't do a good job. They offered up strange fire before the Lord, the Bible says, okay. Look at 1 Peter 1 verse 14, as obedient children, not bashing yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be holy, for I am holy. Let me say this, if you're struggling with the desire to do spiritual things, it's because you're not living a holy life. You know, it's because you're not, you're allowing certain things in your life that it's taking your attention and your desire, your appetite from the things of God. So don't blame God, you know, because you don't want to read your Bible or pray. Don't blame God because you don't have a genuine desire to win people to Christ. At the end of the day, it's because you're not separating yourself from something unto something. Because it's twofold. We got to separate from sin, lay apart that filthiness, but then we got to separate ourselves unto the Lord. You know, fellowship with God, spend time enjoying the Bible, spend time praising God. And I'm not, I'm not talking about being this charismatic Christian, okay. Look, praising God in private is biblical, amen. Loving on God. Just tell him how much you appreciate him, how much you love him, having that fellowship with him. That will increase your love for God, and when you increase your love for God, you increase your hatred for those things which he hates, okay. Now let's see here. Go to chapter two. Look at verse number seven, it says here, unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them which be disobedient. The stone which the builders disallowed, the same has become, the same has made the head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, where unto also they were appointed. Now one thing I wanted to point out, and I thought I, let's see here, I had a brain freeze, sorry. Okay, so right here in verse seven and eight, who are the ones stumbling? Well go to Romans chapter number nine, we're gonna keep going back and forth because we gotta compare scripture with scripture, amen. Romans chapter nine, who are the ones that are stumbling? It says unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same has been the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word. Now this is important because in chapter two, we're seeing a replacement of the priesthood, we're also gonna see a replacement of the people, which are the Jews, okay? You're always talking about the Jews. I thought, didn't I just preach a message about one of the major themes in the New Testament is replacement theology? You know, that's your hobby horse, that's the New Testament's hobby horse. It's constantly talking about it, and it's impossible to go through some of the major books in the New Testament without hitting on it, okay? Now look what Romans nine, verse 31 says, but Israel, so now we know who we're talking about, right? Which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness, wherefore because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Who's that? Jesus Christ. Because they didn't want to come to the realization that they needed Jesus Christ as their safe. They rejected Christ. Verse 33, as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Now we won't go through all the scriptures, but in Matthew 21, obviously, is the famous scripture where he takes the kingdom of God from them and gives it to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. So here's the thing. If they're stumbling at the stumbling stone, which is Jesus Christ, and then you have the next verse saying that we're the chosen generation, hook, line, and sinker. We're the chosen people of God. And he bases who the chosen people of God are based upon if they stumble at the stone or not. So this is what you do when you talk to someone who's a Zionist and claims to be KJV only, a Baptist. Say, look, did the Jews stumble at the stumbling stone? Yes. Well, according to 1 Peter 2 and verse number 8 and 9, if they stumble at that stumbling stone, that's the reason they're no longer the people of God. And that's why he tells people who are not a people beforehand that they are now the chosen people of God. Why? Because to him, he is precious, the Bible says. Because they're believers, they are now the chosen people of God. Now go back to 1 Peter 2 and verse number 9, it says, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You know, it's amazing how clear the Bible can be. And it's amazing that in spite of how clear the Bible is, people just still reject this concept. They reject this doctrine. I talked to a person over the phone today from my old church, amen, he's a good friend of mine. And you know, he studies the Bible, we keep in contact regularly. And he was explaining to me, he said, look, a couple days ago he called me, he said, what do you think about the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, you know? And I'm like, aw man, don't tell me we're going to get into that, you know. And I explained to him, I said, they're the same thing. And he goes, okay, great. He's like, I thought the same thing. I'm like, aw, great. I'm like, yeah, amen. That's what it is. He's like, yeah, I just, man, these people, I've run into certain people and they're like, it's not the same thing and I just like, they're just Zionists, you know, it's just, that's just how they are. And he called me today and he goes, look, he said, I printed out a bunch of scriptures where the Bible talks about using the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven interchangeably. And I went to this dispensationalist, he said, and he said, he said, look, let's, let's, he said, let's make believe that you and I agree on this. And he goes, let's just say, let's just pretend that I agree with you to this dispensationalist. Obviously, this dispensationalist knows that he's not a dispensationalist. And he's like, can you explain these verses to me? And the guy said, no. And he's like, what do you do with these verses? He's like, I don't know. And he says, and he told him, he's like, you're a graduate or you went to Bible college. I don't know if he said that you're a graduate, he goes, you're a Bible college student. How can you not know? And he's just like, I don't know, I haven't studied it. And he was, he was just like in shock, he was like, I can't believe this guy adamantly like defends his position, but yet when I show him Bible verses, I wasn't even arguing, it's just, can you just explain it to me? He was just like, I don't know. But he, what he does know is that he's a dispensationalist, what he does know is that the Jews are God's chosen people. What he does know is that, is the, is the rapture, you know, the whole, he believes in the pre-tribulation rapture, right? He knows all these things, he just can't prove it from the Bible. And I explained to this guy, I said, look, I just told someone this week, I said, you know, that the way you prove the pre-tribulation rapture, the way you prove Zionism is without the Bible. That's the only way you can prove it. Because when you use the Bible, it just falls apart. And that's the only way you can prove. Remember Pastor Idiot that I talked about on Sunday? You guys remember Pastor Idiot? How many remember Pastor Idiot? Okay. The reason I call him Pastor Idiot is because that's exactly what he is. And he's not a saved guy. If it was saved, I wouldn't call him an idiot. You know, even if we disagree, disagreed on this, in this matter of the Jews. But Pastor Idiot gets up and he, and he, and he goes over 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, because he's teaching through Thessalonians, he already finished it. He's teaching through 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, which is the rapture passage that both pre-trib and post-trib agree is the rapture passage, right? And he goes through this passage and he goes, okay, this is, this, this is where it gets a little tricky. Let me, translation, this is where I'm going to trick you. That's what he means, okay? He's like, the day of the Lord and the coming of the Lord are two separate events. That's all he said. And he's like, see, that's how you know that it's a pre-tribulation rapture. And you know, I heard that and I was like, this is retarded. So then the guy who sent me the clip, he says, hey, he skipped chapter 5. And I'm like, 1 Thessalonians chapter, he's like, yeah, he didn't preach through it. He just went 1 Thessalonians, as soon as he finished 4, he just hopped into 1 Thessalonians. I said, well, you know, you know, maybe he's not done with the series yet. And he's like, well, no, he preached it in December. He's done with it. You know why? Because 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 just completely demolishes his trickery and just completely puts it to bed because it talks about how he comes as a thief in the night, but he shall not come unto you as a thief in the night. How is he going to explain that? He can't. So therefore, he needs to not use the Bible in order to prove his theology. That's why I said, and I told this person, I was like, may this be a lesson to you. The way you prove the pre-tribulation rapture is without using the Bible. In fact, don't even preach from it. Because if you preach from it, if you preach from the Bible in context, verse by verse, you know, you're going to make yourself look real stupid. Henceforth the name, Pastor Idiot. Because to skip chapter 5, you're just showing yourself that you don't know what the Bible says. Why are you skipping it? You know, if you're right about it. But the fact remains is that, you know, these subjects have clear scriptures and it's not hard. You know, they're just people who are being unreasonable as I mentioned on Sunday. Now look what it says in verse number 10, which in time past were not a people. So this is not referring to the Jews, but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul. So again, he talks about our position in Christ, but then he also hammers in there, hey, behold holy. You know, you need to fight against that which wars against the soul. You know, the flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary to one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. It's a constant battle, right? Now look at verse 12, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works which they shall behold glorify God in the day of visitation. So now he begins to get into the practical aspect of how we lay apart all filthiness, how we can make sure that we're being a good testimony. Verse 13, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. Now look, this right here is telling us that as the children of God, we are to submit ourselves to these God-ordained authorities, amen. We don't believe in rebellion. We don't believe in anarchy. We believe in government. In fact, when the Bible says that the reprobates speak evil of governments, it's not referring to like the United States government, it's referring to someone who governs a people, you know, an authority, a ruler. Why? Because in God's economy, authorities and rulers are biblical. A church has a ruler, a household has a ruler, you know, children have rulers, so on and so forth. They have offices, jobs, they have rulers, they have bosses. There's an order the way it's supposed to go. And that's exactly what he's saying here. Now, people will take this and say, well, it says submit to every ordinance of man, so you know, if the government says for us to do X, Y, and Z, even if it's contrary to the Bible, we're supposed to do it. No, you need to put down Bill Gothard's book, which teaches that, okay? Now, if you don't know who Bill Gothard is, good. There's people like him who teach this, they say, well, you got to submit yourself to every ordinance of God no matter what, you know? Well, no, and they'll point to scriptures like this. And look, I believe what this is saying, but what this is telling us is by default, we obey every ordinance. We don't approach a certain authority with the mindset that this person's going to, you know, abuse their power, right? We don't approach the pastor or, you know, your husband with the preconceived idea that they're going to abuse their power. By default, we're just going to submit to them. But if and when they command you to do things that are contrary to the Bible outside of the ordinances of God, guess what? At that point, we don't obey. Oh, you're not being obedient, so submit yourself to every ordinance, you know? The Bible says, you know, submit to the higher powers. Submit to what you're saying. If the Bible tells us to submit ourselves to the higher powers, that's plural. You know what that means is there's more than one authority, and that authority has structure. So if the government's telling me to do something, yeah, the government is an authority, but once they command me to do something that is contrary to the Bible, then guess what? I go to the higher authority, right, which I just skip the Constitution and just go to the Bible, amen? Now to those who don't adhere to the Bible, I'll just use the Constitution, obviously, but at the end of the day, the Word of God is the highest authority. So it's not like, well, just obey no matter what. It doesn't say obey no matter what. You know, the pastor does not have the right to disobey and disqualify himself and say, because he's the ruler, you shouldn't question the man of God. No, there's a higher power other than the man of God. I mean, the man of God in the Bible in the Old Testament, they weren't the exception. You see the man of God who was deceived by the old prophet, guess what, the young prophet still got what was coming to him because he disobeyed. Even though it was the old prophet's fault, even though it was the old prophet who enticed him and tricked him, he's responsible for his actions. So here, this is not telling us, you know, submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, even if they command you to commit sin. Doesn't say that. This is what the preconceived idea that these ordinances are in accordance to the Bible. They're in accordance with the law of God. And once it goes beyond that, guess what, we no longer obey that. Pretty simple, okay? And it tells us there in verse number 15, for so is the will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. So we're not trying to be malicious, exercising our liberty, you know. But the fact remains, if we disobey the laws of the land that are contrary to the laws of God, they're gonna speak against us as evil-doers. They're gonna say we're malicious. They're gonna say we're rebels. But according to the Bible, we're not if we're obeying God's law, you see what I'm saying? And the Bible tells us that they're gonna speak against us as such. Verse 17, honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king by default. Honor the king by default, honor the rulers by default, give them the benefit of the doubt. But once they show themselves to be wicked people, we don't obey that, okay? Now go with me if you would to, go to Ephesians chapter six. I'm gonna continue reading there in 1 Peter chapter two, it says, servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thank worthy if a man for conscience toward God endured grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently. But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. Now another word for servant is just employee, right? And then you have the master, which is the employer, just referring to you having a good job. And if you've been working for any length of time, you can honestly attest that you've had bosses that are gentle, I've had bosses that are gentle, but I've also had bosses that are froward. I've had some wicked bosses, just worldly, wicked bosses that are just wicked, you know? But the Bible tells me that I need to be subject to that person even if he's froward, okay? Now if he, as a froward boss, if he commands me to do something froward, then obviously I don't obey that. But if he's froward because of the way he just cusses me out and just like wrongs me and doesn't like Christianity, you know, that's, we're not in church when we're at work, okay? You know, that's not what we're there for. We're there to work, to make money in order to pay the bills or whatever it may be. So we don't have to work in an environment if it's secular where the boss is Christian. Don't expect that. Now sometimes you will get that and thank God for it if it's actual bad to someone who's actually saved, you know? But it's not always gonna be that way. So don't expect that. Don't say, well, you know, I just, I can't stand it out there in the world. That's just the way the world is. I mean, do you remember how you were, you know, before you were saved? Remember how much of a potty mouth you still have, I mean, that you've had before, you know? You know, you remember how worldly you were then? Yeah, well, give that person the same benefit of the doubt. This person's not saved, but he's still your boss. He's a Jew, though. That's pretty froward, but look. You know? It says it right there, though, you know? And this is thank worthy, the Bible says, okay? Look at Ephesians 6, verse 5, it says, So in times of difficulty, when your boss is being really froward with you, you just gotta remember you're doing it as unto Christ, right? Do the same things unto them, forbearing, threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him. So if you are a believing boss, you ought to be kind to your employees. Okay? And by the way, if you're the boss, you have no right to be froward. Because you're a believer, and I'm not saying don't get on your employees, don't, you know, treat them like they're little snowflakes or whatever. You gotta make sure you're hard on your employees if you need to be hard on your employees. And when it says froward, it means like you're being wicked, you're being evil, you know? And you know, I can't tell you whether you should cuss out your employers or not, you know, who are your brethren, but if they're your brethren, you know, at that point, you're not really being a good employee, or a good employer, okay? You gotta make sure that you forbear threatening, be kind unto them. Because at the end of the day, you understand what the authority structure is. You have your master, which is in heaven, and he's not a respecter of persons, he will deal with you accordingly if you disobey him as well. Let's go back to 1 Peter chapter 2, and we're almost done. Look at verse 21, it says, For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was gall found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Now this is a difficult saying. I know my personal life, you know, when someone reproaches me, I have a desire to reproach them back, you know, to back talk and just kind of give it to them, and just, ah, he's a reprobate. Yeah, he's just a reprobate, you know. Well really, he's just like our enemy. He's not necessarily an enemy of God, he's just an enemy of us. Look at verse 24, Who his own self bare our sins and his own body in the tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed. And this is the first one I wanna focus on here, it says, For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returning to the shepherd and bishop of your souls. Now this is the last portion of scripture I'm gonna have you turn to, go to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. I got two more pages of notes, but don't worry, I'm not gonna go over them, okay. Now this is interesting, because it says right here, that we were as sheep going astray, but now are returning to the shepherd and bishop of our souls. Now this is a quote from Isaiah 53, in verse number five, look at verse number five says, it says, But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all. So notice that this chapter, this passage of scripture is referring to salvation, right? It's talking about how, bruised for our iniquities, for our transgressions, so on and so forth, this is in reference to salvation. But notice that it says that we are like sheep who have gone astray. And if you think about it, it's like, wait, I thought we became sheep when we got saved. But if you study the Bible, it's specific obviously to the New Testament, you often see that sheep is just referring to people. When you get saved, you become a part of his fold, okay. You think about when he talks in Matthew, he said he looked upon the multitude as a sheep having no shepherd, right? And then he says, pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. And that's referring to soul winners. So when we get saved, according to the illustration, we're like sheep who have gone astray, but when we get saved, we're brought into the fold. And in John chapter 10, it reiterates that same concept there. He says, I have other sheep that are not of this fold, and it's referring to just lost people who later on will get saved, and they will become a part of the fold of God. Now, you know, you think of the sheep who are separated from the goats, right? But that's a different illustration. And God's showing something different there. He's showing them that he's separating the saved from the unsaved. But at the end of the day, it's true that those who are unsaved can also be referred to as sheep. For example, when he sent out his disciples, he said, you know, don't go into the way of Samaritans, but go rather to the what? The lost sheep of the house of Israel. So that's another way. So when it talks about that we return unto the shepherd as sheep going astray, we return unto the shepherd, it's referring to the fact that when we got saved, we came to the good shepherd is what we did, okay? And thank God for that, amen. So that's pretty much it. Let me see here. Yeah, that's pretty much it. So what does 1 Peter chapter 2 really emphasize? It uses this matter of replacement theology, that the priesthood has been replaced, the people have been replaced, and then through that admonishes us, hey, remember how the priesthood in the Old Testament, they were holy, there are certain things that they had to abstain from, remember how they had to keep themselves clean and they had to wear specific clothing, well, in like manner, you should be holy as well in all manner of conversation. You know, you're the royal priesthood, not because you're a Jew, but because you believe, but in like manner, you should also live a holy life because of it, amen. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, and thank you for 1 Peter chapter 2. I pray you help us to continue to clean up our lives, Lord, and I pray, God, that you would help us to continue to recognize these things and help us to learn the order of sequence. Sometimes we just need to clean up our lives, read the Bible, do it, and be blessed in our deed because of it. And I pray, God, that you bless us as we go on our way. Bless Pastor Anderson as he travels down here this weekend, Lord, to preach for the church. Pray you use them in a mighty way to be a blessing to the church. And we pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen.