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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Welcome to Church Foundation Baptist Church. You can find your seats and grab your songbooks and turn to page... number what? Page number 39. Sorry for that. Good night. That was a Joe Biden moment. Taken after my dad. No, just kidding. Song 39, Crown Him With Many Crowns. In your Blue Him books. 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Song number 39, Crown Him With Many Crowns. Let's sing it out on the first. 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 1st Peter chapter 2 so we'll have the first one tonight and then our so many times are listed below do we have any salvations today? ok no salvations but people did go out so anyway I appreciate all those that went out tonight and our praise report you can see the salvations and baptisms and attendance totals from it's actually a couple weeks ago but anyway that'll be updated on Sunday and then on our right inside cover we have our upcoming events we have next week is going to be our Yakima soul winning trip our annual trip that we take up to Yakima we've knocked most of the reservations that are up there but we're knocking Yakima proper and Yakima is a pretty good sized area it's like all together I think it's around 250,000 people the whole surrounding area so it's a pretty good sized area but it's very receptive and that's why we like going there so if you're tired of running into nose around here all the time it's a good trip to go on and who all in here is going to that trip? not very many but some so it's going to be a great trip and the first night so I think Wednesday brother Robert, did you guys already book a hotel? so brother Robert is going to be there a night early he's going to be like Nehemiah he's going to just walk around and look at all the spots and Wednesday he's willing to go soul winning I think in the morning so if anybody wants to get there earlier they're more than welcome to do that I don't think you can check into the hotel until 3 but if the rooms are ready you can call or just go inside and see if your room is ready everybody has their own specific rooms there is an extra room up for grabs so if there's singles that are having a room together maybe somebody can take the Collins room they're not going to be able to make it but anyway so Wednesday evening we'll meet at Sea Galley after all the soul winning is done and we'll have dinner together the next day we'll have breakfast provided and then we'll go out soul winning and then we'll have dinner at Sea Galley again that evening and then Friday we'll have our soul winning then at 5 o'clock we're going to have Panda Express I know everybody's excited about that because it's that teriyaki anyway Panda Express for dinner that'll be at 5 o'clock at the hotel in the conference room and then at 6.30 we're going to have a church service so brother Robert are you planning where's brother Robert at? he's dealing with children okay so I just want to make sure if brother Robert if you can hear the sound of my voice right now that you would make sure that we have all the stuff that we need for filming and whatever is there anybody that's going to be able to play piano up there? I think Miss Kayla's going to be there possibly so we might need to bring the keyboard and all the other stuff that we need to film and do the live stream but the preaching service will be Friday night at 6.30 and then Saturday we'll just usually we just have breakfast and whoever wants to do the clean up maps like maps that weren't done anybody that wants to kind of do some soul winning on the way out of town is welcome to do that so that's kind of what we usually do so then we'll just head home and business as usual we'll be back for church on Sunday and then October 8th we have Miss Amy's baby shower that's going to be at 11 am here at the church building she's registered on Amazon and if you have any questions see Miss Alejandra she's the baby shower queen here she's better than the queen of England no I'm just kidding but she is October 22nd we have the busy farms pumpkin patch trip and that is for all the church members are welcome to go to that it's not just a homeschool activity and so if you want to go please sign up inside the group and our whatsapp group that's going to meet at 11 am so if you want to bring a friend or family member just let me know who all is coming how many you need how many kids you're having come with you and all that good stuff and it's absolutely free so you're welcome to come to that so October 23rd we'll have Pastor Roger Jimenez preaching for us at the 1030 am service and so we'll be excited to see Pastor Jimenez here preaching for us and it's always assuredly going to be a great sermon so very excited to see Pastor Jimenez and then October 27th there's going to be a preaching service in the Seattle area there's more to come on that and then October 28th is the soul winning trip to Blaine Washington and I got to say that these events are up in the air at this point because supposedly Canada is going to open their borders on the 30th of September so if that happens then we are going to hit the northern border and we're going to go and have a church service with our brethren up there supposedly it's going to be no restrictions no masks no shots no jabs none of that stuff and so I think you do have to have a passport and your children probably I think have to have their birth certificate but other than that it'll be free to go but there's a possibility with the leader that they have there that they might change their mind about that so we'll just play that by ear by the 30th we'll know for sure but Pastor Jimenez isn't going to be able to make it for this trip either so Pastor Jared Pazarski is going to be preaching regardless of whether we have the place reserved at the border where we're always meeting so that's locked in so but we haven't paid for the building we just have it kind of reserved for now but if the border opens up we're going to change that whole schedule there Pastor Pazarski will be preaching but it'll be Saturday so anybody is welcome to stay throughout the weekend if that happens me and Pastor Pazarski are going to fly home we have a men's preaching night here we have a chili cook off thing I'm here but anybody's welcome to stay for Sunday but the service is up there if that's what we do anyway it's a lot of what ifs right but we'll know for sure really soon next week we'll know so and then we also have yeah I already mentioned everything so anyway we're a family integrated church that means children and infants are welcome during the church services please utilize the mother baby rooms for your convenience make sure that the dads are going to the dad baby room with their children and then put moms into that building or that door back there and reserve the backrest for families with young children we have a lot of space in here tonight so I'm not really too worried about it but the gliders and rockers are for pregnant nursing mothers and elders only please no men going into the mom baby rooms or vice versa during the church services no unintended children in any area of the building and then please make sure you're not eating in here and silence your cell phones if you would at this time or place them in airplane mode escorts to your vehicles are available by the ushers to take you to your car should you need to after the service just tap one of the shoulders of one of the guys that have the pin on their jacket that says usher and our online donations are available on our website and our text giving number the tithes and offerings that have come in so far are at the bottom of the page and then of course we have brother Ramon's birthdays today he's not here but happy birthday brother Ramon and we sang happy birthday to him anyway so also congratulations to the Ortega family for the birth of Celisa Laurel Ortega she weighed seven pounds and three ounces and she was nineteen and a half inches long she's very cute and so make sure that you congratulate the Ortega family they should be coming back to church fairly soon and uh let's see anything else nothing else in the bulletin so let's sing another song and then we'll receive the offering alright our next song is song number 585 softly and tenderly song number 585 in your blue hymn book softly and tenderly song 585 softly and tenderly let's sing it together on the first softly and tenderly Jesus is calling calling for you and for me see on the portals he's waiting and watching watching for you and for me come home come home ye who are weary come home earnestly tenderly Jesus is calling calling oh sinner come home why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading pleading for you and for me why should we linger and heed not his mercies mercies for you and for me come home come home surely you are weary come home earnestly tenderly Jesus is calling calling oh sinner come home time now is fleeting the moments are passing passing from you and from me shadows are gathering when death are coming coming for you and for me come home come home ye who are weary come home earnestly tenderly Jesus is calling calling oh sinner come home come home for thou wonderful love he hath promised promised for you and for me thou we have sent he has mercy and pardon pardon for you and for me come home come home ye who are weary come home earnestly tenderly Jesus is calling calling oh sinner come home amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen Alright, thank you for playing that Gnia and we are going to go through our prayer requests here, and got a call from Dr. Drew, Br. Drew and he's been having some health problems some health problems so he wants us to pray for him. Also for my wife, Ms. Sherry, she was in the ER today. She's been having some complications from a procedure that she had on Monday, so if you would just keep her in your prayers. Also, we have the mothers who are expecting Ms. Chantel, Ms. Amy, Ms. Madison, Ms. Nikki, and also I have an unspoken for tomorrow. If you would pray for me tomorrow, I'd really appreciate it. And also for Ms. Lisa Taverner, an unspoken for her. For brother Steve Bogman, for a prayer for wisdom and mercy in God's grace. Brother Ramon for an urgent unspoken prayer. Also for Ms. Amy, for medical issues that she's having. And also for her mom and grandma to have smooth transition into new housing. Ms. Alana has an unspoken. The Luwai family has a prayer request for Chris to get up quickly and get home and so they can get back to California. And they're also asking for prayer that they be able to get back into a housing place down there once he gets back. Sarah Miller, prayer for employment and also any prayer for serenity and endurance. I think they have some other newer ones up here. Let's see, just for a hedge of protection about our churches and churches of like faith that God would just protect us and help us to be bold. Also for Canada's borders to open up for sure, that'd be a great prayer. And we do have a building in theory for Spokane, so pray for that to go through. I should probably hear something tomorrow about that. And also for our church in the UK, a prayer for him all around. And for, let's see, the Bada family's unspoken for brother Alex and Mishila and Ethan for prayers for losing loved ones. And also for a great trip in Yakima. That's a great prayer there. We would see many saved and we'd at least plant some seeds for sure, but we want to see many saved. And we have some Spanish speakers that are going to be going there and that'll be very useful for us because there's a lot of Spanish-speaking people there. So anyway, let's go to the Lord in prayer for these prayer requests. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this great church and we pray that you just bless it and continue to help us to be just a church that would just go out and continue to preach the gospel no matter what happens. And Lord, pray that you help us to always stand up for what's right and true. Pray to watch over all the ladies that are expecting our church that they'd have safe and healthy deliveries. Pray for all those that are mentioned with the health issues that are going on. Pray that you just watch over to bless them and keep them. And we pray, Lord, for those that are looking for employment or having other issues. Lord, for all the unspoken that I mentioned, Lord, pray that you just bless those and answer them according to your will. Lord, help us with your grace and mercy. Watch over the churches that we have as satellites in this church here. Lord, help us not to get complacent and start just backsliding. Lord, we don't want to be backsliding. We want to always be moving forward. Pray that you just bless these prayer requests as they've been read and prayed for. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Verse one, the Bible reads, A spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. 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. And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into the marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, 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 lusts, which war against the soul, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may be your good works, which they shall behold glorify God in the day of visitation. 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. 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. Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Servants be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the frower. And this is thankworthy if a man for conscience, conscious, toward God endured grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if, when you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently. But if, when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even here unto were you called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was gallop 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. Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. Brother Brandon, will you pray for us? Amen. Well, we're in 1 Peter chapter number 2, and we've already had a couple sermons out of this, out of the first chapter, and now we're going to have two sermons out of this chapter. So this is, I guess, part A or part 1 of this chapter. So let's look down at our Bibles at 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 1. The Bible says, Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings. So right off the bat, Peter's taken people to task for not living a holy life and saying that we need to lay those things aside. So if you remember the first chapter of 1 Peter, basically we kind of, I was just like, the first sermon I preached was kind of an overview, and that overview basically talked about how he wrote this to strangers. So I believe that he's talking about just people that are saved, that are not necessarily Jews, but maybe they could have been converts that got converted after they were converts, because when the Bible talks about strangers in the Old Testament, it's talking about people that would become Jews and then attach themselves to that faith, but the faith got corrupted, and so now Peter's talking about strangers, and he talks about them a lot, and the actual book is written to the strangers elect according to the foreknowledge of God. But maybe it's just a little play on words. It could be that he's talking about a different kind of strangers, and we'll get there as we move along in here, but I did want to just kind of, you know, one of the themes about Peter is he kind of admonishes us to live a holy life, and any preacher that's worth his salt is going to admonish and even reprove and rebuke people to live a holy life, and that's what he starts out doing. He did it in the last chapter, talking about girding up the loins of our minds and being sober and hope to the end of the grace that is brought unto you at the revelation of Christ as obedient children, and so on and so forth. So he's preaching us great doctrine in these books, but he's also, you know, admonishing us to do right, to do good, and here in verse one he says, wherefore laying aside all malice. So that would just tell me that, you know, obviously as Christians we are capable of having malice and guile in our hearts and hypocrisies and envies and evil speaking. So, and I'm just going to define some of these words for us because we might not use these words in modern vernacular, like most people don't say malice in their regular vocabulary, and they might not even say guile. I mean they're words that we know, but not necessarily some word that we use on a regular basis, but hypocrisy, that's one that people got down when it comes to Christians, people that aren't Christians, and people that are, and then obviously envy is another word that's not usually, I mean we use it, people use the word jealous, you're just jealous, but in reality they're not using that word right. So jealousy is something that you're, you're, you know, you're wanting, you know, you're upset about something that's infringing on something that's yours, like your wife, you'd be jealous for your wife, and today that's like, it's like a bad word or something. Why are you so jealous of your wife? It's like, well we're supposed to be, you know, God is jealous of us and doesn't want us to worship other gods, well as a man you should want other men to look at your wife or want your wife or try to, you know, do something with your wife, that's your wife. So jealousy is okay, jealousy is the right thing to be, but malice is where that person might not belong to you and then you want them and you're upset with the fact that you can't have them. So malice means the intention or desire to do evil, you have ill will towards someone, so we need to lay those things aside, we need to lay aside malice, we need to lay aside that, why? Because we shouldn't have an intention or desire to do evil, that's why, because as Christians we are supposed to be different, we are supposed to, you know, live a cut above, we are supposed to live a good life in front of other people, why? Because we want other people to be saved. So if you're the Christian on the block that's screaming and yelling, you know, and obviously that happens sometimes, but like if people look at you and they're like, there's those Christians, there they go again, that's a bad testimony, it's a bad testimony to you, it's a bad testimony to your church, and you know, again, obviously things happen, you know, sometimes we get in arguments, sometimes, you know, we're yelling at the kids or whatever, but you know, when people see that they go look at, so they talk about being, you know, having these great marriages and stuff and look at theirs, it's a mess. So we don't want to be where we're, you know, the ones that are causing someone to stumble and fall and not get saved, right? Or making another Christian fall because of our bad behavior, right? So guile is the word guile is defined in the dictionary as insidious cunning or deception or duplicity. So insidious cunning or deception. So when Jesus saw Nathaniel, he said he was without, you know, truly an Israelite who was without guile, right? And basically he's saying, you know, he's a man that's not a deceptive man, and another way of saying that would probably be he's very blunt and honest about things. You know, in this world, if you're blunt and honest with people, people get really upset. And it's just like, now you can be blunt and honest without being rude, you can be blunt and honest without being mean, but sometimes you have to be blunt and honest with people, because that's the only thing that will get through to them. And I was reading this thing because I just came back from the UK, but before I went there, I was like, what are some of the, you know, the top problems in the UK? And one of the articles I was reading said that they don't really say what they want to say. So they might mask it in some kind of words to, and that would be guile, right? So they're masking how they really feel, but at the same time taking a jab at them with their words that they're saying, you know? And Canadians, you know, a lot of Canadians I know, they don't do that. They just like say, they'll just be like super blunt. And it's just like, wow, you know? But I like that. You know, it's a little different when you're not used to it, but Americans are the same way as the British are. We don't want to be really rude and what we would, you know, we would say rude because if you're blunt with somebody, people think it's rude, but it's not necessarily rude. But it's just like in the South, you know, people say, well, bless your heart, you know? But that's an insult. They're not really saying, you know, God bless your heart. They're basically saying you're stupid, right? So it's not really, you know, oh, bless your heart. It sounds sweet. It sounds nice, but it's rude, isn't it? So, I mean, we got to be, we got to say what we mean and mean what we say. And so to not have guile, to not have some insidious, cunning or deceptive way to talk with people. You know, you're always looking for the angle. You're always looking for a way to say something without saying it. You know, sometimes people will say things and they'll say they're joking, you know, and we all do that. But sometimes people are saying it and saying they're joking and they're really not joking. They're really just trying to take a jab at you and then pull it back so that you can't say anything. Well, I was just joking. You know, that's what people do. So obviously, hypocrisies, we all kind of know what that is, but I just kind of looked at the definition anyway. It's the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform or to pretend, you know, that you're something that you're actually not. Now, I believe that there's different degrees of hypocrisy. The Bible talks about some hypocrites that are just devils. You know, their end is to be burned. When Job is talking about hypocrites in the Bible, he's talking about ones that are pretending to be Christians. They're pretending to be saved, but in reality, they're not. And so that is a really truly evil person, someone that would pretend to be saved or pretend to be a Christian so they could get in and do some kind of evil damage. That's the worst kind of hypocrite. Now obviously, Peter's talking about Christians here. He's saying, hey, we need to lay these things aside. Let's lay aside the hypocrisies. And, you know, when you say that you have some kind of, you know, you have some high standard, but then you're breaking that standard behind closed doors, then that's not right. That's hypocrisy, isn't it? But I mean, some, you know, everybody's a hypocrite at some point in time, probably every day to a certain degree. Or we'll have a real high standard over here about this and a real low standard over here like this, but then you'll look down about to people maybe because you have a high standard here and you keep that high standard, but your standards in another area are low, that could be another way of being a hypocrite. But, you know, people that are not saved can be hypocrites too. You know, one of the things that people like to say against church and about organized religion is that, you know, it's just the church is just filled with hypocrites. Well, you know, the funny thing about that is if you go to Target, Target's probably filled with hypocrites too. The bank is probably filled, definitely probably filled with some hypocrites. You know, there's just, there's hypocrites everywhere. Everybody is a hypocrite to one way and, you know, here's one thing that people like to say, the, you know, and this is a common saying in America, maybe it just started off as some kind of movement, but it's passed down from generation to generation. I'm not sure how far the saying goes back, but I know that everybody in this room has probably heard this. There's nothing I hate worse than liars and thieves. Who's heard that before growing up at some point in time? There's nothing, you know, there's nothing I hate worse than liars and thieves and it's like, but you're a liar. Are you sitting here telling me that you're not a liar? You know, obviously someone's a compulsive liar. You can never get the truth out of them. They're always just constantly lying. That's annoying. You know, people that like have to lie to kick it or whatever, you know, they have the better story than you did. You're telling a story and you're like, well, that's nothing. You know, I caught a fish that was this big one time and it drug me into the lake and, you know, so they're called one uppers, right? Those types of people are really annoying. So obviously there's degrees of these things, but what's Peter saying? He's saying, hey, we need to lay that kind of stuff aside and we need to lay aside evil speaking. Now, Michael Johnson might have a four point sermon off of this verse, off this word alone, these two words together. He probably has a series about how that means cussing, but it actually means slander. When you're speaking evil about somebody else, it's called slander. So slander is obviously something that we don't want to get into. You're basically talking about people and you're lying about them. So evil speaking, so what is evil? Well, evil doesn't necessarily mean the minions of Satan. It can mean that, but what does evil mean? It just means harm. So if you want to do harm to somebody, you could speak slander about them and lie about them, and that's called evil speaking when you would slander somebody else. So as Christians, obviously from verse one, you know, Peter's just kind of unloading the shotgun on us right there and just, you know, because all of us probably have issues in one part of these things that he's talking about. We're just in verse one. You know, we need to clean up our lives and so what better way to do that is to go to church and have somebody get up and tell you what the Bible says, that you should clean up your life and that we need to get better. You know, that's why we preach the Bible. That's why I'm not doing a salvation sermon on every sermon because, you know what, there's other stuff in the Bible besides salvation. Great, I'm glad you're saved and if you're not saved, I'd love to talk to you about that after the service, but you know what, we're supposed to be edifying the saints. If the saints are already saved, then there's no reason to preach a salvation sermon on every single sermon that you preach. And I've heard, I've had people get up and criticize and say, well, you know, that was good, but you know, you should have the Gospel in every single sermon. Well, how about you just go out and preach the Gospel every single week like you're supposed to and then maybe things would be better. So don't get lazy and just think that you can just get by by only doing it in a sermon that you preach. You know, get out there and actually do it. Verse number two says, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. What's the Bible talking about here? Well, babies desire milk, don't they? When they even get close to their moms, they can kind of smell it. They're just like, you know, they want that milk, don't they? They desire. It's like, you know, desire, another word for desire could be covet. So, but this isn't a bad covet. This is like, hey, I need milk, because why? Because I need to grow. And babies, you know, you feed them milk, you feed them, and then they grow. And then they start eating food. They start getting teeth. They start eating, you know, harder foods and things like that. And then next thing you know, they're eating steak and you know, putting you out of budget as a, you know, when you have four teenagers in your house at the same time and you're having steak, you know, it's just, it's like, hey, you know, we got these hot dogs for you. These are hot dog steaks. If you cut them in the half and put them on the grill, don't worry about what we're eating. You guys just eat them hot dog steaks, okay? They're really good. These are gourmet hot dog steaks. Well, our parents used to do that with us. And I hated that just as much as any kid today would hate that. But, you know, what's Peter talking about? He's talking about the milk of the word. So what is the milk of the word? Well, it's the words that you're going to find in this book right here. It's the words of God. And milk is something that's easier for a baby to handle. So if you're newly saved, you should be reading the easier parts of the Bible. And once you've consumed the easier parts and the easier to understand parts of the Bible, then you can move on to meteor stuff. But a big mistake that a lot of Christians make is that they start trying to get into things that are way over their learning ability at that time. See, God wants you to learn the basics first. It's just like babies have their basic essentials that they have to have. Well, babes in Christ also need to have those essentials. And the essentials are, you know, learning what is salvation? What, you know, why do we believe eternal security? Why do we believe in baptism? What is baptism for? Those are the types of things that we need to know. The first principles of the word of God. So Peter's saying that we as Christians should desire this. We should desire this milk of the word that we can grow thereby. See, what is Peter saying? He's saying, hey, we need to stop being a baby at some point and we need to grow up and be able to start reading and understanding the harder things in the Bible. So, you know, maybe you're a few years older in the Lord, so as a Christian the Bible says we're born again. So that's a spiritual rebirth. So you could be 33 years old, but you could be zero as a Christian. You could just be newly saved and here you are physically, you're a 33 year old man, but spiritually you're a little baby that just came out crying, right? So what is Peter saying? He's saying, hey, read the Bible. Get your milk and read it. And the Bible says, I'm not going to have you turn there, but in Isaiah it talks about here a little, there a little. You know, we're supposed to slowly learn from the milk of the word. We take a little bit from here. We compare scripture over here, here a little, there a little, and that is how we build our doctrine. So if you want to know the Bible, you're going to have to build your doctrine and you're going to have to start with the basics. So if you're a newly saved person in here, I would recommend that you start reading the easier parts of the Bible. Instead of trying to figure out the exact timing of the rapture, why don't you figure out why you get baptized? You know, those are, you know, you ever heard someone say take baby steps? Take baby steps. You know, start slow and work your way up. When you start a new job, most people have to go through an orientation where they're learning the basics of their job. Then they put you in a job that maybe has more menial tasks. You're not using the full capacity of your brain and all that stuff. You're just learning how to get good at what you got hired and then when you move up, it's because you've gained knowledge, right? You've leveled up to another level. So maybe you started as a box boy in the back, you know, cutting up boxes at a store and then now you're a team leader or you're, you know, in charge of a few people because you've learned what to do. You know your job and you can train other people and then, you know, obviously you work your way up. You level up. That's how you level up in the real world. That's how you level up in Christianity too. You level up by, you know, partaking of the type of meat or milk that you're supposed to partake in. So you don't go right to the steak. Babies don't have teeth, do they? Babies couldn't even gum a steak down if they wanted to. They'd cry. They'd probably die, you know. Steak is actually something you're supposed to feed your children when they're old enough to actually chew and sometimes kids don't always chew all the way, do they? They'll go, you know, they're like, you know how dogs do that? Some dogs will just go and then it's just gone, right? You seen dogs do that before? They're just like, you didn't even taste that, bro. It's like, what's wrong with you? So, you know, we need to understand that as Christians and maybe sometimes if you, and I would say this, if a person's backslidden, you can go back in years. You can regress, you know, like they'll say like in child training though that child's regressed a little bit or whatever, but we can regress as Christians and when you get backslidden you're going to forget the things that you were really into and you might have to relearn those things. So, you know, we need to get on our level and stop trying to be above the level that we're at. You ever know those people that like they just started and they're already trying to tell you how to do the job better than, you know, yeah, my old job we did it like this and this, just shut up, man, all right? Just shut your mouth and you just started here, buddy. Don't tell me how to do things and of course you don't say that to them, but you want to say it, you know. Well, at this place that I worked or on this team that I played on or whatever it is, you know, you're going to find people in life that are like that and those people usually are really annoying and they, you know, usually are just trying to wing their way into something that they're not really that good at. So as Christians we look at what it says in verse three it says, if so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious and you know what the Lord is gracious and so once you taste that you've, you know, you've believed on Christ, you know that He saves you by grace, then you know that you need to start drinking that milk so you can grow up and be an effective Christian and be someone that, you know, God is, you know, not proud of necessarily but like He's happy with the work and the, you know, the work and the the works that you are doing for Him and He's happy that you're growing. You know the Apostle Paul when he got saved the first thing he, you know, he started going out and preaching the gospel, I'll give you that, but he also went to Mount Sinai and then for didn't come back for like, you know, he learned from Jesus, didn't he? He learned from Jesus and got his knowledge from Christ. Obviously I'm not saying that Christ came down from heaven and gave him everything but he did teach Paul. Paul was like a prophet and an apostle and he got revelation from Christ. The Bible says that in Romans, I mean, excuse me, in Galatians chapter number one. It explains that he went to Arabia for three years and guess what? All the other disciples trained with him for three years too. All the apostles trained with him for three years. So why would he not do it? And you know why? And so why is he able to say, you know, drink the milk first because Paul drank the milk first too. He didn't just know everything instantly. You know, nobody just knows everything instantly. It's not like you just take a little disc and download it into your brain. All of a sudden I know Kung Fu or something. It doesn't work like that. You know, you have to learn here a little, there a little, you know, drink your milk first, get some teeth, work on the doctrine, start learning the more complicated things later. So that way when you're in a complicated sermon, you can follow along and you're like, hey, I understand what the pastor is saying because I've read this before like five times. You know, when you just read the Bible through, you know, I don't have a, my Bible doesn't have necessarily any notes in it. And I think that that's what we should go with. Don't get some stupid study Bible that's going to tell you what some unsaved person from the 1800s has to tell you about what the verses say. Why don't you just let the Holy Spirit that God has placed inside of you, once you're saved, why don't you let the Holy Spirit guide you into all truth and not John Gill or Charles Spurgeon or C.I. Scofield or any of these other bozos that don't even understand the Bible because they weren't even saved. I mean, come on. Spurgeon was a Calvinist, folks. He wasn't saved. So, and he was also had the biggest church in all of England, just like Joel Osteen has the biggest church in all of Texas, I think. I mean, and do you think Joel Osteen is a good preacher? Is he on your playlist at home? You're subscribed to him. I know you are. Just kidding. I hope not. Anyway, it says in verse four, to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. So, you know, we got to come to that living stone and it says we've, you know, we've tasted that the Lord's gracious, then it's talking about him being a stone, right? And a stone is hard, right? A stone is a representation of Christ because Christ is, you know, he's something that we can count on. When you sit on a stone, you pretty much know it's going to hold you up, right? Is wood necessarily going to hold you up? I mean, you know, obviously you sit in your chairs every day, but, and you probably don't think about this, but, you know, if you have faith in a, you know, I'd have a lot more faith in a rock holding me up than a rocking chair, right? There's some rocking chairs in here and I've sat in a couple of them just after church. I'm like, I like thought I was about to die. I was like, did I ruin this chair or was it already like that when I got here? But anyway, so, you know, a rock is something that we can count on, but it says disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. So God chose Jesus Christ to be that precious rock, that precious cornerstone for us. Verse five, he also has lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Christ Jesus. That's a mouthful, isn't it? But w w you know, Christ is a living stone. He's the stone that made us all be able to have life. You know, when Moses smote the rock in the wilderness that was representing Christ, the water that flows out, that saved all of them, cause they're all whining about not having water. Well, and that represent the living water that comes from the rock, which is Christ. And so we are built up as lively stones. Once we get saved, then we're like, you know, we're smaller stones. What Peter was called was, you know, it meant a stone, a rock, a smaller rock, right? And his name was Cephas. He called him Cephas and he called him Peter, but, uh, Peter's the one he's, and he's sitting here talking about, he's the one writing this book right here. And he says that you're built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood. So we're as, as saved Christians, we do have some titles that are pretty amazing in the Bible. You know, we think of ourselves as like, you know, maybe we don't think as high, we're not supposed to think high of ourselves, but I mean, sometimes we think too low of ourselves also. You know, there is a middle, a middle that you can get into, but you know, if God says that we're, uh, lively stones that are built up a spiritual house, God is trying to build the kingdom of God through us because Jesus isn't here anymore. And so he's built what? You know, he's the, he's the precious cornerstone in which everything else is built upon. When you make a great building, you know, sometimes you'll see like an old building. I was, when I was in England, I went to a castle that was a thousand years old. It's called the Tower of London. William the Conqueror conquered England in 1066. And there was actually a foundation that was already there built by the Romans. And he took, you know, a great foundation and built this giant castle with 15 foot thick walls, 90 foot towers. And it was the biggest thing in town at that time. But, you know, he built that upon something that was a good foundation already. The Romans had already left them a good foundation to build upon. And, you know, so Christ is the foundation stone. Sometimes you'll see in buildings, old buildings, they'll say, this is the foundation stone that was laid at whatever date. And that stone is the most important stone piece of that building. And the foundation, in case you didn't know, is on the bottom, right? Isn't that when you, when you talk about a foundation of a house, it's at the bottom. So Christ is that, is that stone that we're all built upon because he was the one that lived the perfect life. You know, he died on the cross for us. He shed his precious blood. He built the house. You know, the house is built upon what he did and all the, and, you know, taking all of our sins upon his back, being humiliated and stripped naked in front of everybody and bleeding and being, you know, putting the crown of thorns upon him, mocking him, spitting in his face, punching him in the face, putting a bag over his head and hitting him and saying, who, who smote you? Who hit you? You know, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, he's the one that built the spiritual house. And you know what? He triumphantly rose from the dead. He put, placed all the sins of the whole world upon himself and he built the house. Anything that came before him was still built upon him. And that might be hard for people to understand, but, but it says that we are a holy priesthood and that we are lively stones built up upon a spiritual house. And so to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Christ Jesus. So what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to offer up spiritual sacrifices. We don't have to bring oxen and the red heifer and the pigeons and all the animals for the priest to cut and bleed out to picture Christ and his sacrifice. Now we don't, we don't have to do that. So we are supposed to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Well, what does that mean? Well, once you're saved, God wants you to work for him. He wants you to work for him. Now, are you forced to work for him? No, you're not forced to work for him. But if you do, you are his servant. You follow him and you do what he says. And you know, who wants a, someone that works for you that never does anything that you say. I mean, it's annoying, isn't it? When someone works for you and you hired somebody and they're just like everything you do or everything you say, they have a reason why they can't do it. They don't get it done when they're supposed to. And you know, they, you're always constantly bickering back and forth. You know, how do you think that that works when it comes to God? You know, how, how can we do that to God while people do it all the time? They know they're supposed to be doing things for the Lord and yet they don't do them. But we're supposed to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. It's only acceptable to God by Christ Jesus. So any works that we do are laid upon that foundation. And so we're lively stones laying upon the foundation that was already put there before us. And it's only acceptable if it's put upon that foundation. There's a lot of people in this world that think that they're saved by works. But you know what? You're not saved by works. As a matter of fact, if you're not saved and you're doing works and you think that's saving you, then you're not saved because you're putting it on your own foundation. You're putting it on yourself and saying, hey, I'm doing this. This is me. But really someone else already paid the price for you. You're adding to the foundation that he's already built. And that's why we have to understand that we can't build it on some other foundation. It's got to be built upon Christ. Turn to Hebrews 10 verse 4. Hebrews 10 verse 4. The Bible's very clear about this. I had a guy email me yesterday. I've been getting all kinds of emails. But I had this one specific one. The guy says, I found one of your invitations. And he's talking about, you know, he's like 84 or something. And but first he like goes through and talks about how what we believe you have to do to be saved. And he kind of just basically regurgitates the invitation. At the end, he said, sure, Foundation Baptist Church is useless. And it's like, hold on a second. You found one of our cards. I don't know where he found it. Maybe it was on his door. Maybe it was just on a bus stop or something like that. I don't know where he found it. But that card has the key to eternal life. We put the verses on the back that show you how to be saved. Obviously, we believe that a preacher is supposed to preach to you so that you can get saved, right? But there's videos that you can link to that has the Bible way to heaven, that has the message of the cross. It has very interesting documentaries attached to it. It has an invitation to our church so you can come and learn more about the Bible. But this guy's like, your church is useless. I was just like, I kind of thought about it for a minute and just molded over us. It's like, you know, but really it isn't useless because you picked it up. And you know, just because you reject it doesn't mean that somebody else is going to reject that truth. We do have a choice. But he, I said, so like basically, what do you have to do? What do you believe you have to do to be saved? He's like, well, I was baptized like all these years ago. I'm just like, so you took a bath and you think, and you're going to sit here and condescend me about salvation, buddy? You just took a bath. That's it. If that's what you think is saving you, that you got baptized, you walked into a thing of water and that saves you, you're not saved. That's not what the Bible teaches you. He goes, the waters of baptism wash away your sins. Where's chapter and verse on that, buddy? I was like, you don't understand the Bible, sir, because if you did understand the Bible, you wouldn't be believing that garbage. I said, you're going to die and go to hell unless you get saved. You know, so he did a little bit of back and forth with me. Hopefully he ends up getting saved. Hopefully he watches those videos and sees that the Bible says something different than the thing that he's been trusting in that he took a sponge bath or something like 80 years ago. That's not how you get saved. So we have to put, you know, we have to fall upon the rock for mercy and then we build our life and we build our works upon what's already been built before us. You know, there's no foundation that we can build on our own. That foundation is going to get burned up. And even anything, if we put anything on the foundation that isn't even really a good work, it's going to burn up anyway, too. So you can put your little Jenga things on top of, you know, Jesus's rock, but what's he say it's built out of? Lively stones. Lively stones and, you know, precious jewels, you know, winning someone to Christ, winning someone to the Lord, and that person's going to be in heaven when you go up there and they go, hey, thank you so much for getting me saved. That's something that's worth something. You know what's not worth anything? Beating some homeless person that refuses to work and is shooting drugs outside of our church and then using it for a public restroom. That is not what it takes. That's going to be wood, hay, and stubble. I'm not saying don't help people. I want to help people. But you know what? Someone that just does that is, you know, I don't want to help them. I want to help them get out of here because this isn't a haven for drug use and drinking. I can't wait till the wall gets built out there so that we don't have to worry about it anymore, you know, but they'll probably still climb the fence anyway. I'll have to put barbed wire and pit bulls back there or something. Anyway, sorry, I got off on that. It's starting to make me mad. But, okay, so I had to turn to Hebrews 10. Look at verse 4. It says, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering what's not, but a body hast thou prepared for me. See, Christ's body was the sacrifice, right? And it says, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Did he have pleasure and sacrifices before? What did it say? Thou hast had no pleasure. Now skip down to verse 9. It says, then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that he may establish the second. What's he talking about? He took away the Old Testament so he could establish the New Testament, which is the second one, right? By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. See, we're sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. Not our own works, not taking a bubble bath, not, you know, repenting of all your sins. We're sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. So there's nothing added to that that saves you. We do good works because we want to, because we want to further the kingdom of God, but not because we have to to keep us saved. Look at verse 11. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. No matter how much you sacrifice in your life, without Jesus, you're not getting into heaven. It says, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. So how long is forever? It's forever, right? So he offered one sacrifice. That's all it took because he was that ultimate sacrifice. We just had to wait for him to come. He came at the appointed time. He did what he was supposed to do. And then after he had sacrificed himself, that's all it, that's all was needed. And that's why he is the rock. He is the one that we build everything upon. He is the one that we put our salvation upon and nothing else, nothing that you do. Now look at what it says in verse 14. For by one offering he hath perfected, what, what does it say there? Forever them that are sanctified. There's a good verse about eternal security right there. By one offering, which was him, he hath perfected forever. So how long are you perfect for? Forever them that are sanctified. Who's he talking about? People that are saved. Now turn to Romans chapter 12 verse 1. Romans chapter 12 verse 1. See Peter was talking about offering up spiritual sacrifices. But just know this, that the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice for salvation was already paid and it was paid by Christ. It only had to be paid one time and it lasts forever. And it sanctifies people forever and it perfects people forever. Romans 12 verse 1. A very famous verse, one of the most famous verses in the Bible. It says, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So it's our reasonable service to what? Make our bodies a living sacrifice for God. Holy. He wants us to live a holy life. He wants us to be sanctified. That's what that means. Holy, set apart, different than other people. Acceptable unto God. See God doesn't, in the Old Testament, he didn't accept just any sacrifice. You couldn't just grab some gnarly old goat that has been in someone's backyard for 10 years and just bring that up to the temple and have it sacrificed. That was detestable unto God. They had to be acceptable unto God. They had to have no blemish. They had to have nothing wrong with them. They had to be like perfect. So why? Because the picture is that that animal was a perfect picture of what Christ was going to be, which was perfect without blemish, without stain, without spot, without sin. And so that's why when we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, we should be holy also. Now obviously we're not going to be perfect, we're not going to walk on water, but we should try our best to live a life that's acceptable unto God and to serve him with that body, okay, which is our reasonable service. Not your leftovers, not the best you have to offer in your service. I mean you should have, you should offer the best you have of your service. So the first part of your time, the first part of your talent, the first part of your money, okay, doesn't it say to give of the first fruits of all your increase? So if you're given the first fruits, so what are we supposed to give God? The best of what we have. What did they give to God in the Old Testament? What were they supposed to bring to the temple? The best they had! Not the worst leftovers and the ugliest, you know, spotted brown cow that they had. One that was blind and diseased. No, he said, bring the best. Bring the first. Put me first. Why do we start, why do we have church on Sundays? Because it's the first day of the week. It's not because the pope changed the times and we're here because the pope or whatever these people are saying, these Seventh-day Adventists. We put it, we give God the first day of the week, that's a, it's just a symbol. You know, we could have church every day, it wouldn't matter. You know, it's not some sacred holy day, but it's just the time that we give to God because it's the first day of the week. What's everybody else doing? Watching football, watching baseball, going shopping, having barbecues, going boating, riding four-wheelers, whatever else that people do in this world, that's what they're doing. They're not giving their first and best to God, but as Christians we are supposed to be holy, acceptable. So it's not like, hey, haven't seen you in a few weeks. Oh, thank you for gracing God with your presence in church this week. It's like, you know what, get your hineys in church. Quit making excuses to miss church for every little thing. I have to be here. You gotta be here. Why do I have to be here and you don't have to be here? You're like, well, you weren't here for a couple of years, but I was somewhere else at church. I don't just skip church because I'm like, well, you know, someone else can preach tonight. Call Alex five minutes before the service. Hey, Alex, I need you to preach. Nobody wants that pressure, but yeah, I mean, let's give God our first. Let's not just be a people that's just like, oh, you know what, if I have time for God, then I'll just work it in somewhere. If I have time to go to church, that's garbage folks. We need to, you know, be, you know, our reasonable services to be acceptable to God. Let's do that. Look at verse number six, back in our text, it says, wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. Now notice that the Bible says that it's the chief cornerstone. That means the head, the main cornerstone. Elect, Jesus was one of the elect, wasn't he? Precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Does it say he that takes a bath shall not be confounded? He that jumps in the baptismal shall not be confounded. No, it says he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Skip down to verse seven, it says, unto you therefore which believe he is precious, and who's the you? It's you, people that are saved. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallow, the same is made the head of the corner. So what's he talking about here? Well, he's talking about, see, we find Jesus precious. We think that he's precious, we've believed on him as the chief cornerstone, elect, and precious, but there's other people that are disobedient and they don't want to get saved. And that stone, they rejected, they said, I don't want that stone. You know, and instead of putting their faith and putting their works upon Christ, they put it on themselves. Because isn't that what most people say when you ask them at the door, are you 100% sure you're going to heaven? Yes, I am. Well, how do you know? Well, I'm a good person. I mean, nine times out of ten, someone's going to say, I'm a good person, that's why I'm going to heaven. But that is not why we're going to heaven. But even people that would reject Christ outright, just that don't believe in any God, you know, it says that they are, they're disobedient. Because the Bible says we're supposed to obey the gospel, what does that mean? God is commanding us to get saved. But he's not forcing us. There's a difference. I command, you know, if you're at work, I mean, you probably can refuse to do so, especially nowadays. I mean, I've seen some really turd workers that come in, I saw a person that just refused to get out and help while everybody else is helping and they're sitting in there on their phone with their headphones on. And then when the person comes over to tell them, hey, why don't you come out and help? He tells them to F off. So, I mean, things have changed. There was a day when that person would have been thrown from the truck and, you know, hard and feathered off the property for that. But that's not how it is today. But you know what? We shouldn't be like that. That's the whole, that's really kind of the underlying part of the sermon is that we ought to be different. But these people here, they're disobedient. And they've rejected that stone. They've rejected that rock. Turn to Matthew chapter 21. Matthew chapter 21 verse 41. Matthew chapter 21 verse 41. So there's two types of people in this world. There's those people that have, you know, they've trusted in that rock. It's sturdy, it's steady, it's always there. It's paved the way for everything else. And there's people that go to that rock and they're like, I don't want that rock. That rock's ugly. That rock's bloody. That rock, you know, offends me. That rock isn't the rock that I want it to be. We think it's precious. But when Jesus Christ was up on the cross, do you think he looked precious? He looked ugly, didn't he? He was battered and bruised and beaten and you couldn't hardly tell that he was a man because of the beating he took. There's a lot of people that don't want Christ because they feel like it's ugly, it's bloody, it's gory. And it is. Because that's what it took to save people is to have someone that would do that for you so that you could actually make it to heaven. But look at Matthew 21 verse 41. It says, they say unto him, so Jesus is giving this parable where he's just, you know, talking about how he sent prophets and they've beaten them and some of them they've stoned, some of them they've killed and cast out of the vineyard. Because God's the one that lent the vineyard out to people, okay. He said to the Jews, do this work. Here's the commandments. Here's what I want you to do. And he lent out his vineyard to other people. And these people wanted to take it for themselves and ultimately they killed the son. He said, I'll send my son, surely they'll reverence the son. And then they killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. And Jesus asked them, what do you think the Lord of the vineyard is going to do when he returns? And here's what their answer is. They say unto him, he will miserably destroy those wicked men and let out his vineyard unto the other husbandmen which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, did you never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected? The same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken. This is talking about saved people. You fall on that stone, you're broken, but you're still good. Maybe you're broken because of your sins. You fall upon that rock for mercy. But it says, but on whosoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder. So there's two types of people. Those that fall on the rock for mercy and those that get ground into powder when the stone rolls upon the top of them. Two types of people. Some that find the rock beautiful and precious and some people say that's an ugly rock, get it out of here. I don't want anything to do with it. Those are the two types of people. Those that are saved, those that are not. And it says, let's see, let's move on to 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 8. Let's go back to our text. So, but here's the thing. He's still God whether people want to believe in him or not. People can still reject him, but that does not mean that he's not God still. I like that saying where it says you can believe that a semi-truck is a Stay Puft marshmallow, but when it hits you, it's going to kill you and splat you all over the pavement, right? Why? Just because you believe it's a marshmallow doesn't mean that it actually is. It's a semi-truck and it's rolling right towards you. So you can believe whatever you want. You can believe that God's not real. You can believe and reject Christ all you want. You can say that stone's ugly and I don't want to have anything to do with it, but in the end, that stone's going to roll and crush you. So it says in verse 8, back in 1 Peter chapter 2, it says, and a stone of stumbling. People be tripping over that rock, don't they? A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. It offends people. Even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient where into also they were appointed. Where are they appointed? The people that are disobedient. They're appointed to hell. That's where they're appointed. So people are offended by Jesus, people that stumble over the words of the Bible, people that trip over that rock of offense, they have an appointment and it's not heaven folks, it's hell. But it says, look at what it says about us though, the people that are saved, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now I've already preached like a really long sermon series about this verse here and I love this verse. I think it's great. I'm not going to take the time to totally break it down, but look at the things that it talks about that we are. Chosen generation, a royal priesthood. Now what does that mean? Well we're royalty. According to God, a holy nation. So even though we live in America, anybody that's saved is that nation. A peculiar people and that doesn't mean a bunch of weirdos. The people might think we're weirdos because we love the Bible and we follow the Bible and they might not agree with us, they might not like us, they might not like what we teach, but it just means that we're different. We're set apart. We're holy. We're supposed to be. And that you would show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. There's only one type of light that's marvelous and saving. It's the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because see, the Satan is called the light bearer, right? Lucifer. He's the light bearer, right? That's what these Satanists like to say that he's the one that he's giving people knowledge that God doesn't want us to have. You know, and maybe it's just knowledge that God doesn't want us to have because it's not good for us. It's bad. It's knowledge that's going to hurt us and harm us, but the fact is Jesus Christ is the light of the world. When God said let there be light, that light is Jesus. And when he made the sun for light, that was on day four. How do you explain what the light was before that? It was Jesus Christ. Look at John chapter one. John chapter number one. So he's called us out of the darkness that we were in, the darkness of sin, and called us to his marvelous light. Not the light of the sun. Not to worship the stars and the sun and on the moon and all this other stuff. His marvelous light. Look at what it says in John 1.1. It explains to us what this is. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. Who made everything? Jesus made everything. He was with God. He was God. In him was life and the life was the light of men. See he's called us out of the darkness to his marvelous light. It says and the light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. Talking about John the Baptist. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might get baptized. Is that what it says? No it says believe doesn't it? Because getting baptized doesn't save you. I'm just riding this guy tonight. But you know what it just it upsets me. How many people out in this world has he deceived and told people that all you have to do is be saved is to get baptized? Well how stupid are you? It's like come on man. But anyway the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man named John. So he was sent to bear witness of the light. And isn't that what we as Baptists should be doing too? Bearing witness to the light. Not to our religion necessarily. You know but to that light. What's the light? It's Jesus. That's what our job is. To just bring people to the light. We bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light. Talking about John. But was sent to bear witness of that light. That light was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. See God does give every single person a bit of light doesn't he? Isn't that what it says? He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. He's literally walking around as a human being people don't even know who he is. The light of the world. The life of men. Now turn to John chapter 3 19. John chapter 3 19. The Bible says and this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. So the light comes to the world but see the problem with men is that we love darkness don't we? And some people love darkness rather than light. They'll they'll shun the light. What what are the things that are in the night? What do they do when a light shines on them? They want to run. They want to get away from it. What do cockroaches do? They scurry away don't they? When you shine a light in the face of someone that's in total darkness it blinds them and they want to get away from it. It says because their deeds were evil. Some people love their sin and the way that they're living their lives more than they want to be saved. They want to stay here. They want to be in this darkness and they don't want Christ. See there's two types of people isn't there? There's people that want the light and people that don't want the light. Most of the people want the darkness and it says in verse 20 for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light. They hate the light. Who's the light? The light's Jesus isn't it? Neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. Why don't they want to come to the light? Because they don't want their deeds the things that they're doing the way that they're living the sin that they love to be reproved. They'd rather just try to claim ignorance and go oh yeah yeah well get this light out of my face and that's what happens when you come and knock on someone's door with the gospel the light you're there to bear the light you're there to bear witness to the light and when you're at their door they're like oh the light and they'll do anything they can to close the door won't they? You know I mean some people will just start to close the door as you're talking don't they? and I already know that it's just I just keep saying things because I know that that's my responsibility but you know I know what they're going to do they're going to close the door on me and we're not there to force people some people want the light though some people want that light so that they can find their way the right way the true way and the gospel sheds the light in people's hearts so that they can find that right way because there's only one right way Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me there's no other way any other religion is a false religion all the others that came before him are thieves and robbers buddha all these other people they'll go although these religions are older but it said Jesus said they're the ones that came before me are thieves and robbers Jesus came 2,000 years ago so yeah of course there was gonna be other religions before him but who started those religions the devil satan but it says in verse 21 but he that do with the truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in god see there are some people that do want the light there are some people that come to that true light there are some people that you know they want their deeds to be made manifest that they are wrought in god that means you know god helps them with the work you know we are co-laborers together with god and he wants us to work with him what other god you know small g god in this world you know wants to be working together with us he loves us to the point where he sent his only begotten son for us I mean there's no other religion like that there's no other religion that teaches that you have to believe in what god did for you as opposed to what you can do for god god doesn't need our works our works are filthy disgusting putrefying rags before him if you just walk up with all your works that's what it's like a big nasty bunch of rags who wants that I would even want to touch a big bunch of rags like that disgusting that's what god thinks of it though when we try to bring our own works to him but but my baptism not going to cut it buddy it's not going to cut it first peter chapter 2 verse 10 the bible says which in times past were not a people but are now the people of god which have not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy what's he talking about here well he's talking about the gentiles of the past you know they were you know the the jews were given and is the nation of israel is given the oracles of god they were supposed to branch everything out and you know I'm sure that there was gentiles that were saved of course there were David surrounded himself by names like you know Uriah the Hittite and you know so and so the Canaanite and Jesus one of the disciples was a Canaanite you know there was different there was different people that were gentiles but they had put themselves into that you know nation of Israel but by and large the gentiles were lost okay but now god's grafted the gentiles in together and we all are equal in Christ Jesus are all equal in Christ Jesus and that was always the plan so people will say well that's because the jews rejected god and then now the plan is the gentiles no that's not true in the old testament he was talking about that he was a light to the gentiles and so how do you explain that then and how isn't it funny how I forget what verse it is I think it's like Acts chapter 10 where it talks about the prophets all the prophets give witness you know that the way of salvation is basically through faith or what is it the propitiation no what I don't know I can't remember what the verse is right off the top of my head but I really I really like the verse huh 1043 yeah I'm gonna turn that real quick since I decided to bring it up without any notes like an idiot all right Romans 10 43 says to him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins so what do the prophets in the old testament give witness to that the through him whosoever believeth in him should not should we receive so people say oh there was a different way of salvation back then is that true is that what the bible says right there no it says that the prophets all give witness all these prophets what are they pointing to the same thing salvation has always been by faith at one so let's see Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11 Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11 I'm almost done wherefore remember that ye being in times pat and time past gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hand so this is interesting because he's saying in time past you were gentiles in the flesh so okay verse 12 and that at the time you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world so he called them gentiles didn't he and then he calls them aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and then strangers from the covenants of promise strangers right but now in Christ Jesus you ye who were sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ were made near to God by the blood of Christ for he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall partition between us having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to make in himself of twain one new man so making peace and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross having slain the enmity thereby and came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them which were nigh so he preached to the to the Jews and to the gentiles and through him we both have access by one spirit unto the father now therefore you're no more what's it say strangers who's peter writing to strangers who is paul talking about in this gentiles who were called strangers right now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God so we're no more just gentiles you know and the Jews will call us scum and goyim and cattle and all this stuff now but what's God say what's the bible say that we're the same we're all the same we're all equal but you know you have to be saved to be of the household of God of the fellow citizens of the saints and of foreigners and you know we're foreigners and we were foreigners and strangers but now we're fellow citizens with the saints now we're in the household of God and it says and are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone i don't know how it gets any more clear than that Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone were built upon the foundations of not only the apostles but the prophets also the prophets were in what testament the old testament but Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone right in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy temple in the lord in whom you also are building together for an habitation of God through the spirit now let's go back and finish up in first peter two i got two verses left then i'm done so we're building together for an habitation of God through the spirit we are fitly framed together to grow into a holy temple we are built upon the foundation so that means we're part of the building blocks right remember in first peter where we first began where it says that we are lively stones built upon the foundations that's what paul's saying too first peter chapter 2 11 says dearly beloved i beseech you as what to say strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust that which war against the soul so he brings us back again after preaching us some doctrine to saying hey you need to start living right you know i beseech you as strangers you're you know you were once these strangers and and and your pilgrims you're living in a world that's not really your home just like abraham lived in cain it wasn't really his home we live in america this is our home but really we are part of a nation we are part of the people of god we are part of the household of faith and you know we have uh we are basically really just pilgrims walking through this life and our end is not going to be here where we're at now our end is going to be part of that holy city that spiritual nation that spiritual kingdom of zion right the uh the israel you know the uh new jerusalem excuse me so having your conversation verse 12 honest among the gentiles that whereas they speak against you as evildoers they may be excuse me they may by your good works which they shall behold glorify in the day of visitation so maybe there's going to be a day when someone visit visits them and because even though they speak evil of you now even though they think you're weird now even though they think that you believe a bunch of weird garbage now but when you have a your conversation honest it's not talking about the things you talk about necessarily it's talking about how you live your life that whereas they speak against you as evildoers that you they may by your good works which they shall behold they see you doing them glorify god in the day of visitation so you know maybe they're going to get saved because of that now that would that would be what people would call like lifestyle evangelism right i'm not preaching that it's just lifestyle evangelism only or something but how we live our life does have an effect on those that are around us there's no doubt that's what it's saying isn't it yeah you can't deny that so and i'm not saying that that's you know well people be like well i'm not going solo anymore i'm going to be just showing people my good works and then that's how people are going to get saved now the bible says that people are saved by the gospel and that's what we're supposed to preach and we're supposed to go and do all right so that's the end of first peter chapter well not the end but it's uh the the end of the first part so let's pray god bless uh this church lord and we thank you so much for um everything that you do for us lord i pray that you just bless the upcoming trip that we have and lord this weekend also that lord people will just make it a priority to be in your house lord because you always have something special for us you always have something good from your word and lord you also have great fellowship with other believers in a time where we can go and let people see our good works lord that we could do those good works and that lord people when you visit them might be saved by seeing what we do and how we act and how we uh handle ourselves when we're out doing the good works that we do lord i pray that you just help us to have a heart for the people that we go to their doors and the people in our daily lives that we would think about the things that we do before we do them lord because sometimes we lose it we lose control and then we make fools of ourselves or we do something that we we shouldn't be doing in front of someone that we shouldn't be doing it in front of lord and i pray that you just help us to stop and think about the things that we do stop and think about how we're living our lives stop and think about how we're acting in front of people that might not be saved that are watching us to see how we're going to how we're going to respond to things and help us lord as we go through the rest of our weekend and bring us back to church on sunday in jesus and we pray amen all right that's the last one song number 578 just as i am in your blue hymn books song number 578 just as i am the song 578 just as i am let's sing it out together there on the first just as i am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou this be come to thee oh lamb of god i come i come just as i am and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark block to thee whose blood can cleanse each spot oh lamb of god i come i come just as i am though tossed about with many a conflict many a doubt fightings and fears within without oh lamb of god i come i come just as i am poor wretched blind side riches healing of the mind all i need in thee to find oh lamb of god i come i come just as i am thou wilt receive will welcome part and plans relief because i promise i believe oh lamb of god i come i come amen