Built Upon God's Word Series

Series: 1 Peter

Sermon: “Built Upon God’s Word”

2 Peter 1:1-8

Pastor John Bright

1 Peter 2 “1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,

“Behold, I lay in Zion

A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,

And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,

“The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone,”

8 and

“A stone of stumbling

And a rock of offense.”

They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.

Have you ever been working outside, gotten your clothes all dirty, then put clean clothes on top of those to go somewhere? Of course not! If we are going to put on Christ (Romans 13:12-14), we need to remember to take off the old clothes mentioned here – like “all evil speaking.” Of course, that includes gossip!

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The foundation of your house is important to making sure it continues to stand. The foundation of a skyscraper is even more important. Years ago, I read that the challenge for making buildings taller and taller was not adding floors on top – the challenge is adding to the base. Three examples:

• Wilshire Grand Center, Los Angeles: 1,100 ft. height with five basement floors and 90 ft. supports. It also has a 18-foot-thick concrete mat that set a world record for the largest concrete pour in history.

• Willis Tower, Chicago: 1,451 ft. height with three basement floors and 100 ft. supports/5 ft. mat

• One World Trade Center, NYC: 1,776 ft. height with five basement floors and 150 ft. supports. The supports had to built around exiting subway tunnels and extend 80 ft into the bedrock. https://www.groundworks.com/resources/how-far-underground-are-skyscraper-foundations/

One Pure Desire v. 1-3

“1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

Last week I closed with these questions: This morning – do you love the Word of God? Do you have a deep desire for the Word of God that is like a unquenchable thirst or a gnawing hunger? When all else fails – do you turn to the words of Scripture for relief?

The next exhortation/encouragement from Peter is connected to the one from last week in chapter one – v. 23 “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” The change worked through regeneration (last week – total change) results in this one pure desire – “the pure milk of the word.” The change in desires for the things of the Holy Spirit forces us to abandon the desires for things of the flesh. This has been a real struggle in my life when I get too involved in watching the TV. It takes away from time in God’s Word and prayer. Last week I read this in the book for my Watchmen Training with the Aliyah Foundation: “I believe that people who are watching television more than (reading) the Word of God are living in idolatry. God wants us to turn off our televisions and turn on the Word of God, to spend time watching His Word, that we will be washed in His Word and conformed into His image and likeness.” (Thomas David Hess, “The Watchmen: Being Prepared & Preparing the Way for Messiah” 2019 – 5th ed.) OUCH!

So many churches in our day have been captivated by church growth techniques and have made attendance the measure of success. I have got bad news for these folks – God’s measure of success is the faithfulness of obedience to His will and His way. Obedience matters to God!

John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

Luke 11:28 “But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

1 John 5:2–3 “2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”