PETER’S 3 PRECIOUS THINGS
1 and 2 Pet.
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: The perfect solution
1. Benny is getting more and more worried about his wife Sharon's aggressive behavior towards him. So today he decides to see Doctor Levy. "How can I help you, Benny?" asks Doctor Levy. "What's your problem?"
2. "I've not come about me, doctor," replies Benny. "It's mine Sharon I've come to talk about. I just don't know how to handle her anymore. Every time I'm with her, Sharon seems to quickly lose her temper for no reason at all - and it's beginning to scare me."
3. "Don't worry Benny," says doctor Levy. "You'll be pleased to hear that curing such behavior is now no longer difficult."
"Whenever you think Sharon is beginning to loose her temper, just drink some water. But don't swallow it - just swish it around in your mouth. And keep swishing it around until Sharon calms down or else leaves the room."
4. "Thank you doctor," says Benny. "I will try it as soon as I get back home." Ten days later, Benny books another appointment to see doctor Levy. "So how is Sharon's temper problem?" asks doctor Levy.
5. "Your cure really works, doctor," replies Benny. "I've been swishing water around my mouth every time Sharon starts to get aggressive, and she's now almost normal. I can't thank you enough, doctor. But do tell me, how can a plain glass of water work so well?"
6. "I must be honest with you Benny," replies doctor Levy, "the water itself does absolutely nothing. It's you keeping your mouth shut that is the solution"
B. DEFINITION AND THESIS
1. Tonight we want to notice three precious things, that are found in the books of 1 and 2 Peter.
2. What does “precious” mean? Synonyms are “Valuable, costly, rare, prized, splendid, glorious, weighty, and influential.”
3. The word precious, as used in the Scriptures, means all of these things. Tonight I want to evaluate Peter’s three precious things and show how they’re precious to us too!
4. The title is “Three Precious Things.”
I. PRECIOUS JESUS
A. A PRECIOUS STONE
1. 4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 1 Peter 2:4-7.
2. He is the origination of the whole system of salvation, the first stone laid in its building. There was only one Cornerstone. Jesus is rare.
3. In all of Heaven there was only one Jesus Christ, who was able to be the Lamb of God and take away the sins of His chosen people. There was not another man or angel in all Heaven, who was in the least wise qualified to be our redeemer.
4. He’s also the stone upon which all other stones lean, like an anchor, which stabilizes the whole structure. We can trust in Him; He will not fail us or move.
B. HIS BLOOD IS PRECIOUS
1. “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” 1 Peter 1:18-19.
2. Before redemption, we had a worthless life. All who brag about they left to serve God are mistaken; the Bible says it was all empty and worthless.
3. We were redeemed with His blood. There was nothing of this present universe that could have helped us; only Jesus’ blood had any chance of saving us, and it was more than enough.
4. It’s safe to say that one drop of the sinless blood of Jesus is worth far more than all the wealth of the universe, and yet it took every drop of His precious blood to make the a human race clean and fit for Heaven.
4. The key to His blood’s effectiveness in redeeming us was that He was without sin. Only a sinless sacrifice could have been valuable to redeem us.
5. How about us? Do we count Jesus to be the greatest prize of all, even greater than the rarest of earthly treasures? May God help us to see He is precious!
II. PRECIOUS FAITH
A. FAITH WORTH MORE THAN GOLD
1. The second precious thing according to Peter is faith.
“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” 1 Peter 1:7.
2. We all know that gold is still considered a highly prized commodity in the financial world, that despite stocks and bonds, remains an unmovable benchmark of significant worth.
3. Yet Peter says that our faith, after being tried and found true, is worth much more than gold. Gold will perish when this universe burns up, but our faith will survive that cataclysm and still profit us in the next universe!
B. FAITH BECAUSE OF HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS
1. Peter opened his second epistle with the words, “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ” 2 Peter 1:1.
2. Peter tells us that saving faith isn’t something that we’re born with. It wasn’t natural to us, but it was supernaturally imputed by the Holy Spirit of God in conversion. And not only this, there is only one kind of true saving faith.
3. Peter referred to it as “like precious faith,” the same kind of faith the early church had. There are are many types of faith being preached today that won’t save their proponents.
4. These are faiths built on unsound foundations or faiths which really aren’t faith in Jesus. Jesus said “If you love me you will obey Me!”
5. Jesus said, “21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Mt. 7:21-23.
III. PRECIOUS PROMISES
A. PROMISE OF SONSHIP
1. “Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” 2 Peter 1:4.
2. God’s promises aren’t empty but have such huge consequences that they can change human nature to “divine nature.” The Word can and will transform us!
3. We go from being “aliens and foreigners of the covenants” to being “heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ!” From a son of Adam to a son of God! What mighty promises are these!
4. These promises lift us from a world of corruption – they purify us – and then lift us right on up into the Golden Gates to dwell with the Father forever!
5. No wonder they’re called “exceeding great and precious promises!” For time sake, let us just briefly consider a few of “precious promises” that constitute our hope.
B. PROMISE OF A RESURRECTION BODY
1. Then there’s the promise of our new body, which will be fashioned like unto His glorious body, a spiritual body. It will be incorruptible, immortal, and eternal.
2. It will not be subject to sickness, pain or death. It will never experience disease. It will not grow weary and tired. It will never grow old, but it will remain forever new, with vitality and endurance like we’ve never known in these old earthly bodies.
C. A PERMANENT PROMISE
1. Peter concluded his picture of all that’s promised by saying they’re “incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you…” 1 Peter 1:4.
2. God’s promises will never fade, never decay, never become of no effect. They will carry us to the mansions that Jesus went away to prepare and the glory and splendor of New Jerusalem.
3. They will preserve us to the wonders of the New Heaven and the New Earth, that will be far more glorious than the Garden of Eden and of this first creation.
4. Most precious of all will be the glorified Lord of Glory, Jesus Christ, Who shall reign upon His Throne, with God the Father upon His Throne in New Jerusalem.
5. So we have our Precious Savior, Jesus, our Precious Faith, and our Precious Promises. How blessed we are to be given these three precious commodities!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. There was once an old man that didn’t believe in flying in airplanes. He’d lived before flying became common and still had a distrust in those flying “deathtraps” as he called them.
2. But his wife went on a game show and won the grand prize: an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii. Everyone in the family insisted he go. After much melodrama and making out his will, he finally boarded the plane.
3. After returning, all his grown children came over and picked on him, trying to get him to admit that flying wasn’t all that bad. “After all,” they said, “you had enough faith in that plane to get in it and fly!”
4. “No,” he countered, “I never did trust it! The whole time I was sitting on it I never put my full weight down!”
B. THE CALL
1. Have you put your full weight down on Jesus? Let’s do that in prayer.
2. Lord’s Supper.
[This is a rewrite of Chris Burke’s message of the same name.]
