Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, we are here by your grace and by your plan, and we thank you for that. And we thank you for the purpose to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so, Father, we ask that things would be clear to us, would have understanding, and then that would be followed by application genuine heart listening application, Father, to the things of your word we ask in Jesus' name, amen. We're at verse Peter, chapter two. And we're headed for the end of verse three and verse four. But let me read from the first of the chapter, the first verse. you know, whenever you have the word therefore in scripture, it's a call to remember what's gone before and kind of a summarizing of that. And it's about our so great salvation that has been brought to us in by the work of Jesus Christ alone who died on the cross for our sins, and that was the central thing of his coming, that he would bear our sins in his body on the cross. He said, but for this purpose, facing the cross, but for this purpose, I came into the world. So therefore, because of this great salvation, our sins forgiven, new life in Christ, indwelling Holy Spirit, fellowship of other believers, all kinds of things, wonderful things. But therefore, supposed to change our lives. Putting aside all malice and guile and hypocrisy and envy and slander, like newborn babes, long, desire intensely, long for the pure milk of the word. That's telling us what we should do. long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. It tells us that God's purpose in saving us is not over when we're saved. When we come to faith in Christ, it's an ongoing thing of growing and maturing and quite a journey. Wonderful thing. Then it says, if And that F in the Greek really would be better translated, since you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And so we looked last time at these aspects of God's kindness, but there was one other one that I wanted to deal with. So let's go to Luke chapter six. We're gonna come down to verse 35, Luke 6, 35, where the Lord Jesus Christ says, but love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great. And then he says this, and you will be sons of the Most High, God the Father. For he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Think of the ramifications of that. But let's go to another verse here. Matthew chapter five, similar. But Matthew five. And we're gonna come down to verse 44 and 45. taken from the same message, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. And get this, for he causes his son, son S-U-N, to rise on the evil and the good. You know, he could do that otherwise. Remember in the plagues, it was dark among the Egyptians and the enemy. What if he just, the sun only came up for us, for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. And he could do that too. He could have the rain end right at the field of the believer and the next one over is no rain. So you got a drought over there and the one who calls all the stars by name and created them, he can do anything that he would want to do and he's kind to those who oppose him. And you know, I thought about this. And isn't it wonderful that he was kind to us when we were unbelievers? And you know, you think of whatever sins you and your past were involved in as an unbeliever, and how God didn't strike you dead. Do you know how that, he kept you alive. in your rebellion, my rebellion against him. And David said this, go to Psalm 68, 20. David said, to the Lord belongs escapes from death. Now, I suppose that causes some type of memory to come up in your mind of when you knew that you were in a situation where you might die. Could be a car accident, could be a sickness, could be, who knows? But let me get there. 68 and verse 20, for God is a God of deliverances. And we could take it, put that with what our thought is right now. And he's a God of deliverances to unbelievers as well, as far as He had to keep you alive till you came to faith in Christ, and I just think what a blessing that is. And you think of being a young person, and if you're like me, you did a lot of stupid things. And in doing those stupid things, you put your life in jeopardy. And God was gracious to keep you here. So to the Lord belong escapes from death. And you know, it's interesting if we go back to the book of Job. Now, remember, Job was the most righteous man on earth at that time. And he had, it's clear, a wonderful walk with the Lord. All of a sudden, his life absolutely got turned upside down in a myriad of ways. In so many ways, things were totally family. He lost his sons, his daughters. He lost his livelihood. He lost his health. And when his friends came, his three friends, I sometimes have trouble calling them friends, but when they came, they arrived at this opinion. Job, these things couldn't have happened if you were a godly man, if you were doing what you should have been doing. Because their thing was, well, God just strikes down the ideals harshly with the unbelievers. In other words, what they were saying is God's not kind to unbelievers. Well, Job, in his presentation of the other side, Job 21, I love this section, where he's arguing against what they're saying. And so Job 21, and we're gonna start in verse seven. So he says, it's Job speaking. Why do the wicked still live? How come they're still alive? You know, it sounds like from what those friends are saying, it ought to all be gone by now. Continue on. Also become very powerful. Their descendants are established with them in their sight and their offspring. before their eyes, their houses are safe from fear. Neither is the rod of God on them. He's saying exactly opposite of what his friends are saying. His ox mates without fail, his cow calves and does not abort. They send forth their little ones like the flock and their children skip about. They've got kids and the kids are happy jumping around and so forth. And they sing to the timbrel and the harp and rejoice at the sound of the flute. They love their music. They spend their days in prosperity. And suddenly, they go down the shield, and then all of a sudden, they die, okay? And then he talks about their attitude, and they say to God, depart from us. We do not even desire the knowledge of thy ways. We don't even wanna know about you, okay? We do not even desire the knowledge of thy ways. Who is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what would we gain if we entreat him? And then he says this. Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. And I believe what he's saying there is God is the one that is keeping them alive, okay? Their prosperity is not in their hand. And then he says the counsel of the wicked is far from me. Okay, so back to 1 Peter, moving to the next verse. First Peter, chapter two. Let me read again. I'll go from verse two. Like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, and coming to him as to a living stone, So here we enter into really a pretty vast treasure in the word of God that reveals Jesus Christ as stones, rocks, all kinds of symbolism that teach us about Jesus Christ. And so this says, and coming to him as to a living stone, and he's gonna, this is a building illustration here, stones being used in a building. Peter's gonna develop that, the Holy Spirit's gonna lead him to give us God's word on that. But I wanna try to look at some of these great pictures in scripture of Jesus Christ as the rock, the stone, the foundation, it goes on and on. It's incredible what's revealed. So let's start in Matthew chapter 16. And in Matthew 16, starting in verse 13. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he began asking his disciples, saying, who do people say that the Son of Man is? In other words, what are people saying about me, Lord Jesus Christ speaking? And they said, they knew what was being passed around, and they said, some say John the Baptist. Some, Elijah, famous Old Testament prophet, and others, Jeremiah, another one, or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ. the anointed one, the Messiah, the one promised from all the way from the book of Genesis all the way through the Old Testament, the one that the Jews should have been so attuned to his coming. And they rejected him for the most part. So Peter says, thou art the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. the Son of the living God. You're the promised one throughout the Old Testament. You're the fulfillment of those wonderful promises, and you are God. You're the Son of God. Okay. Powerful. And Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. In other words, this isn't something you just came up with. This is from God at work in you. Because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And then he said, and I say, that you are Peter. That's the word petros. This verse is a battleground, but I don't think it needs to be. But he says, you are Peter, petros, which means a small rock or a stone. And upon this rock, Petra, Okay, that's a huge rock. I thought it was interesting, I never thought of this before, but all of a sudden I thought, isn't that interesting that, I don't even know what to call it, but that place that's carved out of stone where you can go into this huge rock, Petra, you heard of Petra? I have to think that's why they called it this, and that gives us the idea of a huge rock, okay? And I say to you that you are Peter, a small rock, a piece of rock. And upon this rock, bedrock, huge rock, I will build my church. And the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. Like I said, this is a battleground passage. And the question comes down to, the Lord says, and upon this rock, I will build my church. Well, what is this rock? That's huge. And Roman Catholicism says what? The rock was Peter. And Protestants disagree with that. They believe that he's talking about that Peter has just made a statement about Jesus Christ as the Son of God and as the Messiah, and the church is gonna be built, like the rest of scripture says, on him. It's on Jesus Christ. He's the foundation. No other foundation can be laid, Paul says, than that which is laid, which is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. This is a beautiful one. 1 Corinthians 10, and we'll start in verse one. For I do not want you, Paul says to the church at Corinth, I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers, Jewish people, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then the ones coming out of Egypt, our fathers, so it's looking forward to the Exodus generation, we're all under the cloud. Remember the Shekinah glory, cloud by day, pillar of fire by night when they came out of Egypt? And all passed through the sea. The sea was rolled back and they went through and the Egyptians were destroyed when they followed after them. Waters came back over them. And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And all ate the same spiritual food. And here we go. And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them. And the rock was Christ, okay? And that word is Petra, okay? The rock that follows a big, big rock. Okay. And then let's just be reminded of this. Let's follow up a little bit on that and go to Exodus 17. Exodus 17, and we'll start at verse 3. So they're in a situation out in the desert, having come out of Egypt, and there's no water. You know, that's a dangerous situation, to be without water in a dry place, and with no visible remedy, no way you can just come up with water. Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water and they grumbled against Moses and said, why now have you brought us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So Moses cried out to the Lord saying, what shall I do to this people a little more and they will stone me? Evidently it was the idea, we gotta get rid of this. You know, what kind of a leader is this? He led us into a place where there's no water, let's kill him, okay? I love what the Lord says. And the Lord said to Moses, pass before the people. You know, go out in front of them. Well, you know, what did Moses just say? They're gonna stone me, you know? Well, you know, you'd probably rather here, get back away from them. and I'll take care of them. At any rate, the Lord says, pass before them and take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile. That's the rod of judgment, okay? And go, behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb. and you shall strike the rock. Now, we know the rock is Christ and the symbolism that we're looking at, and he's gonna be struck when he goes to the cross and dies for our sins. and out of that will come the water of salvation. And so he says, you strike the rock and water will come out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he named the place Masa and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel and because they tested the Lord saying, is the Lord among us or not? Okay, now let's go next. to Numbers, a later event, where again, there's no water, and it's still in that desert region. Numbers chapter 20. And in Numbers 20, we're gonna start in verse seven. So again, there's no water. The people are being ornery again, and that's an understatement. This is interesting. The Lord says, take the rod. We're going to find that that's a different rod. Take the rod and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock. Jesus Christ was struck as the rock, and the New Testament says he died for sin once for all, the just for the unjust. It would be totally inconsistent for the Lord to say, strike the rock again. Now he is what? Our great high priest, and we can speak to him. So first the rock is struck, perfect symbolism. Now, the next time, the rock is to be spoken to. And he is our great high priest and represents us before the Father. And we can come boldly before the Father in our prayer. And we're told to do that. last part of verse eight, you shall thus bring water for them out of the rock. By what? By just speaking to it. And let the congregation and their beasts drink. Moses took the rod from before the Lord. That tells us something. There was a time in the rebellion when the Lord said that the people were claiming to have access that they didn't have. And the Lord said, all you leaders of the tribes, bring your rod, your staff, and and write your name on them, okay, and they went in before the Lord, and the next day, Moses goes in, and he gets the rod, and Aaron's rod is what? Aaron's rod butted, had almonds on it, okay? It was incredible what had happened. And so he brings out these rods, and everybody else's is the same, but God is saying, and then this is supposed to be kept before the ark. And so when the Lord says, take the rod, I believe this is really important, he's saying, not the rod of judgment, but the rod of the priesthood, take that rod, take the rod, It's in verse nine. So Moses took the rod from before the Lord, just as he had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, here's where everything goes off the rails for Moses. And he said to them, listen now, you rebels. He's not speaking to the rock, he's speaking to the people, and he's extremely upset and angry with them. And notice what he's doing. He's taking upon himself to judge the people and to pronounce judgment on them and to set them straight and so forth, and says this. Listen now, you rebels, shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock? I think what Moses is saying, I don't think you deserve a drop of water out of this rock. Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Whoa. So he messed up the type. We still know what it should have been, but instead of speaking to the rock, but was God gracious, and what does it say? And Moses lifted up his hands, struck the rock twice with his rod, and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you have not believed me, then do what I told you to do, to treat me as holy. He didn't treat God as who he is. He intervened, he got into a place where he shouldn't have been. And then this sentence, to treat me as holy in sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. You wanna know, I think, what Moses' great desire was? I want to bring those people, I want to bring them across, you know, the Jordan and into the land. And God said, you know, he spent 40 years waiting to go into the land, you know, ultimately, and then by this one act, he couldn't go. And he asked God to, Let him go. And the Lord said, if I remember correctly, speak to me no more of this. You're not going to go into the land. And so he got to go up and look into it from a high place. And we sing that song from Mount Pisgah's lofty heights, I view my home and take my flight. You know that hymn? Well, he was up on Pisgah looking in, but OK. Let's go next to 1 Peter chapter two and verse six. Here's another kind of rock. Quote from the Old Testament. For this is contained in scripture. Behold, God speaking, I lay in Zion, I lay in Jerusalem, a choice stone. a precious cornerstone, something to be built on. And he who believes in him, person, trust in Christ, who died on the cross for your sins and rose again the third day, and he who believes in him shall not be disappointed. When you believe in this rock, you're not believing in a literal rock, you're believing in Jesus Christ. That's what the gospel is all about. This precious value then is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone. You know, there's this thing that comes out of, but it's very hard to identify. the validity, but the account is that there was a, when they were cutting the stones, that there was a stone that was brought down to the temple, the Temple of Solomon, and it didn't seem to fit, and it was set aside, and that later, they found it fit perfectly. Okay, so all those stones were cut away from the temple, huge stones. I read about another stone in another place that was 50 feet long and like 12 feet wide. all cut, and you know, it's just amazing things. There are places where we can see today where they built, and you can hardly put like a credit card between them or a piece of paper between them, and those things were cut somewhere else. And how did they move things that big? You know, it's just, a lot of it's an enigma today. And even with our equipment today, We'd be hard-pressed to do that, you know? It's fascinating. Okay, let me come down to verse seven. This precious value then is for you who believe, but for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone. They rejected him, they put him on the cross, and he was raised up from the dead to be the chief cornerstone, okay? And it says, and what if you reject Christ as so many do and so many of the Jewish people did? A stone of stumbling, trip over him, okay? But not only that, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, for they stumble because they're disobedient to the word and to this doom they were also appointed. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may, here's what we should do as believers in Christ, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Okay, then, let's go to Luke chapter 20. Luke 20 and verse nine, where we'll start. So here's the Lord speaking to the Jewish people in his day, during his public ministry. And it's clear that they're against him at the preceding passage there. And he began to tell the people this parable. He says, a man planted a vineyard. The Old Testament tells us that Israel was God's vineyard, very clearly stated in the book of Isaiah. Okay, a man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine growers and went on a journey for a long time. And at the harvest time, he sent a slave to the vine growers in order that they might give him some of the produce of the vineyard. But the vine growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. You think of the Old Testament, you've got the Jewish people, wonderfully provided for by the Lord, and he sends prophets. And what do they do with the prophets? Remember what Stephen said just before they stoned him to death? Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? What a question, okay? All right. He sent a slave to the vine growers in order that he might get some of the produce of the vineyard. And the vine growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send another slave. And they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send a third. And this one also they wounded and cast out. And the owner of the vineyard said, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. That's Jesus Christ, okay? Perhaps they will respect him. So now after all these prophets throughout the Old Testament have been, some of them have been put to death and some of them have been, you know, they've been persecuted and so forth, and he says, I will send my beloved son. Remember when the Lord came and at the baptism, what did the Lord say? God said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Perhaps they will respect him, but when the vine growers saw him, they reasoned with one another and said, this is the heir, let's kill him that the inheritance may be ours. And they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. What therefore will the owner of the vineyard do to them? It was quite a parable, powerful. Notice, he will come and destroy these vine growers, and will give the vineyard to others. Whoa. And when they heard it, they were listening, and they knew what he was just, they knew he was talking about them. And they said, may it never be. You know, never be that God is gonna take us out of, we're not gonna be his vineyard, okay? Here's the power. But he looked at them and said, what then is this that is written? The stone, Old Testament prophecy of Christ. The stone which the builders rejected. This became the chief cornerstone. They rejected him, as I said. They put him to death. But then he was resurrected and raised up from the dead. And now he is what? The chief cornerstone. They thought they were rid of him and they were certainly not. And so the stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone. And then he says this, everyone who falls on that stone, Peter talked about a stone to stumble over, okay? I think of how many people have stumbled over the account and the record of Jesus Christ, you know, and all the confusion and the things that are said. Oh, he was a good person, so we just need to follow him. You know what? We can't follow him because we need to be born again and given the Holy Spirit and made righteous in order to do that. He's not an example. I mean, he ends up being an example to believers who were born again, but He says, everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but here's another thing, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. In other words, there's a judgment coming, the great white throne judgment. Jesus Christ is going to fall in judgment on those who have rejected him, and they're going to be separated from him forever. We will stop there. Father, what grand things are revealed in your word concerning the rock? We think of, we sing, rock of ages, cleft for me. The only safe place to be from the wrath of God is in, clefted in, in the crack, so to speak, hiding in the Lord Jesus Christ. And how we thank you for the privilege of being in him, safe. only because of his death, burial, and resurrection on our behalf. What a wonderful thing, and we trust, our trust is in him and in nothing else. We thank you for that, in Jesus' name, amen.