Beacon Sunday Service - July 12th, 2026

All right. Well, welcome everyone to the beacon. So glad to have everyone here, and what a great privilege and joy it is to come before the Lord to worship Him. He has just given us every blessing in Jesus Christ. And what can we do but as His people come before Him with hearts of thanksgiving, of gratitude, and just acknowledging that He is the one who provides for us every good and perfect thing. And so as we come before Him today, let us begin with a time of prayer, just thanking Him for His goodness, His blessings, His providence upon us, His provision, all of those things. May we just thank Him for that, and then we'll begin. Let's pray.

Lord, we're just so thankful for the salvation that you have won upon that cross, the resurrection and just the victory that you have won.

So, God, may our worship to you today just be pleasing unto you. May we give you our whole hearts, our whole minds, all of that unto you. And I pray that as we come before you, even to hear your word, that as we are fed, that our lives would really reflect the love and mercy and grace that you have shown us. And so, Lord, be magnified in our midst, be glorified. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Verse nineteen to twenty-one. And it says this so then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being joined together is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord. Jesus Christ Himself is our chief cornerstone, the one in which our lives, our church is built, and it is Him who we worship today. And so can we do that today in songs and just in the hearing of his word? Let's sing together.

So amazing, Jesus Messiah, name above all name, blessed redeemer, manuel, the rescue for sinner, the ransom from heaven, Jesus Messiah, Lord of all, sing his body the bread, his body the bread, his blood the wine, broken and poured out all for love, the whole earth trembled, veil was torn, love so amazing, love so amazing, Jesus Messiah, name above all name, blessed redeem you the rescue for sinner, the ransom from heaven, Jesus Messiah, Lord of all sing all our hope, all our hope is in you, all our hope is in you, all the glory to you God, light of the word, Jesus Messiah, name above all name blessed redeemer man you rescue for sinner the ransom from heaven Jesus Messiah Lord of all again Jesus Messiah Jesus Messiah Name above all name blessed redeemer man you the rescue for sinner the ransom from Jesus Messiah Lord of all Jesus Messiah Lord of He's our Messiah Our Redeemer the one who has bought us with his own life may we just continue to sing to him precious cornerstone precious precious cornerstone precious cornerstone sure foundation you are faithful to the end we are waiting on you Jesus we believe you to us let the glory of your name be the passion of the church let the righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives we believe your to us only Son of God only Son of God sent from heaven hope and mercy at the cross you are everything you're the promise, Jesus.

You are all to us. Let the glory of your name be the passion of the church. Let the righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns. Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives. We believe you're all to us. Let the glory, let the glory of your name be the passion of the church, let the righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns. Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives.

You are all to us.

So here's the question. What sort of redeemer is needed to bring us back to God? And together, one who is truly human and also truly God, co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Always upholding the universe by the word of his power. Amen.

So we turn to Chris Treasure. There is none presus. There is none. Water word life you are forever true. Every blessing. Every blessing. Joy bounty here.

So we feel our Christ.

There is none. Oh Jesus. There is none. Grace for the guilty. Help for the need. Jesus, you satisfy our soul. For the weary.

Healer of sickness. Fountain of goodness. You satisfy our souls. Faithful provider gracious redeemer. Jesus, you said our soul mighty in power, awesome in splendor. Jesus, you send our souls, author perfection, keeper sustainer.

There is none presence there is none sin Christ or treasure.

There is none present there is none presus. Good morning, everyone. We are reminded this morning that we were made in God's own image to reflect his glory and worship him alone. Yet we continue to focus and value our idols more than we do God.

So let us corporately confess our sins together by reading the following words. O Lord our God, you have made heaven, the earth, the seas, and all that is in them. We have been created in your image to glorify you and enjoy you forever. Forgive us for stiffening our necks and not trusting your word. We are ashamed for our disobedience and chasing after idols. You who are gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Forgive us for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Please be seated. Let's not take a time of offering. If you're visiting today, please do not feel obligated to give. But as a member of our church, you see that we have our Venmozel and our offering basket in the back.

Please continue to give as the Lord is blessing you in your life. Let's pray. God, you are a perfect Father and you've always loved us just the same, no matter who we are and what we do. We thank you for just the love that you pour upon us in our lives, the way that we are blessed by what we're able to do in our jobs with our families, with our friends, and the things that you give us to sustain us to help us to live. We give a portion of that back to you, Lord, and in acknowledging the greatness. And just we ask that it is used for just furthering your kingdom to lift up this church in a manner that is pleasing to you. And we just ask, Father, that your will would be done. We continue just to thank you for just bringing back uh the Chung family from their travels and bringing Pastor Peter back to us.

And we pray that his study in the word this week was filled with nourishment and just refreshment, that not only is he physically rested, uh, but spiritually is energized, that the Holy Spirit will speak to him words that we need to hear today because it is what you desire for us to understand. We thank you for all that you do, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Children, you're dismissed. Please follow Teacher Stephen out to uh the side room. We're gonna be changing locations today. Uh as the children are dismissed, um, I'm going to uh just go over a few announcements. So we have a members' meeting and fellowship lunch. That's gonna be Sunday, July 26th. So that's gonna be in two weeks. Um we're gonna fellowship lunch is for everybody, but if you are a member of the church, we ask that you make it a point to come that Sunday and stay for the meeting so that we can have our discussion and update.

We have a beach fellowship. Uh that's Saturday, August 1st at 9 a.m. is gonna be at Dockwarler Beach. Um, there is a sign-up sheet. Uh, the event is being planned by uh the Shens, uh Billy and Grace. So if you would like to participate or ask them how you could uh just help, please contact them or let them know after service. We have a New Testament survey at the end of the summer, so starting August 2nd through the 23rd, every Sunday at 1230. It's gonna be a bring your own lunch. So please pack your lunch before you come to church so that after a brief time of just catching up and fellowshipping with those here, for all that want to stay. We're gonna be meeting back in here in the sanctuary and eating our lunch and going through Pastor Peter's chants and rhymes and fun things.

With that, I'm gonna ask all of you to rise and welcome your neighbor with grace and peace to you.

And the things of earth will grow in the light of his glory and your eyes to the hands where justice and mercy. They're the song gave his life. All right. Well, if you can, um, if you're able, please do stand back up with me on your feet, and we're gonna read uh the passage for today. First Peter two, four to eight. Can you guys uh help set this up? Okay, thank you. Uh wrong the slides are wrong. Okay, these are the wrong slides.

Hold on. Yeah, these are the incorrect slides. Um let me okay. Do you guys have the correct ones? Everyone go go back to your seats. We're having technical problems today. Um did I send the incorrect ones for today.

Is it Christ a living stone part one? It's supposed to be part two. I sent it wrong. I'll be right back. Sorry.

And it reads, and coming to him, as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God. You also, as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes upon him will not be put to shame. 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, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this stumbling, they were also appointed.

Let's pray together.

And as we gather to hear your truth, I pray for your protection over our time, the full engagement of not only our minds, but our hearts. And that as you feed us and as we draw strength from your word, that it will become manifest and evident in how we live and how we serve in our heart posture and in how we love those around us. Grant us just a good time of fellowship through your word through the study of your truth. We pray that Christ will be magnified and exalted in this place and fill us with great joy. I'm gonna pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, you can go ahead and take your seats. So my father is a 77-year-old Korean man. And as is common with the men of his generation, my father does not dance.

I have seen my father dance only once in my entire life. And it was a dance of joy and excitement that I remember vividly. So my father and I arrived at the mailbox of our house at the same time, and we saw at the exact same time a large envelope addressed to me from the University of California at Berkeley. And this was in 1996, when college rejection letters came in small envelopes that fit into the mailbox, and college acceptance letters were delivered like a package in a large envelope. And they're perched against the door of the house was a large envelope. And my father and I both knew when we saw it that I had gotten in.

And so my father danced. He hugged me, he jumped up and down in celebration, and he danced. He danced partly because he was very proud and happy, but I think mostly because he was shocked that somehow I had gotten in. And you see, Berkeley was not an easy school to get into.

I didn't apply to Harvard. There was no point in me applying to Harvard. I had no shot of getting in, as I've said, because my grades are totally mediocre. So not applying to Harvard was money well saved. So only people who have perfect academic profiles with near perfect grades and test scores apply to Harvard. So data from 2025 shows that about 54,000 students applied to Harvard, and 80% of those 54,000 applicants had perfect academic profiles.

So Harvard University of the 54,000 applicants accepted just under 2,000 students. So 54,000 applications, 2,000 acceptances, and that's an acceptance rate of about 3.6%. And that should not come as a surprise because it is common knowledge that getting into Harvard is near impossible. It's a near impossibility for almost every human being. But there are things that are even harder to get into than Harvard. Becoming an astronaut is even harder. How many guys already knew that? Only the best of the best, only those with both near perfect academic minds and perhaps perfect physiques ever apply to becoming astronauts. And you know what percent of all these academic and physically elite applicants get accepted?

It's less than 1%. 0.02%. So that's one in 50,000 people with the best of the best applications, only 0.002% get in. So it goes without saying that getting accepted into Harvard or becoming an astronaut are incredibly great accomplishments. So if someone in your family or your neighborhood got into Harvard or became an astronaut, you would know about it. Right. But the Bible tells us of an even greater accomplishment. And you can regard this actually as an impossible thing. It is impossible for a person to merit to earn or to qualify to have a relationship with God. It is impossible for a person to be reconciled to God through accomplishment. It is impossible to gain acceptance into the kingdom of God through good deeds.

So many people foolishly and ignorantly think that if their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds, they can qualify to enter heaven. But again, this is an impossible thing because man enters into the world as an object of wrath. Ephesians 2, 3. So through his own merit, man gains access to only hell. It is more likely and possible for a cockroach to win over your heart and to move your heart to adopt it into your family as a child than for you to somehow curry favor with God by some song and dance or some spiritual action. And that the Bible makes it abundantly clear. It is impossible to get to heaven through works. So you and I cannot merit the favor of God. Salvation is infinitely more difficult than becoming an astronaut.

Hence, not possible, impossible, and that's something that Jesus Himself actually makes clear.

Matthew chapter 19, verse 23. It is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Not just if you've read this before. Jesus is not saying here that the secret to getting into heaven is financial poverty. Jesus is not saying here that the materially poor have an advantage. What Jesus was referring to is that earthly riches creates an illusion of self-sufficiency. The poor are at an advantage only in that they are just more aware of their inability to contribute anything of worth to anybody, let alone God. So it is hard for a self-sufficient man to enter the kingdom of heaven. How hard is it for a self-sufficient man? Verse 24. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

The camel was the largest animal in the ancient Near East, a land animal. And here's what Jesus is saying.

So there is absolutely no way. So Jesus is actually speaking in terms of impossibility here. Again, 3.6% of all Harvard applicants did get in.002% of all brilliant people who apply to NASA do somehow manage to become astronaut candidates. But 1500-pound animals cannot squeeze themselves into any eye of even a primitive needle, even if that opening of the needle was a 10 inches in diameter. 3.6% and 0.002% would never be odds that you would bet on. But those are wonderfully great odds compared to anyone getting into heaven by means of his own merit. Now the disciples are shocked by this.

So to the Jewish mind, God's favor was accompanied by material and circumstantial blessing. The wealthy were viewed as having more to offer God in terms of sacrifice and in terms of usefulness to God. So the disciples are very astonished. And the Greek word is exele, ex el ex et placanto, ex e playsanto. And literally means out of their senses. Something got smacked and then they lost their senses. That's the meaning of the word. And they're very ex e placanto. So Jesus, are you really saying that even the rich pretty much have no shot of getting into heaven? And in great astonishment, they say rhetorically, who can be saved? To which Jesus responds, with people, this is impossible. And I'm going to purposely stop right there.

I'm going to only read up to half and I'm going to stop. Let me read the first half again. With people, salvation is impossible. Can you say that with me? With people, salvation is impossible. So with people, getting into heaven is not just hard, it's impossible. Mankind's greatest problems are not murder, sexual perversion, or deception that lands you in hell. Those are all just symptoms. Man's greatest problem is that he enters into the world as a sinner, hostile and defiant towards God. So murder, sexual perversions, and deceptions are only symptoms of the problem. And those aren't even the most damaging problems of or of symptoms. The greatest symptom of man's greatest problem of sin is that he actually believes that he is.

It is possible for man to do enough to earn God's approval. So that heart posture reveals that man fails to fully grasp the holiness of God and the depth of his own depravity. So here's the conclusion that we can draw from what Jesus is saying. In and of yourself, you are beyond saving. Amen.

Deuteronomy 25, Isaiah 64, Romans 3. If you read through those chapters, you will conclude that God is not any less disgusted by your sins than he is by the sins of those three men. So with people, salvation is impossible. But with God, all things are possible, and a human being can gain access to heaven because Jesus is choice and because Jesus is precious. What does that mean? Jesus is choice, and Jesus is precious. Not primarily because Jesus is choice and precious to us, but because Jesus is choice and precious to God. So you and I are saved because God the Father is well pleased with God the Son and only with God the Son. He is disgusted by you. He is pleased only with God the Son, Christ alone, corner stone, and we often sing that, right?

So Charles Spurgeon in one of his sermons was quoted saying the following: when God accepts a sinner, he is in fact only accepting Christ. He looks into the sinner's eyes, and he sees his own dear son's image there, and then he takes him in.

Nothing in you is worth loving. You are vile. So a preaching of the true gospel must always start there. You and I who have clothed ourselves with Christ, Galatians 3 27, are saved on the basis of Christ's work alone. Because with people, salvation is impossible, but with God, through Christ, salvation is possible. Because again, Jesus is choice, Jesus is precious to God. And that's what we're going to be looking at this morning through 1 Peter 2, 4 to 8. And I want to read it again for us, now that technically we're back in sync. And coming to him as to a living stone, which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God. You also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For this is contained in scripture, behold, I lay in Zion, a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes upon him will not be put to shame. So this precious value then is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this has become the chief cornerstone, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this stumbling they were also appointed. This is one of the meediest passages in Peter's epistles to the churches in Asia Minor. So it's Peter's presentation of the gospel message. This is Peter's gospel, not too dissimilar to the one he preached in Acts chapter 4. In Acts chapter 4, he was preaching to the unbelieving Jews, but here he's preaching to Christians.

So he skips the bad news. All the use in this passage are in reference to Christians. And as I mentioned a few weeks back, the central theme in all of this, uh, these five verses is Christ the living stone. And only those who come to the living stone for salvation are saved, and they are saved into a living hope. So the central figure in this passage is Christ the living stone, and that's kind of by way of review. Isaiah 28 16, Psalm 118 22, and Isaiah 8.14. So in this part of the letter, the apostle Peter quotes these three well-known Old Testament passages as fulfilled prophecy. In the first sermon that I preached three weeks ago for this passage, we parked mostly at the prophecy Peter refers to in verse 8.

We first looked at the rejection of Christ by men. The Jews had rejected Christ because he was a stone, a stumbling and a rock of offense. They rejected Jesus because he was unlike the Messiah they had been hoping for.

So today we're going to be looking through only primarily verses four and six, where Jesus is the choice and precious cornerstone to God. So Jesus is choice and precious in the sight of God. The word choice is mentioned twice in these five verses. Precious is mentioned three times, because Peter uses it again in verse 7. And we're going to explore primarily those two words. But before we do that, he says, Behold, I lay in Zion. So it's helpful for us to understand what the Bible means when it says Zion. So I'm going to walk us through that a little bit. Okay. So the term Zion is of great significance, especially in the Old Testament. But what it means can vary in terms of the context. So first, when the Old Testament writers mentioned Zion, they mostly had in their minds a geographical location.

Okay, so it was a reference to a mountain or a hill on which the city of Jerusalem was established. So Zion was interchangeable with Jerusalem, the city of David. Does that make sense? Okay? So if someone were to say, Washington, DC, or Capitol Hill, you naturally associate those words with the United States and specifically to the government, right? So in the same way, if someone says Zion, they understood there's a reference to national Israel. So naturally, Zion also came to symbolize God's presence, because Zion referred to the dwelling place of God, since the temple was physically in Jerusalem. Psalm 132, 13 to 14 reads, Yahweh has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever.

Here I will inhabit, for I have desired it. Then that's God speaking. So Zion was a habitation of God's choosing. Zion was God's eternal and permanent resting place. Thirdly, when the biblical writers write Zion, especially in the prophecies, it came to symbolize God's kingdom and his reign. And Zion pointed to the time when Messiah would come. Restore all things and reign as king. And the Jews are still waiting for this. They're Zionists, right? It pointed to God making a new covenant with Israel. Mount Sinai represented the old covenant, Galatians 4, 24 to 25. Covenant based on Mosaic law. Mount Zion would represent the new covenant. Okay, so it came to represent God's kingdom. And fourthly, the Old Testament writers use Zion to point to heaven as well.

So depending on the context, Zion can mean the geopolitical city of Jerusalem, it could symbolize God's presence, it can refer to God's kingdom or heaven, or all of the above. Alright? That's why sometimes when you're trying to read it, you're like, what's he saying here? So hopefully this is helpful. I want to read for you, Hebrews 12, 22 to 23. Hebrews is something that is written to the ethnic Jews of the New Testament who believed in Jesus. Make sense? The book of Hebrews was written to Christians who are of Jewish descent. Alright. And these are people who are looking back to Zion as well as forward to Zion. And this is what the author wrote.

And to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to a myriad of angels, to the festival gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. So notice the way in which the author of Hebrews describes Mount Zion. He writes that these physically alive Christians, the New Testament saints, they have arrived, past tense at the heavenly city. Angels are present, the spirits of the past saints, God the judge, are all present, and every being mentioned here is present for a festival gathering and an assembly. It's both a party and a worship service. So Zion is already here, but it's not yet. God's kingdom and salvation for all his saints is already and not yet.

And God has laid in Zion a cornerstone. So in 1 Peter 2, 6, he writes, for this is contained in the Old Testament scriptures. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes upon him will not be put to shame. So Christ, the living stone upon which everything past, present, and future, everything in heaven on an earth, Christ is the one on whom all of that hinges. So Christ is a central figure in all of human history. Christ is central. Amen. Christ is all and is in all and is through all. Ephesians chapter 4, Colossians verse 3. And you guys have heard that before. Without Christ, there is no festival gathering. There's only wrath, there's only shame. Without Christ, there are no saints.

Without Christ, there is no temple in which God would dwell together or tabernacle with man. Without Christ, there is no sanctuary of God in which you and I could be apart. 1 Corinthians verse 3. So in Zion, in order to bring sinful man back to himself, God the Father had laid the foundation with a choice stone. People could now be brought into the Father's presence because of the choice stone, Jesus Christ. So, first question that should be in your mind is like, okay, I kind of get it, but what does it mean for Jesus to be a choice stone? Choice implies singularity. Only one has been chosen. You guys following so far? Only one has been selected. Christ being choice means Christ alone is uniquely fitted for the task of salvation.

There is no other way. There is no other stone. And that's what Jesus actually says of himself in John 14, verse 6. Right. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes and reconciles himself to God the Father but through me. So Jesus Christ is absolutely exclusive. All religious roads do not converge at the same place. All religions do not lead to God. So without Christ as Savior and Lord, every single religion, even Catholicism and churchanity, leads to hell. There's only one way to get to the Father, and that is only through Jesus Christ. There is no other way. Are you guys following this? That's what the scripture is saying.

God the Son was the only means, God the Father had chosen to reconcile sinful man to himself. In 1 Kings chapter 6, for the building of Solomon's temple for the dwelling place of God, choice stones were chiseled and cut specifically in exactly two exact dimensions. And before all of those stones were brought to the temple, the builders had to lay a very perfect cornerstone. That was always the first step. In Masonry, and I'm not a Mason, so I'm just reading off the internet here. Alright, a cornerstone was the first stone placed as the reference point for all the subsequent stones. The cornerstone was literally a stone placed at the corner, and it joined the two main supporting walls together at an intersection.

And it needed to be perfectly cut. Because have you ever assembled that Kiev furniture with things that are slightly off? What happens at the very end? So this had to be perfect. So it needed to be perfectly cut to interlock the two main walls together. So no cornerstone, especially one to be the foundation of a large monument or a grand temple like Solomon's temple, could dare to be even slightly off. It needed to be perfect. The angles needed to be exact and perfect. Are you guys following me? Okay. The cornerstone for salvation, that's an image, for salvation needed to be perfect. In order to reconcile sinful man to thrice holy God, the sacrificial lamb prepared for the atonement for the forgiveness of sins had to be spotless, thoughtless, completely blemish-free.

It literally needed to be perfect. Christ was perfect. He was set apart at birth for the task of being killed for the world. God chose that. And Jesus lived the perfect life, was without sin, Hebrews 4.15, and then he became the perfect high priest, permanently, who atta uh who permanently obtained eternal salvation through the shedding of his blood. And that's what it says in Hebrews 9. When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, it's like presence of God, not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood.

So eternal redemption cannot be bought in any other way. Make sense? Forgiveness of sins cannot be obtained in any other way. And that's what pretty much Hebrews is all about. Christ alone is uniquely chiseled and fitted for the task of attaining salvation and giving mankind access to God the Father acceptance into this kingdom. And that's what is meant by Jesus is choice. He alone is unique. He alone is designated for the task of saving. Amen. The apostle Peter is quoting Isaiah 28, verse 16. Isaiah 28 to 37, the context is this. Hey, Yahweh has always been sovereign over mankind. You have been chosen as God's people, but you've always chosen disobedience, apathy, worldly indulgence over following my commands.

You have chosen the way of shame. And now that you're in trouble, you're feeling the consequences of your sins. You're not trusting in God to save you. You're trusting in your foreign allies. You're trusting in your own military strength rather than on God. You are trusting your works to get you out of your problems and into blessing. So what does God say to the people in Isaiah 28? What is he saying to us now? He who believes upon only the choice and precious cornerstone, Jesus Christ will not be put to shame. He alone can and will save. Christ alone is uniquely fitted to the task of salvation. He is the choice stone. All other worldly means for currying favor with God are corruptible and futile.

And he had already said this in chapter 1. Christ's precious blood alone is able to atone for sins. So practically, what does this mean? Doing more bad than or more good than bad will not and cannot save you.

Being born into a Christian family will not and cannot save you. Amen. Spending lots of time at church will not and cannot save you. The one-time act of raising your hand, walking forward and making a decision for salvation at the altar call will not and cannot save you. Tears of remorse and guilt will not and cannot save you. Judas shed such tears, right? Giving a ton of money to the missions field will not and cannot save you. Getting a seminary degree and Bible training cannot and will not save you. You cannot abstain from enough pleasure to be saved. You cannot practice enough self-denial to be saved. You are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, through God's choice cornerstone alone.

Amen.

So many people come to church without coming to Christ. The church is important, but the church is not the cornerstone. There is no other way to God. All other means are corruptible. Because with people, this is impossible. Salvation is impossible. As Peter preached in Acts 4 12, there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to man by which we must be saved. There is salvation in nobody else. So may we never lead people to Christianity, failed and then failed to lead them to Jesus. Amen? So Christ alone is choice in the sight of God. Not only is he choice, he is also a precious stone. Jesus is precious in the sight of God. 1 Peter 2 verse 4. In the Greek, the word precious is entimos.

Repeat after me. Entimos. Entimos. Okay? Entimos means unequal in value, costly, or irreplaceable. At present we have two Timothy's in the room. Okay, my nephew's the other one. Alright. We get the name Timothy from this Greek word entimos. Timothy is a combination of the words entimos and theos, which means God. So Timothy means God is precious to the individual. So it literally means this is a person who esteems God. That's what Timothy means. Okay. So Christ is entimos, precious in the sight of God. Christ is not just the Father's gift to the world. Christ is not the Father's only begotten means to reconciliation and salvation. Christ, God the Son, is the Father's delight. And we gotta try to think about the emotion here.

Jesus was precious to God the Father. God the Father absolutely adored and delighted in God the Son. In every gospel account, in all the pages leading up to the early, the earthly baptism of Jesus, whenever the God speaks to people, it's always through somebody else, right? Through a dream, through an angel. God never speaks. Because in Amos 8, he says, I'm gonna be silent. But at the baptism of Jesus, it almost seems that God the Father cannot but give forth his voice. And at Jesus' baptism, God the Father makes an appearance through the clouds from the heavens, and he makes a jubilant declaration of praise. And this is what he says. And I'm gonna read Matthew's version of it.

You guys have seen this before. God the Father is well pleased in Jesus. So in both Mark and Luke's account, the Father appears to address the Son directly for all to hear. Right? Matthew's, it's this is my son. In Mark and Luke, he's like, you are my son. Alright. You are my beloved son. I can almost hear the delight and exaltation the father has for the son. So what can we glean from this? Jesus is infinitely more precious to God the Father than He is to you and me. We're like, huh. Jesus is infinitely more precious to God the Father than He is to you and me. All children are precious. And all children are so cute, especially the ones at the beacon, right? I love every, I genuinely love every child at our church.

Your children are precious to me. And likewise, my children may be a delight to you. So in the near two years that our family has been part of the beacon, our children may have come to be important to many of you. They may be precious to you. But there is no way Maddie and Karis are to you what they are to me. They are precious to me in a way that is infinitely more profound than they ever could be to any of you.

Maddie is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Karis is my beloved daughter.

In whom I delight and I am well pleased. And it's a beautiful and an appropriate thing for me to delight in my children exponentially more than you delight in them. True. Becky and I have a relationship with them that is unlike the relationship that you have with them. So how much more entimos is God the Son to God the Father than he could ever be to us? And how profound for this God to choose to give his only begotten entimos, precious beloved son, as a sacrifice for hostile human beings like you and me, who spit on him, who mock him, who call him the devil, who say he's a blasphemer. Perhaps the emotion of this is something that God wanted Abraham, the father of our faith to feel.

Genesis 22, 1 to 2, he goes, now it happened after these things. God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am. Then God said, Now take your son, your only begotten, whom you love, Isaac, go forth to the land of Mariah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. And you guys know how the story ends. And perhaps unbeknownst to Abraham, God makes him a living sermon and a foreshadowing of what God Himself will do on behalf of those in the world. He says in verse 8, Abraham says to Isaac, before the sacrifice is actually there. He goes, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son, and then the two of them walk on together to kill Isaac.

Jesus is precious first and foremost in the sight of God. He is entimos, unequal in value, costly, irreplaceable, first and foremost to God the Father. So imagine how costly a gift for the Father to offer this beloved son as a gift to the world. And again, imagine with me how vile and offensive a thing for anyone to say that there are other ways to being reconciled to God. Or to misrepresent, misrepresent his son in any way, shape, or form. We dare not trample underfoot either the repute or the blood of Christ. You can see from Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, he had a special relationship with the Father. So when he's praying about the cross and the facing of the full brunt of the wrath and the hatred of God, you can see Jesus not wanting this.

What does he say? Jesus' soul was grieved by the prospect of this. I don't want to be separated from my father.

What degree?

This was literally killing him to soon be the object of the perfect hatred of the Father whom he loved. And he praises in verse 39. Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, but yet not as I will, but as you will.

So I'm gonna cycle back to the Spursion quote I read from you for you in the beginning. When God accepts a sinner, he is in fact only accepting Christ.

There's nothing of worth in the saving of my soul. There's nothing of worth in me. There's nothing of worth in you. You and I are saved simply and only because God, being enriched in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4, chose to make us alive together with Christ. God made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that we would become the righteousness of God through his son. 2 Corinthians 5 21. Praise God.

Because if he sees me, it's blemished. As I mature in the faith, my the prayer is he must increase. I must decrease, and I am not offended that he doesn't see me, he sees Jesus' perfect work. You and I, if we've clothed ourselves with Christ, have been accepted into the most prestigious and impossible program. Amen. Far better than Harvard. Far more cosmic and otherworldly than any astronaut training program. We're not just entering at entry level either. You and I are not scrubs in heaven. Some people are like, I just want to enjoy my life here and just get to heaven, so that when I get to heaven, I don't mind just sitting in the courtyard just chilling. No. Everyone who enters in has been accepted into the kingdom of God as summa cum laude.

Graduates, do you guys understand this? Co-heirs. You are co-CEO of heaven with the Son, it says in Ephesians 2 7. The heavenly angels will be subservient to you and me. First Corinthians 6 3. What? Huh? And this truth ought to evoke a dumbfounded joy-filled dance. If there was ever a reason to hop up and down in shock and to hug and dance in joy and surprise, it's this.

Do we deserve it? No. Can we pay it back or retroactively earn it later? No. We've been accepted into the kingdom of heaven not because we've somehow made it possible. Because remember, with people, salvation is not possible. We've been accepted into the kingdom of God because with God all things are possible. Because Christ is choice, Christ is precious. And now, like the man who stumbled upon an invaluable treasure in a field, like the merchant who happened to find a pearl of great price, we just sell all we have by the field. And of course, not with money, but with sufficient payment. Money is not enough. They're offering up of our faith.

That's the point of the parable. Are you guys tracking with this? You can't buy heaven. Salvation is not something we purchase with money. And then in response, we build upon the cornerstone, and we are built upon the cornerstone, and that's what we're going to be looking at next week. So, but before I close, I want to leave you with a thought. I was happy that I have been accepted into UC Berkeley. There's actually a lot of Berkeley people here. So you guys all know that feeling. But you know who was happier? My father, who delighted in me. To my father, to whom I was entimas. Now here's a profound thought. Here's that profound thought. God delights in your salvation more than you delight in it.

As you become a parent, as you become a father, you can start to kind of understand this, right? God the Father, God your Father, delights in your salvation more than you delight in it. More than you are thankful for it. So much so that he commanded all the angels and the hosts of heaven to rejoice in celebration when you came to faith in Jesus. Luke 15 tells us that there is rejoicing in the heavens amongst the angels over one sinner who repents.

We serve a holy and profoundly loving and mysterious God. Amen. He is deserving of all worship. And I just hope that as we mature in age, we can look back on the moment of our acceptance and realize the greater dancer is not us. It's our Heavenly Father. I'm going to close with the reading of our passage, but I'm going to stop at verse six. And coming to him, ask to a living stone, which has been rejected by man, but is choice and precious in the sight of God. You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, which has been accepted and is continuing to be acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For this is contained and fulfilled in Scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone. And he, you and me, who believes upon only him, will not be put to shame. Amen. Let's pray together.

It's our confession, God, that we don't know the depth of your love for us because of the depth of your love for Christ. And all too often we treat our salvation as a trifle thing, and then we take for granted the restored and renewed relationship that we have with you, and we would rather be entertained by the entanglements of the world. But as we mature in the faith, help us delight more and more in this great joy of salvation. Help us to esteem more greatly the author and the perfecter of the salvation. Christ, our perfect and precious cornerstone. We pray that you will be glorified in our lives and strengthen us.

As we sing this closing song together, it says, Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress. Helpless look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. We cling to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our cornerstone, and may we sing to him today. Rock of this cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flow thee of sin. Double cure.

Cleanse me from its guilt and power. Not the labors of my hands, not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands. Could my zeal no respite no? Could my tears forever flow all for sin could not atone? Thou must save and thou alone. Nothing in my hand I bring, nothing in my hand I bring simply to the cross.

I cling naked come to thee for dress, helpless leal to thee for grace, thou lie to the fountain fly, wash me save your I die while I draw, while I draw this fleeting breath, when my eyes shall close in death, when I sow to worlds unknown, see thee on thy judgment throne, rock of ages clever for me, let me hide myself in thee sing that last verse again while I draw, while I draw this fleeting breath when my eyes shall close in death when I so worlds unknown, see thee on thy judgment throne, rock of ages clear for me, let me hide myself in thee.

Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the eternal love of God our Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each and every one of us who grows continually in appreciation for the precious and choice work of Christ on the cross now and forevermore. I mean