I Have Been Set Apart by God to Offer Up Spiritual Sacrifices that are Acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
1 Peter 2:4-9
(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon)
Please turn to 1 Peter 2:4-9. As you are turning there, I want us to be considering the fact that God desires to glorify Himself through His creation. It is a lofty fact from our point of view. It is just a simple truth from God's point of view. The fact is that God has determined that He will be glorified in all He does, and in all that exists. One reason that this is hard for us to understand is because God, in some way, will even be glorified in the midst of evil. It can be in the glory that comes from the inherent contrast that evil has with God's purity. The comparative contrast of God in respect to evil, demonstrates how perfect God is. Whenever God's perfection is demonstrated, then He is glorified. It may be in the demonstration of God's benevolent rescue. God is glorified in saving some people out of evil. The point is that there will be glory given to God, in some way, in regard to everything. With this in mind, God has also determined to purposely glorify Himself in good. In His determination, God desires certain aspects of what He has created for good, to glorify Him in an acceptable, prescribed, way. In fact God wants what He creates as good to be for good. This brings glory to Him in the midst of evil. Peter touches upon some of these principles in our passage this morning. Our main focus is 2:4-9; but I want us to start back and read from verse 1, on through verse 12 for a fuller sense of the contextual flow. Starting in verse 1, we read,
1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, 2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. 4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is elect and precious in the sight of God, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a set apart priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For this is contained in Scripture: 'Behold, I lay in Zion an elect stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.' 7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone, 8 and, 'A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.' They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a set apart nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Loved ones, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." 1 Peter 2:1-12
Let's prepare our hearts for the preaching of God's word; to grow, and to minister, from what we learn as we glorify God with our lives. This sermon is titled,
I Have Been Set Apart by God to Offer Up Spiritual Sacrifices that are Acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
[prayer]
As newborn babes, the Spirit urges us, in the context coming into the passage we are studying, to long for the milk of the word in living out our saved lives. This is one of the vital things that you and I are to be doing as we glean important life-principles from the Spirit.
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The first principle I want us to explore from the milk of God's word in recognizing that we have been set apart by God to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to Him through His Son, is that God as Christ--not us--is the foundation for this:
"3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. 4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is elect and precious in the sight of God, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a set apart priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For this is contained in Scripture: 'Behold, I lay in Zion an elect stone, a precious corner stone," 1 Peter 2:4-5
1@ Those who are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior have _____________ the kindness of the Lord. 1 Peter 2:3.
As we look at this, I want us to notice that in verse 3, Peter who is writing holy Scripture, is making an allusion to the Holy Scripture of Psalm 34:8;
"Taste and see that Yahweh is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!" Psalm 34:8
Peter quotes the Old Testament all throughout our passage under study. This one that he refers to, is a Psalm that David wrote centuries beforehand. Today, we recognize it as God referring to His word as He expresses more revelation of His word to us in His process of completing Scripture. What I am wanting us to notice, because it is very important to see here, is that, in Psalm 34:8, David said that the taste of the kindness of the Lord is the kindness of Yahweh--of God. Keeping this reference in mind, then, when Peter says that all who are the elect, come to Him Who is a living stone, Peter is showing that Jesus Christ is the same person as Yahweh. Jesus Christ is God as the third person of what we call Trinity as a describer word. What we mean by Trinity is that there are three identifiable persons in Scripture referred to as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three are 100% One God in essence, and all three are distinct persons as the One essential God. When we speak of Christ the Son manifested in bodily form, we are talking about someone Who is 100% God, and 100% man. There is a theological term for this too. It is called the hypostatic union. In Peter's usage of the Old Testament prophecies to refer to Jesus as Yahweh, we get a strong sense of the greatness of Who our Savior is. But I want us to consider something else about this: When we know that Christ is God, then we see that God is the primary focus here of all that has to do with His plan in Christ. What I am saying is that a fuller glorification of God is made here because a fuller identification of Christ is being declared. It is an identification that shows that Christ is more than merely a human son, as cults want to believe, but Christ is God Himself in the plan that God ordained that He, as Christ, is part of.
What does this mean, then, when we consider our own place in God's plan?
Usually when we think about our Christianity, we think about ourselves because we are the ones who are saved. You know that, to a certain degree, when someone is talking to you about your Christianity, that your Christianity is about you. Peter makes this clear here in his teaching, "This precious value, then, is for you who believe;" 1 Peter 2:7. But, on the other hand, we should be considering something else about our place in all of this. It is the higher degree: Your Christianity, and my Christianity, is foremost about Christ; and Christ is foremost about God; and God is about being glorified. Christ's will is to satisfy Himself, His desires, (what He wants to do) which brings Him glory. Christ makes sure that He accomplishes this in all that He has done, and is doing. The part of this process that the Spirit is pressing us with, is the aspect that the Spirit reveals to us here. It has to do with God's specific design for bringing about spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to Him. In fact, they are the only sacrifices that are acceptable to Him. God wants them, so God is making sure that He gets them, even in the midst of evil by bringing them about through the indwelling Spirit of Christ in people in conjunction with His word. With this in mind, I want us to consider that there are various sacrificial aspects in this process. It involves us who are elect, but ultimately it is foremost about God. Let's explore this a little bit. I want us to think about the fact that before we can offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Who He is as Jesus Christ, Jesus had to be elected beforehand for the sacrificial task that would come in His incarnation at the ordained time in His plan. This takes us way back before any of it was instituted. Christ the Son, Who is the promised delivering Messiah, fulfilled the promise. He was prophesied in the early generations to come as the Messiah. Messiah means the anointed one. Jesus is the One who is anointed by God to be the Master and Savior of the plan. He is the foundation; and so this is what Peter is doing in referring to prophecies in the Old Testament. Peter is explaining the living foundation's arrival, and existence, in the plan. Notice that Peter is also quoting Isaiah the prophet of 700 years earlier,
"Behold I am laying in Zion a stone." Isaiah 28:16
That stone is the elect Christ Who was laid in Zion, in Israel. He was rejected by the human builders of the old earthly stone temple made with hands. Those builders who rejected the true cornerstone, were the apostate Jews led by the apostate Levitical Priests. But the plan was not thwarted. Quite the opposite. The plan was being fulfilled where the Messiah would be set in place as the chief foundational corner stone that establishes the rest of His spiritual temple that is made up of new creations forever--new creations, that, in Him, are also of the holy Priesthood according to the faithful order of Melchizedek. But certain things had to happen in the plan for us to be created, and empowered, to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Himself as Jesus Christ. Jesus had to be rejected by men, and be sacrificed. Again, it is important to recognize that Peter is quoting from another Messianic Psalm of David to make this point,
"The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner." Psalm 118:22
2@ Jesus is the ________________ of the ancient prophecy that was rejected by men, Who became the chief cornerstone. Psalm 118:22
This is the sacrifice that was accepted by God, and ordained by God. In God's sovereignty, it was an offering that was rejected by sinners. It was treated, and embraced, as an execution. But the great sacrifice that enables all acceptable spiritual sacrifices that you can do, and I can do, and establishes, and enables us to be living stones, and a spiritual house, and a set apart priesthood, is all part of what God came up with to bring about spiritual sacrifices from people who previously were dead stones of the pagan temple of the lost world culture. It was God's plan to make people into living temple stones that bring praise to Him by simply existing in newness in Christ. But for the life to occur for you, and for me, it had to first happen through death for us in our place. It is through His sacrifice that we are crucified with Him along with our old heart that was made out of dead stone,
"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekial 36:26
But this is really amazing, because we, as God's elect, in the elect Son, have become part of the ultimate sacrifice, in Him. Once again, in the whole process of salvation, Christ brings glory to Himself as God while He involves you in the same process. Follow what I am saying because you and I, and all Christians, are not a perfect sacrifice in ourselves. We can not be, and we did not become, a perfect sacrifice. We are sinners. Those God has chosen are His elect people that He called out from among the sinners of the world. But here is the really deep part--Stay with me because it is so important. In God's plan, the elect were spiritually in the sacrifice "with" the sacrifice, as the ordained ones of Christ who were meant to receive the spiritual salvation of the purchase, propitiation, atonement, and forgiveness of the cross.
"20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Galatians 2:20
@3 All who are saved have been ______________________ with Christ, and yet _______________ by faith in the Son of God. Galatians 2:20
Christ "gave himself up" for the elect, but the elect were also "crucified with Christ." In Christ, the sinless Sacrifice, what happens is that your old sinful man was also sacrificed to be replaced by the regenerated you by grace through faith. Now, as the new you in Christ, you can finally offer up acceptable spiritual sacrifices to God according to the holy priesthood of Christ. This is done through Jesus Christ Himself, who is your life, your righteousness, your High Priest, and your power. This is why Paul says,
"I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me," Romans 15:18
This is why the focus is so important this morning. We really need to get the sense that it is all about Him. It is all about His glory. In your salvation, it is all about Him and what He has done in you to make you pure and completely forgiven. It is all about Him in respect to what we offer up to Him in our spiritual sacrifices. When you know this, then you will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through you. When we see this, then we can understand what Peter means when he broadly applies the work to us, saying,
"you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house," 1 Peter 2
@4 All Christians are living ____________that God is building up as a spiritual house. 1 Peter 1:5
What happens is that God makes us, and then He shapes us. You and I, and all we do, is His work in His building project. God's architectural plan for His living stones for use in His spiritual building that brings Him glory works like this; He makes us born-again as a result of the preaching of the Word through the work of the Holy Spirit. Our response, by faith, is God's desired effect that He will get from the elect. Whenever someone responds to God's effectual call by faith, where, as Peter says, "we come to" Christ, then you are saved. You are demonstrating that you have been made alive in the life of the living stone. Then, what happens? God shapes you. He shapes us living stones more into the manifested image of Christ in our thoughts and actions. This is all part of what "built up" means here. In the shaping process, God does the same thing with you. He uses the word, and the work of His Holy Spirit, to transform our minds. He also uses other shaping, building, tools. He uses the circumstances you go through to mold you. He is working in the plan. So, He teaches you life lessons, like trust, hope, and the bigger picture. So, in a sense, we can also say that He makes us, shapes us, and He also bakes us living stones to endure hardships. Through discipleship and continuous fellowship with God, our thoughts and actions become more and more conformed to the image of the great living stone--Jesus. Through, hardships, testing of our faith, and suffering, we respond to the tools of our discipleship as we are baked, and built up, in our fellowship with God. The testing kiln produces endurance in the stones of the temple, and this produces more God glorifying results. James says, to consider it all joy, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, James 1:2-3. The testing of your faith is a hardening process that creates steadfastness. This is so important for more fullness to be given in respect to glorifying God. Ultimately, this is all part of the result of coming to Christ. He makes us, and shapes us, into His God glorifying stones that make acceptable spiritual sacrifices unto Him both now, and forever. All of us together are this eternal spiritual house--this New Covenant priesthood. God's spiritual house is the expansive widespread church. Paul asked in 1 Corinthians;
"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you?" 1 Corinthians 3:16
@5 All Christians are the _____________ of God. 1 Corinthians 3:16
This is you. People who have bodies make up the temple, but the temple is a spiritual temple because it houses the Holy Spirit. God wanted it to be this way as part of the guarantee that He would get the spiritual sacrifices that He wants to bring him further glory. Because He wanted it, He made sure that we would be miraculously regenerated to exist this way. So, this first principle, then, in respect to making acceptable spiritual sacrifices to God that He wants, is that Christ--not you--is the foundation. He gets all the glory for it--even in the preaching this morning. Built upon, and living by, the foundation, you serve God as you pass through the world as both the temple that replaced the Old Covenant stone temple, and as a set apart priest according to the priestly order of Christ. This leads to the second principle.
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The second principle is to recognize what acceptable spiritual sacrifices actually are. Notice that Peter says that you were created
"to offer up."
This means that you are created in Christ Jesus to do something. It is like what Paul says in Ephesians,
"... we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them," Ephesians 2:10
@6 All Christians are God workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for ____________ ___________which God prepared beforehand. Ephesians 2:10
Here Paul says we are created for something. It is something you do. It is your spiritual work. In 1 Peter, it is
"to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ"
@7 The good works that God wants us to do are spiritual ____________ offerings. 1 Peter 2:5
If the goal is "to" do something from your salvation, then it must be important to know what it is that you are made for doing, right? This leads to asking an important question:
"What exactly are the spiritual sacrifices that I am to offer up?"
God has not left us in a void concerning this. It is not some mysterious thing that only a select few have had the revelation given to them. In the revelation of His word, He has made it clear. One primary one is your body. In Romans Paul makes it clear,
"I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and set apart sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." Romans 12:1
Everything you do with your body, as a Christian, is to be done, by the power of the Spirit, as an act of worship to God. This is what we are presenting to God in the New Covenant priesthood that He wants. Anything we do with our bodies is incorporated into this acceptable "sacrifice." Whether you eat, or drink, or walk, or drive a car, or work, or shop, or browse the web; watch a movie--whatever you do with your body, you are to do it to the glory of God.
"Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God," 1 Corinthians 10:31
This is your design; And our spiritual service of worship as God's living stones, as the temple, and as the priesthood, involves something that is clear. Presenting your body, in all that you do, is supposed to be your moment to moment worship in the priesthood. Though this is not so mysterious to see, there is still another question that we may ask:
"How do I be, or do, the priesthood?"
The answer is,
"The same way that you do being the temple of the Holy Spirit."
In other words, you do something that is one of the most liberating truths you will ever learn in respect to growing by the milk of the word in regeneration. It has to do with who you are in Christ, and it has to do with what you are learning in discipleship, and it has to do with what the Spirit is doing in you. So what is this simple and ground breaking revelation?
You simply be what you are.
Once we get this fixed in our regenerated being, then our spiritual service of worship comes into a clarity of understanding that brings maturity. Again, all that you, and I, are supposed to do in the Spirit, is: Be what you are. Now there is another question that is important to ask. It is:
What are you?
The answer to this question is key--
You are a new creation in Christ.
So, as the new Creation in Christ that you are, you live in your body (which Paul calls "the flesh" in Galatians 2:20) according to the word by the indwelling Spirit in faith. Whenever we consciously make the decision to live by the word, by the indwelling Spirit, in faith, we are presenting our bodies a living and set apart sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is our spiritual service of worship that glorifies Him. This means taking maverick thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. This means being transformed by the renewing of your mind as you offer up spiritual sacrifices. This leads to another question. What are some of the other spiritual sacrifices that we find in the Bible? We already read about offering up our bodies, right? What are some more? We read of a spiritual sacrifice that we, as God's priesthood-house, offer up to Him in Hebrews. It is our praise and thanksgiving that comes from the same Spirit. We read
"Continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name." Hebrews 13:15
God created us to do this where we praise Him with our voices. As new creatures, we have the same mouth we had before we were conceived in Christ, but now our lips are part of the new temple. Our lips are designed to praise God, and thank Him for all things. Paul says,
"in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Unlike complaining, our acceptable sacrifice is thanks to God for His sovereignty in everything that we go through, whether we can understand it, or not. We thank God for making us, and saving us. We thank God for the hope of a better future. As we do, we are the priesthood in the world that is shining the Light of God's glory to one another, to angels, to the nations, and back to God as worshipful glorification with our lives. There is more in the Bible on this. Spiritual sacrifices that we, as God's priesthood, and temple, offer up to Him, are also seen in our acts of Christ generated love in giving of ourselves, our money, our time, and our talents to help others. In Philippians, we read of Paul receiving gifts of financial support from the Philippian church,
"I received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God." Philippians 4:18
In Hebrews 13:16, we read,
"Do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." Hebrews 13:16
All these sacrificial ministries that we do, as God's acceptable people, are from God's word. They are both spiritual, and acceptable, because they are through Jesus Christ. They are a manifestation of the Spirit, which is a manifestation of Jesus Christ in you and Christ in me, as our hope of glory, Colossians 1:27. The point is that God has called you and me to be worshipers with our lives. God has created you and me to be spiritual sacrificers for Him through the ultimate sacrifice of His son. He has let us know what this means so that He makes sure that He gets the glory He desires.
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The third principle I want us to explore in recognizing that we have been set apart by God to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to Him through His Son, Christ Jesus, is that only the elect, which are the true believers unto salvation, experience this precious value.
"6 For this is contained in Scripture: 'Behold, I lay in Zion an elect stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.' 7 This precious value [the experiential preciousness of the stone], then, is for you who believe; 1 Peter 2:6-7
The precious value that does not bring disappointment for believers, is Christ Jesus Himself. The value of Christ for us now is life, security, and joy, in our rescue. The persecution, the oppression of sin, and all that we have to put up with in the curse are disappointing to us as we pass through on our way to the next phase of our eternal existence; but you live each day knowing that you are valuable to God because of Christ's value to you. We know that it is all completely a grace gift. In other words, you get your precious value as a living stone from Christ's precious value that He has privileged you to get in His grace. This is for all of us who believe. But, it goes on. All Who believe in Christ now will be blessed forever. There will be no disappointments anymore.
"But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." Romans 8:10-12
"4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." Revelation 21:4
God accomplishes all of this through the grueling work of the cross. The Living Stone was lifted up, and then killed. Then the Stone was buried. Then God raised Jesus up again, but now from the dead, making Christ the glorified immortal stone to build us upon. Again, in all of this, we must not lose sight of the fact that God did this foremost, for Himself. Yet, again I want us to remember that the revelation also extends to us, where we get the blessing,
"This precious value then is for you who believe." 1 Peter 2
But still, we must not forget that God really did this foremost, for Himself. In God's plan, He ordained to make a priesthood of sacrificers, a temple of His Spirit, and a body, for His own good pleasure.
Why?
To be enjoyed by Him, as those who enjoy Him forever. In doing this for Himself, you get the grace privilege to partake in the blessing. This precious value is for you, me, and all who believe. And yet, we must always consider Who gets the temple, the priesthood, the church, and the body; And along with it, Who gets the praise, adoration, worship, and service forever. God. He planned it for Himself. He elected it for Himself. He purchased it for Himself in the business deal of the cross. He makes it for Himself in regenerating the elect into new creations in Christ, by the true miracle work of the Spirit, so that there would be priests who would make acceptable spiritual sacrifices of worship, both now, and forever. On the other hand, this leads to the
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fourth and final principle I want us to explore in recognizing that we have been set apart by God to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to Him through His Son, Christ Jesus. It is the other side of the plan. Lost haters of God will be taken out of the way forever to leave only the perfect living stones, the perfect spiritual house, as the perfect spiritual priests, to glorify God forever.
"but for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone, 8 and, 'A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.' They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood," 1 Peter 2
The "word" that the disobedient reject, where their disobedience is manifested as not believing in Christ, is the word of the gospel. This is the same word that Peter said is the seed that conceived new life in 1 Peter 1:23-25, 3:1. I quoted the ESV on this because of its faithfulness in conveying the sense of what the Spirit is indicating. The pronoun "as" in "as they were destined to do" is ho in the Greek. It refers to the entire point that Peter has developed in coming to making this statement. Peter is clear. God has not only appointed that those who disobey the word would stumble and fall. He has also determined that they would disbelieve and stumble. In the end, what we see is that nothing has ever been out of God's plan. Everything glorifies God. In the meantime, we who are the elect, glorify God in the acceptable way that He has prescribed.
Let's recap all that we have covered: Remember that we have been set apart by God to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to Him through His Son, Christ Jesus. As you remember this, be understanding where you are in this process. God, as Christ--not you--is the foundation for receiving acceptable spiritual sacrifices for Himself. He planned it. He accomplished it in Christ. You are part of His accomplishment. Be remembering the second thing. It is what acceptable spiritual sacrifices actually are. They are good works which God prepared beforehand so that you would walk in them. They are everything you do with your body as a Christian where you present your body a living and set apart sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. It is everything, whether, you eat, or drink, or whatever you do; the spiritual sacrifice is to do all to the glory of God. It is to Continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. It is the money we share for ministry as a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God, Philippians 4:18. It is what you do when you do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Always be mindful of God's grace in your salvation. Only the true believers, unto salvation, experience the precious value of Christ. Finally, reverentially consider the other side of this. All who reject Christ will be be taken out of the way forever to leave only the perfect living stones, the perfect spiritual house, as the perfect spiritual priests, to glorify God forever. Amen
1@ Those who are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior have _____________ the kindness of the Lord. 1 Peter 2:3
2@ Jesus is the ________________ of the ancient prophecy that was rejected by men, Who became the chief cornerstone. Psalm 118:22
@3 All who are saved have been ______________________ with Christ, and yet _______________ by faith in the Son of God. Galatians 2:20
@4 All Christians are living ____________that God is building up as a spiritual house. 1 Peter 1:5
@5 All Christians are the _____________ of God. 1 Corinthians 3:16
@6 All Christians are God workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for ___________ ___________which God prepared beforehand. Ephesians 2:10
@7 The good works that God wants us to do are spiritual ____________ offerings. 1 Peter 2:5
