Good morning.
Bart, I’m amazed you were able to put all those names together. One announcement: I think you forgot “dresser.” See, only one—but I’ve never seen anyone that adept in remembering all those names. So that piece of furniture that we can’t figure out, it must be the place to go. Everything’s there. I always thought it was the Lord Jesus, but everything’s there, it seems.
If you’ll turn with me again to 1 Peter, chapter 2, we’ll look at the first ten verses.
1 Peter 2:1-10
Laying aside therefore all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envyings, and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes, desire earnestly the pure spiritual milk of the word,
that by it ye may grow up unto salvation;
if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.Unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious,
ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.Because it is contained in Scripture,
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious:
and he that believeth on Him shall not be put to shame.For you therefore that believe is the preciousness:
but for such as disbelieve,
The stone which the builders rejected,
the same was made the head of the corner;
and,
A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence;
for they stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession,
that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light:
who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God:
who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
I would also like to ask you to turn with me to Isaiah 28, one verse: verse 16.
Isaiah 28:16
Therefore thus saith the Lord,
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone,
a tried stone,
a precious cornerstone of sure foundation:
he that believeth shall not be in haste.
And then maybe one more verse—Psalm 118, verse 22.
Psalm 118:22
The stone which the builders rejected
Is become the head of the corner.
The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.
Now, Lord, once again we come to You, and we commit Your Word back to You. Our utter dependence is clear. We remember those verses our sister read in the meeting: how that You opened the understanding of Your disciples to the Scriptures.
When You were with them in the breaking of bread, You opened their understanding that they might understand what is in the Scriptures. Once again, that is our prayer to You this morning: that You will open our understanding by the Holy Spirit.
May no eloquence, or lack thereof, be the vehicle by which we understand the Word of God, but may the Holy Spirit, doing that work that only He can do, clearly open our understanding to the living Word of God. For we ask this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Well, I think some of you may remember and some of you may not. So, if you’ll bear with me in a brief introduction, I’ll help the ones that don’t.
Last March—I think it was March—I began sharing from 1 Peter. Those who remember may recall that there was a particular emphasis I was sharing from, and that is one single word. Does anybody remember the word?
Precious.
This word, precious, occurs seven times in 1 Peter and in the first four verses of 2 Peter. Now, you may not think that’s a very big deal at first glance, but it occurs more than any other place in the whole of the New Testament. It occurs more than any other place in the Bible, unless you combine 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, or Proverbs.
So this word precious, having such recurrence in these books, must have some meaning. That was where this burden began last spring.
There are seven occurrences, and we won’t go over all seven. But I don’t know if you remember the first message I shared from 1 Peter 1:7:
The proving of your faith is much more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire.
That was the first message: the proving of your faith is much more precious than gold.
The second message, perhaps some of you remember, comes from 1 Peter 1:19:
Knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life;
but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.
That was the second burden.
Today, what I would like to share on is this matter of God’s precious building work. As a matter of fact, the word precious occurs more in this little section in chapter 2 than anywhere else—three times.
And then, if I realize I often don’t do this, you may think there’s this open-ended thing: “What did Joe say last time? Seventy-four messages?” The fourth and final burden will be from the first chapter of 2 Peter, where it talks about the exceeding great and precious promises.
Anyone who heard our sister’s burden as she shared her testimony this morning might begin to realize the value of the exceeding great and precious promises. So that is sort of where we have been heading.
Now, I think our tendency in Western thought is to think of this word precious in a sentimental kind of way. I said this before: if you don’t like it, just don’t listen to me for a moment. We always think of puppies as precious. We always think of babies as precious.
Now, I’m sure Paul is precious, but every baby is precious. It doesn’t matter how ugly the baby is; every baby is precious.
But this is not the thought in 1 Peter. This word, this single word that the apostle used again and again to drive home a point, is a word of valuation. There is a difference.
It means of exceeding great value.
Now, therefore, you understand what he was getting at in 1 Peter 1:7 when he said that the proving of your faith is more precious than gold and silver, though it be tried with fire.
You begin to understand what he meant when he said, “You have been redeemed, not with corruptible things like gold or silver, but by the precious blood of Jesus.” This word precious means of extreme value.
There is another thing that I shared as maybe the opening to this burden last March, and I believe it still applies. To appreciate this word precious in its context, I think you have to see the circumstances these dear children of God found themselves in.
Because in their circumstances, they discovered something that was precious. When you read 1 Peter and 2 Peter, you realize that these dear believers were in the most difficult of circumstances—terrifically difficult circumstances.
As a matter of fact, the word suffering, and words like it—suffered, suffering—occur more times in Peter than in any other book in the Bible.
Great suffering. Great trial.
Peter, when he was trying to encourage these dear believers, said, “You have been put through a test of fire,” of deep trial. They went through great persecution. It was not a popular thing to be a Christian.
I suppose every athlete did not stand up and say, “Well, it’s all because of the Lord Jesus.” It was not a popular thing. He said, as a matter of fact, “You suffer simply because you’re a Christian.” Terrific circumstances.
Now, it seems to me there is a lesson for us as we take that in. That lesson is this: those who go through difficulties discover what is precious.
We, in our way of thinking, believe that if our circumstances were right, then our walk would be better. If our circumstances were more favorable, then we could really live for the Lord. Then we would really be a testimony.
But I think the message, at least in 1 Peter and 2 Peter, is that here are those who went through horrific circumstances and yet, because of and in those circumstances, discovered what was of great value.
This is the principle: do not necessarily always pray to change your circumstances. Let there be a lesson.
Always pray that, in your circumstances, through the things you go through—permitted or brought upon you—the Lord Jesus will be discovered, and that which is precious above everything else will be made known to you.
I think, at least to me, that seems to be one of the clear messages from their circumstances.
It seems to me, even when you look in the world, that you have heard stories of people who have gone through great tragedy. I think of the tornadoes not that long ago. When they interviewed these people on CNN, very often the first thing they said was, “We have discovered what is precious.”
“We discovered what is really of value. All these things we trusted in, all these things we held to, all these things we labored for—gone in an instant.”
And we have discovered that valuable thing.
Brothers and sisters, I think this may give us some understanding of what is in this book. So may the Lord help us.
Today, what we would like to look at is God’s precious building work. I do not often do this—I think people get lost on the way—but I will make one exception. If I ever remember it again, I will make a second exception. At least today, I will give you the outline, because some people wonder where they are in the outline.
First of all, we will share on the precious living stone. That is absolutely vital. If we are going to have an understanding of God’s building work, what we need above everything else is to see that precious living stone. That is what Peter brought to us.
The second thing we will look at is the particular living stones. If you only see the precious living stone and you do not see the living stones being built upon the precious living stone, then you will not understand the precious building work of God. You will not.
Thirdly, just from one verse, we will look at the primary mission of that building work. What is our mission? What are we about? What have we been called to? What is the one thing? That is the reason I chose the word primary: the one thing above everything else that we should do.
So may the Lord help us. It is the first time I think I have ever done that. Now, if I can save the outline, we will be okay, but that is at least the outline I began with.
We read in Peter’s first letter, in this second chapter, that the whole thing has to do with the building work. That is interesting to me.
You cannot read the Bible from beginning to end without discovering that God is interested in building. I do not know how anyone can read the Bible, beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation, and come to any other conclusion but that God is interested in building.
For the very first calling of His people—when Israel was called out of the bondage of Egypt, called the house of bondage, and brought to Mount Sinai—all we often remember is that Moses was given the tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments.
You ask people, “What happened at Sinai?” Well, the Ten Commandments were given. But there was much more that happened on that mountain.
If you remember the record, God said to Moses, “What I give to you is the pattern for the tabernacle.” That is what He gave. He said, “This is the place that I will dwell among you.”
If you remember the record, there are intricate details: the posts, the boards, the silver cords, and everything in great detail that is in that tabernacle; every piece of furniture, even the way it would be arranged. God is interested in building. You cannot have any other conclusion.
You remember when He raised up David, a man after His own heart. What did David say at the end of his life? You remember in 1 Chronicles, near the end of the book, David says, “It was in my heart to build a house for the Lord.”
Right away God says, “You will not build Me a house, because you are a man of war. But your son Solomon, he will build Me a house for My name.”
You cannot come to any other conclusion but that God is interested in building.
You remember when that house was built, the glory of Solomon’s temple. It says that the glory of God came into that temple, and the presence of God was so great that the priests could not even stand and minister. That is how interested God was.
Or think of the recovery work. You remember, it was the Lord who sent Israel into Babylon, into captivity. It was because of their disobedience.
You may not think your God is like that, but our God disciplines His children because He is a loving Father. He sent His own children away, and He had His own temple plundered and destroyed, its things carried off into captivity.
Did it mean He was no longer interested in building? No.
When you read the record, when He recovers the people—when you read Nehemiah, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi—you see how He called His people out of that bondage to Himself in order to rebuild the temple of God.
He is interested in building.
Well, I think you get the point. We will not stay too long here, but unless you come to an appreciation of this fact, you will miss God’s precious building work.
All of these are shadows. All of these are types in the Old Testament. When you come into the New Testament, you get a picture of what God is really building. You get an understanding of what the precious building work really is.
When you come to the end of Revelation—I think you all know that—Revelation 21 says, at the close of the book:
The tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.
It says when that temple-city, that bride of Christ, comes down out of heaven, the first thing it says about it is, “Behold, it was like a precious stone.”
God is interested in building.
There is one particular thing we want to focus on that I believe drove Peter to give this message to these children of God. It is found in Matthew 16.
Do you remember Peter’s vision? The Lord turned to His own and said, “Who do men say that I am?” I think you all remember this. We have said this enough, but I want to borrow from it because I think it is fundamental to what Peter wrote.
He said, “Who do men say that I am?” Those disciples made an attempt to say who the Lord Jesus was. When you read that record, it is astounding to us. We think, “How could they miss it? How could they say He is a prophet?”
Then Peter, moved by the Holy Spirit, said:
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
The Lord responded and said, “Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
If you really want to see the precious living stone, it does not come from your understanding. It comes from revelation that comes from above. Do not ever forget that principle.
These men were with the Lord Jesus. These men slept with the Lord Jesus. These men traveled with the Lord Jesus. They were daily in His presence, and yet, when called upon to say who He was, they were not able to do it.
Proximity is not the issue. It is revelation.
Then the Lord said a remarkable thing. I believe the Lord could have said anything. After all, He is the Lord. He could have made any statement He chose.
But in this most momentous occasion, He said:
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Brothers and sisters, think of that. At this most momentous point of revelation, this is what the Lord’s message was.
Do you think He is interested in building work? It seems very evident.
He said, “Thou art Peter,” a stone. It is easy for us to jump on the Catholics, you know. Protestants have made fair sport of that forever and say, “Well, they have messed it all up. They say, ‘See, the whole church is built on Peter.’”
Well, it does not mean that at all. You are a stone. The church is not built on a stone; the church is built on the rock. Was He calling Peter the rock? No. Peter is a stone. He is the Rock.
He is the living stone upon which the whole church is built forever.
This is the revelation Peter had. He saw that Jesus was the living stone. He saw not only that Jesus was the living stone, but he saw that he himself was a stone.
He saw that, in spite of all the conflict down through the ages, however great it came, however demonic it was, Christ would build His church, and the gates of Hades would not prevail against it.
God is interested in building.
I think when you come to 1 Peter 2, you have to recognize that this is what influenced Peter’s writing. That is what he meant: “You coming to the living stone.” That is what he meant when he said, “You as living stones are being built up a spiritual house.”
That is what he saw, and that is what he communicated to these believers: the Lord Jesus is the living stone.
Dear saints, I think one of the things we need to see first of all is the living stone. That is what Peter saw.
I do not know what you pray every day, but I believe it would be worthy for us to say, “Lord, show us the living stone. Unveil Yourself to us.”
Often, I do not know how you begin, but I am sort of like this: you begin by saying, “Lord, get me through the day.” The Lord is merciful. He will get you through the day. Our brother said at the table that He daily takes us through.
But it is more important to see the living stone. If you are founded upon that living stone, you are founded upon the unshakable foundation. That will get you through the day.
“Unto whom coming, a living stone.”
May the Lord help us so that we can really see this.
There is this wonderful phrase. I think in this one phrase we understand the whole of Christianity. When Peter began to write this, he said, “To whom coming.” Just three words: “To whom coming.”
That is the Christian life. That is what it is all about: coming to this living stone, discovering this living stone, seeing this living stone.
May the Lord help us. I believe that is the message Peter had.
It is interesting to me that he uses an animate word for an inanimate object. Some of you forgive the engineer; the English majors will know what I mean. He uses an animate word for an inanimate object. He says, “You coming to a living stone.” Isn’t that strange?
I do not know if any of you have ever seen a living stone. Some of you may collect rocks. There is a place, as a matter of fact, over on Route 60—a rock shop. It has been there forever. I wonder how in the world they ever stay in business. Who is buying rocks?
But it says, “To whom coming, a living stone.”
Brothers and sisters, we do not come to a dead Christ. We come to a living Christ.
We do not come to a stone that was laid as a memorial stone. We come to a stone that is living and breathing, and in Him we have life. You see the difference?
That was Peter’s message to these ones. He said, “You need to come to the living stone. Your circumstances may not be right. The things you have gone through may be difficult. But if you, in fact, come to this living stone, you will live.”
This living stone—Christ—is the whole of Christianity.
I do not know who wrote this. Maybe some of you know who wrote it, but I remember years ago I had this yellow plaque about what Christianity was, and I put it in my office. To this day, many years since, it is still in my office.
This is what it says:
Christianity is not do’s and don’ts.
It is not a religion.
It is not a denomination.
It is not a faith.
It is a living person, Jesus Christ.
That is the difference. It is all about Christ.
I remember once, when I was a young believer many years ago—when I was first saved, as a matter of fact—and the Lord had laid it on my heart to seek Him. I remember opening a book, and in that book the author used this phrase from Philippians: “For me to live is Christ.”
To me, that opened the whole Christian life. It was like living revelation from God Himself. I remember thinking, “That is it. It is not me living at all.”
God never expected me to live. I think He has had so much trouble with that. God never expected you to live. He wants Christ to live through you and in you: the living stone. Do you see the difference?
I hope that is clear. But to me, that was the most living thing. I was released. I thought, “You mean I do not have to struggle? I do not have to strain? It is not my effort. It is not my trying to be like Christ. It is Christ.”
That is the whole of Christianity: “Unto whom coming, a living stone.”
Now, it says a couple of other things about the Lord Jesus here. It says He is elect. He is precious. He is the most precious.
The problem today with us as Christians is that we have many precious things. I wonder if the message that came to this beleaguered church—to these ones who were called strangers and pilgrims and sojourners in the earth—was that they discovered the one precious thing. It made all the difference.
That is my hope for the new year. May the Lord lead us to that.
When you read here, you discover several things about this living stone. First of all, you discover that Christ is the foundation stone.
Now, I do not know what you know about foundations, but the foundation stone bears the whole weight of the building—not just for an instant, but for the life of the building. The whole weight of the building.
Everybody else’s eyes are glazing over, and Terry is going, “Right, right.”
The foundation stone: He is the foundation stone. It says in Isaiah, “I lay in Zion a foundation stone, a sure foundation.” He that is built upon that foundation will never be ashamed.
The Lord is the foundation stone. He is the unshakable foundation stone.
There are two broad categories of foundations. Let me just be generic. There are deep foundations and shallow foundations. You are all structural engineers now.
Most of your houses—all of your houses, I would say—are built on shallow foundations. Now, that might disturb you spiritually, but that is just the house that will pass away.
Almost every building—eighty-five percent may be a good figure—is built on shallow foundations: just enough, just deep enough, just enough to distribute the weight. There is just enough tolerable damage. That is what a shallow foundation does. It can settle a little bit here. It can move a little bit there. But that is all it is: a shallow foundation.
Now, deep foundations fall into a different category. Deep foundations are much more costly—tremendously more. You wonder why eighty-five percent of buildings are not put on deep foundations. The next time you go to an architect, tell them you want your house on piles and see what happens.
They are much more costly. They are much more difficult to put in. The surest go to the bedrock. Not only do the surest go to the bedrock, but the surest are anchored to the bedrock. There is a difference.
I remember one time there was some problem—damage to a building down in Shako. Actually, this fellow was trying to recover money for his old building that was worthless. He thought the deep foundations on the floodwall had destroyed his perfect building.
Well, it was not until an expert witness said, “Of course, the caulk in those cracks is twenty years old, and they just built the foundation for the floodwall,” that he sort of backed off. But he wanted to recover his money.
I remember I had never seen a rock anchor installed until that time. Not only did this thing have deep foundations; it went to the bedrock, the unmovable bedrock. It had a rock anchor drilled deep into that same bed, anchored to that bedrock so it would not ever go anywhere.
So, if you would like, you could move down by the floodwall.
Christ is the deep foundation. Do you understand? That is why He is called the sure foundation.
Can you imagine the cost of this deep foundation? Can you imagine? I think we sing a song: “I never will understand how much it cost.”
More costly than anything.
When the Lord Jesus hung on that cross, when He became sin, and when He was abandoned even by the Father, He said:
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
Do you think that was cost?
That was the greatest cost. That was the most expensive foundation that was ever laid. That is our sure foundation.
The second thing it says about this is that Christ is a tried foundation. It is one thing—sometimes you have to put foundations in, and there is more than just a little bit of faith involved.
I am always amazed—I know you get bored with these engineering illustrations—that geotechnical engineers, when they poke a hole into the ground every hundred feet, can tell me what the building sits on and how it will stay there. I am amazed at that. I think that is a wonderful science, and a little bit other than science.
But the amazing thing is that when you put in a deep foundation, you cannot just put in a deep foundation without trying the foundation. Jonathan knows what I am talking about here.
As a matter of fact, if you look, all deep pile foundations are required to be tested before you ever put the building on. Not only are they required to be tested, but they are required to be tested beyond what they will ever see as a building—way beyond the load they will ever see.
If that pile stays and holds up under that greater-than-expected load, then that pile can go into the building as a deep foundation. It becomes a tried pile. You understand the difference?
Not too many eyes are glazing over, so I think you get it. It is a tested thing, and that tested thing becomes part of the foundation. If that tested thing fails, it is rejected. There is a difference.
Christ is the tried stone.
Not only is He the tried stone, Christ is the precious cornerstone. Now, that is an interesting thought.
I do not know if you know much about cornerstones. We think of cornerstones as some ornamentation with a date on it: “There is the cornerstone—1914.” But that is not the cornerstone the Word of God is talking about.
This is a much more important stone than that. The cornerstone literally means the angle at the corner. It shows us that this stone, this massive cornerstone, joins and ties the whole building together forever.
You see the difference? It is not just some decorative stone that some artist engraved with some date. It is that which ties the whole building together so that the building can never be destroyed.
It comes from Psalm 118:22: “He is the head of the corner.” He is the cornerstone.
I do not know if you ever thought that you were the thing that tied the building together, but if you were, I would be severely depressed. If you thought for a moment that I was the thing that tied the building together, I think you would be equally depressed.
But, brothers and sisters, there has been laid by God’s own hands a chief cornerstone, and He holds the whole building together. That is what we need to see in coming to the living stone.
There is another phrase used in Psalm 118:22. I think Peter borrowed from both of these verses—in Isaiah and in Psalm 118:22. It says, “He has become the head of the corner.”
Now, that is an interesting phrase. What does that mean, “the head of the corner”? Not just is He the cornerstone; He is the head of the corner.
What it literally means is that He is not only the foundation stone, He is not only the tried stone, and He is not only the cornerstone: He is the capstone. He is the head of the corner.
You remember that prophecy in Zechariah 4, when the vision was given about Zerubbabel. This was the encouragement to this beleaguered remnant: the capstone shall be brought into place with shouts of, “Grace, grace, unto it.”
He is the capstone.
Now, what does that mean to us? When it comes to God’s precious building, what does that mean to you? What does that mean to me?
It means that Christ is the beginning, and it means that Christ is the end. It means that Christ is the Alpha and Christ is the Omega. It means that Christ starts this work, and Christ finishes this work.
That was the encouragement to Peter when He said, “Peter, you are a stone, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
I am the beginning, Peter. This is what you need to see. I am the end. What a difference.
It says in that same prophecy in Zechariah 4, speaking of Zerubbabel—Zerubbabel is a type of Christ; this prophecy is figurative:
The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house;
His hands shall also finish it.
Isn’t that encouraging? That is the reason these ones could be encouraged. They saw that He was the beginning. They saw that He was the end. They saw that He was all that was in between.
They saw that Christianity consists not of things, but of the person of the Lord Jesus from beginning to end. And He would bring it to pass, because He is all.
Now, to me, that is what these many stones represent. Let us look at this matter of the particular stones.
A building is not a foundation alone. I do not know of a first time someone has gone to your house, and you lived in a foundation, and someone said to you, “What a lovely foundation. It is the best foundation I have ever seen.”
A building is not just a foundation. A building is a house. It is that which is built upon the foundation and the foundation itself. These two things together make the building.
So, if you turn back to 1 Peter, verse 5 says:
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house,
to be a holy priesthood,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, we are living stones. Isn’t it interesting? The very same word is used. Isn’t it interesting that the apostle did not use a different word?
That is because we are cut from the Rock. That is because we are bone of His bone. That is because we are flesh of His flesh. That is because Christ is in us, the hope of glory.
It is not two different materials. It is one material and one source that builds the house of God. You yourselves also, as living stones.
That is interesting to me. When you read this section, it twice quotes from the Old Testament and says that this living stone, speaking of the Lord Jesus, was cast away as worthless by the builders.
Can you imagine, just for a moment, this most precious stone—God’s living stone—was cast away as worthless?
That is no mistake. The Holy Spirit uses absolutely contrasting words. This most precious stone—remember, the word means of infinite value—was cast away by the builders as worthless. Do you see the difference?
Now, here is the strange thing: this precious stone was rejected. That which should never have been rejected, but was rejected for your sake and for my sake, has become the living stone.
Now, here is the second part: us, who should have been rejected, become the living stones for the building of this house. Isn’t that remarkable?
Christ should never have been rejected, but He was rejected. It was in God’s allowed plan and provision to bring us to redemption.
But you—you should have been rejected. You may think you have better qualities than that. You should have been rejected. You become the very material for the building of the house of God. Isn’t that amazing?
What a contrast. It should cause us to bow and worship. Who could have thought of this idea? Who could have come up with this plan? Who could have imagined such a building? Only God.
You, as living stones, are built up.
A spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer sacrifices acceptable to God.
Now, brothers and sisters, notice what it says. It says, “You, as living stones, are built up upon the foundation” as what? A spiritual house.
There is a difference here. There is a difference between a monument and a house. Some think the church is a monument. The church is not a monument; it is a house.
Nobody lives in monuments. They are beautiful things. Sometimes they are the most ornate things we can build as human beings, but they are not a house.
A house is where you live. A house is where there is life. A house is where you grow up together.
We are a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.
Not only that, it goes on to say in verse 9, if you consider the nature of these particular living stones, that they are a holy priesthood. Now, isn’t that interesting?
I love the adjectives. You need to pay attention to these adjectives with each one of these figures of speech about the building of God. We are a holy priesthood.
It is hard enough, dear saints, for us to get the people of God to buy into the fact that they are priests. You are a priest.
You do not need a funny collar. You do not need some bishop to say, “You are a priest.” You are a priest. Every believer is a priest.
That seems to be a foreign thought to many Christians. But if we could discover that we are a holy priesthood, everyone in spiritual service, then we would discover the precious building of God.
The problem is, we Protestants do the same thing. We have certain ones, and they are the priesthood—we do not call them that—but they are the spiritual ones, and the rest of us are laypeople.
What a tragedy. We miss the whole heart of God’s thought concerning His building.
I do not know if anybody is still awake, but I hope you go away with a sense that you are a priest. Not only this, I hope you go away with a sense that you are a holy priest.
You may say, “Brother, that is taking it just a little too far. I may be a priest; I will buy into that. But a holy priest—you do not know me. Talk to my wife.”
You are holy because of the precious blood of Jesus. When did we begin to base our holiness upon our works? That is what we need to discover.
It goes on to say that they were an elect race—a chosen race.
I am of German descent. My grandfather actually jumped the boat. I would not be here today—some of you may be thankful—but I would not be here today. My grandfather jumped the boat in the Cape Fear River in North Carolina.
This was World War I, and Germans were not exactly—sorry, Günther—appreciated at that period in our history. He jumped the boat, jumped right into the Cape Fear River—no fear, Cape Fear everywhere—jumped right into the river and swam ashore.
If you do not believe in providence, he came up to a German-speaking policeman in North Carolina. Does anybody speak German in North Carolina?
He came up to a German-speaking policeman, and he said, “There are some Germans that live over here.” And I am here. That is simple.
Hitler believed the Germans were the chosen race—the Aryan brotherhood, the select race, the blond-haired, blue-eyed. Never mind there are more Chinese than any of us can count. “We are the chosen race.”
But when you look at the church of the living God, it is the chosen race. You are chosen before the foundation of the world in Christ Jesus to be part of that elect race.
To me, that is a beautiful thing.
They are a holy nation. Some people like to say, “This is a Christian nation.” I often wonder, what do they mean? Why is this a Christian nation?
Thank God—do not get me wrong—I am probably just as patriotic as most of you. But some people take this to an extreme: “This blessed Christian nation.”
I think we have as much to repent about as any nation on the face of the earth. Thank God for what He did in our history and the way He has used this nation.
But when it comes to this building of God, they are a holy nation. We are truly one nation under God, indivisible.
It is not the stars and stripes. It is the church of the living God.
The last thing he talks about is, “a people for God’s own possession.” What a marvelous thing.
You remember our brother read that in the Psalm. You remember how that was shared. We are a people of possession. We are God’s own precious possession.
Now think about that. Think about that, brothers and sisters.
One day, it says in Ephesians 2, He will display in us through the coming ages the unsearchable riches of Christ. We—we are His people, His grand possession.
That amazes me. Do you know, to such a degree that we will one day be sitting upon the throne—believe it or not—judging the angels?
We are His people of possession. This is the building work of God.
Now let me just share this, and this is really just a brief statement from one verse. What then is the primary mission of the church? Turn again to chapter 2.
What is the primary mission of this building work? I think we make this too difficult.
Turn with me to chapter 2 again. In verse 9:
That ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.
That is the one explanation given about this building work of God: that we might show forth His excellencies, who has called us out of darkness into His marvellous light. That is our mission.
Some of you might say, “I thought our mission was evangelism.” Well, that is part of our mission. That is not our mission.
Some of you might say, “I thought our mission was missions.” That is part of our mission, but that is not our mission.
You might say, “I thought our mission was the building of the church.” That is part of our mission. That is not our mission.
Our mission is more simple and more comprehensive than all of that, and it includes all of that. It is simply to show forth His excellencies, who has called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.
I remember—I do not hear it as much now; maybe some of you do—but about ten years ago, we went through this real estate and business period where everybody needed to know their mission statement.
That was everywhere. It got so aggravating, I want to tell you, because I never could remember what ours was. Everybody would come and say, “What is your mission statement?” It did not matter if you were a business. It did not matter if you were an organization. It did not matter what you were. Everybody had a mission statement.
Everybody needed to know that mission statement, and everybody needed to be able to tell what that mission statement was.
Actually, it was a good thing, as much as I railed against it. It was a good thing because it focused you on your very purpose.
It was usually one sentence or one paragraph, but it always brought it down to the very essence of who you were and why you existed.
As the church, we have a mission statement. Why do we exist? What is our purpose?
I believe this word in Peter is absolutely the clearest thing I have ever read:
That we might show forth His excellencies,
Who has called us out of darkness
Into His marvellous light.
That is our mission. May the Lord help us.
Lord, we just come to You. We ask You that You would do to us what You did with Peter. We ask You to open our eyes to behold the living stone—the One upon whom everything is built, the One who holds everything together, the One who is the beginning and the end.
The sure foundation: Christ, our cornerstone. Open our eyes in this coming year. Open our eyes to behold You more fully than we ever have.
And Lord, we praise You that, in Your goodness and Your mercy and in Your plan, You have somehow, of all the choices You could have made, chosen us to be Your spiritual house—to be the living stones that are built upon the foundation, a holy habitation for God in the Spirit. How remarkable.
And Lord, above everything else, keep us true to our mission. Lord, do not ever let us begin to see ourselves as the end. Lord, do not ever let us put all the emphasis upon what we are and what You have done for us.
But let our emphasis always be to show forth Your excellencies, You who have called us out of darkness into Your marvellous light.
If You can do that, You will have Your precious building work.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.