Lord, we give You great thanks for the great work of salvation You did on my behalf and on behalf of all my brothers and sisters here, and indeed throughout the world and through the centuries.
Lord, it has been one sacrifice that did it: one great sacrifice of Calvary, for which we are so grateful this morning. And the Word goes on to say that You gave up Your life and died for the church as well.
Lord, today we want to honor what You died for. We want to give You praise for Your great plan—not only of salvation, but Your plan to bring glory back to Yourself and to Your Son, Jesus Christ.
We ask that You bless us. We ask that You open our hearts and spirits to You today, that we might respond to whatever You want to share with us from Your heart. Lord, You always share personally, and I pray that You would do that once again today, that we might know that the Lord Jesus Himself has spoken, and not man, nor Jerry. Amen.
But Lord, there are things on Your heart that You want us to know. Lord, we handle these things carefully. We handle Your Word carefully. We honor Your Word, Lord, and we plead the blood of Jesus over all that is shared, that the enemy might not attack us in any way or take advantage of what is said. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, welcome, everybody. Thank you. I have one person that is awake. Good morning, saints. Amen.
You know, you should be just busting at the seams because the sun has returned. Hallelujah. Thank goodness. I like this sun that the Lord has given us.
God has given us a great Son, His Son Jesus Christ, as well as this ball of fire that keeps us warm and brings us sunshine. We are thankful for both of them, obviously.
But this morning, I want to continue where I began last week. We have been sharing about the torch of testimony—passing the torch of testimony—and it was really on my heart: “Lord, what is it in my life that I would like to pass on, particularly to the younger generation, and to all my brothers and sisters, that we all might be encouraged?”
We all carry experiences of our Lord Jesus Christ that are not just meant for ourselves, but are meant for the edification of the body of Jesus Christ, that His body might be strengthened and His bride might be matured.
So all of your personal experiences in the Lord Jesus Christ are not for you alone, but that the body itself might be built up. It was really on my heart to share some things, some of which are very personal and have meant a tremendous amount in my own life with the Lord.
One of the first things I thought about, as a matter of testimony, is this: I think one of the greatest things that the Lord did in my life personally—beyond salvation, and I will get to that in a minute—was to show me that life has a purpose.
Life has a purpose.
If you look in the book of Ephesians, it says there is an eternal purpose that comes from God Himself. Now, man has many purposes: desires for power and money, perhaps family, retirement. When I got to that age, I thought, “Hey, this is going to be great.” Well, I am working again, so things do not always look the way they seem like they might be.
But what I am saying is, do you know that most of the people in this world have no idea what the purpose of life is? I think the Lord worked that into me from childhood, because I was always curious about why.
We all have that curiosity. My grandchildren are getting older now, but when they were younger, the first word that came out was “no.” They learned “no” pretty quickly. But the other word, as they got a little older, was, “Why? Why? Why this? Why that?”
They were always asking me why. Well, through the years the Lord has been gracious, and I discovered that making it through college was not my purpose in life, nor even having a family and being able to sustain myself well enough to get through this life, enjoy some of its niceties, and one day die and pass away.
I mean, for a lot of people, that is their perspective on life. But for the Christian, we need to know that we have an eternal purpose. We have a purpose from God.
That purpose is to be a testimony of Christ: to manifest the life of Christ in your life and to share that life with others—not only unbelievers, but believers in the context of the church, where we share that life of Christ. That is what we were created for.
The stars in the heavens—it’s very clear in the Word of God that He said these show forth His glory and His handiwork. He goes on to say, therefore, man, you are without excuse. When I bring you before judgment and you tell Me that you did not know anything about Me, I will say to you, “Look at the stars. Look at the heavens. Look at these wonderful things on this earth that I have created to show forth My glory and handiwork, and you did not see. Did you not wonder that there was a God of creation behind it all? You are without excuse.”
But God could not show forth all of His glory just through created things. That is why He created man: because He wanted man to show forth the character and very nature of God.
He was going to use man as the vessel to show forth His character and nature—not only His creative powers, but His very essence of who He was. That required a unique creation, as I pointed out last week.
He did not just speak a word, but He took the clay and breathed into it. It became a living soul, and it was by the Spirit through man’s living soul that He would be able to express Himself in the universe and in the ages to come.
That is very fundamental and should be the guiding principle throughout all of our lives. There are some very foundational principles. That is why I shared with you last week that I always loved math. Once you could add, subtract, divide, and multiply, you could do it. You had the very basic, fundamental thing.
Purpose. Our lives have a purpose.
We often quote Romans 8:28: “All things work together for good to them that love the Lord.” We often stop there, but it goes on to say, “and those who are called according to purpose.”
So our calling in Christ is according to purpose. That purpose is that we might be transformed into His image and be able to manifest the life and character of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself throughout the universe. It is a glory for God, and a glory for us as well.
That has always been the guiding principle in my life: I was not created for my own pleasure or to satisfy my own needs and desires. I was created for God Himself, to be a vessel of testimony to the life, character, and nature of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That brought me to the matter of choice. In order to express the character and nature of God, the natural life with which we were born is not enough. It is called the soul life—mind, will, and emotions—but the spirit needs to be made alive in Christ. It had become dead because of man’s sinful nature and because we commit sin.
I love the Lord for this. The other thing that made a great impact on me was when I discovered choice.
God gave man a choice, and our choices determine our destiny.
I think that is amazing. As I mentioned last week, God could have made us robots. He could have made us cyborg-like, where we could think and come to our own conclusions, but those conclusions would always be the conclusions and directions of the one in control of the robot.
God does not work that way. God has choice. God has divine choice. And, brothers and sisters, He made a choice to give us a choice. I think that is marvelous.
God wanted a testimony like He is, and we needed to have choice—free will, as it is called. God gave us free will, and it is our choice that determines our destiny.
I am thankful that, as a young boy, God confronted me in the person of my mother. I had been sinful. As a twelve-year-old, I had been creating acts, and frankly, they were lies. That was an unpardonable sin in my mother’s eyes.
I could not talk back to my parents, nor could I lie to them. That was it. Everything else might be discussed, but there was no discussion about that. Anyway, she caught me a number of times.
She finally confronted me and said, “Jerry, you have offended me greatly, but you have also offended God. It is more important that you get straight with Him first. Then you can get straight with me.”
I am thankful that, at twelve years old, the Lord was able by His grace to convict me of my sin. I knew I was a sinner. Mom did not explain anything about salvation or all of that to me. She just said, “You need to get right with God.”
Well, I did. I got on my knees that day, cried before the Lord, and asked Him for forgiveness, which He gave to me. I knew He gave it to me. That is when I met the Lord. That is how I came into salvation.
I did not even understand that I had been saved eternally until later on, but that is the day the Lord touched me, and that is the day I was saved.
I also mentioned that it is interesting in my life: I did not come to the Lord out of my desire to understand, nor out of my response to love Him because of what He did for me in dying for me. I came because of the issue of life and death—of hell.
My mother told me that if I did not get straight with God, I was going to hell, and she was right. That was pretty bold and blunt of my mother.
But I am thankful God gave me a submissive heart that day, because I could have rebelled against it. God gave me a submissive heart, and I made the choice to choose God. I am so thankful.
But I want everyone in this room to know that there is eternal life and there is eternal death, and we make the choice.
Choose Christ, and you choose life and receive eternal life because you have Christ, the eternal life. But you can also choose eternal death. Reject Christ, and you will live in eternity outside of Christ, outside of His presence, having to live with all those who rejected Him.
I cannot imagine how much meaner this world can get than it already is. But, brothers and sisters, that is the choice.
God wanted to use me as a testimony to His life, and He obtained me. I could not give testimony to His life until I received eternal life in Christ Jesus. Then I could become a vessel of testimony to His life, not just my own.
Then I shared that point in my life when I was, I guess, twenty-eight years old. Kenny was twenty years old and had just come to the Lord about a year earlier. He was a one-year-old Christian at the time, full of the life and energy of the Lord—just overwhelming.
I was really drawn to Kenny immediately, even though I was eight years older. We worked together, and I got together with Kenny because, as you know, the first year I met him, he did not know the Lord and was not interested. He thought the Bible was just something men had come up with.
The next year when I met him, he was full of the life of the Lord and declared to me that every word in this Book was God-breathed and that I should listen to it. Quite a change.
I began to share with Kenny the thing that had really touched my life: the book The Normal Christian Life, which touched many in this room, I think, in the past, by Watchman Nee, our brother from China.
It was a precious time with my brother. I remember Kenny came to me one day and said, “Jerry, did you know that Christianity is Christ? It is only Christ. It is only about Christ. It is Christ.”
When he said that, I said, “Brother, you are right.” The Lord kind of lit me up, because through my younger brother, who had the freshness of that discovery, I saw how great Christ was and the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I really think that all of us have to come to that place in our life where we experience and see a glimpse of the greatness of this Christ, because He is God.
And He came as a man. As a matter of fact, when He appeared, He was a baby. I cannot imagine God doing that. He came as a defenseless little baby.
He grew as we grow up and experienced what we experience. He understands us. What a dear Savior our Lord is—not just a distant God. He does not want to be distant. He loves us. He saves us. Praise the Lord.
I am just amazed at how great Christ is. Through the years, the immensity of Christ has only grown as you see more and more how central Christ is to everything God is doing and wants to do.
What He wants to do is show all the glory of the character and nature of Christ, that it might fill the universe like the sunshine fills the universe this day.
There comes a point when you see that greatness of Christ and finally say, “Who am I? Who am I? Life is not about me. Life is about Christ. My life is not about what I desire. It is about what God desires.”
It makes such a difference. I can go to work. I can do all the normal things that everybody else does. But the ultimate thing for that day is that I am Christ’s and I am His testimony on this earth.
It does not matter if I am in the kitchen or at work. Wherever I am, I am a testimony to Christ. And so are we all. That is our calling in Jesus Christ, and that is the purpose of life.
If you miss the purpose of life, oh, what you have missed, because really you miss Christ. Many Christians know they are saved. They will tell you they love the Lord, but they really have missed the purpose of life. I think that is so sad.
That is why I wanted to share this with my younger brothers and sisters, as well as my other brothers and sisters who have lived a little longer and probably appreciate some of what I had to go through to learn these things.
That brought me to this matter of testimony and something that happened in my life that made such a tremendous difference in my understanding of our relationship with one another—the church that God is building.
That experience also occurred with my brother Kenny. We had been sharing for a while about the Lord Jesus Christ and all those Nee books: The Normal Christian Life, Not I, but Christ, Love Not the World, and all of these things. We were really drawn to the Lord together.
Kenny was Assemblies of God, Pentecostal. I was fundamental, hard-shell Baptist, steeped in doctrine. Kenny was steeped in life. That is why I said, “Whoa, I have been missing something here.”
But the Lord brought us together, one in the Lord. We never questioned our relationship or what each other really believed. We just started growing together, believing together, and seeing new things together in the Lord. It was marvelous, and it still is marvelous. Kenny and I are still together.
I remember Kenny took me to a Foursquare Gospel meeting. It was a surprise because when I walked in, this fellow was playing the piano. I asked, “What song is he playing?” Someone said, “He is playing heavenly songs—just whatever the Lord gives him.” I said, “Okay. That is okay with me.”
I remember a brother came up, saw Ken and me, and immediately laid hands on both of us. He said, “You two young men will be together ministering for the Lord for the rest of your life.” So far, that is all true.
I am thankful for those little things that make things real in your personal Christian experience. But what I wanted to say is that this awakened me to the fact that Christianity is not just about understanding doctrines and being able to expound doctrines, because I was a teacher.
It is about life. It is about the sharing of life—the life of Christ. That is what I experienced with my brother Kenny, and also with my dear mother-in-law, who died at the age of fifty.
She was able to share a few things with me before she passed away, for which I am forever grateful. I feel that, in some ways, I have to represent my mother-in-law, because she had gotten glimpses of these things and shared them with me—enough to make me interested, enough to get me to begin asking questions.
The Lord began to put a question in my heart as a result of all that was going on in my life. We were also having some real difficulties in the little Baptist church I was in.
Unfortunately, they caught one of the elders smoking. You know, that was one of the tenets of the Baptist church: you definitely could not smoke. You could not dance, you could not go to movies, and we could not do a lot of things.
But you know what? I did learn a lot. I learned a lot about the Lord there, and I am grateful for it. But suddenly I encountered this newness of life in my brother, and I was entering into a new world—more spiritual than doctrinal, rather than merely having it all up here in your head.
The Lord gave me a question: What is the church?
I began to say, “Lord, what is the church?” We would go on Sundays, have an altar call every Sunday, give to missionaries—fifty percent of what came in went to missionaries—and, of course, they were properly organized around the pastor.
I began to say, “Lord, is this the church? What is the church? What is the church?”
At that time, I honestly viewed the church as an organization that we form in order to share the gospel. That is what I thought the church was.
Until one day, I guess through my mother-in-law, it was shared with me that a brother from China would come to Richmond once a month and share with some sisters.
I remember going to Kenny and saying, “Kenny, I understand this brother from China comes every once in a while to Richmond. I wonder if he knows Watchman Nee.” Now, how many Chinese are in the world? Billions, right? But anyway, you never know.
Finally, we found out where he was meeting. It was at Llewellyn Miller’s, and Kenny and I went together to hear our brother. He shared from Acts 1 on the birth of the church.
We had not studied the book of Acts, I will be honest with you, because first of all, we did not believe in the gifts of the Spirit, and we did not believe in all these other things. So we just ignored it, I guess.
But my brother got up there and shared on the birth of the church—the birth. The church is born. I thought it was organized by men.
Finally, my brother laid it all out and said, “The church is not an organization. It is an organism.”
When he said that, a thousand light bulbs went on in my head, and I said, “That’s it. That is the church. Thank You, Lord. I have been asking and wondering what the church is, and You have finally shown me.”
It is Christ. It is the body of Christ, of whom Christ is the Head. Very clear. The living body.
At one time the Lord had an earthly body, but that was put away at Calvary. Now He has this spiritual body called the church. It is a living body. It is Christ.
That amazed me. It turned me upside down, as well as my brother Kenny. We never stopped going. Every time he would come, once a month, we would go to hear our brother.
Eventually, we started meeting there. Eventually, I was asked to leave where I was because I was a teacher, and I was beginning to share things that the Lord was showing me—things they were having trouble with. I can understand that.
One day they met with me. I remember the pastor brought another preacher with him, a doctor. I shared how living the Lord was, what the Lord was, and that the church was a living thing.
I told them I was meeting in the afternoon with some other brothers and sisters. He said, “Well, do they have a pastor?” I said, “No. We just get together around the Lord, and we worship.”
“What do you do?” I said, “We worship.” Of course, what they used to call worship was when the preacher preached to us. I am serious—that was our worship time.
I thought, “This is just what the Lord has been showing me.” Thank the Lord, He gave me a good spirit about it. He really did.
Finally, in the end, they said, “Well, Jerry, you cannot teach anymore.” I said, “Okay, I accept that.” The other preacher, who had the doctorate, said, “Son, if you are right, my thirty years have been wrong.”
I said, “Well, I cannot speak to that. I can only share with you what the Lord is doing and what He has done in my life.” Then I got a phone call that afternoon: “Jerry, can you teach until we can find somebody else?”
And they did. They found somebody else. But finally, the Lord showed me that it was okay. I did not leave immediately; I still prayed. The Lord said, “Just follow the ark. Just follow the ark.”
So I did. I followed the life of the Lord Jesus, and I am so grateful.
I only say that to say this: the discovery of Christ’s greatness is tremendous. Brothers and sisters, how we need to see that.
But in order for Christ to be seen in fullness, it requires His body as well. It requires the church. That is why, in that song we sang, the Lord said He died for her and gave Himself for her.
In Ephesians 5, He says He is removing all the spots and wrinkles. This is God’s purpose. This is our destiny. The whole purpose of the church is that we might be a testimony—a glowing light in this world—to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I share that because this morning I wanted to share a little more on this matter of the church. Last week, it was all about our testimony as individuals before the Lord. Today, I want to share more about our testimony together.
If you think about it, our personal testimony of Christ is so limited. Even the Lord Jesus was limited in His testimony. All the fullness of the Godhead was in Jesus Christ, but the body He had on earth was limiting. He could only be with a few at a few times.
That body greatly limited Him. In fact, the Lord said, “I am straitened.” In other words, “I feel like I have been cramped in in this body of Mine.”
Thank God, when He rose from the dead and went back to the throne of God, He was anointed with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It ran down to those one hundred twenty at Pentecost, and there He united them in spirit—in oneness.
It is difficult to explain, but it meant we were no longer individualistic. We may have our individual life before Christ, and we should, but we are no longer just “me and the Lord.” It is “us and the Lord.”
He has done something tremendous, and He did it in the Spirit. We are one in Christ.
My first revelation was that the church is the body of Christ. My second expansion of that revelation was that it is also the house of God—that we are to be the house of God. That was very important to me.
Because the Word of God in Matthew says:
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
—Matthew 18:20
I said, “The Lord in our midst—that is a little different from the Lord in us.” The Lord wanted to dwell among us.
When the Lord Jesus came the first time, He said:
The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests;
but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.
—Matthew 8:20
The Lord has always been looking for that dwelling place, that special place. In Matthew, He says, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst.”
Now, brothers and sisters, sometimes you may come and say, “I do not know if the Lord is in our midst or not.” But I will tell you what: that is what the Lord has promised.
He said, “If you gather unto My name”—that means if we are given to the Lord and gather together unto Him—He is in our midst. Whether we know it, sense it, or experience Him in our midst is another thing.
That goes back to this: when you come, what are you looking for? You are looking for the Lord, to experience His presence in your life, because His presence is here.
The main thing I want us to see is that God has a great desire to dwell among men—among us, not only in us, but among us.
Let us read some Scriptures. I am going to have to press on here. Let us read Exodus 25:2.
Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering: of every man whose heart maketh him willing ye shall take My offering.
—Exodus 25:2
It is a freewill offering. Now go to Exodus 25:8:
And let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
According to all that I shew thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it.
—Exodus 25:8–9
With Israel, He said, “You need to make Me a sanctuary that I can dwell among you”—among His people, the center of life.
Let us go to Numbers 9:15–16:
And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the tent of the testimony: and at even it was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until morning.
So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.
—Numbers 9:15–16
That is where the Lord was dwelling: the tabernacle. His glory was there, and that is where God’s people met Him.
Second Chronicles 5:13–14:
It came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good; for His lovingkindness endureth for ever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord,
so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.
—2 Chronicles 5:13–14
Matthew 18:20, the verse I have already mentioned:
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
—Matthew 18:20
Then Revelation 21:1–3, right at the very end:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, 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.
—Revelation 21:1–3
He is tabernacled with men. That is the heavenly Jerusalem that we see and look forward to being a part of.
So what is this testimony of God—having a sanctuary of testimony, a place where He can dwell—and how does that affect us today?
It is easy to grasp that you are to be a testimony to the Lord in your individual life. You have Christ in you, He is working in you, and you can share that life with others. But it is so limited, brothers and sisters.
That is why God is saying, “I need to be in the midst.” If you are going to see the fullness of My glory and express the fullness of My nature, one person cannot do it. It requires all. It requires that you be built together.
In Matthew 16, the Lord confronted His disciples and asked, “Who am I?” I just love Peter. He gets it right out there on the table:
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
—Matthew 16:16
The Lord was delighted. “That is right, Peter. That is right.” But the Lord did not stop there. He said:
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
—Matthew 16:18
At that time, Peter’s name was really Simon. The Lord addressed him as Simon first, then said, “But thou art Peter.” In other words, He changed his name. He said, “You are a little stone.” That is what Peter means: little stone.
Christ was the massive Rock from which this little stone was hewn. He was making a great declaration: “Peter, you need to see more. You have not quite seen enough. Something glorious is going to happen.”
“You are a little stone that has been hewn out of Me, Christ, the massive Rock. I am the Rock, and upon this Rock I will build My church”—upon the massive Rock, not upon Peter, a little pebble.
Did Peter understand? Read 1 Peter 2:5:
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.
—1 Peter 2:5
Peter got it. Peter realized he was a stone that had come out of Christ and that he was a living stone. We living stones now have to be built together as a spiritual house—a sanctuary for the Lord.
Paul got the same revelation. Ephesians 2:19–22:
So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,
being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner stone;
in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord;
in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
—Ephesians 2:19–22
Jesus Christ, the massive Rock, is actually the chief cornerstone. Out of that cornerstone all the other stones were cut, and the cornerstone became the chief stone from which everything else is built.
These stones have to be properly fitted together. Brothers and sisters, that is not easy.
The key to understanding this fullness that Christ is after, by having a house in which He can dwell among His people—a sanctuary—requires us to be built together. It is not optional. It is a requirement.
Now, that is the difficult part, because that is where the work of the cross comes in.
Do you know how these stones in those days were put together? They did not have these massive diamond saws to cut things. They had little chisels.
They would cut out a stone and then start chiseling on it: “Chink, chink, chink, chink, chink, chink,” day in and day out. Finally, they would get that stone exactly the size and shape they wanted, and it would be perfectly smooth.
Amazing craftsmen. These stones were not put together with mortar. They were laid perfectly in place, perfectly fitted one to the other.
Christ declares, and the apostles declare, that we are living stones built together. The difficult part is all the “chink, chink, chink” that has to go on, because we have some rough edges.
Some of us have enormous outcroppings that have to be taken off. Other times, it is just a little piece here and a little piece there, and it is a long process. But that is the work of the cross.
That is why we submit to one another, because we need to be built together. I hope that the Holy Spirit will open our eyes to see that if God is to be satisfied, if God is to have His place of rest, we must be built together.
He could not find a place when He came the first time, but when He comes the second time, I hope He finds His house, His sanctuary.
Built together. Christ in our midst. A tremendous principle.
I hope every time we come to the Lord’s table, we remember that God has put us together in this way and around this table in order that we might meet Him here—Him in our midst, His presence, knowing His presence in our midst.
That is our responsibility. He has assured us of His responsibility: that He will carry it out. He will be in our midst. We may have problems and difficulties, but He will fulfill His promise.
We need to get into the condition to sense His presence. That is why our brother Stephen often talks about needing to be prepared when we come—really prepared for His presence.
As I went on, I began to see that this body of Christ, which the Lord opened my eyes to see in the beginning, this house of God where He wants to dwell, was also His future bride.
We are going to be in union with Him as His future bride. I also saw in Ephesians 5 that it is also His army, under one Commander-in-Chief, all praying and wrestling with principalities and powers, that His will might be done on earth and that we might stand for His rights in this world.
We are His army, His church, His bride, His house, His body. They are all the same thing, and they all require that we be unified together in Christ, built together.
An army, when you really think about it, has to be built. You know what they do in the army? First of all, they have to tear them down.
All these eighteen-year-old kids—well, all the eighteen-year-olds—you know, they go in usually when they are eighteen. They have to kind of tear them down and rebuild them. They all get the same haircut. They all get the same uniform. They want them to become one.
They are not trying to do it to take away their individuality—well, they are—because they want them to see that they are no longer just individuals, but a unit.
Have you ever seen the training of a Navy SEAL? I have, on television. I am amazed. But that is what they are after. They push these men. They have to carry logs together. They go out into the water together with their hands tied, the waves washing over them.
All the time they are being told, “You are going to drop out. You are going to drop out. You are not going to make it.” Only those willing to go through it make it, and very few make it.
But when they come out, they are a unit. They are one.
Brothers and sisters, that is what Christ is trying to do. We have all kinds of different personalities. We have different thoughts. We have, sometimes, different doctrines. We have a lot of things that are different.
Whatever is necessary, the Lord chisels off. What is not of Christ is chiseled off in our lives, but what is of Christ remains. That is the great thing.
Believe it or not, you are a living stone, and you are very important. Can you imagine having a stone house built, and all of a sudden there is a stone missing?
It ruins the look of the house, first of all. Second, it allows all the foul weather in. It is not a complete house.
If you are building a stone house, there may be plenty of stones out in the field. In Western Virginia there are a lot of stones. You can go out in the field, and there are plenty of stones.
But stones in a field are not a house. They may be beautiful. Some may be very nice and unusual stones—beautiful stone—but they are not a house.
You can be a very beautiful living stone, but if you are not built together, you are still not a house.
In fact, you can go out in the field and pile the stones together into a great big pile. But a pile of stones, just being together, is not a house. It requires being built together.
Chisel, chisel, chink, chink. I remember a ministry by our brother Lance one time. He went through that “chink, chink,” because he had a stone house built in Israel. He described that “chink, chink, chink, chink, chink.”
By the end of the meeting, all I could say was “chink, chink.” Anyway, it really impressed me, obviously, and I think it is a great illustration.
But more than that, brothers and sisters, we need to understand that what is going on today in the local assembly affects eternity.
What is happening in the local assemblies is not disjointed from eternity and from the kingdom of the heavens. Let me read something. Let us turn to Revelation 21.
First of all, I am going to read Revelation 21:1–3:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, 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.
—Revelation 21:1–3
It is interesting: when we see this beautiful bride being presented, it is a city. It is a city full of living stones. Everything in that city is built out of living stone.
In union with Christ—that is what brideship means. We are in union with Christ the Head and with one another. We are living stones, and we become a city: a glorious testimony to God, not only on this earth, but in the kingdoms to come.
Not only the millennial kingdom, but in the new heaven and the new earth, God will have His sanctuary. He is building it today.
Let us go to Revelation 21:22:
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof.
And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb.
—Revelation 21:22–23
Listen very carefully:
And the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof: and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it.
And the gates thereof shall in no wise be shut by day (for there shall be no night there):
and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.
—Revelation 21:24–26
The New Jerusalem—the sanctuary of Christ. Now let us go on to Revelation 22:2:
In the midst of the street thereof. And on this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
—Revelation 22:2
This is the new heaven and new earth we are talking about here, and it speaks of the healing of the nations.
Brothers and sisters, we who have been saved by Christ will be there, but there will be other peoples there. I cannot tell you their total relationship with Christ, other than that it speaks of other nations and of people who will bring glory to the tabernacle, to the sanctuary where God dwells.
It will be the center of the new heaven and new earth. We will be living stones in the center of the new heaven and new earth, and the nations that will occupy the new heavens and new earth will bring glory to it.
Brothers and sisters, there is far more to the new heavens and new earth than we can probably imagine. We only get a tiny glimpse in these few Scriptures. But God has a great, marvelous plan, and He wants His sanctuary to be built.
It will be the glory of the new heavens and the new earth. He will tabernacle in the midst of it—in the midst of the living stones that have been built together.
It is to show forth His glory in the universe, in the new heavens and new earth. I cannot imagine the glory of it.
But we need to know this: that day is directly connected to this day, the day in which we live. It is connected to the local assembly, where all of this is being worked out.
The building work is going on now.
We are preparing that sanctuary for the Lord, as poor a condition as it may be in. But the Lord said He will remove all the spots and wrinkles, brothers and sisters. He will build it together. It is His house, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail.
Living stones, brothers and sisters: Christ gave His life. He shed His blood in order to secure stones. His body was broken in order that He might give life to those stones—living stones.
We are chiseled and transformed by the work of Calvary into fitted stones for that sanctuary that will be His house in the new heavens and the new earth.
A great work is being carried out, whether we realize it or not, today in local assemblies all over this earth, where two or three are gathered together in His name.
Think of that. The Lord does not say, “Where millions are gathered together in My name.” He says, “Two or three in My name.” The assembly matters. Even if it is small, it matters.
So today, we must remember that Christ is the chief cornerstone. Let us hold fast the Head. Let us give ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone.
Let us be willing to be chiseled and worked with, that the Lord can properly fit us among our brothers and sisters.
Brothers and sisters, I am reminded of something that T. Austin-Sparks said: “The Lord will mean business with you if you mean business with Him.”
Let us not just find ourselves attending meetings, but may we find ourselves really entering into spiritual, corporate prayer, being the army of God.
May we find ourselves coming together at the table in worship of this One who has such marvelous plans for us.
Oh, brothers and sisters, may we be willing to enter into fellowship with one another—not just as we gather, but at other times: to call one another and encourage one another; to pray for one another; to stand for one another; to stand for what the Lord wants to do in our midst.
Let us be exhorting one another, washing one another’s feet—I mean in a spiritual way. We go through this world every day. We get the dust of the world on our feet, and it needs to be washed.
Sometimes it just takes opening the Bible and reading the Scripture, and you are washed. It might be some little thing that a brother or sister says to you, and you are able to come to this meeting and find your feet are washed.
Brothers and sisters, crying for one another, sharing with one another, rejoicing with one another, loving one another, caring for one another, realizing that we are all living stones.
No one is greater than another. We are all brothers and sisters, simply living stones—a small stone, as Peter was—in the house of God.
Lord, we come to You today. Lord, I do not know that we can truly grasp with these little finite minds of ours the glorious things that You are doing.
Lord, everything to us, in a way, seems so mundane, so much like going through the routine. But Lord, it does not have to be that way.
We come to You. We ask You once again to infuse us with the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, wake us up to our calling to be a living testimony to Christ.
Lord, call us to be willing to lay down our lives for one another. Lord, take up the cross. Lord, teach us to say no to ourselves, but yes to You in obedience.
Lord, we want Your life to be full in our midst, to be rich, Lord, to be flowing out, with every stone supplying, with every joint supplying.
Lord, it says not only supplying, but held together by bands and ligaments. Lord, may we learn to be joints. May we learn to be bands and ligaments.
Lord, may we learn what it is to be a living stone, that, Lord Jesus, when we come to the new heaven and new earth, we will be a part of that glorious sanctuary where God can dwell in the midst of men.
Lord, we thank You in Jesus’ name. Amen.