Well, good morning, my brothers and sisters.
Good morning, saints.
You know, Paul always begins his letters with the grace of the Lord Jesus, and He calls them saints. Even the Corinthians, who had a lot of problems, brothers and sisters—a lot of issues—he called them saints. It was because of grace: the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, in that He has called us even though we were sinners. He saved us by His grace, and He invites us to His time in His grace this morning.
I was encouraged, brothers and sisters, in this matter of the higher plane—the ascended position—our brother spoke about at the table. We spend so much of our time on this earth, and very little time in the ascended position, which should not be true of our lives.
I was just thinking this morning, as we come before the Lord Jesus, may we look up, that we might see Him. Then we can look down and see the way He sees, see what He sees, and see the truth.
Lord, we just come to You. Lord, I can only ask that, in Your great grace this morning, You would supply words that can express the burden on Your heart concerning something for Yourself.
Lord Jesus, in Your grace, may we see Jesus. In Your grace, may we see Your heart. In Your grace, Lord Jesus, may we lay hold of this something that You want for Yourself, and by grace be a part of what You have called us to in that great purpose.
Now, Lord Jesus, we ask You to bless this morning as we share with one another the glories of Christ and the glories of the thoughts of God. We ask in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Well, a little bit of review might be helpful. I was struck as I listened to the testimonies given here during the week when I was away at a conference in California. I was really struck by one of the testimonies, and it went something like this:
God is doing something for Himself.
God is doing something for Himself. It is for Him, but we are included.
It really struck my heart. I had recently shared on Christ’s heart to dwell among His people, and on Bethany as an expression of what God was after. I realized, “Lord, I need to reshare these things, perhaps from a little different perspective.”
That is what is on my heart: that we might see that something God is after, be encouraged by it, be strengthened by it, and have more of a revelation of the greatness of Christ and God’s great desire to express all the fullness of Christ in the universe.
Let us turn to Revelation 21. This was one of the key passages: Revelation 21:1-3.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth:
for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away;
and there was no more sea.And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and He will dwell with them,
and they shall be His people,
and God Himself shall be with them,
and be their God.
“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.”
Then, in Matthew 18—Matthew 18:20—we read:
For where two or three are gathered together in My name,
there am I in the midst of them.
These were the two key verses. It is interesting that the book of Revelation is the consummation of all the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is an amazing book. The whole intention of Revelation is that we might have a fuller knowing of the Lord Jesus Christ—not merely fuller knowledge, but a fuller knowing of Him through revelation by the Holy Spirit.
The Word of God says that the letter kills, but the Spirit is life. Brothers and sisters, we need the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see this great thing: God is doing something for Himself. I pray that we will have the spirit of wisdom and revelation even this morning as we share with one another.
Last time I shared that God has this great eternal purpose in view. In fact, we just sang it in that song:
O gracious God, Thy pleasure is
In Christ made known.
That is His pleasure. That is His joy: His Son, Jesus Christ. In Ephesians, we find that His great eternal purpose is that, in the fullness of time, He will sum up all things in Christ. In other words, all of Christ will be expressed.
Brothers and sisters, we only see through a glass dimly now, but in that day it will be all the fullness fully revealed. So glorious will it be! I wonder whether we will be able to stand it, brothers and sisters. Oh, the greatness of Christ that He wants to share with us. He wants to fully express Christ.
As we read Revelation 21, we see that there is a connection between the fullness of Christ and a dwelling place for God Himself. When John sees the city coming down as a bride adorned for His Son—the complement to His Son—it says, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them.”
This is a great revelation. The church is to be His bride, His complement. This speaks of union life, fullness, and full glory—knowing the fullness of Christ. But it also says that the city is His dwelling place, the dwelling place of God: something for Himself, brothers and sisters.
God is after something for Himself, but we are included. The reason we are included is that God determined in eternity past that He would need a vessel through which the life of Christ could be expressed, a vessel into which that life could be placed, that would fully express all the glory of God and the Godhead in Jesus Christ.
Now, that may sound super-spiritual. I do not intend it to be. It is very practical, because that is why you were born. That is why you were created: to be a part of what God is doing in revealing the fullness of Jesus Christ and in giving Him a place to dwell.
In Ephesians 1:22-23, it says that He is Head of the church, “the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” In this matter of the fullness of Christ being revealed, Christ is Head of the church. The church, with Christ as its Head, is the vessel for the manifestation of the fullness of Christ.
In Revelation 21:2-3, we see that the church is the complement of Christ, the one who will be with Him and serve Him in union life. It takes union life—coming into union with His heart, His mind, His purpose, and His character.
But it is also the tabernacle of God. A suitable vessel is what God is after, brothers and sisters.
Last week, we looked at the tabernacle. The tabernacle was temporary, much like Christ when He came the first time in His body. It was where God would be able to dwell in the midst of His people.
Last time, we went through the tabernacle—how it was made, some of its furnishings, and its colors. Everything about the tabernacle spoke of Christ.
Moses was the one given the directions and the exact plan by which God wanted the tabernacle made: how it was to be made, all the materials to be used, the size of everything, and the color of everything. It had to be exact.
Moses had been exhorted by God on the mountain when God gave him this pattern. He was there for forty days and forty nights. I mentioned last time that Moses received much more than just the Ten Commandments. Obviously, it would not take forty days to receive the Ten Commandments.
During that time, he received the whole pattern for the tabernacle, the services to be carried on there, and all the feasts—such as the Passover—that were part of its service. All of it speaks of Jesus Christ.
In fact, there are forty-six chapters in the Old Testament dedicated to describing the tabernacle, the feasts, its contents, and all the functions of the priests. Forty-six chapters. That is why it took forty days and forty nights with Moses on the mountain, brothers and sisters.
Everything had to be exact. Moses had no liberty to change anything. Brothers and sisters, everything about that tabernacle speaks of Christ.
When it was built, the glory of God came down. The presence of God came upon the tabernacle and appeared as a cloud by day; at night, the cloud had the appearance of fire. The very presence of God had come into the tabernacle.
It is amazing. God desired to be in the midst of His people. He desired a tabernacle. It was the only way He could be in the midst of His people, and the only suitable place was the tabernacle.
It was suitable because everything in it spoke of Christ.
It is amazing to me. Remember the story of Balak, who wanted to curse the nation of Israel? He brought the Gentile prophet Balaam and said, “I want you to curse them.”
Balaam went up to a high mountain and was told to look over all the tribes. Balak wanted him to see all the tribes, all the evil, and all the iniquity that was in Israel at that time.
Balaam went to the Lord, and the Lord said:
I behold no iniquity in Israel.
I think that is amazing. It was because He was looking out from the tabernacle. Do you get it, brothers and sisters?
Today, we know there is still sin enough. But when God looks at us, He looks at us as being in Christ. We have been put in Christ. So, when He sees us, He sees us in Christ and beholds no iniquity.
That is why we can stand before the Father: because of Christ and His shed blood, which has brought us into relationship and brought us into that place. God looks, and He sees us through His Son. That is the point.
From the tabernacle, He looked at Israel through Jesus Christ. So He said, “I behold no iniquity.” Amazing, brothers and sisters. This is God’s dwelling place. The tabernacle speaks of Christ, and that is why He was satisfied to dwell there.
Then we spoke of the temple. The temple was to be the permanent place. The tabernacle is really a type of the church on earth today: it is temporary. But the temple speaks of permanence. It is the heavenly temple, the one we see in Revelation 21—the permanent one, the final one, the one fully complete, brothers and sisters.
The main point I made last week was that, when they were building the tabernacle, God said, “I want every family who is willing to present a freewill offering for the building of the tabernacle.”
The tabernacle, and later the temple, was built entirely with freewill offerings. God would not take an unwilling offering for the building of His house.
That comes down to this, brothers and sisters: if we want to be part of that something God is doing for Himself, we need to be freewill offerings unto God. We are the material for the church, brothers and sisters, and we should be freewill offerings.
If you really want God to have what He is after among us here in Richmond, brothers and sisters, we need to offer ourselves to Him fully and freely.
Lord, I am Yours. Build me into Your house however You desire.
The temple was even more glorious than the tabernacle, of course. It was intended to be. David, in his heart for God, had seen what God was after: this house for the Lord.
In Psalm 132, David said:
I will not give sleep to mine eyes,
until I find out a place for the Lord,
an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.
And the Lord’s response was:
This is My rest for ever:
here will I dwell;
for I have desired it.
The first thing David did when he came to the throne was to take Jerusalem back for the tribe of Israel. The second thing he did was to build a tent for the ark to be brought into Jerusalem. The ark represented the presence of God.
God’s response to David was, “This is My rest forever. Here will I dwell. I have desired it.” It is the place of God’s rest, brothers and sisters. Perhaps we will talk more about that another time.
Now this brings us to the advent of Jesus Christ on this earth—His first coming. When He came, there was mostly religious tradition going on rather than a real heart for the Lord.
There were some with a heart for the Lord. We see it in Simeon and Anna, who were in the temple, praying and waiting for the babe to be brought in. There were the shepherds in the field and a few others with a real heart for the Lord.
But for the most part, they had lost their desire for God and the things of God. They were willing to carry out religious traditions and were depending upon them to be their salvation—the works of their own hands.
We know, brothers and sisters, even from Abraham, that it is by faith and not by works.
The temple was there, but there was no ark. The presence of God was not there. But, brothers and sisters, God did have His dwelling place among men.
Christ was God’s temple. Christ, in that earthly body, was God’s temple. We know that all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily—in the physical body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In fact, the Lord said:
Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up.
He was speaking of His body and of His resurrection. God did have His house. God did have His resting place while Jesus was on earth, and the glory of God dwelt in Christ.
But it was veiled to men because of His fleshly body. In other words, all that glory could not be manifested in that physical body.
We know that when He took Peter, James, and John up to the mountain we call the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus appeared before them.
Christ’s body began to be transformed, and a brilliant light began to shine forth. That glory which was in Him, veiled by that fleshly body, began to shine forth and out.
Peter made a mistake, but it was a good lesson for all of us. Peter said, “Lord, I am going to make a tabernacle—a little place, a shady place—for You, for Elijah, and for Moses.”
A cloud covered them, and God spoke from the cloud:
This is My beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased;
hear ye Him.
Then the cloud lifted, and when they looked around, Elijah and Moses were gone. Only Jesus was there.
Do you see the point? Do you see God’s heart? It is His Son, the manifestation of His glory. Brothers and sisters, that is what He is after.
But that physical body did limit Him in space and time. His physical body, while He was on earth, was not the permanent temple of God that God was after.
The Lord Jesus said:
I have a baptism to be baptized with;
and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!
He was speaking of His release through Calvary, where He would be released from that physical body and eventually have that spiritual body that He so needed.
His physical body on earth was suitable for God—a place, a resting place—but it was not sufficient to manifest all His glory.
Now, I want to be very clear here. The body He had while He was on earth, that physical body, was not only suitable, but it was sufficient to carry out the plan of redemption.
That physical body was very important. Remember last time I spoke about the ark in the tabernacle? It is Christ. In that ark was the law. The law speaks of the truth of God.
Jesus Christ said:
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
In John 1, it says:
We beheld His glory,
glory as of the only begotten from the Father,
full of grace and truth.
Not all the glory was manifest, but men could see the grace and truth of God in Jesus Christ. Christ is God’s grace to us, and He is the truth, as He said.
In the ark was the pot of manna. Christ declared:
I am the bread of life.
Aaron’s rod that budded was in the ark. It represents resurrection life. Christ said very plainly:
I am the resurrection, and the life.
This was manifested in His body when He was here on earth. In that body, we know that He received many stripes. He was beaten almost to the point of death. His body was so marred that you could not recognize who He was.
The Word of God says:
By His stripes we are healed.
In that body, He received the stripes, brothers and sisters. Those stripes healed us of our condition.
The wounds He received in His hands and His feet—the Word of God says:
He was wounded for our transgressions.
That was done in that physical body. That body hung on the tree. Men spit upon Him and ridiculed Him there. He was rejected in that physical body.
In that body, we know the judgment of God came upon Him for the sins of the world. The sins of the world came upon our Lord Jesus Christ. He became sin in that body, brothers and sisters.
So that body He carried was sufficient for the work of Calvary, for the work to be done for the redemption of mankind. That body was so necessary, but it was temporary.
In that body, He took on the sins of the world. Praise God, that body is no longer here. That is what the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord means: we have died with Him in Christ. The sinner has been taken into death, and we are raised in newness of life—resurrection life.
So, in that sense, the body was sufficient. But in the sense of revealing all of His glory, it was not. It would take more than that. It would take the church, brothers and sisters—the body of Jesus Christ.
Our brother this morning, when he read from Ephesians 3:19, was talking about being filled with all the fullness of Christ. The context of that is the church, the body of Christ. It ends:
Unto Him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus.
So the vessel is the church, the body of Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, this is something God is doing for Himself.
The physical body of our Lord Jesus Christ was not the permanent temple, but He was looking for that release at Calvary that would bring about the spiritual body He so needed, in order that all the glory of the Godhead could be manifest.
It was suitable for redemption, but not suitable to manifest all that God wanted to manifest in that physical body.
I hope we see this. I shared this in California, and a brother came up to me and said, “I just do not see it.” I could not help him. I was sorry that I could not.
But I will share it with you, and may the Lord open our eyes. Jesus Christ is still the temple of God. He is still the temple of God.
He is the Head, and we are His body. He is the chief cornerstone, and we are the living stones built upon the chief cornerstone—His spiritual body.
This is explained in 1 Corinthians 12:12.
For as the body is one,
and hath many members,
and all the members of the body, being many,
are one body;
so also is Christ.
It does not say, “So also is the church.” It says, “So also is Christ.” It is describing the church, is it not? Aren’t we many members, one in Christ? But it says, “So also is Christ.”
Brothers and sisters, He is still the temple.
Let me give a little more explanation, because this is what the brother could not grasp. This temple of God—Christ—He is still the temple. He is the Head; we are the body.
Now, take my brother William out here. He has two distinct parts: a head and a body. But when we think of William, we do not think of William the head and William the body. We just call him William, right? He is one person. They are so unified.
They have two different functions. His head does the thinking, the reasoning, and the willing. But the body carries out what the head desires.
Fortunately, William has two new knees, so he can do that much better than he used to be able to. His head used to say, “Let’s get up,” and those knees just did not want to do it. But now he can. Thank the Lord.
William, I hope you are not offended by me using you. But that is the picture we have: the head and the body. They are one. It is Christ. That is why Corinthians says, “So also is Christ.” He is still the temple of God.
I hope the Lord will reveal to us how glorious this is, because we are a part of this glory. Thank God.
While on earth, His body was a veil, much like a lampshade on a bright light. You have a hundred-watt bulb in a lampshade, and if you take the lampshade off, you can hardly look at it. It is so bright. But with the shade on, the light diffuses and you can see.
I do not know how to describe it. It is impossible to describe how glorious Christ is and what we have come into. But let us look at Colossians 1, beginning with verse 15.
In Colossians 1:15, we have this glorious description from Paul. He had seen the glorious Christ, and he gives this description of Christ as the Creator:
Who is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation;
for in Him were all things created,
in the heavens and upon the earth,
things visible and things invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things have been created through Him, and unto Him.
And He is before all things,
and in Him all things consist.
Glorious. Then it says:
And He is the head of the body, the church:
who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead;
that in all things He might have the preeminence.
This glorious description includes Him as the Creator, yet it speaks of Christ being Head of the church. In other words, the church was not an afterthought after Calvary. It was in eternity past. It has always been in God’s heart: Christ the Head, the church His body.
Brothers and sisters, I think it is interesting that this is emphasized in the context of this description of Christ the Creator.
Now let us look at Ephesians 1:20-23, speaking about the power that works in us:
Which He wrought in Christ,
when He raised Him from the dead,
and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion,
and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
and He put all things in subjection under His feet,
and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
which is His body,
the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
This is a description of the exalted Lord Jesus Christ. He has come through death, ascended to the throne, and God has exalted Him as King of kings and Lord of lords.
In this description, it says that He is Head over all things to the church, which is His body—the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. Do you see what He is getting at? This is something for Himself, something that God is doing. It speaks of all the glories of Christ.
What we see in Revelation 21 is this dwelling place God has so desired, which will manifest all the fullness of His Son. We see it completed. We see it in its fullness, brothers and sisters.
There is a great announcement—a great voice saying:
The tabernacle of God is with men.
I do not know how to tell you how important that is. As I mentioned before, the book of Revelation sums up everything in Christ. It is the summation of all the revelation we have through all the other sixty-five books of the Bible.
In this Scripture, we see this something God is after, this something so much on His heart: this bride adorned for His Son, and His dwelling place forever.
How important this is to God is really hard for us to understand.
In a very small way, with our children, we want them to grow up and be expressions of a perfect person, so to speak. We know all their flaws and everything else. But Christ—there is no imperfection. There is just beauty there, and God is so pleased with His Son.
As I said, He spoke through the cloud to Peter, James, and John and said, “This is My Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him.” Then everyone else disappears but the Son.
You know, that is what God is after.
Let me explain a little more about how we are involved, brothers and sisters. I have used this example here before, but I am going to use it again because it is one of the best I have ever come across. It was from Brother Sparks. I do not know where he got it from.
In Revelation, it speaks of a sea of crystal before the throne—“as it were a sea of glass like crystal.” Everything in that temple, in that tabernacle in Revelation, is precious stones. The foundation is made of precious stones. The gates are gates of pearl, coming out of the suffering of Christ. There is this crystal sea. Everything is a reflection of Christ.
Crystal is an interesting thing, because if you shine a light through crystal, it diffuses the light. Somewhere in high school, you may have done that experiment where you shine a light through a prism. Remember? We used to do that in the old days. I do not know—do you all still do that?
If you have never done it, that is so sad—so sad. You have lost a lot.
You take that light and shine it through a glass prism. What comes out? All the colors. It is like a rainbow.
Actually, a rainbow works on the same principle: sunlight shines through the water crystals in the clouds. The light goes in as a bright, brilliant light, but coming out, it is diffused. What you end up seeing is the rainbow—all the colors.
You may or may not have learned this, but white light is not a color in itself. White is not a color made up of all the colors; it is a combination of all colors. It is inclusive of everything.
But when you diffuse it through a crystal, all the colors in that bright light come out. They become visible and can be seen: all the fullness of Christ.
He is that bright, brilliant glory of God, brothers and sisters. We cannot look upon that glory. They could not look upon that glory, and that is why it was veiled in that physical body.
But in the spiritual body, it is not going to be veiled. Brothers and sisters, that brilliant light will shine through the living stones, through the crystal, where crystal will be crystal—without flaw—and all the beauties of Christ will be expressed.
That is why, brothers and sisters, no one person could possibly reveal all the fullness of Christ. We have the complete Christ in us—I know that—but He reveals Himself in different ways in each one of us, that all the fullness might be shown. But it has to be one body: white light, many colors.
In the church, the body of Christ—God’s resting place, His house, His temple—there is both a suitable place for God to dwell and a sufficient vessel to manifest the glory of God.
Now, we know we are not yet sufficient, because there are so many flaws that the light gets blocked. But the Lord is working on that, is He not? He gave His life, and He is washing the church with His Word to remove all the spots and wrinkles. One day it will be a glorious church. That is what He is doing today.
I pray that the Lord will open our eyes to see the great centrality of Christ in God’s heart, the immensity of Christ, and the place that He takes.
Brothers and sisters, the salvation we receive is glorious, but it is only the doorway into what God is after in saving us: to be a part of this great thing that He is doing for Himself.
The Lord did give revelation to the disciples concerning the church, but it is only mentioned twice in the Gospels. The reason is that it really took the work of the cross for them to become able to see and share it as the disciples later saw it. But He did give revelation.
First, in Matthew 16, He said:
Upon this rock I will build My church.
That is the universal church: all the Christians in all the world, through all the ages that precede us and that will come behind us.
The second place is Matthew 18, where a brother has been offended. He is told to go to the brothers, talk to them, work the matter out, and let the church make a judgment. This is the local church.
It is where He talks about binding and loosing: binding the things that are not of Christ and loosing the things that are. In Matthew 18, He declares:
Where two or three are gathered together in My name,
there am I in the midst of them.
Boy, what have we been brought into, brothers and sisters?
This revelation was preparatory for them to understand what was about to occur at Pentecost and in the birth of the church, because they had not seen it before this time.
Let us look at Peter’s revelation for a moment. Let us turn to Matthew 16:13-18.
Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi,
He asked His disciples, saying,
Who do men say that the Son of man is?And they said,
Some say John the Baptist;
some, Elijah;
and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.He saith unto them,
But who say ye that I am?And Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.And Jesus answered and said unto him,
Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona:
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
but My Father who is in heaven.And I also say unto thee,
that 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, this was an epic event in Peter’s life and in the disciples’ lives. Their eyes were really opened to see who Christ was and to see all the fullness He intended to be in this matter of the church.
The Lord said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
Peter and the disciples knew that He was the Son of God. John the Baptist had declared that He was the Son of God, and they had heard John. There were other times in Scripture when they realized He was the Son of God. But it did not make its full impact until this moment.
The Lord often deals with us in revelation by building up to it. We receive little thoughts and hints. We begin to see a little piece here and there, and then one day it all comes together. There is a revelation: you see it and say, “Wow. Before, I was kind of understanding, but now I see.”
That is what happens here.
The problem they had was that they had been with Jesus all this time. They had seen the Sermon on the Mount and all the miracles. They believed He was the Messiah. But their vision was clouded because they expected Him to overthrow the Roman government and become king.
A couple of them hoped that one would sit at His right hand and one at His left, ruling over Judea. Of course, that was not what God had in His heart in His first coming at all. But that was what clouded their ability to really see.
The Lord was dealing with that. Interestingly enough, He got their attention by asking, “Whom do men say that I am?” He got their attention first. He has to do that with us.
They tried to answer Him kindly, comparing Him to Elijah and John the Baptist. But the Lord went to the heart: “Who do you say I am?”
Brothers and sisters, that is a question every man and every woman will have to answer:
Whom do you say that Jesus is?
I call it the question of the ages:
Whom say ye that I am?
It is personal. It is not a general question. It is personal. It goes right to the heart: “Who am I?”
The Messiah? A man? A prophet? A great man? Much more than that. He is the Christ, the Anointed One, the Sent One, the Messiah—but He is also the Son of God.
The Lord’s response to Peter is interesting. He says, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona.” He calls him by his given name: Simon, the son of Jonah.
“Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” You see, now comes this great revelation from the Father.
Brothers and sisters, we can receive a lot of information about the Lord, but one day we have to have revelation—to see it in the light of the Holy Spirit. Then the Word opens to us, becomes alive to us, and becomes alive to Peter.
The Lord says, “Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. You did not simply learn this from other men. It had to be shown to you by My Father.”
Brothers and sisters, it is a heavenly, divine revelation that we all need in order to see who Christ is.
The Lord uses Simon’s given name, Simon Bar-jona. But then I think it is very interesting that He addresses Peter again. He does not use the name Simon Bar-jona.
When the Lord first met Peter, He said, “Simon, I am going to call you Peter.” So it was not a strange name to Peter. But here, it is interesting how emphatic the Lord is in His address.
He says, “Thou art Peter.” You are a stone, Peter. You are a living stone. The Lord emphasizes it.
Your life has changed, Peter. As a result of this revelation, you are now a living stone. You have been hewn out of Christ, the chief cornerstone, and you are a little stone.
There is a great transition from Peter being merely a disciple to becoming a living stone in the house of God. No longer just a disciple, but a living stone.
“Upon this rock”—in other words, upon this revelation of Me. The massive rock, as Lance used to say—the massive rock. I cannot say it like Lance did: “Massive rock.” Anyway, it is Christ. Christ is the massive rock.
“I am the chief cornerstone of this building, and I am going to build My church.”
What He was saying to Peter was this: Peter, for all who receive this revelation from the Father—that I am the Christ, the Son of the living God—that revelation qualifies them and brings them into the matter of being living stones.
All who have this revelation and are hewn out of Me are living stones. I am going to take all these living stones and build them together into a house—the church of God—a dwelling place for the Father.
This revelation begins with a revelation of who Jesus Christ is: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” But the Lord expands that revelation. It gets larger, and He says, “Upon this rock I will build My church.”
This is the revelation of the church: the body of Jesus Christ, the temple of God. “I will build this church out of living stones, quarried out of Me and built together.”
These are not two separate revelations. They are two aspects of one revelation.
Did Peter get it? In 1 Peter 2:4-5, he wrote:
Coming unto Him, 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.
This revelation is in two parts. First, He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. You have to see that to become a disciple.
Second, part of that revelation is to see that He is the massive rock, that you are a living stone, and that you need to be built together so that God can have His temple.
I want to emphasize this: you must be built together. I have shared this before, but brothers and sisters, a field full of stones is not a house, is it?
No matter how polished they are or how beautiful they may be, if they are just sitting in a field all by themselves, brothers and sisters, it is not a house. They have to be built together.
If you are building a house of stone and you call up Lux Quarry and say, “Deliver me thirty loads of stones,” and they dump them in a pile on your building lot, you still do not have a house.
All the stones are piled together. They have become a congregation of stones, but they are not built together. They are not the house that God desires.
Brothers and sisters, that is why the cross has to work on these living stones. We have to willingly submit to the cross in our lives. All the dust and dirt on the stones have to be removed. They have to be shaped and chiseled.
It is the work of the cross in our lives. We have to be shaped, chiseled, and worked on in our soul life so that we really fit with one another. Only the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, can do this work.
Brothers and sisters, this is a difficult part for living stones: being chipped, chiseled, made ready, and placed in the house of God.
Interestingly enough, the way the Lord is doing it, He has placed us in, and He is chiseling at the same time. He is working on us and saying, “Hey, you do not quite fit right. I have to work on that little part of your soul life that has not yet been dealt with. I have to knock this corner off.”
Brothers and sisters, He does that as He is putting us together. Sometimes He uses one another to help do this work.
We must be willing to submit to the work of the cross.
Before, I said that we are freewill offerings. Unless you are a freewill offering to the Lord, it is unlikely that you will submit to the cross. You just do not want to; you are not up for it.
Brothers and sisters, we do need to offer ourselves.
Then the Lord makes a very authoritative statement:
I will build My church.
Brothers and sisters, that is infallible. That is irreversible. God will build His church. He is doing it today. We need to trust Him that He will.
It may look disastrous to us in its current condition—and it is—but the Lord said, “I will build My church,” and He is going to do it. It is His will.
Now the question I have is this: Is His will our will? Are we in union with Him in will?
“I will build My church.” He is the architect. He is the supplier. The Holy Spirit is the contractor, working on the materials, and we are the materials. We are living material.
That is why it is necessary that we willingly offer ourselves, because we are living.
There is fierce spiritual opposition to Christ building His church. That is why there has been so much difficulty in building the church of God.
In fact, He says that the gates of hell have opened wide against the building of His church. He uses this opposition to build us up and strengthen us. But He says, “Be aware. The gates of hell will try to prevail, but I will not let them prevail.”
Brothers and sisters, in the second mention of the church, He says in Matthew 18:
Where two or three are gathered in My name,
there am I in the midst of them.
He is in the midst, brothers and sisters, dealing with all that is contrary to His character and His nature. All that has to be dealt with in our lives.
Sometimes people do not understand the glory we have come into: the Lord being in our midst when two or three are gathered.
But He said, “Be aware of this: wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, committed together to be built together, allowing the cross to work in their lives so that the house of God can be built, all hell will come against it.”
Brothers and sisters, it is for Him. It is for Him.
Two or three gathered in My name—that is the real church.
There is a concept out there, unfortunately, which says that you do not really need to be together. You do not really need to be built together.
Here is the way it works, according to that idea: if I run into you on the street and we have a little conversation about Christ, then the church is built up and we encourage one another.
Well, brothers and sisters, that is kind of true in a universal sense. I have brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, some of whom I know. But honestly, I cannot be built together with them.
However, I know that when the life of Christ is built up in me and built up in the assembly in Richmond, it affects my brothers and sisters because we are universally joined in Christ. That is all true.
But the building-up work has to be done in the local assembly. Brothers and sisters, we cannot just be individuals running around, bumping into other Christians, getting a little—what is it? The honeybees—not the honeybees. Yes, the bees get it out of flowers, whatever it is: nectar.
They just go around getting all the nectar they can, but they are not being built up together. It is a wrong concept, and it actually destroys the house of God.
Let me end with this point. We need to be freewill offerings so that God can have this something that He is after. God is after something for Himself.
Brothers and sisters, I am so glad that He has included us. I am so glad.
I think that, for most of us, not only have we had a revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; I think we have also had something of a revelation that He is the massive rock, the cornerstone out of which we have been hewn.
We have become living stones, and we are not going to be any good lying in a field somewhere. We need to be built together.
Lord, we just come to You this day. We thank You for this glorious thing that You are doing for Yourself. It is our desire, too, that Christ be manifested in fullness.
Lord, it is our desire that among us, even with all our flaws, You could be pleased to dwell.
Lord, just as You dwelt in that tabernacle and looked out and saw Your Son, Christ, and said, “I see no iniquity,” all You saw was the glory of Christ.
I am thankful, Father, for Your glorious plans and for Your glorious redemption. Lord, we have been redeemed with a purpose, and I want Your purpose to be fulfilled.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.