The church is built upon Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone and the cornerstone, with believers themselves being living stones polished to form a spiritual house. This spiritual house, the church militant, is complete with a functioning priesthood, comprised of all believers who are both holy priests and royal priests. As holy priests, believers offer spiritual sacrifices of praise and their bodies as living sacrifices, while as royal priests, they witness to God's marvelous light. The sermon emphasizes that while there is no class distinction within the Christian priesthood, there is a significant distinction in gifts, all contributing to the glory of God.
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Good evening, everybody. Shall we open our Bibles again at First Peter, and we're going down into Chapter Two this evening. I think we'll start at verse one, although we did read the first three verses last evening. Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, and that ye may grow thereby.
If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming is unto a living stone, This allowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also as lively stones are built up as spiritual hosts and holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect precious. He that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Untie therefore which believe he is precious.
But unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of a fence. Even to them which stumbleth the word, be in disobedient, where unto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, our royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who had called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which have not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."
Now I am quite sure that everyone here this evening believes in the inspiration of the Word of God, and I think I could go beyond that and say each believes in the verbal inspiration of the Word of God. And so what I have to say does not in any wise detract from this holy doctrine. We believe that the Bible is divinely inspired. We believe that it is infallible. We believe that it is inerrant. But I also believe, and I believe you too, do too, that God used human instruments to give us this holy book.
Holy men of God were born along by the Holy Spirit. He used their different styles of writing. He used their different vocabularies. He used, shall we say, their different academic attainments. He used their whole personalities and all that they possessed in giving us this Holy Word so that we can speak of the style of John and we can speak of the style of David. And quite frequently we're able to discern the passages of Scripture just simply because of the language and the style of the writing. We discern John in certain quotations that we hear, or we discern Paul in certain quotations that we hear from the platform.
And we're very, very grateful to the Lord that he used everything about their humanity. So when we speak of Peter indulging in reminiscence tonight, we're not in any wise. slurring the glorious truth of divine inspiration. Peter is an old old man when he writes this letter, or rather when he dictates this letter, and he's far, far removed from those early scenes when he with the other disciples was with the master in Judea and in Peria and in Galilee and in other parts of the land.
He's far removed from those by time and by distance. He's in Babylon, not the old great capital city of Babylon. Jeremiah in his chapters, fifteen and fifty-one, he makes it obvious that it was the purpose of God that Babylon be destroyed and destroyed forever, completely ruined, never to be rebuilt. And so the Babylon you read about here is in all probability a small city in the northern part of Egypt. And there he is now a very old man sitting, and the younger man is with him by the name of Silas.
We know him better by that name than Silvanus. And as Peter dictates, like so many elderly folks, he's indulging in reminiscence. And I like to read through particularly this first letter. Maybe on my case we'll be able to take this up more fully. But I find a great deal of pleasure in reading through First Peter and discerning the historical background to so many things that he has to say. The language at times and the concepts at other times, they take us way, way back to those three and a half years.
when Peter accompanied with the Master in the Holy Land, as he saw a disciple following Christ. Now that's true of the passage that we have read. I can imagine that as Peter dictated these words to Silas, his eyes sparkled a little bit. and maybe the feet that had become heavy with years became lighter. And once again he was moving far north of Jerusalem, a way up to the base of Mount Lebanon, near to where the Jordan River begins to flow. He's hurrying along in mind with the master and with the other disciples.
They're going to a little town called Panias. It was a little town where there was a shrine to the idol called Pan. We know that town better by the name Caesarea Philippi. And there were mighty transactions accomplished in that little town on that particular occasion. Because you remember when the Lord Jesus gathered his disciples closely about him in Panias or in Caesarea Philippi. He said to his disciples, Whom do men say that I am? And you'll remember the variety of answers which they gave to the Lord's question, Whom do men say that I am?
And then he raised a very, very pointed question, and he said to them, But whom do ye say that I, the Son of man, am? Very frequently in quoting that passage, we omit one of the most important points. And one of the most important points is, I, the Son of Man. Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am. I want to talk to you for just a moment or two about that title. It does not stand particularly in contrast to that other interesting appellation that we're so familiar with, the Son of God.
Now it does to a certain extent, but only to a certain extent. He is the Son of God in His deity and He is the Son of Man in His humanity. But the appellation Son of Man means much more than just the humanity of our Lord Jesus. This is the name of His glory on earth. You know He is coming back and He may come for the church very, very soon. In fact, I feel convinced He will come for the church very, very soon. And then he will come and establish a whole thousand years of peace and equity on his poor old blood-soaked world.
And he's coming back as the son of David to sit upon the throne of his father David, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. But he is coming back as the son of man to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. So Daniel tells us. Coming back, I repeat, is the Son of Man. He's going to do what Adam should have done. He's going to be the monarch of the earth, as Adam was originally. Then he's coming back as the Son of God to rule supreme forever over the entire universe. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness.
is the scepter of thy kingdom. And so it's important that we bear that in mind. His interrogation was, Whom do ye say that I, the son of man, am? And you remember Peter's bold response, Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Blessed art thou, Simon far, Jonah. For flesh and blood, that is my bodily appearance, has not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And thou art Peter, Petros, and upon Petra, thy confession of me, I will build my church.
And now Peter is going to tell us how he is building the church. He is going to talk about the church. He's going to talk about the material used in the building of the church. In fact, he's going to tell us just why there is a church in the paragraph that we have read this evening. I repeat, this very passage takes us back in mind to Caesarea Philippi, to the confession of Peter, and to the prediction of our Lord Jesus, upon this rock I will build my church. Now, I think before we start to look into the details of this passage, I ought to call your attention to what has been called a parallel passage in Ephesians chapter two.
Would you mind opening your New Testaments there, because I believe this to be important. There can be confusion over matters, you know, even divine matters. Now, would your Bible open At Ephesians chapter two, we'll just read the last three, the last four verses. Now therefore you're no more strangers and foreigners and fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. I imagine somebody's thinking why Mr. Guns quoted that verse nearly every time he spoke it. It's one of my favorite texts. One of my favorite texts. And I admit, I quoted quite frequently.
Now, No more strangers, no more foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit." Now, with your finger in both of these passages, I'd like to call your attention to one or two things that are important.
First of all, the building in First Peter two is so complete that the priesthood has moved in and is functioning in that building. I think you can see that quite readily. I don't think I need to point out all those details that are necessary to convince you. You can see it in the reading. In First Peter, chapter two, the building is seen as complete. The last stone has been added. Nothing more is necessary. So the priesthood moves in and begins to function.
Not so in the building of Ephesians two. The building in Ephesians two is still very incomplete. We read these words, in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth, increases, arises unto a holy temple in the Lord. It's not at all complete. It's still under construction. Now you say, why the difference? Well, let me give you this suggestion. The building in Ephesians chapter two embraces the whole church period from the day of Pentecost to the rapture of the church.
For I feel that when the church is completed, our Blessed Lord Jesus will come and take it home. And so the building as we see it under construction in Ephesians two, it's the whole church. from Pentecost right through to the rapture. Now, the building in First Peter chapter two is what we call the church militant. That is the church of God on earth. It's a picture of the church of God on earth at any time during the church era. I hope I've made myself understood.
I'm going to repeat it. In Ephesians chapter two, the building embraces the whole church period from Pentecost right through to the rapture. And when it is completed, when the last stone is added, the Lord will come. But in first Peter two, the building is seen already complete. because it is not embracing the whole church visible and invisible. It is embracing the church on earth, what we speak of at times as the church militant, not necessarily the church triumphant, but the church militant, the church of God on earth.
And here she is, complete with the priesthood in her, functioning to the glory of God. Now, I want to look with you first of all at the foundation. We have some very, very precious pictures of our Lord Jesus in this passage. First of all, let me call your attention to the fact that he has spoken of in verse six as the chief cornerstone. And then you will notice that he is also spoken of as the headstone of the corner or as the cornerstone. He is the cornerstone and he is the cornerstone.
The cornerstone, that important stone, not so important to the buildings we are raising today. We can erase buildings now without cornerstones. In fact, they're a very secondary importance anymore. But not so in original building, in architecture of the past. The cornerstone was so necessary to bind the two walls together at the corner. It was in the foundation, a very, very important place. And then the Lord Jesus is spoken of as the cornerstone, the ornament way up yonder at the top.
He is the foundation and he is the only ornament the church has. I mean the true church, of course. the cornerstone and the cornerstone because he's the alpha and he's the omega. He's the beginning and the end of all church doctrine and of all church history as far as that is concerned. Let's get a hold of that. The Lord Jesus, the cornerstone and the cornerstone. Now I imagine somebody saying, well, you didn't say, And notice something in Ephesians two, because it speaks of the apostles and the prophets there being the corner, the foundation.
Doesn't it say in Ephesians two that we are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone? It does. Now, there are certain who speak off that statement as covering the chronological foundation of the church, that the apostles were the first in the church, and the prophets were among the first in the church, that the apostles and prophets, so to speak, are the first tier of living stones, and that great structure, that great edifice, the church. Well, that is true. But I think we need to be very careful even in conceding that point.
Because very, very definitely, and I would say this with my hand on the Word of God, it is not the persons of the apostles that formed the foundation. It's the ministry of the apostles that formed the foundation. What was the ministry of those apostles? Jesus and the resurrection. They went everywhere preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And so it was the ministry of the apostles that was really the foundation. And here we have him, the cornerstone and the cornerstone.
Now let us look at the superstructure for a minute or two, because there are some very, very interesting things here. First of all, what about the material? What kind of material is built into this building, which eventually is to be the eternal habitation of God? Well, look at what we read here. To whom coming? As unto a living stone. Oh, thank God. He lives. He's the very source of life. We have been thinking toward the titles of the week to changing our ministry somewhat and make it a little more relevant to the time of the year, Easter time.
And we've been thinking of the miracles of Calvary. You know, there are seven very important miracles of Calvary, and among them, the death of our Lord Jesus. Because that is the greatest of all miracles. that the very author of life, the prince of life, as he is called in our King James Version, that he, the author of life, the very source of life, should die is miraculous, to say the least of it. But thank God he who died lives. And he lives in the power of an endless life.
But don't let us forget that he is the very source of life. He is the living stone. And so we come to him, the living stone, and what happens? To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed and deed of man chosen of God and precious, ye also as living stone. Through that contact He has made us what He Himself is. We came dead in trespasses and in sin, but He made us alive. He quickened us together with Himself, and we have been raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places.
As we make contact with the living stones, we all became living stones. I repeat, He has made us exactly what He is Himself. We have become, to use the language of Peter, partakers of the divine nature. There's a beautiful picture of this in the Song of Solomon. I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley. I don't like to spoil a picture, but that's not our rose and that's not our lily of the valley. We put our Western ideas into so much, and we ignore the Eastern idea.
The Eastern idea, in all probability, is the carnation and the red lily, the red Palestinian lily. But the bridegroom says, I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley. Now notice what he says. As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. He has made her exactly what he himself is in all the lovely fragrance of the Palestinian lily. A living stone. We made contact with it and we became living stone.
The rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley, and all his beauty and splendor. And he has made us a host of lilies of the valley. What he is, we have become. But look now at a very interesting word here. Verse seven, unto you therefore which believe he is precious. When you say, of course he is precious. You say that there are times when you feel like they bride in the Song of Solomon, describing him from head to foot, and then when language fails you, exclaiming, this is my beloved, this is my friend.
Of course he's precious. And I have very, very little use for the spirituality of a Christian who didn't consider him precious. He's extremely precious. But I'm not too sure that that's the meaning of this text. Look back up a little bit. We were reading in verse four, To whom coming is unto a living stone disallowed indeed of man, chosen of God, a chosen stone, and precious, a precious stone. Let us read verse seven this way.
Unto you, therefore, which believe is this preciousness. Oh, how precious he is. How beautiful he is from head to foot. There is no one comparable to the Lord Jesus. He is all in all to our hearts. And all that he is. has been imparted to me. So that what he is, I am. Is that not the teaching, the gospel teaching of the epistles of the Romans?
The righteousness of God, which is by faith from Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all them that believe. we are clothed upon by the righteousness of Christ. I rather like Mr. Spurgeon's approach to one of those, say, many disputed points in the book of the Revelation. Revelation nineteen speaks of the Lamb's wife. The marriage supper of the Lamb has come, not the marriage of the Lamb, the marriage supper of the Lamb has come. And it's given to her to make herself ready And she does in the righteousness of the saints.
And there are those who have translated it, the righteous acts of the saints. Now, the word righteousness is in the plural. There's no point of discussion there. So that we could speak of her making herself ready in the righteousnesses of the saints. But then there are those who say these are the righteous acts of her lifetime. Now just think for a little bit. We're all members of the bride of the Lamb. You know there are some of our brethren and sisters and their life has been made up of righteous acts.
But we can't say that of all, can we? There are Christians who have lived a carnal life In fact, they have wasted life. They've wasted years because of carnality. Could we say that they have made themselves ready through righteous acts? Well, what does Mr. Spurgeon say, you ask? Mr. Spurgeon calls attention to that so frequently in the Word of God, the divine provision that the Lord makes for needy man is expressed in the plural. Rivers of water in the dry land.
Wells of salvation, says Isaiah. And so says Mr. Spurgeon. So redundant is the righteousness of Christ. So abundant and redundant is the righteousness of Christ that it can only be expressed in the plural. And the bride is made ready in the garment that he provides. that is so full and so abundant that there is a point of redundancy in the whole matter. I rather like that. I'm not going to say that is the right interpretation over against other interpretations, but it appeals very much to me.
And I do know this, that that preciousness, the righteousness of Christ is imparted to the believers. I think Moses has given us five Psalms, ninety, ninety one, ninety two, ninety three, ninety four. Some of my studious brother may disagree, but it seems to me the language and the style kind of prove that these were all written by the same mind and the same hand. I like particularly Psalm ninety and Psalm ninety one. I think Moses came out of his tent one day, and of course it says on Psalm ninety one, that it was written by Moses.
He came out of his tent one day and he looked over the wilderness. And oh, how depressing. Moses began to think of all the youth, all the manhood of Israel that lay buried beneath the sands of the wilderness. They had been sentenced to wander in the wilderness until the cream of Israel had passed away. There they lay under the sands of the wilderness. And then I think he went back into his tent and he took out his quill and he wrote Psalm ninety. We are consumed by thine anger. By thy wrath are we troubled?
I don't suppose there is any passage of Scripture read more frequently at funerals than Psalm ninety. Do you remember how it closes? It always seems rather strange that it closes with a definite prayer. Let the beauty of our Lord be upon us. Establish thou the work of our hands. The work of our hands established thou in it. Let the beauty of our Lord our God be upon us. And he pictures a cemetery in the wilderness. He pictures a graveyard. You hear the moan and the sign and the bereaved in the song.
And then he ends up, let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. When we have to wait until we reach first Peter chapter two, before that takes place, and unto you which believe is this preciousness. All the beauty of Christ, all the loveliness of Christ is imputed to the believer. so that we stand in all the acceptability of God's beloved Son. This is the material that is used. Living stones, they are polished after the similitude of a palace, they are as precious as Christ Himself. How very, very wonderful. That God and His superabundant grace would take us up in all our degradation and in all our ruin.
And so fit us to have a place in this great building the church. I can see I haven't time to spend much more on the temple itself, on the building itself. I want to call attention to the priesthood that moves in. You will readily see, as you read this paragraph, that the Christian priesthood here is seen in two different aspects. Now, maybe tomorrow we'll be dealing with verse nine, but just let me say this. Verse nine brings before us God's people in the collective aspect.
They are one, one in Christ. Oh, thank God for the organic union of the people of God. Since that is true, every Christian is a priest. Every Christian is a priest. Now, according to verse five, every Christian is a holy priest. And according to verse nine, every Christian is a royal priest. But let's get this clearly established in our thinking. Since we are Christians, we are all members of the Christian priesthood.
We are holy priests and we are royal priests. Well, one is the ministry of the holy priest, you say. Well, notice what it is. Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Inside the sanctuary there was a golden altar. Oh yes, the bridge and altar was outside and thank God we've been there. We've been there. But we have moved inside, there's the golden altar.
And on that golden altar we place our little pinch of incense. And from that golden altar the sweet aroma arises that delights the heart of God. And that sweet aroma that delights the heart of God is made up of our spiritual sacrifice. And what are our spiritual sacrifices, you say? What are, as the minor prophet speaks of them, the calves of our lips? First of all, our praises. Our praises. With such sacrifices, God is well pleased.
And then, as someone has said, our purses, to do good and to communicate of your means, forget not. For of such sacrifices, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Some of us were talking this afternoon at dinner time about a dear old brother who died in Chicago a number of years ago. He had spent his life in the Lord's work, particularly in the north of Ireland. Then he came out here, our beloved brother George Gould. I was sitting beside brother George Gould on one occasion, and J.M.
Davies was home from India, and he was ministering the Word of God. He took up as he chose River. And he gave a rather interesting application of the river to the Christian life. He spoke of the waters of the river as the Spirit of God, used them in that symbolic way, and how when Ezekiel went into the river up to his ankles, it was the Spirit of God guiding and directing in the walk of the Christian. And then when Ezekiel got in up to his knees, then said, Brother Davis, you see, the Spirit of God will bend the knee and bring us in subjection to the will of God.
And then he reached the point where he went in up to his thighs. The old Irishman under his breath whispered to me, Oh, thank God, it's gone into his pockets now. Thank God it's gone into his pockets now. Well, thank God this is one of the spiritual sacrifices that we may offer. And then there is that other one, so very, very necessary for a happy, useful Christian life. I beseech you through the tender mercies of God that you present your bodies, your whole personality, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service.
Now for the last, look down at this verse nine again. A royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth. Now this doesn't mean to demonstrate by an object. It would be much better had it been translated, tell forth. It's a verbal showing. It's a descriptive showing. It's the employment of language. Show forth the praise of him who has called you out a darkness into his marvelous light. Let me just say this.
The priesthood that moves into this temple, this church, composed of living stones, resting upon that one foundation, functions in there, first of all, as a holy priesthood to worship, and in the second place, as a royal priesthood to witness. Now, we haven't time to go further into this matter. I've thrown these rather scattered thoughts out for you that you might develop them for yourselves. But here we have a wonderful picture of the Church on Earth at any time during this dispensation.
As we speak in theological terms, the Church militant... And in that church, there are functions of priesthood. Oh, I think I'll take this half minute and say, regarding to the function of this priesthood, there is no, absolutely no, distinction of class in the Christian priesthood. There is no distinction of class, but let me say this, there is great distinction of gift. We need to keep things in proper balance.
In the Christian priesthood, no distinction of class. We're all one in Christ. But in the Christian priesthood, in our ministry, there is a distinction of gift. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, again we bow in thy presence. We are just compelled to thank thee for the exactitude and the accuracy with which thou hast communicated to us. Thou hast made thy will known to us in a very clear way.
We bow together and we ask of the grace that we might practice what we have learned and we might not hesitate to carry out the will of God. We thank thee for the gatherings of thy people over the whole world where without class distinction And yet, with a distinction of gifts, we see the Christian priesthood in action. And so tonight we thank you again for thy blessed inerrant word. We pray, Father, that thou wouldst continue with us this evening as we meet together down in the lodge.
May our fellowship with him be sweet. May we all rejoice and be glad in the Lord. These things we ask, giving thee our unfaithful thanks for the Lord Jesus in his worthy and precious name. Amen.