God declares, "I am the God of Bethel," signifying His presence and desire to meet with His people, both individually and collectively. The sermon draws parallels between the Old Testament concept of Bethel, the house of God, and the New Testament church, described as a spiritual building founded on the apostles, prophets, and Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. Believers are called to lay aside malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking, and like newborn babes, to desire the sincere milk of the word to grow spiritually. Just as Jesus, the living stone disallowed by men but chosen by God, is precious to believers, they too are built up as living stones into a spiritual house and holy priesthood, offering acceptable spiritual sacrifices.
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Thank you. Greetings, friends. Genesis chapter thirty-one and verse thirteen. We have that very wonderful statement by God Jehovah. I am the God of Bethel. Where thou anointest the pillar, this is speaking to Jacob. God says, I am... the God of Bethel. Bethel meaning the house of God, or the place where God meets not singly necessarily, but with a group of those who desire to meet with Him.
The congregation of those people who are interested in meeting with God. It is true that God meets with individuals all the time. And he's available to every true believer in the Lord Jesus at any turn of the moment. But it is a fact that God desires to meet with the collective body, with numbers of people who are interested in meeting with him. In the fiftieth Psalm in verse five we read, Gather my saints together unto me.
those that have made covenant with me by sacrifice. Yes, excuse me, by the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. The types and shadows in the Old Testament are most revealing when we compare them with the New Testament. The house of God, Bethel, we come to the New Testament, And we find that God speaks of the New Testament church as if it were a building. In fact, the matter is, it's spoken of as a building.
And we read in Ephesians about God, that we're built, God has said that we're built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself, being the chief. corner stone. Now, that's a marvelous statement. We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. The church, the New Testament church, the church universe, though which is composed of every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, both of whom are now out of the out of our day.
They don't belong to our age. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building, note, all the building, framed together, grows unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together, notice, in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. Now this is something remarkable. I am the God of Bethel, the God of the house of God. And here we, the believers, are all building together an habitation of God through the Spirit, not brick and stone and mortar and paint and wood, no, but of living individuals.
And this is so clearly brought out. by Peter in his first epistle in chapter two. It says, in the first verse, he gives complete instruction, marvelous instruction, wherefore laying aside all malice, ugliness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and all evils, and all evil speaking. Yeah? of Christian canon does in all these things. If he does, he's away from God. Or she is out of touch with God. Laying aside all malice.
You've got to keep laying it aside. It'll come up again, but lay it aside again. And all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking. The things that take up the most of the time of individuals today. His malice, evil, and ugly thoughts and designs to do evil from one another. All guile, you just slight of hand and you deceive people. Hypocrisy, professing to be more religious, more saintly, more godly, more spiritual than what she actually are. And envy, the other person has something I'd like to have, and so I envy him. And all evil speaking, one of the greatest curses of the world today, is evil-speaking, and it's because it's generally done behind the other person's back.
And they don't have any opportunity to defend themselves at all, evil-speaking. Peter, by the Spirit of God, says lay it all aside. Put it off. Don't let it in. As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. But you have to lay aside all these other things before you can begin to grow. if they lie in the way of spiritual growth. And so we must lay them aside. As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. He doesn't have anything to do with that that's mentioned in verse one.
No, he's gracious. To whom coming is unto a living stone here, Lord Jesus? is likened to the living stone. And he said upon this rock, in Matthew sixteen and eighteen, upon this rock I will build my church. And he proved afterwards that he was the rock. The rock that followed them in the wilderness was Christ. Typical of the Lord Jesus. He is the foundation cornerstone. We read in Ephesians. Now it says, unto whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men. Yes, men turned them aside and rejected them. But chosen of God and precious. Oh, yes, God's only begotten Son was sent into the world amongst human beings.
They treated him in a most horrible manner, but he was still the Son of God. God holds the world responsible for the manner in which they treated the Lord Jesus. But that, you say, was nearly two thousand years ago, so it was. But, my friend... Men and women and boys and girls of a God-accountable age are still treating the Lord Jesus in a wrongful fashion. They're just letting him alone. They don't obey his word. They don't draw near to him. They don't accept him as Savior. They go on without him. Hence they can indulge in all those evil things that's mentioned in verse one.
Malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, and evil speaking. It doesn't hurt their conscience a bit. They can go right into it day after day. because they've not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, and are not following him the gracious Lord Jesus Christ. And so men are just disallowing him now, and they're not coming to him now. How fatal, how sad. If they only understood what they're missing, they wouldn't stay away from the Lord. Wherefore, also, it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone.
Here's the Lord Jesus again, as the chief cornerstone. Elect precious. Yeah. Unto you which believe he is precious, Peter tells us. Oh, yes, the Lord Jesus is very precious, most precious to those who believe in him. Others can say, Well, who is he? What do I owe to him? All kinds of remarks are made against the Lord Jesus Christ, if we don't know them, if we haven't received them as our Savior. I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone elect, precious, and he that believeth on him, notice, he that believeth on him.
Not he that worketh, or he that planeth, or he that goeth under many other yokes and bounds and bonds and whatnot, but he that believeth on him shall not be confounded, shall not be disappointed, shall not be left behind, shall not be left out, shall not be forgotten. Oh, my friend, it means so much to trust the Savior. It means so much to know him as your constant companion. It means so much to read his word, the word of God, your Bible, and mine, and to revel in it, and to take its great instruction, and to live by it.
It'll only make you a better father or mother, a brother or sister, son or daughter. It'll make you a better person in the home, in the factory, in the office, in the community. Oh, yeah. And to you which believe he is precious. Unto you, therefore, which ye leave. Verse seven, he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made head of the corner. Oh, yes. Verse five tells us, and verse four tells us, to whom coming is unto a living stone, disallowed indeed a man, but chosen of God and precious, ye also, what, as lively stones, as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood.
Yeah? Every man a priest, every woman a priest, that comes to the Savior for salvation, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Able to worship and praise Him yourself by the Spirit of God that indwells you. Oh, my friends, the value, the wonder. of knowing the Lord Jesus as your saving, and becoming a living stone yourself in that great body, his mystical body on earth, the saved of all nature, all time, in, now, alive on earth, and those who have gone. Oh, Father, we thank you for thy word that makes so clear these precious truths, for the Lord Jesus who loved us and died to redeem us from our sins.
Pray for our great country and our government. We pray, Lord, that every one of us as citizens may do our best to fulfill our obligations. Pray for the President in all his difficulties and all that the great matters he will settle in the cabinet, the Congress, and the courts, and again for the mayors of our cities and the governors of our states and the ordinary human being as you as we are on this earth. The Lord bless the nations of earth as well. And may many trust Christ and be saved, for we pray, in the name of the Lord Jesus himself. Amen.