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Toledo, November 1975. First reading meeting.
231.
We're pilgrims in the wilderness. Our dwelling is a camp created. Things no pleasant now bear to us. Death stand but onward. We are speeding. Though often left and tried. The Holy Ghost is leading home to the land. His bribes 231.
Where pilgrims in love?
Oh.
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We have the mind of the Lord in reading the second chapter of First Peter.
Together.
Where's the vessel?
Of Peter Chapter 2.
Where we're laying aside all malice, and all guilty in hypocrisies and envies, and all evil speakings, 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, to whom coming is unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious.
He also, as living flavor stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer a spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Also is contained in the scripture.
Behold, I lay in Zion a cheap cornerstone, Elect precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.
But unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same has made the head of the corner and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Even to them we stumble at the word being disobedient.
Where under also they were appointed.
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of him who have 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. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims.
Abstained from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evil doors, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the King a Supreme.
Or under governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers.
And for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as a servant of God.
Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God, Honor the king.
Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle.
But also to the forward. For this is thank worthy, if a man for conscience towards God endured grief, suffering wrongfully, For what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently, but if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently. This is acceptable with God, for even here unto where he called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving as an example.
That you should follow his steps.
Who did no sin, neither was guile thrown in his mouth.
Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again.
When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him, the judges, righteously.
Through his own self there are sins in his own body, on the tree that we're being dead to. Sins should live under righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed, For you wear a seat going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
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Apostle Peter.
Used up here, as here in the wilderness.
But he also has the glory before him.
And he makes much.
Of an exhortation as to our behavior while we're here in the wilderness on our way to glory.
And I suppose the 2 words found in this chapter.
Strangers and pilgrims bring the two things before us.
The fact where strangers lets us know that we're still down here in this world where we don't belong.
We're in the wilderness. We don't belong down here, but the word pilgrims tells us that we're on the way to glory.
Would you say, Brother Anderson, that the wherefore would refer back to the fact that of the 18 first, that GRE is that you know that you're not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot? And also what we have on the 22nd verse.
Seeing you have purified your souls, and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, so on, So the exhortation is not based on the ground upon which the believer is now, as all exhortation in scripture is for the believer.
I'm glad you bring that out, because we do find excitations in Scripture based on our position.
And we're viewed as children of God in the first chapter, but we're spoken of as children of obedience. And so obedience is expected of us as children of God. And so these wherefores and therefore in Scripture are very important and it it shows that there's a context in which what we're to read.
Is found and it's always good to look at the context what what are the surroundings of the scripture that we're dwelling upon? This helps us a lot.
We don't need commentaries on the word of God, especially because the Word of God is its own commentary. And we might have a question about something about a verse that we're reading. But if we look a little a little farther before or after, we'll probably find the answer.
I like to think of this as being in some way connected with the significance and value of the word of God.
Up the last three verses, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flashes of grass and all the glory of man of the flower of grass the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord, as we have just been reminded of these unchanging things, the word of the Lord and endureth forever.
And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you, Wherefore.
Laying aside all malice, and all God and hypocrisy, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire, the sincere milk of the word here is that which, in spite of every change around us, remains unchanging. This is that through which you and I have been born again.
And surely it's that which ought to be our food and we ought to have an appetite for it.
And the first verse tells us what will hinder our appetite.
Both times we find children. I know our little granddaughter was with us. She wasn't hungry at all. It was something very unusual. She wasn't well and when she got well, her appetite returned.
The things that were hindering her appetite were gone, and it's very important to view these things that hinder the appetite of the child of God for the word of God. And we're all subject to these things and we should lay them to heart.
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Because we have a nature that is guilty of malice, hypocrisy. So we don't have to come in too much on them because.
God has deceit, for it isn't truthful, and how easy it is for that old nature to try to deceive others. The hypocrisy, of course, is pretending that we're more spiritual, more devoted.
Than we actually are and.
At all evil speaking. How wrong that is and how harmful it is not only in the assembly, but it harms our individual souls to be always criticizing and condemning and finding fault with God's children.
That doesn't mean that matters that concern the welfare of the Assembly must not be taken up and righteously dealt with. That's another matter entirely.
But as to our daily conversation with one another, how well it is if we're occupied with the those things that are commendable in our beloved brother instead of being occupied with their shortcomings and failures.
Then those things being judged, laid aside, as he puts it here.
Well, then there is the state of soul to the inner state of a newborn babe, earnestly desiring the sincere milk of the word.
The NBC is what characterized the the assembly at Corinth, was it not? They were envious of one another and they were they were starting schools of opinion and gathering around certain persons and.
So that was the evidence really, of a deeper evil in the assembly which broke out later.
That sometimes these things mentioned here are indications of something deeper going on, and it's expressed in this way where the heart's really out of communion with God and or it wouldn't be the evil speaking and the end being so on.
It's instructive, too, to notice that the first three of these points that are warned against might not be seen. They might not be outward at all.
The malice is to be thinking evil thoughts of it others, or thinking evil thoughts. And it might be going on outwardly, appearing as if these thoughts weren't there, but there they are. And then the next one is a little different, a guile. Oh, that's using Satans methods of deception, but that again might not appear on the surface. And then the third one, hypocrisy as well, begins to becoming a little bit more evident.
Pretending in our outward way.
To be what we are and the envies it increases, then again to have low thoughts of of others, and then the evil speakings out of the abundance, the heart, the mouth speakers and that which had been might have been occupying the heart would come out in the evil speakings. So it's a serious warning, isn't it, that underneath the hidden things might be there, but then they gradually come out.
Is that not something what the apostle speaks of when he says in the 4th chapter and above all things have fervent charity or love among yourselves, for love shall cover the most due to sins. I understand that means that there is that fervent love among the Saints, that evils that might develop in the assembly.
Checks, they don't progress. And so when God looks down at his people instead of seeing wrangling and unhappy state where he sees that they have a fervent love for each other. So that he doesn't love coming up, covering up on his evil when it should be judged, but it prevents the evil from becoming operated among the Saints and in the lives.
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Of individuals.
It's been said that verse one is plowing the ground and verse two is planting the sea.
Oh, brother England are used to say in Bloomington, you got to get the weeds out of the garden before you're a nice vegetables and flowers can grow. And the first verse is he said have the weeds, get the weeds out and then.
What is useful. Valuable is then free to progress and to grow.
Sad thing about weeds is.
Having had some experience on the farm, if you leave the weeds.
They take all the nourishment out of the soil.
And if you don't keep them down, plow them under, you're going to lose.
From the soil, those valuable things that are needed for growing the crop.
And these things that we have in the first verse certainly shaped the strength of the believer.
And we need to judge these things that we might preserve ourselves, because if we're going on according to the flesh, we're certainly not walking in the spirit. And we're losing, we're losing strength, we become.
Open to the enemy and he just can use us more and more.
And we're not doing anything for the Lord to glorify Him. It just takes our strength away, our spiritual strength. But we've been exhorted to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. We've been told to copoly to the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Because what would we do without the Lord? But these things must be judged before we can really go on with the Lord.
We've been reminded so often in previous years.
That communion and self judgment go together and I trust we don't forget that.
I think we've heard it said too, that if we would judge those things which our brethren don't see, we would not have to judge those things which come out and they do see. So I believe this is what we have here first of all, those things which are unseen and we certainly can't look around and try to apply them to anyone else. I remember as an example visiting with a dear brother one time and I esteemed him so highly with a good deal older than myself.
And he told me.
And he didn't seem to be telling me with any great sorrow that were certain ones in the assembly where he was, with whom he could not shake hands.
I didn't know the situation, I just simply said to him or brother, if you don't shake hands with them, I'm sure you pray for them.
And he looked a little embarrassed. And I said, do you, brother? And he still wouldn't answer. And I said, brother, do you, do you pray for those with whom you feel you cannot shake hands? And he hung his head. He said, no, Well, I said, could we both get down together now while you pray for them? He was old enough to be my father. And we did. And there were many, many, many tears, both his and mine, because there was a sorrowful situation.
But he knelt down and prayed in warm love.
And I saw him a few days after, he said. I've shaken hands with everyone of them. And brethren, I know this is true. Sometimes we feel that, perhaps.
Truth and righteousness would forbid us to show the love that our hearts, we hope, feel. But if this is the case?
If this is truly the case, let us judge unsparingly that there be not malice in our hearts, that we love our presence and that we at least pour out our hearts before the Lord is secret for them all.
I've learned something from reading what our late brother Jan Darby wrote. It was on the subject of praying for our brothers.
And he was writing about pray for those that might have faults that we see.
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And might even be reluctant to shake hands with.
But the gist of what he said was, if you pray for your brethren, you'll be seeing something. You'll soon be seeing something to thank God for.
I was wondering if we don't have a thought in the proverbs connected with these first two verses. I've enjoyed this myself and been exercised about it in the 13th proverb.
Verse 23.
It says much food is in the village of the poor.
But there?
Is that is destroyed for want of judgment, thinking of much food in the tillage of the poor, that is, there should be an exercise.
As one has mentioned already about the weeds, if they're not dug up, if there isn't something done with the ground, then there's no food. So there's much food is is in the tillage of the poor. Doesn't cost anything. It's not a question of price, it's a question of judging, isn't it?
I was thinking then in the other verse of the other part of the verse, but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment. If I don't judge that thing within then there is no growth. There can be no food for my own soul and no growth in connection with that. And then I was thinking too in Jeremiah four of the little word there in exhibition Jeremiah 4, verse 3.
This is the part of that verse but the third verse. For thus set the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem. Break up your fallow ground, and so not among thorns, that is, break up your foul brown. Let there be self judgment, and so not among thorns. I'm sure there's other thoughts on it, but I've enjoyed that in connection with this these first two verses here in in First Peter 2.
That in order for growth there must be the judging of the thing as our brother has brought out, that starts within and if it isn't judged, then it comes out and there is no growth.
And many are defiled.
We have another use of milk, haven't we, in the?
And the third chapter, First Corinthians, or the 4th chapter? Well, the third chapter, where the apostle says I fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it. For whereas there is among you envy and strife and division. Are you not carnal and walk as men? Well, in that case the milk is the is the first.
A blessing or understanding of God's truth may be the gospel that is brought a Sinner to know that he is lost and needs a savior so that he's trusting in Christ. But if he didn't go on and understand what grace had brought him into.
The new relationship to Christ as His glorified head.
Many other lesson subjects from the word or he would remain in a state of infancy, but then in Galatians and Hebrews and the.
5th chapter He warns the Hebrews there that whereas they should be teachers, there were only they were only based, and they hadn't got to the place where they could enter into the deeper truth they've just been.
Crowd feeding on milk? Well, that isn't the thought here, is it? Although it's using that way there. But here it's the daily enjoyment which is a result of reading or meditating upon the word of God.
As newborn babes and in that sense we should always be newborn babes always having that healthy.
Fresh enjoyment of the things of Christ. In one way we should grow up to be.
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Mature Christians.
Like first a bath, then a fall, then a young man and then then a father. But as far as our appetites are concerned, we should always have.
That. That eager desire, brethren, do we have that eager desire?
To know more of the things that are contained in the.
In the precious word of the living God.
Our brother and his young peoples address this afternoon made reference to.
The delinquency that there sometimes is in connection with having a gospel meeting.
Or feeling a gospel responsibility.
Well, could we connect that with this? As newborn babe desire the sincere milk of the word, our brother Barry was reminding us of the simple things of the gospel that are our enjoyment when we're first saved.
The gospel, isn't it?
Well, perhaps this exhortation here can fit that situation where there's a laxity in connection with having Gospel meetings. If we have that desires newborn babes for this simple truth of the word of God, we'll certainly enjoy the Gospel meetings. And we'll love to attend the Gospel meetings too, and to encourage the brother that stands up to give out the gospel.
Or you say, well, sometimes there isn't any unsaved in the meeting. Well, as Saints of God we can enjoy the gospel. I enjoy hearing the gospel, and I'm sure there are many others here that enjoy hearing the gospel. And so I don't believe we should give up the gospel meeting. If at all possible, carry on as newborn babes desire, than sincere milk of the word.
Whether your party is to speak of a saint's gospel.
Remember a brother in the Chicago meeting years ago that objected to his thought that you should preach the gospel in the meeting room to the Saints, that you don't get to unsaved into the meeting? Oh, this brother not often got a hole and he was going to start a real gospel campaign. He thought, I went there one time and they had one little child that came to the meeting and that was the.
The 8th.
How come supposedly a gospel work whereas the gospel is still going on and the Oak Park meeting which is a continuation of the Chicago meeting and the people get blessed. So there are many truths. Would you not say Brother Anderson connected with the gospel of our salvation as to eternal security and as to?
Our being saved from the power of sin, the power of Satan.
And delivered from the law all the way consequences of being under that old schoolmaster. Well, you could just multiply endlessly the precious truths that are connected especially with the gospel that.
Lord would have us continue with.
There's a groundwork that's done in preaching the gospel. If the gospel is preached in its fullness, there will be a groundwork laid, foundation work laid even for those who've already believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I feel sometimes that our young people, and maybe older ones too, are not firmly grounded.
In the truth of the gospel. And so sometimes there's wavering and doubts and whatnot, and they're wondering what about their sins after they've gotten saved. And maybe they're not saved at all. All those kinds of things enter into the minds of of.
Recent believers, or maybe believers that have been saved for some time, but we need a foundation in the gospel.
Instructive to see that little comma after the third word as newborn babes. The comma weren't there as newborn babes desire it would be a statement. But with the comma in there, it lays emphasis on the fact that the desire is something to develop as newborn babes desire. It's a it's a, it's a, it's an exercise, isn't it? To desire this so it's a good thing to.
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Encourage those who have just been saved to to go on to read the word of God early in the Christian life. And I believe that's the force of it, isn't it? It's it's desire. It's something that we have to cultivate in the in the Christian life desire.
It needs mothers and fathers need to encourage their children to read the scriptures. It's something that needs to be developed in in the young convert.
I suppose that this supplies practically this afternoon to all of us as well.
This desire is newborn babes. We're not newborn babes, perhaps all of us. But we should have that desire as newborn babes, and this should never leave us. Now, I'm sure that most of us can remember when we were first saved, when there was probably at least with some of us.
More zeal than there is now in the gospel and telling others. And I do think that the question of giving out the gospel in the room starts with a state of soul. And so sometimes if these things are hanging on that we have in the first verse, it may hinder the the preaching of the gospel. There may be those who could well are well able to preach the gospel.
Who would never open their mouths because of something that's hindering? There's a verse that says something goes something like this.
Heroes of a merry heart.
At the continual feast. Now I interpret that to mean one who is in communion.
With God.
He is like these newborn babes.
It is of a merry heart as a continual feast, a state of soul. And if this is so, why? There will be the the gospel going out, whether it's in the room or whether it's on the job or in the office, when the opportunity arises. But I think so many times we find, at least I have found that when I've had the opportunity to give the gospel out.
Perhaps at the work or wherever I was, I was not really in the state of soul to do it. And that's the the thing we should be exercised about and I believe that's what we have here.
In what I related about that brother getting a fall and starting a gospel work as he thought, I don't want to discourage any effort made to start the work of the Lord. Just telling relating about a brother that was so opposed to what Brother Potter called the Saints gospel that the Lord. I think I just taught the brother that what he looked upon so lightly was really valuable.
And his thought of getting out and getting something started, that he didn't have the mind of the Lord for it. For many places, we know that it's where the Gathering has started. A Sunday school, maybe in a small way, has developed into a real work of God.
Walton thought how in Montreal a gospel preaching on the on Saint Catherine St. I can remember many years back and being impressed.
The faithfulness of the brethren who went there, and I think the result was that it it opened the mouth of younger brothers that are still preaching the gospel. So we don't want to discourage any outside.
Energy in the gospel, but along that of what I was really seeking to bring before us. Don't give up the gospel meeting in your little assembly.
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And if the Lord leads to other openings, why I be very thankful to him for it.
Paul says, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. That's always been a bit of an encouragement to me. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel by which also you were saved. Well, if our own hearts, by the grace of God, are so filled with Thanksgiving for what the gospel of the grace of God means to us.
What a joy it is to tell it out. What a joy it is to tell it out. It ought to be. It ought to be a joy it ought to be from an overflowing heart that any one of us would ever, ever tell us about. Oh, when we come to the Book of Revelation and we read under him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. That's not very profound, is it? But it's a burst of praise in the first chapter. And then you come to chapter 5.
Thou art worthy, for thou hast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. Oh, I think there's going to be something about heaven itself that will never, never let us forget the precious wonder of the gospel I just returned from Trinidad and they have their regular meetings, 5 meetings a week, and in addition to that all year round an open air testimony and practically everyone in the assembly.
Is out for the open air message as well As for all the regular meetings. We came together on Monday night for the regular meeting and they said where shall we have the open air meeting tomorrow?
One brother said. I think it would be nice to have it in front of Brother James Home. So I didn't know what Brother James would think of that. But sure enough, he was very, very happy about it. And we all met in Brother James Home, went out the front door and stood there and preached the gospel to Brother James neighbors. You can imagine that that takes quite a testimony in the neighborhood to be able to stand in front of your own home and preach the gospel. So, brethren, I really feel with all the wondrous truths that by the grace of God has been entrusted to us.
If there's anyone here that doesn't enjoy listening to the gospel.
There's something seriously wrong. No matter how long you've been saved, I hope you still love listening to the gospel.
You'd say, brother, that while we're considering the going out of the gospel and the milk of the word being indeed in a certain sense the proclamation of the gospel, yet strictly speaking here it's any subject in the word that feeds the soul. I believe that the correct translation here is.
The pure mental milk of the word that is our minds that need to be.
To be fed and sustained is so much around us that is harmful and that is distracting and gets us occupied with the thoughts and ideas of the world that we need to have our thoughts and our desires and our interests formed.
By the word of God, whatever line of truth it might be, if it's the subject of the Church of God, the church that he loved and gave himself for, well, there is an immense subject. And as we think that we're actually members of the body of Christ, members of his body, of his right and of his bones, what a, a strengthening that is to go on with that.
Hope soon before us, when we'll see the Church and all this beauty and perfection, and to know that we're actually members of the Body of Christ, even down here.
We have a picture here of true ministry in Peters second chapter where he brings before us the person of Christ and his ministry. Now you were Speaking of the various subjects that wanted to take up, but we find that Paul does the same and.
The Apostles, although they may take up various subjects, they all return to the person of Christ. This is what we have in this third and 4th verses. If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, so that one who is safe has this expectation, doing the 1St 2 verses to be saved, to whom coming is unto a living stone.
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Disallowed, indeed, of men, but chosen of God and precious. Well, that's Christ is before us, is it not? And he's precious to every believer. And it's the preciousness of this that keeps us in the right state of soul.
It's so important for us to taste that the Lord is gracious.
And Peter had an experience.
That brought this before him. He had denied that he knew the Lord.
And yet Peter was the first one.
For one of the first to whom the Lord appeared after his resurrection.
And what went on when the Lord appeared to Peter were not told.
But the Lord lets us know that he's interested in Peter.
And Peter found out how gracious the Lord was.
And you can't help but speak up.
I'm sure Peter felt terrible. He wept bitterly after the Lord had looked at him.
And you began to realize.
What an awful thing he had done to deny that he knew the law.
But he found that the Lord was just the same. There hadn't been any change in the Lord.
And he learned something of the graciousness of the Lord. He tasted that the Lord is gracious all. Peter might have had the thought. Well, now what? What do I have to do to make up for this awful thing that I have done?
The Lord didn't give him a chance to do anything, and he doesn't expect us to do anything to undo what we have done in the past.
But we find that when we come to the Lord.
In weeping bitterness of soul, self judgment, and repentance, the largest justice, gracious as he ever was, And he forgives and he cleanses, brings us back into unhappy fellowship again. What a gracious Lord.
All that's not having a legal thought. Now, now, dishonor the Lord. Now I got to do something to undo that. To make up for it? No, just take the low place before the Lord.
And we'll find that the Lord is gracious. Don't you think, Brother Anderson, that that is really thought prepared to soul to enter into what follows? To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men the chosen of God and precious He also is living stones, are built up a spiritual house, and so on. So many people miss the truth of.
The fact that we are living stones and built upon the one who is the living stone or as he told Peter upon this rock that is Peters confession. Christ the Son of the living God. And on that rock the Lord builds the church well. How few understand and enter into it and yet it's it has a powerful result in our lives when we see.
Or the truth of what is referred to here and how in keeping that was with the instruction the Lord gave to Peter in the 16th chapter of Matthews gospel, where he tells Peter that thou are Peter, Pete Cross.
I believe the original and upon but upon this rock that is Christ himself, whom Peter had confessed as the Son of the living God. He says, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So Peter is just almost rehearsing word for word what he learned on that occasion.
Is this house complete yet?
You tell us, brother. Well, isn't it being built? Isn't that the thought? Yes, it is being built.
There is such a thing as God manifesting His presence in the assembly here below.
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But that's.
The public testimony and responsibility of man connected with it, as we have in the end of Ephesians 2. But we also have an Ephesians 2 just exactly what we have here a a house that's not yet completed.
But as soon as the last members brought in, it will be, and then we'll all be caught up, won't we?
I suppose the Apostle Peter brings in the house aspect here because he's occupied with behavior in the house.
The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy that thou mayst know how the artist could behave thyself in the House of God.
All of us belong to some household and as a member of that house or household, we have a responsibility.
Well, those of us who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, we belong to the household of God.
And I suppose it's that aspect it's brought before us here as a house.
It's expected that a certain behavior should become us, a behavior that's becoming the House of God.
Don't you think it might be helpful to look at what you referred to Brother Anderson? I mean brother.
No. Yes in the end. Ephesians 2.
In the 21St verse of Ephesians 2IN whom all the buildings fitly framed together growth into an holy temple, and the Lord where there's the building growing every time a Sinner is saved as another stone added to the building. It's not complete yet as you said. And then in the next verse in the 22nd verse of Ephesians 2.
In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
There the church is looked at as completed any particular time.
Build it together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit.
So when they came together into one place in cars, where there was the Church of God as to its present aspect, but in another aspect it's not complete and will not be complete until the Lord comes and gives a shout in the air.
And Peter, in line with what Paul teaches there in Ephesians, speaks how the living stones coming.
To Christ who is the living stone.
You mean in Peter, Peter, yes.
The apostle Peter said, To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
Here says to whom coming?
Peter knew there wasn't anywhere else to go, anyone else to go to, but the Blessed Lord to whom coming.
Why even in in the Reading meeting?
If you haven't come to the Lord Jesus, you can come now and you can find him, the living stone as well as the Savior and the one who died for sinners. To whom coming. That's what God expects. He expects us to come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
For us, there's a sense in which we as believers can come to we need to come to him every day.
And in the assembly, we come to it. We come to meet the Savior. The city is presence.
Wonderful, isn't it, when Peter said in the 16th chapter of Matthews our arts of Christ, the Son of the living God. Now he is enjoying the thought that what his confession there, that Christ was the Son of the living God, that each believer has the same life and nature that was seen in the Blessed Lord himself.
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He also has living stones, He is a living stone, and we have the very light of Christ himself. That is, when you were saved, you were born again, and you received divine life. And marvelous to consider that that life is the very life of the Son of God himself.
One might just wonder how I hear that he speaks of Christ as the living stone, but you'll notice in the eighth verse that he uses the.
Illustration of the stone and the rock interchangeably. We're in that verse. A stone of stumbling and a rock of a fence. The word the Lord used in the 16th of Matthew and talking to Peter.
Upon this rock that is.
As though the Lord said, Well, Peter, you're a little stone, but upon this bedrock.
I will build my church. Our brother Brown, who was very learned in Greek, I understand.
Explained that that the word there in Matthew is a shelter rock of foundation rock not.
Not just a little fragment of the rock, and that's all. Peter was just a little stone for you. We all know, I'm sure, that the word Peter means stone. Pete Cross is a word taken from that. And when the Lord met Peter, he called him Cephas, which is just another word for stone.
And we're builded. And remember that we're building together.
We don't want to go on independent of our brethren, and that's the precious truth too.
With this be taken from Isaiah, you suppose Peter refers to Isaiah when he quotes this Isaiah the 28th chapter. Because this will be the same foundation stone as you suggested, the foundation that Israel will rest upon, but not.
In the 28th chapter and.
The 16th, 1St.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone.
A tried stone. A precious cornerstone.
A sure foundation, he that believeth shall not make haste.
Well, this will be the this will be the foundation and resting place of the return Jew, and the one who rejects this stone, of course, as we learn in that it will be ground to powder. It's a it's an awful thing to reject the Lord Jesus, whether it be now or whether it be in that coming day for Israel. There will be those of Israel who will reject that stone. But this is the test, is it not always?
This epistle was written to those who've been scattered, that is, the Jews that had been scattered here and there. And Peter is writing to them to encourage them and reminds them that they have a foundation, shown they have one upon whom they can rest. They can depend upon him. Well, I'm sure it wasn't easy for these that had been scattered here and there. It was a trying time for them.
But Peter writes to them to encourage them.
Well, it's a spiritual house. It isn't a House of.
Wood or brick or stone, the thought of the church has so been so perverted in Christmas to speak of a church that people immediately think of a building with a staples. But how clear scripture teaches us that the only thought we find in the Word.
Is the church? Says the building? Perhaps this story is rather worn, but.
I was told that this took place in Smith Falls years ago, that there was a young man was walking with brother Heaney and he said look at our new church. Brother Heaney says why it isn't complete not completely said he so proud of this building. I know he says that many years and then he sells. I think too you'd be a hard thing to put put this church in a house because we I read about the church in certain ones house.
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Well, he was just showing the young man how far.
Christendom has got away from the truth of the church. For we read, you know, in the I guess it's the 8th of Acts when these things came to the ears of the church. So it shows that the church is a living thing. It isn't a dead thing, it's it's composed of all true believers.
But of course there is a local expression of the church because you get in First Corinthians 12 where it says ye are other than the ye are the.
Forget. Maybe someone remembers exactly the words.
Well, I'll turn to it. First Corinthians 12.
There, the apostle says.
But ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular, that is the assembly or the church. There at at Corinth was a local expression of the whole body of Christ the world over.
And we need to remember that, brethren. It's solemn to think that as gathered to the Lorde name, that we represent the whole church.
If it were gathered, as we find in Scripture, according to the mind of God.
So that when local matters come before an assembly, don't forget that what?
Your every action you take has.
A reference or has to do with the whole body has gathered.
In the Lord's name.
Doesn't it seem very, very sad that although these things are at least in some measure, precious to us?
And they were certainly very precious to the Lord, either so precious and so real that he gave himself that these things might be reality. Yet they're looked upon in general by the religious world as being just strange theories, just simply theories. And they're much more interested in their buildings and that which they can point to then in the precious reality that are here in the word of God.
And I suppose if someone could point to a church or a cathedral and say, well, that's been standing for 1000 years, people would come a long, long way to see that building that had been standing there, the glory of some architect for 1000 years. But when the Lord Jesus speaks of these things, he says, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And let man sneer, if they wish, that which by the grace of God, you and I, in some little measure and joy as being.
So real in the word of God in connection with these matters, they were very dear to the heart of the Lord Jesus, and they will be eternal, will they not in their in their demonstration, in their reality.
I remember one time visiting with a Christian man, the minister of a denomination in Smith Falls, and he made some reference to the little meeting room that I attended. What is that church that you belong to down there on George St. I said, Brother, you and I belong to the same church.
And he looked a little bewildered. Then he said, oh, I know what you mean. I said, what do I mean? He said. You mean that church that cuts across the boundaries of all denominations? I said, Brother, is there any other? Is there really any other? He was a bit of a loss to explain.
That which seemed to mean a great deal to him, but it just seemed to me so very, very sad. Here we have in the word of God that which I hope means something to the hearts of those who are the Lords, as though a husband were to say yes. I think somewhere we have a.
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A marriage certificate, if I'm not mistaken, but it's only a piece of paper with a few name signs on it. It's only a theory. It really doesn't mean very much what a heartbreak that would be to his wife or vice versa. But when we read the purposes of God, when we read the heart of the Lord Jesus in giving himself and presenting to us in the word of God that which we know is spiritual, yet how very, very wondrous and real and eternal it is.
And what an effect it should have upon us.
Not long ago, I got a letter.
Ghana from one of the Africans there just a young man and in the latter he was asking if I could help him to become a priest. He wanted to study to be a priest.
Well, I wrote to him.
In the vein that we have here being a holy priesthood, I wrote to him and I said, if you want to become a priest of God, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone that has accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior is a priest.
And we're priests to OfferUp spiritual sacrifices. And I said, if you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you will be in a position where you can OfferUp spiritual sacrifices to God.
And that's the only priesthood that you need. You'll be a priest if you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. You don't need to go through school or go through a lot of ritual and so on, but just become a child of God.
Accept Christ as your Savior, the one who died for our sin, and you become a priest.
Ever hear about?
Was the postmaster at Guelph years ago?
And the early history of the meetings in this country.
And the priest came to his house one day.
Said he understood he was sent for. No, his brother said. But he said, I'm very glad you came here because you say he says you know that I'm a priest and have taken holy orders. Oh, he said I didn't know about that. Well, he says if you'll wait a few minutes then have tea with me. Why, I'll give you my papers and show you that it's true that I'm a priest.
And have taken holy orders, so rather reluctant ladies stayed. And and after the neo tee was over, they sat down. And so he started out. He said, I suppose you'd agree with me that this is Brother Wells. His name was. I suppose he said that he would agree with me that anything the Apostle Peter wrote was the word of God. Wouldn't you? Oh yes, said the priest.
Surely. Well, he says, I have two letters from the great apostle Peter, and he says, let's turn to them. So then he started out, and he read in the first chapter, having born again of incorruptible seed of word, and two about.
That he was redeemed not with corruptible things of silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. So he says, you see that I have divine life, I'm redeemed now, he says. What about those who have been redeemed? So he went on to to the second chapter, to boom coming, and then to a living stone. You also are living stones are built up with spiritual house and holy priesthood.
I said, brother, you see, I've been redeemed. I have, I have been born of the incorruptible seed of the Word. And now the Peter tells me that I'm a priest. And then he says too, I've taken holy orders, and the Holy orders are to OfferUp spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Poor man went out. The place I guess is still standing there at Guelph, where where the wells lived and.
When he got out, where nobody he was sure would hear and he said, I whispered to him. He said I'd give anything in the world if I knew what you knew that I would never go to Purgatory. Well, he says if you come to Christ as a poor lost center and accept him as your savior, why he says you are redeemed and you will never come into judgment. Well, the poor man got so interested he used to go to the post office and and he was discovered talking to.
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Brother Wells, he disappeared, but he says. I'm sure I'll meet that man in heaven.
Well, it's a wonderful thing, isn't it, to think we're all priests and I've taken holy orders.
Well, there's a lot that goes on and Christendom that.
Certainly has a question mark around it, but when we are carrying out what we get here, offering up spiritual sacrifices led by the spirit of God, we can't be as assured of this, that they're acceptable unto God.
By Jesus Christ.
That's the first thing isn't it, that I was thinking of the the way it's the Spirit of God records here for us through Peter. He also has living stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to OfferUp spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. I think of the gospel and.
Sometimes the gathered Saints have been accused of of just sitting around on March the morning when the gospel should be going out.
Well, I believe we have the truth here, don't we? That it's offering up spiritual sacrifices. First. He has his place first. Then the gospel emanates from being in the presence of the Lord, owning his glory, giving him his place. Well, that's the first thing, isn't it? Offering up, that is a holy priesthood. That's it's that which goes up first, and then we find the later, of course, the royal.
In connection with the gospel going out.
Remember picking up pamphlets put out by denomination down in Kentucky? And it started out like this. It says a church is an organization to preach the gospel. Well, of course the whole idea of an organization was an organization of men. That's wrong. And then make the gospel first is missing the truth of the word too, because as you say, brother little.
That.
Offering up the spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God comes before the holy the royal priesthood.
That she should show forth the virtues of him that called us out of darkness. Into his marvelous right comes in the secondary place.
When God wanted the children of Israel out of Egypt.
He said to Pharaoh, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me.
That's what God wanted them out in the wilderness for.
And that's what we have before.
In our scriptures, the wilderness, we're in the wilderness.
God wanted his people out there in the wilderness to hold a feast to him, that is, to worship him.
And of course, they'd have much to thank and praise him for when they got out there because.
They would have been redeemed in Egypt, that is under the shelter of the blood and brought out by the mighty power of God. And they would have a lot to thank the Lord for. And we find them thanking and praising God in the 15th chapter of Exodus. That was the feast to Jehovah.
Now that was the first thing. And if you talk about preaching to anyone, preaching to the gentiles of the heathen, there weren't any like that out there. No, the first thought was.
To worship God, to hold a feast to him.
And then I also think about what we have in Isaiah, the 6th chapter.
Where Uzziah died?
And Isaiah saw the Lord.
And he says in the second verse of Isaiah 6.
And above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
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Well, 4 wings were used for covering themselves because they were in the presence of God.
Acknowledging that they were in the presence of God covering themselves.
In the acts of submission and worship. But then two were used for flying, four for the attitude of worship only, two for activity, and the four for worship come first, then the two for activity afterward. And no doubt we could find other examples of this order of things in respect to worship in the word of God.
I think it gives us very clearly and plainly what God's mind is that the sacrifices of praise are due to God. First, we must be in the sanctuary. If we've not been in the sanctuary in the presence of God, certainly we're not ready to go out to those outside.
We say #99.
On Christ salvation rest secure, The Rock of Ages must endure. Nor can that fate be overthrown, which rests upon the living Stone.
View the vast building, See it rise, the work. How great the plan, how wise.
Or wondrous fabric power unknown that rears it on the living stone number 99.