LIVING STONES AND A SPIRITUAL HOUSE
[p. 71] LIVING STONES AND A SPIRITUAL HOUSE
1 Peter 1: 22; 1 Peter 2: 1 - 10
Last week we looked at the first chapter as bringing before us different things which give character to the saints as living stones. I now pass on to show how the living stones are brought together so as to be built up a spiritual house.
It seems to me that the first chapter might be summed up as putting off the old man and putting on the new, in the way in which Peter presents this great truth of Christianity. In the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians it is taken for granted that saints have put off the old man and have put on the new. Of course we have to begin with forgiveness of sins, but we do not stop there. The great turning point in a soul’s history is when he puts off the old man and puts on the new.
There was a time when we regarded ourselves as in the flesh; we cultivated and gratified ourselves in that character; that was the time past of our lives. Now having been born again by the incorruptible seed of the word of God we view ourselves in a different light altogether. If I look at myself as in the flesh I cannot see a point upon which my eye can rest with any kind of satisfaction. I see every form of corruption developing itself; the old man corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts. It would be dreadful for us to think we were identified with that man before God. I know of no anguish more terrible than of one finding out what he is according to the flesh and thinking he is identified before God with that old state. It is enough to sink one into the depths of despair in the experience of his soul. But what a relief to awake to the blessed fact that our old man has been crucified with Christ; that man with all his corruption and [p. 72] depravity has gone from before God. Thank God for it! Seeing this, we put off the old man. How do I look at myself now? Well I regard myself as a subject of the gracious work of the blessed God. I have been born again, I have been brought into the blessing of the gospel, I have received the Spirit, I am now being formed in holiness and love as one of God’s chosen and redeemed people, I have put on a new character. It is a great moment when the soul comes to that point.
And all this is very practical. People may say these things are not practical. I grant they are not exactly practice, but they are very practical. We must be practical before we can practise. We put off the old man, we take the ground of not belonging to that man any more; we are born of incorruptible seed; we are God’s redeemed people, and we are being formed in holiness and love as our true character according to God. It is a great thing to start thus, and the effect is we are empowered to lay aside what is connected with the old man. So the second chapter begins by saying, “Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings”. These five things have to be laid aside; they do not belong to the new man. If I have put off the old man how can I go on with his deeds? A great many Christians try to correct the old man without putting him off. You first put him off and then you lay aside his deeds. If Christians do not lay these things aside, they will not make any headway. All these habits and dispositions of the old man must be laid aside, and the effect is that as new-born babes we desire the sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby up to salvation.
It is very serious that there is not a greater desire amongst the children of God for the sincere milk of the word. It shows that many who take the place of believers have not put off the old man with his deeds, nor have they come into separation from the world. We shall not desire the sincere [p. 73] milk of the word if we are not prepared for separation from the world. The sincere milk of the word nourishes the soul in the knowledge of things that subsist in God’s resurrection world — things that are established in Christ at His right hand. How can a worldly person take any interest in these things? It is a very serious thing to be worldly; it brings death into the soul. We cannot afford to be worldly, we cannot afford to waste our time thus.
If we desire the sincere milk of the word I am sure we shall get it, and our souls will be nourished in the love of God, and God will bring us intelligently into that world of which Christ is the Centre. If we love Him we shall surely desire to apprehend all that blessed system of things of which He is the Head and Centre. But if people are not prepared to leave the old world they will never reach the new. If Columbus had not left the old world he would never have discovered the new. Anybody can see that. But who is going to leave this world till he gets some idea of a better one?
The way God gives an appetite for the sincere milk of the word is by causing us to taste that the Lord is gracious. That is what it begins with. “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious”. What does that mean? Well, it seems to me that the graciousness of the Lord — His goodness comes out in a special way in the Gospel of Luke. Just look at a section of it for a few moments. Read Luke 7: 11 - 16. It has been said that the woman represents humanity. Here the Lord was looking upon humanity in presence of the terrible reality and desolation of death, and His heart was touched with compassion. He was good. The presence and pressure of death is a great reality, but the Lord came down from heaven to meet it all and He has abolished it in His own goodness by going into it for us. We have found out His goodness in compassion. He has placed Himself in contact with death and has annulled its power.
Now read Luke 7: 36 - 50. Here we find the question of [p. 74] sins, and the Lord is good; He comes with frank forgiveness for all His debtors — for Simon as well as the poor woman. What a wonderful thing that the Lord should bring forgiveness for every debtor! We have tasted of that; we have tasted of the goodness in which He said, “When they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both”.
Then in chapter 8: 26 - 37 we get Satan’s power in the man possessed by demons. Some may say that people are not possessed by demons now! There is no demon I am more afraid of than my own will. Satan gives energy to the will of man. Man in himself is a very impotent creature, but he becomes the agent or instrument of mighty forces of evil. The Lord delivered that poor captive of the power of evil, so that he was found sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed and in his right mind. The Lord was good. And we have tasted of that goodness. We have proved how He can deliver from all the power of darkness here.
Then in Luke 8: 43 - 48 we get the woman with the issue of blood. That seems to be figurative of the weakness of the flesh. Virtue went out of Him for the healing of the woman. There is power in the Lord to make us superior to the will of the flesh and to its weakness. How good He is!
In chapter 9 we see in picture that the world is a desert; it does not afford satisfaction to the heart. But the Lord made these five thousand sit down, and He gave satisfaction in the desert. We may have had to say many times, “We are here in a desert place”, but have we not proved the Lord is good? Have we not tasted that He is good?
Then the goodness of the Lord is brought out beautifully in the good Samaritan in Luke 10: 30 - 35, where He puts Himself in contrast with man. The priest and the Levite passed by on the other side; they were not good; they would give nothing to a penniless and perishing man. But the Lord was good; He would give everything, and charge Himself with the care of such a one. How blessed to know Him in [p. 75] His supreme goodness! We shall certainly not know what it is to come to Christ as the Living Stone, if we have not tasted and proved His goodness. And the effect of this is to make us independent of anything in this world, and conscious that we have a resource in Him for everything. Would not that give us a desire to pass into God’s world? He comes to us in goodness and in relation to our need, and then we are called to leave what is of the world and go to Him in His own circle of things.
That is what we get in verse 4, “To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God, and precious”. I do not think any one will enter into the blessedness of this until his heart is free to be attracted to Christ as Mary’s was in Luke 10: 39. No doubt she had first tasted that the Lord was gracious, and the result was she was attracted to Himself. Then we get another side. Tasting that the Lord is good comes out very fully, as I have said, in the Gospel of Luke, but coming to Christ as the Living Stone answers more to what we get in the Gospel of John. Turn to John 1: 10, 11. I read these verses to show that this gospel views Christ as being rejected by man from the very beginning; He has no place here. The world does not know Him, and His own people according to the flesh will not receive Him, but He becomes the subject of divine testimony as in verses 29 - 34. Here we see the Lord presented in quite a new character. He is the One who takes away the sin of the world and who baptizes with the Holy Ghost; He is the Son of God. That is, He is not looked at here in relation to man’s need but in relation to God’s thoughts. He comes into the world to take sin out of it, and then He gives the Holy Ghost, and as the Son of God He becomes the subject of testimony. When John said”Behold the Lamb of God”, it was the sincere milk of the word. All the word of God bears testimony to that Person. The two disciples spoken of in verses 35 - 39 had their hearts nourished [p. 76] by the sincere milk of the word, so that they left John and came to Jesus. They came to the Living Stone. John the Baptist’s ministry had been the best thing on earth to their hearts, but they came into the presence of what was superior — they came to the Living Stone. Then when Peter was brought to Christ (verse 40 - 42) the Lord said to him, “Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone”. Those who came to Christ were living stones; and as we have Him presented in this gospel the Father was drawing the living stones to Him.
We see in John’s gospel very plainly that Christ did not get a company from the world. The world did not know Him and His own would not have Him, but He got a company from the Father. It is very important to see that. So we get in chapter 6: 37, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out”. And in verses 44, 45, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him”, etc. The Father gives, and the Father draws, and the Father teaches. That is how Christ gets a company; He gets them really from the Father.
If we look to ourselves as living stones we have to trace our origin to a divine source; we had our origin in the Father’s purpose. We are told that the Lord knew what was in man: He never trusted anything but what was of the Father; and that is the only thing that can be trusted. Everything that is of man breaks down. The great point is that the Father introduced a Person into this world who had no link with the world. He was altogether distinct from the world. His disciples never suggested that He should take a place in this world. They were ignorant in many points, but they were conscious that He had nothing to do with the course of this world. I believe if any person got a sense of who Christ is it would be impossible for him to connect Christ with anything in this world. In Christendom [p. 77] Satan has worked from the very first to connect Christianity with this world, so there are religious bodies with fine buildings, and they vie with one another as to which can make the best show in this world.
Coming to Christ as the Living Stone is the outcome of the fact that Christ has an attraction for our hearts that draws us away from everything in this world and of man. It is impossible to bring a risen Man into connection with things here. Are we prepared to come to Him outside everything in the religious world? “To whom coming as unto a living atone disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious”. God has singled Him out in the most wonderful way. In Psalm 89 we read, “I have exalted one chosen out of the people”. God sent that blessed One into this world, and when here He singled Him out and exalted Him to His own right hand in glory. It is to that One we must come in order to being built up as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. We come to Him in the affection of hearts that have been taught of the Father. God is now bringing something to pass in this world far more glorious than Solomon’s temple. That was a poor thing compared with God’s mind for His saints today. How sad it is that so few of God’s children know what it is to get away from man and man’s world and to come to Christ and God’s world!
God would have us built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. He would bring our souls into intelligence of His delight in Christ, so that all that Christ is, and all that He has made known to us of God, might become the material of praise before Him in His house.
And then, having taken our place inside, we shall be able to go out as in verse 9 as royal priests, to “show forth the virtues of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light”. The holy priest goes in, and the royal priest comes out in testimony here. The only business of a [p. 78] Christian here is to show forth God’s virtues or excellences. We are put in a place of priestly testimony before the world. The only knowledge this world gets of the virtues and excellences of God is what it sees in the saints. Let us see to it that we come out as royal priests, so that there may be a witness for God in the midst of a world that has cast off the knowledge of Himself and rejected His beloved Son. May we know what it is to taste that the Lord is good, and to see how He ministers to our every need, so that we may be free to come to Him as the Living Stone and be built up a spiritual house for God’s glory and praise!