THE SAINTS AS STONES
R. Besley
1 Peter 2: 2–5; Zechariah 7: 11, 12; 1 Chronicles 29: 1, 2; 1 Kings 5: 17; 1 Samuel 17: 39, 40
The scripture which I read in Peter’s first epistle will, I am sure, justify the allusion to the people of God as stones. Peter alludes to the grace of the Lord Jesus in writing to these believers; he says, “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious”. I suppose everyone here has tasted the grace of the Lord Jesus. What kind of impression has it left in your soul? “If so be ye have tasted”—I am sure that He must have attracted you, so Peter goes on to say, “To whom coming as unto a living stone”. It is wonderful that the Lord should be alluded to under such a figure! “Disallowed indeed of men”. I hope you have not disallowed Him. Is there anyone here who has disallowed Him? “Disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious”. Then he goes on to say, “Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”. So I am sure the scripture justifies the allusion made to the people of God as stones, and I want to speak to you as being stones as the result of divine handiwork, for every believer in this hall is the handiwork of God. Not only as a man or woman belonging to the race of mankind, but as a believer you are a product of divine handiwork. God has handled you, and you are a stone, and God has wrought in His power by His Spirit so that you may have part and place in a structure of glory which is eternal.
I do not believe that the great place of the stones, according to God, has been rightly valued. There would not be the grovelling instincts marking so many of the people of God if we understood the great place that has been given to us. You see believers seeking after things that are temporal, material things, even overstepping the bounds of righteousness to acquire things that are temporal. Would God we were wiser! We are part of an edifice which God is building which is eternal.
Now I allude to what is mentioned in reference to the earthly house of Solomon, and we must be greatly impressed by the magnificence of it, utterly destroyed now under the government of God, but it was magnifical, and the glory of the latter house will yet exceed the glory of the former house. That was an earthly thing, but we, beloved brethren, are a part of what is spiritual. We are stones in it and God would have us rise to a sense of it even while we are here. The king commanded and they brought “great stones”. Now I say that every believer is a great stone. The smaller we are in our own estimation, the greater we are morally. We are to have a sense of what every believer is as the handiwork of God; nothing could be greater. Do you think that a royal crown, or an ivory throne; could add anything to a believer who is indwelt by the Spirit of God? and yet, alas! we tend to pass over this fact as if it were no fact at all. In one sense we should be small, and the smaller we are in our own estimation the greater we are morally. Every believer is great and I love to think that God has destined for me that I am to be placed among persons who are great. Do you think it is an honour to be among the great in this world? You are missing the mark! We should learn to live and move on this earth as persons who are great. Never speak slightingly of a believer! Train your mind to think of them as great. None of them is to be despised. They are great stones. You, young believer, young as you may be, are a great stone in a great building, in a building that is going to shine with the lustre of the glory of God. Could, anything be greater than that?
Now the king also says, “costly stones”, meaning that they are rare, and every believer is a costly stone. I beg you, think for a moment of the cost at which every, one has been acquired.
Every believer is costly, he is rare. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has been shed to acquire him, and we should learn to think of this. Have you risen to the sense that you are precious, costly, rare? If we did this, do you think we should ever wrap our bodies in the adornment of the world that spit upon the face of Christ? I charge you, in the presence of God, take care of your body; it is “temple of the Holy Spirit”. We live in a day when people sin against their bodies and I am not at all sure that all those who take the name of the Lord Jesus are clear in this regard. Remember, my body, and your body, belong to the Lord. He bought it! And I ask you, beloved brethren, have you presented your bodies “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”? You cannot present your bodies “holy” unless they are holy. What Paul refers to in Romans 12 is that they are to be actually holy. People are trying all sorts of devices to make buildings beautiful. One shaking from the hand of God, and it will be a pile of ashes. But we belong to what is eternal and every stone in that building is rare and costly and God would have us treasure it and love it.
Then the king had “hewn stones”. You and I are stones that have been hewn out. It may have been some special word of power in the gospel that reached you. He knows. On the other side, it was the sovereign work of God in new birth that brought you out. Do you believe that you are a hewn stone? You view things in a different way when you see that. Why has a sudden illness fallen upon a brother? Why such distress? God has taken the stone out and He is producing a hewn stone. And God will never let you go. I have felt the power of that some years ago. Why is it that I have been singled out? I was one of seven; all my brothers are gone. Why has God picked me out of a family? I was wandering in the world when suddenly a Hand touched me and took me out, and God has taken you up to be a hewn stone. I earnestly beg of you, if you are conscious of the hand of God being upon you, do not frustrate the hand of God. I tell you frankly, I fear God. You wonder that I say that. I know that He loves me. I know what it is to bow down and say, “Abba, Father”, but I fear God; I am afraid of His government. It is an awful thing to have, to do with God. May that Hand have freedom to do what it will.
But now we have the word also that there were “glistering” stones. Wonderful thought that stones that are radiant with a light that is not resident in themselves. Are you glistering? You should be full of spiritual animation. There seems to be no animation about some believers.
Why should we not be full of joy, our spirits rising up every morning? Why should this not be? If I may put it this way, what a poor setting forth in the eyes of the world are many of us as believers. We can sing a hymn, ‘All will be well’, but then we come down again. Do you get a bit down when you go to business in the morning? Why do you not sing, ‘I love to sing of Jesus’? Why should other people sing and it be denied to us? I am not going to have it, brethren; I am going to sing! We are a people entitled to joy, and we are the only people who have real joy; not the idle froth of an empty sentimentality, but the real joy of what is spiritual. But these stones are furnished for the house of God. It is a lovely idea. God’s dwelling place! God’s house is a spiritual edifice, built of stones, great and costly, hewn and glistering. This is what God is doing. So Peter says, “Ye also as living stones are being built up”. We have come to One who was “disallowed indeed of men”. Do you know Him as such, belonging to what God is building, outside of this world altogether, where death is not known, where decay is impossible?
We have come to know the Lord Jesus in connection with that. We have come to the One who was “disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious”. Then, “Ye also as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”. When did you offer your last sacrifice? Well, you say, I like to listen to a brother and say ‘Amen’. But that may not be your sacrifice. A sacrifice is different from an offering. An offering is what it is to God; a sacrifice is what it is to me. What does it cost me to offer up a spiritual sacrifice? How thankful you would have been in the days of the temple sacrifices if you had been able to bring a bullock! What spiritual sacrifices are you bringing? You may say ‘Amen’ to what is said, but did you ever offer a spiritual sacrifice in your own room, alone with God? What a thing it is to be alone with God and offer up spiritual sacrifices. The morning reading would take on a different character, and when you go to the meeting the brethren would say, What has happened to So-and-so? He is a changed man. We must have spiritual sacrifices. It is only right that God should have them. Think of what He said in Malachi, “If ye offer the blind for sacrifice the lame and sick, is it not evil?” Malachi 1: 8.
Well, now I have to divert to make an allusion to ourselves as stones in another setting, and having that in mind I read the passage in Samuel, and I want to ask the brethren whether they have known what it is to be stones in a valley, a watercourse. In the face of this great giant, Goliath, David went down into a valley; a watercourse, because there were smooth stones there, and I want to ask the dear brethren whether we have gone down into the valley, accepting the cross of the Lord Jesus. Do you know what has been the ruination of the world?—luxurious living; and will you be offended if I say that it has been the ruination of many of the saints? And God intends that the present depression should bring us to the valley, into humiliation. We have got to come down and find what the Lord intends us to learn, and, if we do, the trials and the pressure and the difficulties will smooth the stones. The blessed work of the Spirit passing over us will smooth us. And He can use smooth stones. Have you ever felt it hurt your spirit that the Lord has had to pass you by because you are too big? Let us come down into the valley. Would you not like to be a smooth stone? David, a type of Christ, went down into the valley and chose five smooth stones.
You may say, I would like to be a big man. What for? Maybe there is someone here who is saying, We have a lovely church, a marvellous choir. Yes, but we have something better. I am quite content, dear brethren, to be among the five stones (marked by human weakness).
That is what the Lord intends. It is not four and one; not three and two; but it is five. There is a certain stand-offishness among some of the saints. But that will not do; we have to be content to be one of the five. You may have a little bit of social position or family pride; I do not think David will make much use of you. Are you one of five—five smooth stones? That is what David took. Would you like to be taken up by David? I would! I would give anything if I thought the Lord would take me up into His hand and use me. Are you prepared to be put into a shepherd’s bag? What is needed among us is a shepherd spirit. How precious! In a little gathering just, as it were, put into the shepherd’s bag. That is where David put the stones. They were precious in his eyes. Now we have to wait. Are you ready to wait? You have to wait until David puts His hand on you. Ah! He takes up one, and that one is enough to do the work in hand.
Are you and I prepared to wait for that? You say, But there are terrible difficulties; but put all that aside and then ask yourself about just this one stone in the hand of David. But there were five. In another chapter we are told that there were four relatives of this Goliath. I do not think that I have ever had a harder lesson to learn than to wait. But the Lord’s time is a time of absolute triumph. Why? He waits only on God; that is the secret. So, beloved brethren, we have to learn by these smooth stones, picked out of a valley. In His own time He will make use of you. You say you wish the Lord would use you. Just put yourself quietly into His hand and ask Him to use you, and He will do it. It is worth waiting for. It is worth all the preparation in the valley, in the watercourse, to be used of Him. That is the side to see here.
The other side is that of our place in the house, offering up spiritual sacrifices to God. May the Lord help us, beloved brethren, in these things.
Address at Westfield, N.J., U.S.A.
17 May 1932
(This address was among the papers of Mr. P. R. Besley, whom the Lord took on 16 May 1989, and was kindly made available by his family. Quotations are from the Authorised Version).