COMING TO CHRIST AS THE LIVING STONE
Richard M Brown
Matthew 16: 13-18
1 Peter 2: 1-5
I desire to say a word as to coming to Christ as the Living Stone. When we think of Him in this way we are not thinking of Him so much as on our side, but more what He is for God, what He is as the One who gives character to the great and glorious spiritual system in which God is being served.
When it is a question of our need He comes to us and how near He has come! But when we think of Him in this light it is a question of movement on our part towards Him; and the effect of coming to Him in this way is that we are built in to God’s wonderful spiritual house. Now, I will suggest shortly that many Christians have never come to Him in this way. It may surprise you to hear that, but I trust it will become clearer as we proceed. Every believer with the Holy Spirit is a living stone, and each one belongs to this spiritual house. But not everyone has been built in, not everyone is in his or her proper place, and not everyone is filling out that place for the pleasure of God. The passage in 1 Peter 2 indicates that there is a certain moral road we must travel in order to reach Christ in this way. I wish to say a few words about it.
I read in Matthew 16 because it provides the foundation for 1 Peter 2. You may have heard it said before that Peter’s first epistle is based on his experience in Matthew 16, and his second epistle is based on his experience in Matthew 17. In order to explain the link between Matthew 16 and 1 Peter 2 I would draw on an illustration from the building of Solomon’s temple. You will remember that Solomon’s temple was built of stones. It was quite an undertaking because the scripture tells us that he employed eighty thousand stone-masons, 1 Kings 5: 15. There were two parts to the process: firstly, the stones had to be cut out of the quarry and, secondly, they had to be shaped, they had to be fashioned, in order to fit together in the temple. I suggest that Matthew 16 is the securing of the stones out of the quarry. We can think of the world as being like the quarry, and we shall speak in a moment of God’s sovereign operations to secure the living stones out of the world. 1 Peter 2 is the shaping, it is the fashioning, in order that we might fit into this wonderful spiritual house.
So I take up Matthew 16 in that light. I suggest that Peter is representative of us all. In another light, of course, we know that Peter was distinctive as the first among the twelve apostles, and no doubt his experience in Matthew 16 was to fit him for the great mission that the Lord had in mind just for him. But in another sense I think we can regard him as representative. Now, Peter makes this wonderful confession. In answer to the Lord’s question he says, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. That was very precious light he possessed in his soul. And the Lord Jesus brings out that Peter had that because it had pleased the Father to reveal it directly to him. Peter had been the subject of the sovereign operations of God. As the Lord Jesus says to him, “flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee”. Peter could not have arrived at this by taking account even of the Lord Jesus in flesh and blood. Nor was it something that any other man had taught him. The only reason he knew this was because God the Father had chosen Peter and it had pleased Him to make it known to him.
Now, I believe the same thing, in principle, is true for us all if we have received light into our souls as to the Person of Christ and, especially, this light as to Him as God’s glorious Son. Think of what a momentous thing it is that God has picked you out, dear brother or sister, picked you out from others. He has chosen you in order to impart this light to your soul; not because you merited it, nor because you were better or worse than anyone else, but simply because it pleased Him to do so. We are the subjects of God’s sovereign operations. That should be a matter of great thanksgiving on our part. How thankful we should be for sovereign grace. How thankful we should be that God has been pleased to reveal to us what we could not have known any other way; that He should have imparted to our souls, as light, what would otherwise have been darkness to us. If we allow that to sink into our souls, on the one hand, it will bring great stability into our hearts and, on the other, it will move us in thanksgiving to the blessed God.
Then, as we reflect on it, it is intended to prompt a question with us as to why God has been pleased to do that. We can be quite sure that God must have had something in mind. It goes without saying that nothing God does is indiscriminate. Ephesians 1: 11 tells us that He “works all things according to the counsel of His own will”. Everything that He does, even to its smallest details, has in mind the accomplishment of His great and wonderful purpose. So we can be quite sure that if God has been pleased to act towards us in this way it was because He had something in mind. I wonder if you have ever pondered what that was. Perhaps I could appeal to the younger brethren here. Have you ever stopped to think why God has chosen you? Have you ever sat in your class at school, for example, and wondered why God should have been pleased to act this way towards you and not to the person next to you; or at work, if God has picked you out but not someone else in the office?
Well, the Lord Jesus explains why in the verses which follow. He brings out that what God had in mind in operating towards us in this way was nothing less than the building of the assembly. Now, I would like to interest you in this great matter, the building of the assembly, because I would say without hesitation that the assembly is the greatest thing that has ever been built. One reason for that is because it is being built by the greatest Builder that there ever was. Hear His words: “on this rock I will build my assembly, and hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”. No one can build like Him! What He builds is perfect; there is nothing lacking in it; nothing superfluous to requirements. He builds living stone by living stone. Think of living stones gathered out from every nation on the earth, sovereignly operated on by God and brought to Christ, with a view to being built in to this glorious structure. Every stone is essential. That means that there is a place in this building that belongs to you: only you can fill it out. But what a work this is in the hands of the greatest Builder of all!
Here is another thought: nothing has taken so long to build as the assembly. It has been two thousand years in the making! It took God one day, just one day, to make the sun and the moon and the stars. It took Him less than a week to create the earth with all its many and varied forms of life; but the building of the assembly has taken two thousand years. Then think of this, that the world to come, what the Scripture refers to as “Christ’s day”, will last a thousand years. God has allotted a thousand years for the public vindication of Christ, representing the climax of His ways on earth; but the building of the assembly has taken twice as long as that! Well has it been referred to as God’s masterpiece, the greatest conception of divine love and wisdom. It is that in which the praises of God will be maintained, and it is to be His eternal dwelling-place!
I believe it is of all moment that we should be alive to the greatness of the assembly, especially in these days when this great work is nearing completion. The Lord Jesus is putting the finishing touches to this great work before the assembly’s translation to be with Him in glory. We ought to be alive to the greatness of the assembly. Then too, that we might be impressed more and more with the great blessing and privilege, the great honour, God has bestowed upon us, that we should belong to the assembly. It is the greatest thing in the entire universe.
Well now, I pass on to 1 Peter 2. If we think of Matthew 16 as the securing of the living stones out of the quarry of the world, 1 Peter 2 has in mind the shaping, the preparation, of those stones in order that each one should fit into this spiritual house. You can understand that a freshly quarried stone would have plenty of rough edges and protruding bits that need to be removed in order that it might fit into its place in the building. In 1 Peter 2: 1 we have the rough edges. In this verse Peter refers to five fleshly features which we would humbly have to confess, find a place in our hearts naturally. But they are things which, if left unchecked, will hinder us in fitting in.
Now, when it comes to 1 Peter 2, I do not have to think of you, and you do not have to think of me, but we each have to face this exercise for ourselves. Am I going to fit in? Am I going to occupy my place in God’s wonderful new spiritual house? If so, I shall need to attend to these rough edges. He refers to “malice”. You can understand that if I am harbouring ill-feeling towards another brother or a sister, I might not express it in any way, but if I allow that feeling it will hinder me fitting in, in taking up my place in this spiritual house. Then he speaks of “guile”; “all guile”, he says. One of the helpful things that has been said about guile is that it refers to when we may say something that is true in order to hide the truth. The woman in John 4 is an example. She said to the Lord, “I have not a husband”, v 17. If you took that statement in isolation it was of course true, but it was not the whole truth, and in fact it was intended to hide the truth. Over against that, how important it is that we should be open with one another. How important that we should be transparent. There is a series of addresses by Mr. Raven called, “The Moral Features of Christianity”. One of them is “Transparency”, FER 2: p181. He brings out that it is something which has been set forth in God Himself. It belongs to Christianity, dear brethren. Then we have, “hypocrisies” – pretending to be what we are not, how close home it comes; “envyings” - desiring what others have; “evil speakings” - how careful we should be about how we speak, particularly how we speak about the beloved brethren in private. These are all things which mark us naturally, and the word is that they are to be laid aside. Because they mark us naturally they will not just drop off. Laying them aside suggests there is to be definite exercise with us about them. If I feel that I have a tendency in a particular direction divine support is available. I can have to do with the Lord about it; He will surely help me. And so we are to be exercised to lay these things aside.
Then Peter goes on to say, “as newborn babes desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word”. If verse 1 gives us a whole line of things which have to be refused by us, verse 2 suggests that there is another line of things which we are to positively give ourselves to. He says, “as newborn babes desire earnestly”. We will not get anywhere without earnestness. We have all seen a newborn babe. It has its own way of making it known when it wants its milk, and it will not be pacified with anything else; it must have it. That is how we should feel about the pure mental milk of the word. We should feel that we cannot do without it. We should feel that our spiritual lives depend on it.
This expression “mental milk” is an interesting one. You may have heard the brethren refer to it as “food for the mind”. How important it is that our minds are fed. How important that our minds are nourished with good food. I believe it right to say that our spiritual state at any point in time, and our spiritual growth over a period of time, largely depends on what we have given our minds to, what we have spent our time on. No one knew that better than Peter. You may remember there was an occasion when he spoke out of turn to the Lord, when he discovered that he was out of step with the Lord. The Lord puts His finger on the problem. He says to Peter, “thy mind is not on the things that are of God, but on the things that are of men”, Mat 16: 23. He does not say that Peter’s mind was on wicked things; He simply says, “the things that are of men”. I believe Satan has gained a great advantage through such things as the internet, where every taste, every possible interest, is catered for, and it is all so accessible; and it has spoiled our appetite for the pure mental milk of the word. “The things that are of men”.
I would like to encourage us all to set ourselves to go in for spiritual things. Perhaps I could especially encourage the dear younger brethren to commit themselves to the reading of the Scriptures, if they have not already. I know there are some here who make that a habit; but commit yourself to the daily careful, prayerful, reading of the precious Word of God. I would encourage us too, to commit ourselves to the reading of the ministry, what we refer to as the ministry of the recovery. It is part of the great spiritual heritage that has come down to us. It is ministry that was given of the Holy Spirit, in which truth that had been lost sight of for centuries was brought to light once again. I would like to encourage us all to set ourselves for the steady, systematic, reading of the ministry. As we are exercised to take these things up it will not be long before we shall start to discover the power and satisfying character of spiritual things.
So Peter says, “that by it ye may grow up to salvation”. I think growing up to salvation has in mind the increasing apprehension on our part of what it is that God has saved us for. There are many true hearts who never get very far beyond what they have been saved from. But growing up to salvation I think involves an increasing apprehension of the great system of glory and blessing that God has in mind for us; and it becomes saving, because that will deliver us from the influences of the world.
Then he says, “if indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good”. Now, the Lord is good in every sense of the word, and I am sure we have all proved that in many different ways. But I would like to suggest that He is good in the particular context of these verses. You will notice that the first three verses of 1 Peter 2 are all one sentence. And he concludes the sentence with this reference to the Lord as being good. I believe the Lord’s goodness is specially to be proved by persons who are moving on this line: that the Lord specially honours, and comes in for, right exercise. I would illustrate that from the experience of Moses. You remember that incident when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and Moses said, “Let me now turn aside and see this great sight”, Exod 3: 3. Moses did not just carry on with his business. He was tending his father-in-law’s flock, but he did not quickly go back to the flock. He said, ‘No, I am going to stop and take account of this’. And the scripture specifically says that “Jehovah saw that he turned aside”, v 4. And Jehovah drew near and communicated to him in the most wonderful way. It is a simple example of how the Lord honours right exercise on our part. I think it is especially in this context that we will taste that He is good. Tasting that He is good suggests what we have arrived at through experience. I am sure there are others here who can say with me that we have proved from experience, through the Lord’s goodness, that spiritual things are deeply satisfying.
So you can see that there is a whole line of things that is to be refused by us, and a whole line of things that we are to positively commit ourselves to. Then it is that Peter comes to this point in verse 4, where he says, “To whom coming, a living stone”. I think it suggests that it is as we have answered to the exercises of the first two verses, as we have definitely committed ourselves to them, we are ready for this further movement towards Christ as the Living Stone. Remember we said earlier, that when we think of Christ in this way we specially have before us what He is as giving character to the great spiritual system in which God is being served. And it calls for movement on our part towards Him.
Now, there are three distinct things which are said about the Living Stone. And it seems to me most significant that the first thing said about it is that it was “cast away indeed as worthless by men”. If we are to reach Christ, if we are to apprehend Him, in this way, we need to understand the significance of His absolute rejection by men. It is not simply that He is not here, but He is not wanted either. “Cast away”, it says, “as worthless”. It indicates that if we are to reach Christ in this way it must be outside of, and apart from, all that belongs to this world. If we are ever to apprehend Christ in this glorious light it can only be by being apart from all that is dishonouring to Him.
That consideration would serve to reinforce in our minds the necessity for the important exercises outlined for us in 2 Timothy 2, as to withdrawing from iniquity, and as to separating from vessels to dishonour. We know how difficult, how painful and how sorrowful, often, that can be. But I would like to fortify the hearts of the saints in relation to it because if there is any compromise, if there is any weakening with us, then we shall come short in our apprehension of Christ. I said earlier that many Christians have never reached Him in this way. Many have little understanding of separation and what it involves in practice. But how important for us to be apart from all that dishonours Him. I would like to confirm and strengthen the hearts of the saints so that we might freshly set ourselves apart for Him; freshly set ourselves apart from all that is not pleasing to Him, in order that we might apprehend Christ, we might reach Him, in this wonderful way.
The next thing said about the Living Stone is that it is “chosen”. How blessed to think of Christ as God’s chosen One. The most outstanding way in which God manifested His choice of Christ was by raising Him from among the dead. How often we remind ourselves that it was a selective resurrection. The Scripture uses that expression “from among the dead”. From among the millions who were lying in their graves, it pleased God to raise one Man. He left all the others in their graves. It pleased Him to raise one Man; and not only to raise Him but to highly exalt Him. If the world regarded Him as worthless, we can take account of the exaltation of Christ as setting forth God’s estimate of His holy worth. Think of that blessed Man who was cast away as worthless by men, now at the right hand of God, in that place where no man has ever been before! That is the complete answer on God’s part to the rejection of Christ.
But God has not stopped there. I want to suggest that the establishment of the assembly on the earth was also part of God’s answer to the rejection of Christ. It is as if God took account of men having cast Him away as worthless and He says, ‘I am going to build something, and I am going to begin with Christ. I am going to build something far greater and more glorious than man could have any conception of at all’. Think of the triumph of it, that in the very place where Christ was rejected, God is building, He is securing a holy heavenly circle which takes its bearing, takes its character, from one blessed Man! And we are to have part in that; we are to have part in God’s answer to Christ’s rejection.
Then Peter adds that He is “precious”. Ah, dear brethren, what can we say about the preciousness of Christ to God? Surely there is no more blessed region for our souls than to contemplate the preciousness of Christ to God. Think of Him as the One in whom every moral grace is set forth so outstandingly, the One who is supremely attractive to His God and Father. Then think of Him too, as the One who through his precious sufferings and death has laid the great basis for the accomplishment of all God’s thoughts. He is the One who laid down His life willingly, to lay the foundation for the accomplishment of all the purpose of God. No wonder He is precious to God! I love to think of Him as the settled object of the love of God, the One in whom all the deepest feelings of the heart of God find their centre. You think of all God’s holy affections resting with supreme delight on this blessed Man. Who could measure the preciousness of Christ to God? Yet a little further on Peter says, “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness”, v 7. How wonderful to think that we should have an affinity with God Himself in a shared appreciation of Christ. It says, “yourselves also, as living stones”. It is one of the things which characterises the living stones. He is precious to God; through grace we can say He is precious to us!
So Peter goes on to say, “as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”. My desire is that we might get a fresh impression of the greatness of the glorious spiritual system in which God is being served, even at the present time. You ask, ‘What about the breakdown?’. How we should feel it! How we should be deeply humbled by the ruin of the church. How we should especially be on our faces for the breakdown for which we bear such a responsible part. But let us understand that the breakdown has not altered spiritual thoughts. Peter was writing to the sojourners of the dispersion. The dispersion refers to the Jews who, under the government of God, had been scattered to the four winds. Many of them were many miles from Jerusalem. They no longer had access to the temple there. Among them were the believers to whom he was writing, and he wants to impress them with the fact that this spiritual house exists. This great building work is going on. Oh! that it may lay hold of our hearts. The divine proposal is that, as belonging to this holy priesthood, under the hand of Christ, we should have our living part in ministering that which is for the satisfaction of the blessed God. What could be greater than that? It is what God has taken us up for.
Well, I trust these thoughts will commend themselves to the saints. Above all, I trust that our hearts will be moved in thanksgiving to the blessed God who in sovereign grace chose us, and took us up, in order that we might be for His pleasure and satisfaction eternally.
Glasgow
22nd August 2023