The Chief Cornerstone
1 Peter 2: 1-10
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For
Advent 1999 |
Max
A Forsythe | |
Friday I stopped in to talk to a heating contractor to ask for a bid on our proposed sanctuary which might take shape next summer if all of the necessary pieces fall into a correct order. He immediately saved us several thousand dollars by showing me a way to avoid an expensive sprinkler system which is now necessary in Ohio if the heating plant is inside a public building.
The various bids for our "grand" thirty-two by fifty-three foot structure must all meet a criteria which is the cornerstone of our ability to raise up the structure. That criteria which limits our construction is bringing the project in under $50,000. Not impossible, but great care in planning and a willingness on our part to finish the inside of the structure is necessary. No longer do we live in a country where the carpenter can cut the logs on the property and mold the bricks for firing from the mud along the creek!
It would be nice if we could use the trees and mud from our own property, but the time and skills to allow a primitive log hut for worship are beyond us and probably would not be too conducive for growth either. No indeed, we must choose our materials from those available in the market place and measure them against the cornerstone of cost before we erect our structure. Now, the timeliness of our work comes to fruition in our text set before us today where the true and certain cornerstone of the Church is revealed.
To comprehend this text I am reminded of a construction project in my father's barn when I was in my early teens. The barn was being upgraded to allow dad to continue selling milk from our farm. It was not a major project as other dairy farmers might consider it, but for our family it was still a stretch. A part-time preacher who was also a carpenter took on the task and he brought along a few people who needed work to assist him. He first made a careful assessment of the hundred year old structure to determine the weak spots that needed strengthened and to find the strong beams which could carry any extra weight.
The second thing he did was to jack up the west end of the barn and pour a new foundation under the old beams. The worst worn he replaced and all in all the majority of his work was to reestablish a proper foundation. Three weeks went by and Dad was getting worried about the cost. The last week, the siding was applied to the renewed structure and progress grew faster each day, so much so that the project was completed a day early. I learned a lot from that project but forgot some of the words used by the work crew when they made mistakes.
The main lesson I learned was the importance of getting a foundation right before completing the structure. The work of that crew from thirty-some years ago still stands. It is of course a bit worn, 1,200 pound cows are none too gentle with their shelter and I learned never to use cement blocks when you want a permanent wall! You see, cement blocks when they were first introduced were meant to all be filled with poured concrete in the middle. But the common habit is not to do that. That is why so many of those walls fail over the years! Good timbers are also well advised. Dad had gone to a local lumber mill to have the structural wood cut from hard wood trees. That lumber is still strong, while the pretty milled wood from the lumber company is rotted clear through.
But even the good stuff doesn't last forever. Westminster Abbey was four hundred and fifty years old when the caretakers noticed that the oak timbers holding up the roof were nearly at the end of their useful life. Parliament worried at how they would ever find timbers of that size at any cost they could afford to replace the roof.
Then the superintendent of the building received a telephone call from what we would call a Forest Ranger out in one of the counties. The gentleman was wondering if they were ready for his trees yet? He had been expecting a call for the last decade and decided to see if the oak trees planted when Westminster was built were needed on schedule.
The parliamentary planners were amazed. The necessary trees had been in possession of the government from the very day when the building was complete so many centuries before. And so, the trees were cut, milled and the Abbey roof restored like new again. I have often wondered if they planted a new set of trees for the 25th Century?
In a like manner, the amazing God, our Lord provided a sprout from the root of Jesse millennia before the New Covenant Church was founded. He who is the chief cornerstone of His own Church, the very Bride of Christ - Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Man, the Christ of prophecy - God with us in the flesh.
When that old barn project was laid, one corner, the northwest one was given the attention of three whole days or so. There the concrete block were all filled and the foundation dug about twice as deep. It was that corner from which every other measure was taken. Its height and angle determined those for the whole structure. That corner of the old barn is still solid. In a same way, the structure of the Church described here in Peter's letter is focused on the foundational stone laid down before time by our Father Creator God. Our chapter begins with a reminder of how the gospel was preached to those who had submitted to it.
"Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."
Dr Keener tells us in his commentary that "Ancient writers sometimes employed 'vice lists', indicating what people should avoid." While we are not as adamant about maintaining a list of no-no's to maintain membership here, the advice contained here is nevertheless necessary. By that I mean, if the new birth in Christ has occurred in the lives of the members of Christ's Church, there should be some solid evidence. When those carpenters were abuilding Dad's barn, my younger brothers and sister were not allowed near to hear their crude language.
Dad told me that he thought my language patterns were well enough formed not to be affected by the crudity to which I was being exposed. I was allowed to work along side the men and learn what I could from their knowledge of building. I do think he was disappointed in the minimal effort that the "Christian" crew made to watch their tongues while working guests at our farm.
A dear friend, once reported a story about a Hungarian gypsy prostitute who came late in life to Christ down under in an Australian Reformed congregation. He was warned that she had been converted for only six weeks and was finding it difficult to sort out appropriate language to use in church. And so I suppose that was what that old Pentecostal preacher was trying to do with his charges - teach them a new tongue acceptable in the Presbyterian company of our family. And if I remember correctly, by the end of the construction month, the air at least was several shades less blue! Sanctification as we all know is difficult and new babes in Christ, while they should always be corrected in their behavior should also be encouraged to do better.
Our second verse here continues in the image of one being converted. Not only are we as Christians to put aside but as Dr Keener translates, we are also to desire the "rational pure milk of the word." Oh am I glad to see that word "rational" in the context of the Word of God. Just this Thursday, we were studying how we accept the Word of God. In R.C. Sproul's volume responding to Catholics and Evangelicals together, he focuses on the absolutely vital importance of justification by faith.
And in the fourth chapter we looked at a threefold definition of saving faith. The first element was "notitia". This word was explained as the knowledge or content to be received. The second element was "assensus". This word indicates an intellectual agreement with the truth explained in "notitia". The third element was "fiducia" whereby we are given a positive disposition of the soul or mind to an object. In this case towards Jesus Christ.
I go through all of this to make the major point of our text today that Jesus Christ is the foundation stone without which there would be no New Covenant or Old Covenant Church either - if He did not come and fulfill the law before dying on the cross to atone for our sins.
One of the great lessons of the Camelot tale about King Arthur and his Queen Gwynevere is the problem of love understood and lived by the Queen. Yes, she did indeed love the court, the knights, Lancelot du Lac and even the King. But her courtly love failed both husband and country in that her love had not a proper focus in Arthur himself. How much like the modern church is Gwynevere!
Congregations love their music, their buildings, their doctrines and sometimes even their leaders and each other. But, do they truly, faithfully love their Lord? Faith, saving faith must have a focus if it is to be the instrumental cause of salvation. This is what Peter means when he observes "if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious".
Yes, you may understand two elements of what saving faith is. What good does that do you? Remember a few weeks ago in our study of Mark's first chapter. Who first recognized Jesus for who and what He was? It was the demons! They have the intellectual knowledge to which the assent that Jesus is God Himself come down from heaven. God With Us! But they have no heart in that knowledge. They are not drawn to Him by the Holy Spirit who just as the Scriptures say - He does indeed put a new heart in the People of God.
That is why Peter uses the pun here of our being "living stones". Remember the text that tells us the heart of stone shall be removed and a new heart put in its place? A living heart that is drawn to Christ is the one that we must have if anything I have to say today makes any sense. As the text develops there in verses four though five, these "living stones" become part of the structure that is the Bride of Christ - the New Covenant Church. A church that willingly loves the Lord and makes a spiritual sacrifice towards Him.
A love focused upon Jesus, the savior of our souls. He is the chief and only cornerstone. He alone can save and as Gordon Clark emphasizes "Saving faith is neither an indescribable encounter with a divine person, nor heart knowledge as opposed to head knowledge. According to the author of Hebrews, those who come to God must believe at least two propositions: That he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
Paul writes well in Ephesians 2: 5 & 8-10 "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) ... For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
To paraphrase Gordon Clark: Faith in the truth of Christ is not something that merits the favor of God. The totality of salvation resides completely in the Savior! We must be certain of this: It is not faith that saves but faith in Jesus Christ. Strictly speaking, it is not even faith in Christ that saves. But it is Christ that saves through faith! He is the absolute Fiduciary, the official Trustee who guarantees the financial or in this case, the spiritual status of His clients - those saints called into His New Covenant Church. But why will so many not recognize the Fiduciary role of Christ? Why will they not admit He is the only foundation for faith?
"They stumble" Peter tells us bluntly, "being disobedient to the word." They have no use for the proper foundation upon which Christ would build His true Church. They would rather have a man made religion that assumes we too have an essential and necessary part in this faith.
One of my friends who teaches in another state was telling me about a student who was bright and hard working, but arrogant, proud and something of a bully. In no way would that student ever admit to being wrong. Every wrong answer demanded a clarification of the question so that it was the questioner who failed to appreciate the genius of the person who never erred! No, the student didn't grow up to be president or even tell him what to do! He quite school and went out on his own like the prodigal son of old! He left his father's house, the community school and even moved to another state.
We all know what must happen, the proud and perfect will not find a heavenly home because they stumble at the cross and over the chief cornerstone Jesus Christ. He who would die for their sins, they would not have in any way or account. That is why there are so many man made religions where people are told exactly what they want to hear. "You are certainly good people, bound for heaven just as long as you show your love by never ever judging anyone and try to do a random act of kindness every now and then."
By such "goodness" many presume to earn their way into heaven. And if heaven really doesn't exist, what is so bad about ceasing to exist anyway? Justice is what they demand and expect. When they appear at the last day and hear the pronouncement of the Dred Judge of all, they fully expect to get justice. And that they will. The Eternal Ruler of Creation will be just in His pronouncement against those who have no need of Christ to earn their just position in the infernal regions of Hell! Let them go where they would really truly choose, just like Judas who knew Jesus and had an ongoing relationship with Him. Too late did Judas realize the error of His way.
"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy."
In such a way would Peter encourage us who come to saving faith. When the Great Judgment Day is here and the Lord of Heaven and Earth speaks of justice - we who belong to Christ will have the essential knowledge that we must have mercy in the Name of the Holy One who died that we might have life! May you realize your need for that mercy this day so that you do not stumble over the reason and purpose for God being with us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
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Resources Used | |
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Clark, Gordon H. |
Faith & Saving Faith. |
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Keener, Craig S. |
The IVP Bible Background Commentary:
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Johnston, W.B. |
Calvin's New Testament
Commentaries: |
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Sproul, R.C. |
Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification. |
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Stibbs, Alan M.. |
Tyndale New Testament
Commentaries: |
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The
New Geneva Study Bible
(NKJV) | |
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1Pt02a |
19 December 99 |