Thankful for Dr. Trueman.  He often makes me smile, but always makes me think. Must add Bannerman's books to my ever increasing list of must reads.

Bannerman Take 3: Or, 3 take Bannerman

By Alliance@AllianceNet.org (Carl Trueman) on Apr 24, 2015 08:24 am

On Wednesday night, Banner of Truth and Westminster Bookstore finally launched the new edition of Bannerman. Patman from Banner HQ was there in the Bannermobile.  Benny was absent due to illness but the Jets turned up to man the bookstall (yes, we still 'man' things at Westminster). Even the Mad Woman in the Attic was seen lurking in the shadows and was recognized as such by at least one attendee – indicating that it is her evident madness, not her location in the attic, which is her most characteristic feature.

Three of us gave talks. Dave Garner, my WTS colleague chaired the short lectures and the subsequent panel discussion. I spoke on Bannerman on church power and confession as protest.  Jonathan Leeman, of Nine Marks Ministries, addressed the importance of the church as an institution in an anti-institutional age and suggested that polity was both a highly important and much neglected topic among evangelicals – and yet is vital to the church’s health.  Then Nathan Sasser, of Sovereign Grace Ministries, gave a very personal account of his involvement in the development of polity in that organization before launching into a passionate, funny and compelling plea for Baptists at least to adopt Presbyterian polity.   It was a polemic for the ages.  I could have said it but nobody would have listened because the reaction would have been, to quote Mandy Rice-Davies, ‘He would, wouldn’t he?’ That a Credo-Baptist said it was truly magnificent. That he is a former student of mine made me glad to see that he is now not far from the kingdom of heaven.

All three of us agreed on some key fundamentals.  The church is an act of God’s grace and is thus to be governed in form and content by God's Word.  The local congregation is the place for Christian discipleship.  Well-structured polity helps prevent the church from becoming a cult while at the same time curtailing rampant individualism.  Church power is ministerial, rooted in the kingship of Christ and thus limited by his Word.   And that the Bible teaches a polity and thus polity is very important.

Benny and the Jets tell me that the video will be available at some point soon.  In the meantime, what was so clear as the evening drew to a close is that each of us sees self-conscious, well-constructed polity, connected to an elaborate doctrinal confession, as vital to Christian discipleship.  We are moving into an era in America where the gap between Christianity and the wider culture is going to be more dramatic and more hostile than previous generations might have anticipated. Identities are all the rage today; But such is the pressure on Christianity that only a self-conscious understanding of our identity reinforced and cultivated by proper church community, will (humanly speaking) enable us to survive as distinct from the world around us. And as those committed to the supreme authority of the Bible, which teaches both confession and polity, we must realize that our theology, if biblical, must profoundly shape the governance and worship of our churches.

Jonathan Leeman, a congregational Baptist, paid Bannerman the significant compliment of saying that his book is an excellent foundation and guide to the issues and the discussions of polity which need to take place.   Once again, cue Blue Mink and buy the book.

What is the Church?

“This leads us to the second question, an all-important question, What is the church? No-one can answer such a question fully in a few minutes, but we can look at  the picture which the New Testament affords us, and find there the central important truth. The name given to the place of worship very often by our forefathers was Meeting House. It was a good name. But the question which arises today is, For what reason are we meeting? We have already seen that many think the church is a place where people meet together on Sunday, in a public religious service, but they also insist that they should meet one another during the week to speak together, to debate, to listen to lectures on all sorts of topics, to play together, to perform plays, to dance, and so on. The church, they say, should do all these things, more especially in order to entice the young people and to keep hold of them.  Now, the important question is not what we think about these things in and of themselves, but does the church have anything to do with such matters? 

What is the church in the New Testament?

There is only one answer to that question – a fellowship of saints.  What we see there is a number of people coming together for a special purpose. Who are those people? What brings them together? What is the common interest which is so strong in their hearts, that they often endanger their lives in order to be present at such meetings? They are people who are very different from others, people, according to the apostle Paul, who have been pulled out from the world and divorced from society; people who have proved things which the world knows nothing about; people who have had an experience of God’s grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, people who have come to see that the most important thing in life is a knowledge of God, in a relationship in accord with His commandments. They have seen their pitiful, desperate state before God, but they have also seen God forgiving all of their sins in Jesus Christ. They are aware of a new life and an uplifting power which makes them more than conquerors – even when face to face with the temptations and trials of life. 

Everything is new to them, and they see life in this world as a pilgrimage towards God and heaven. They do not scorn the world, but they do not live for it, or because of it, either. ‘For here have we no continuing city,’ they say, ‘but we seek one to come’ (Hebrews 13:14). They meet together – for what reason? To worship God, to praise His blessed Name, to thank Him for the grace which has led to the forgiveness of sins, and for new life in Christ.  They meet together also so that they may know Him better and come to understand His providence more perfectly. They hunger and thirst after righteousness. They also thirst for the sincere milk of the Word, and listen to it being proclaimed. They feel a strong urge to meet with one another, in order that they may exchange experiences, that they might help one another to unravel many a problem, and that they should stimulate one another to go forward. They all have the same basic experience, they are all traveling in the same direction. They feel, therefore, that ‘the company of brothers who have their faces set towards that country is sweet’. A church is a place where they recite “His faithfulness to them in the burning desert’ and where they love to speak about ‘journey’s end’. This is the picture which we have in the New Testament, the portrayal which has been a hundredfold since then in the life of the church. The church portrays a collection of people, of whom it can be said: ‘But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light’ ( 1 Peter 2:9). No-one else has a right to be a member of the society.

What can we do then? Above all else we would see that the first step is not to bring down the standard of church membership, but to raise it. We must grasp once again the idea of church membership as being the membership of the body of Christ and as the biggest honour which can come a man’s way in this world. Through discipline, we must lay great acclaim on membership of the society and we must re-emphasize the truth that God gives the Holy Spirit only ‘to those who obey him’ (Acts 5:32). The need is not for widening the appeal, but to proclaim that ‘strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life’ (Matthew 7:14). 

This means possibly that many will shy away from the churches and will leave them; and from the point of view of statistics and accounts and collections everything looks hopeless, and those who try to keep the churches alive are afraid. But as sure as that, the Lord’s word will be verified: ‘whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it’ (Luke 9:24). Like Paul in Athens long ago, we must realize that our work is not to argue about the truth but to declare it and proclaim it with authority. We are not just to get people to take an interest in the truth, and to appeal to their minds only; that is not our business, but rather to awaken their consciences by proclaiming God’s judgment on sin, and God’s wrath against ‘all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men’ (Romans 1:18), and to warn them to flee from the wrath that is to come. We must convict men of the truth of the extreme importance of the spiritual side to life, of an everlasting world and everlasting destiny. No-one will see the need of the Lord Jesus Christ as a Saviour but the person who has seen himself as lost before God, and the only true motive to live a moral and worthy life is thankfulness to God and the realization that one day we will stand before Him.

We must realize that the state of the world is such that nothing but the power of the Holy Spirit can cure it, and we must feel this to such an extent that we are brought down upon our knees to pray to God in His mercy to look down upon us in pity, and for His great name, that He should send a mighty revival among us. That is the only way, that is the only hope, because with men it is impossible, but not with God, for ‘with God, all things are possible’ (Matthew 19:16)."

Lloyd-Jones, David Martyn. "Religion Today and Tomorrow." Knowing the Times: Addresses Delivered on Various Occasions 1942-1977. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2013. 27-31. Print.

Therefore Do Not Scoff

“Therefore hear the word of the Lord,you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem!”    

“Now therefore do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong;for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land.” ~ Isaiah 28:14, 22

J. Alec Motyer comments on this passage of Isaiah stating,

“The heart of the initial ‘woe’ is their refusal of the word of the Lord,the‘message’ which Isaiah brought. Their attitude is described as scoffing and mocking. Mocking (√lis) is the same word as in verse 14, but here it means ‘showing yourselves to be scorners’; the sense of going beyond the outward act to the character of the person. Deliberate action fixes character and the point comes where there is no return, the point of bondage. The word expresses an advanced stage of practical atheism. To this Isaiah replies (9-13) that experience will prove the scorned word to be inescapable and that to turn from the way of faith is to embrace death (14-19)."

In commenting on this text, J Alec Motyer makes a very powerful observation, one that in light of our current pride, evidenced by the general scorn and mocking of the Word of the Lord in our culture, should give us great pause, he states:

“The coming destruction is ‘something definite and decisive I have heard from the Sovereign, the LORD Almighty over all the earth.’ Isaiah’s call to reform is based on what he knows is coming (he has heard it from the Lord); he advocates repentance not because repentance will prevent it (it is definite) but because there is no other way to prepare.”

Throughout history there have been times when the “decree of destruction” went forth, and even now is ravaging many nations and peoples. Often God would warn His people and use that warning to bring about repentance and with it a reprieve on the coming judgment. In this case, the warning would go unheeded by the majority, destruction was certain. Even so, God is still urging them to repent, though they have been unfaithful, God is faithful. If any (though few in number) would repent He would walk with them through the certain destruction. He would prove strong on their behalf, if only they would return to Him.  We only have to look at Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to see just how faithful God was to be with His people during the “decree of destruction.”

God granted the nations in Isaiah’s time many years, patiently waiting, calling them to repentance and providentially caring for them. Then one day, the decree was called to action. We are as guilty before a Holy God as they, equally deserving of the same destruction, nay, even more so because we have been granted greater knowledge and grace. One day, be it near or far, America too will be held accountable for our pride and rebellion.  We desperately need to repent, God will not be mocked.

Motyer concludes with this final thought:

“The only way to flee from God is to flee to Him.”

Motyer, J. A. (1993). D. The Lord of History. The prophecy of Isaiah: an introduction & commentary (230-235). Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press.

God May Often Lead Us in a Rough and Unpleasant Way, but He Always Leads Us in a Right Way

"God may often lead us in a rough and unpleasant way, but he always leads us in a right way. God never sends an affliction to us but when he sees it needful for us; and he never removes it from us, before it has answered the end for which he at first sent it. Outward afflictions are not accidental things, they come not by chance, but are sent to us by a wise and merciful Father, who causes them to answer the end for which he sends them. By them we are purged from our dross and tin; grace is tried and refined in the furnace of affliction, and they, who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, are hereby confirmed to his heavenly image – made partakers of his holiness, Hebrews 12:10, and more prepared for his heavenly kingdom. Afflictions are furtherance to us in our way heavenward – not an hindrance to us; though when we are exercised therewith we often conclude ourselves to be in a desert and desolate land. We must be first of all prepared for glory, before we can, in consistency with the perfections of our God, be received into it: and this is the end, and proves the blessed issue of our present afflictions, 2 Corinthians 4:17. Hereby, then, it further appears, that God leads his people the right way, though it may be a rough way, to the city of habitation. “ ~ John East

Keep Before Your Soul God's Ultimate Purpose

The Stones of the Heavenly
Temple Prepared on Earth

William Bacon Stevens

"In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built. 1 Kings 6:7

The Temple of Solomon was the noblest structure ever built by human hands. In the Architect who devised it, in the materials employed, in the labor bestowed, in the costliness of the work, and in the grandeur of its whole design — it surpassed the proudest edifices of the world.

From its first erection in the wilderness until the time of Solomon, over four centuries, the "Tabernacle," containing the ark of the covenant and its sacred treasures, was but a movable tent pitched where peace or convenience would permit. When David selected Jerusalem to be his royal city, and "the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies," he said to the prophet Nathan, "Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars — but the ark of the covenant of the Lord remains under curtains," thus expressing his uneasiness that he should be more sumptuously lodged than the ark of God, and intimating his desire to build a house of the Lord.

This very proper desire, the Lord would not allow him to execute, because he had been a warrior, and his hand had been stained with human blood; but He announced to him through the prophet, that his son should build a house for Him, and thus accomplish what he had so piously designed. Though divinely hindered from building the house, he yet busied himself in collecting materials for it of the most ample and costly character, and four years after his decease, Solomon, who reigned in his stead, began the work of erecting the Temple which his father David had planned in all its parts, by the Spirit of God. Seven years were consumed by an immense army of laborers in this gigantic work, before the Temple crooned the summit of Mount Moriah, and was dedicated to the worship of the one living and true God.

There it stood for many years, the pride of Israel and the glory of the world. Grand in the massiveness of its structure — magnificent in the arrangement of its courts and porches, and gates, and holy, most holy places — splendid in the glittering radiance which its walls of dazzling whiteness flashed upon the beholder as the morning or evening sun was reflected from it, "glistening stones," glorious as a Temple erected for the worship of Almighty God — but pre-eminently honored as the place where the Most High condescended to dwell between the Cherubim in the Holy of Holies by a visible emblem, and where he communed with his anointed servant from off the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant.

In every aspect, human and divine, it was the most remarkable building ever erected on earth — remarkable in its human aspects — in its foundations — its materials — its structure — its costliness — its splendor; and in its divine splendor — as the only house of wood and stone in which Jehovah resided by the symbol of His presence. Leaving, however, the many interesting points suggested by this stupendous work, let us bend our thoughts upon the remarkable fact spoken of by the sacred historian in the 1st Book of Kings: "In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built." 1 Kings 6:7

It is difficult to understand how a work so vast and so complicated could be erected in such a silent manner. And this fact will appear the more remarkable if we consider the nature and dimensions of materials used. The heavy work was all of stone or marble, and some of the great and costly stones spoken of in the Book of Kings were blocks eighty feet long, ten high, and twelve wide, and many of its pillars were socketed in solid masonry. Its massive rafters were tenoned and mortised into corresponding beams; yet these ponderous masses were hewn, squared, carved and fitted to their, places before they were brought to Mount Moriah, with such accuracy and skill, that Josephus says that "the smallest interstices were not perceptible between the stones," and yet no hammer, axe, or any tool of iron was needed to adjust them to their several places, and frame them together in grand yet harmonious proportions. How all this could be accomplished in so unusual a manner, can only be accounted for by supposing that God presided over his own Temple, and gave the builders this unusual art and skill.

This gorgeous Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar nearly twenty-five hundred years ago. Another and another temple has risen on the same spot and met the same fate; the Lord of the Temple himself has come into his earthly court, not by the emblematic Shekinah — but in bodily form, and has gone back to his original glory; the nation which worshiped in those sanctuaries has been scattered to the four winds of Heaven; yet the deep instruction furnished by this passage remains — let us, through God's assistance, attempt to search out and apply the lesson.

In the New Testament the Church is termed "God's building" — "the temple of God" — "the temple of the Holy Spirit" — "the temple of the living God" — "a holy temple of the Lord" — "a habitation of God in the Spirit" — "the house of Christ." These terms denote that as God by the bright symbol of his glory manifested his presence in the movable tabernacle erected by Moses, and the stately temple built by Solomon — so does he by his spirit dwell in the hearts of Christians as individuals and in the church collectively. In looking then at this Christian temple, let us observe:
first, the stones of which it is composed;
secondly, the preparation of them;
and thirdly, their destination.

1. Peter says of Christians, that as living stones they are built up into a spiritual house. A stone is a shapeless mass of rock. It is inert — lifeless — it could never free itself from its native quarry — could never fashion itself into classic shape and beauty, and could never set itself up as a lintel or column in any edifice of man. And such by nature is the spiritual state of all men — having no power to move — hear — see — feel — believe, because of the moral inertia which makes them as passive, hard, insensible as the stones of the earth. Hence, when God would express the hardened condition of a person or people, he speaks of such as having "hearts of stone."

But believers having been hewn out from the quarry of humanity by the electing grace of God, are termed living stones; not inert masses of rock, not senseless blocks of marble — but full of life, feeling, action; and they are thus designated because Christ, as the tried corner stone, the sure foundation, is called a living stone, and diffuses his own life through all parts of the spiritual temple which rests on him. So that every stone in it, from the foundation of the apostles and prophets to the topmost coping — is made a precious, a glistening, a living stone, through the preciousness and glory and life of Jesus, the prince of life. So long then as the soul of the believer rests on Jesus Christ alone for salvation, and on nothing else, it has spiritual life — build it upon any other foundation, and it is a senseless stone still — only as laid by the Holy Spirit upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone, can it receive in itself the life of Christ, and become through the impartation of his own vitality, a living stone.

2. The way in which these living stones are prepared for the temple, furnishes a subject of interesting and profitable thought. The wood and stone used in Solomon's Temple were carefully prepared at a distance from the place where the edifice was to be built. The sacred house was planned out in minutest detail by David, under the direction of the Spirit of God. Each stone, column, lintel, beam, rafter, had its special and appointed place — but as yet the wood was waving its branches in the forests of Lebanon, and the stone was unquarried in the mountains of Judea.

Under the direction of appointed overseers, the Hebrew workman went up to the sides of Lebanon and cut down the designated tree, and there, before carrying it to Jerusalem, he trimmed and fashioned it by much hewing and carving for its destined place. The Phoenician stonecutter went to the mountain and split out masses of rock from the quarry, and there, by many ponderous blows, he dressed it and shaped it for its appointed position. Many an axe and sharp-edged tool passed over that tree before it became a stately pillar — and many a hammer and instrument of iron was used on that once unsightly block before as a polished stone it was fitted for the Temple's wall.

Most beautifully does all this illustrate the way of God in building up His spiritual and living temple. In the mind of Him who sees the end from the beginning, and who has devised all things in the counsel of his own will, this temple is already planned in its minutest part — He knows each living stone that shall compose its walls — He has designated them for their several places before the foundation of the world, though as yet many of them are still swaying their green branches in the forests of worldliness, or lie buried in the stony ledges of hardened impenitence. But the Great Architect knows what tree and what rock he wants, and he lays the axe of converting grace at the root of this tree, and speaking by his Spirit to the insensate stone, his word becomes, in his own expressive language, as a fire, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.

But when the tree is thus felled, when the stone is thus quarried out — is it immediately fitted for its destined place in Heaven? In most cases we answer, no. Though at conversion the child of God is a marked man, though he is justified freely by the grace that is in Christ Jesus — yet how muchspiritual trimming and dressing, how much hewing and squaring does he need to fashion him aright for the position which the Divine Architect intends he shall occupy hereafter! There are sharp angles of character to be rounded off — unsightly protuberances of conduct to be chipped away — many roughnesses of temper to be smoothed down — many flaws and cracks of mind and heart to be chiseled out! And then, when the general form of the stone is prepared, how much severe friction is required to give it the right polish, and bring out all its beauties — so that its smooth surface may fling back the rays of the Sun of Righteousness!

Our earth is the place where this is to be done; for, as there was no noise of any axe or hammer, or tool of iron heard on Mount Moriah while the Temple was building — so in the New Jerusalem above, there will be heard no crushing strokes of conviction, no sharp hewings of an awakened conscience, no sound of preparatory discipline. Heaven is not the place to prepare men for glory — but to receive them when prepared! Earth, then, is the preparing place for Heaven, and the preparation is effected by the axe, the hammer, and the tools of iron of God's wise dispensations. All of God's dealings with us have respect to our future existence; and these are so wisely adapted to the peculiarities of each case, that no two persons pass through the same course, and no two result in the same development. We are not arbitrarily classed together like plants under certain species, and then each group made to experience the same indiscriminate treatment. Far from it! Each individual in the whole training of his moral nature is as much under the eye and care of God — as if there was no other being in the universe! And there is not a peculiarity of mind or heart or body — not a changing phase of life from the cradle to the coffin — that is not expressly met by infinite wisdom in the arrangement of his Providence and Grace.

Nor does he set in motion a course of preparation suited to your case, and then, leaving it like a piece of machinery to do its allotted work — go off to some other part of his wide domain to superintend some other of his vast designs. No! For as the refiner of silver never removes his eye from the molten mass in the crucible of his furnace, until he sees his own image reflected in the purged and shining metal — so God never leaves the individual soul which he has placed in the furnace fires of this world — until he either sees his own image reflected in the purified spirit, or proves it to be but sinful dross.

The greater part of the preparation to which we are subjected as professing Christians, is of adisciplinary character, and hence is fitly represented by the axe, the hammer, and the tool of iron. Prosperity not only is the destruction of fools — but in the great majority of cases, prosperity hardens the heart of the nominal Christian, so that Christ himself was forced to say how hard shall those who have riches enter into the kingdom of Heaven," and for many hundreds of years, God by the voice of Jeremiah has complained, "I spoke unto you in your prosperity — but you said: I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you obeyed not my voice."

Afflictions come more immediately to the heart, and operate with a more searching and purifying influence upon the life. These show one his weakness and sinfulness — lay open the moral anatomy of his nature — subject his principles to severest test, and cause him to retire into the chambers of his soul and learn there in the light of the Bible and in the light of conscience — his relations and duties to God and man.

Now the axe seems driven into the root of his happiness — now he is broken as a block of granite under the blows of the hammer of God's Word, and now the iron of a sore adversity has entered into his soul — and he feels himself stricken, smitten, and afflicted. In these dispensations, however severe — he is being fitted by the hand of God himself for a place in glory. God knows for what position in that heavenly temple he has designed us, and he knows when we are prepared for that position; nor will he permit us to receive a single blow or cut more than is necessary to accomplish his divine purpose concerning us.

Let the Christian, then, who is passing through fiery and discouraging trials and afflictions, remember that God is thus hewing and squaring him here, that as a well-prepared and living stone, he may by and by be built up into the living temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

The preparing process may be severe; the strokes frequent and heavy; the hewing into shape — painful to the flesh; the polishing into beauty — rasping to the spirit; yet every blow aids to bring it into form; and every tool of iron, though it cuts deep — leaves behind some chiseled beauty; and every grating file of sorrow that rasps the sensitive fibers of the heart — only gives it a higher polish, and makes it reflect a brighter glory. And who will complain of such severe dealings — when suchblissful ends are attained by it? Who will murmur at the roughness of a road — which leads to such eternal joys? Who will repine at any chastenings, and not rather esteem them as light afflictions which are but for a moment, when his Heavenly Father assures him that they shall work out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory?

And Oh, let the afflicted saint remember also that as those portions of the earthly Temple which were to be most conspicuous and beautiful, had more cutting and carving and polishing than others — so those whom God designs for eminence in glory, for pillars in his temple — are subjected to heavier blows, deeper chiselings, severer raspings in the process of bringing out in them higher beauties and a more excelling glory.

3. And this leads us to consider, lastly, the end for which these living stones, thus prepared on earth, are designed. We have seen that the stones quarried out and elaborately hewn by the Sidonians, were taken after due preparation to Jerusalem and set up in the Temple. As the house erected for God by Solomon was the most magnificent of all earthly structures, and was designed to show forth the praise of God, and be his earthly abode — so when he would speak of the glory of Heaven, where he dwells in full and visible presence, where he is worshiped in pure and perfect devotion, where he receives his people into close and holy communion, and where he manifests the unveiled perfections of the Godhead — he speaks of it under the figure of a temple — a house — a building. Of atemple, because he is worshiped there. Of a house, because he entertains his children there in its many mansions or apartments. Of a building, because it has been slowly augmented since the foundation of the world.

The real end, then, for which God has chosen us in Christ Jesus before the world began, and fitted us on earth by his providential dispensations, is, "that in the dispensation of the fullness of time he might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in Heaven and which are on earth, even in Him." And this recapitulation of all things in Christ is to be effected by building all things on Christ as the sure foundation which God himself has laid in Zion. And Christians, as living stones, chosen by God and precious, "In whom all the building fitly framed together, grows unto a holy temple in the Lord. In whom you also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." This structure the same apostle designates in another place as "a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

And now if we will with the eye of John gaze into the opening Heaven, we shall with him behold no temple there. Why? because, says this beloved disciple, "the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof!" Ah yes! Christ, in whom all things are gathered together — on whom as a cornerstone, all living stones are built — in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily — is the temple of Heaven! And because we are Christ's, we also, by being, in the words of Paul, "partakers of the divine nature," become a holy temple of the Lord, having for its walls salvation, and for its gates praise.

This spiritual temple God is now building up, and it progresses just as fast as the living stones are prepared to take their places above. The first living stone ever built upon this precious cornerstone was righteous Abel, and since then Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and David, and Daniel, and multitudes of others having been hewn and squared here — have been fitted into their places in this living temple. But since Christ came, how gloriously has it increased! Apostles, and martyrs, and confessors, and saints; the aged, the middle aged, the young; the rich, the learned, the poor and the ignorant; kings, and captains, and statesman, and scholars — have been added layer upon layer! Sometimes, when persecution has raged — a thousand stones a day; and sometimes long years have passed, and scarcely a living stone has been transferred to Heaven.

And this building process is going on every day, in our midst, under our own eyes. The loving child, the youth of promise, the doating mother, the cherished wife, the fond husband, the venerated parent, the beloved sister, the manly brother — all have been taken from our midst! And while household after household have put on mourning clothes, and uttered piercing cries of anguish as the beloved but stricken one has been taken away — angels have shouted for joy that another living stone has been set up in the heavens, to abide forever in glory!

And who of those who hope that we are living stones, who are now passing through the trials and afflictions of our needed preparation; who of us will next be taken — in what family will God select the next living stone that shall be borne from this earthly to that heavenly temple?

Or if God keeps you longer on earth, and causes you to suffer trials and afflictions of mind and body, and home and friends, and business and fortune — can you, will you repine when you know why he keeps you here, and what these tribulations are designed to accomplish in you?

Keep before your souls, God's ultimate purpose — and it will make you always to rejoice in God's present dealings. Look frequently at the glorious end — and you will murmur less at the sorrows of the way. And remember that the moment that you are fitted in the eye of the Great Architect to take your place as a living stone above — he will place you there, whether with the preliminary call of sickness or the sudden summons, "Come up hither!" And when up there all the preparation and disciplines of earth are over, and as the saints look back to the quarry whence they were hewn, and compare their rough and unshapen appearance then, with their present grace and beauty — will they not bless God who did not leave them in the stony ledge of impenitence, or lying as unseemly blocks at the quarry's mouth; but who caused to pass over them the axe and the hammer, and the tool of iron of his afflictive dispensation — and thus made them living stones fitted to abide in eternal beauty in the New Jerusalem above?

But this exceeding glory will be ours, only as we become living stones, by being united to Jesus Christ the cornerstone, by a living faith. Have we this faith? Do we cling to Christ alone? Have we hid our lives in him by a self-consecration that will never recall its covenant vows? Do we walk by faith, and does this faith purify the heart, enabling us to resist the devil, overcome the world, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God?

Have we evidences that we are now, as the apostle says, "temples of the Holy Spirit?" Are our souls under the constant, controlling, sanctifying, influences of this blessed Spirit? For if we are not temples of the Holy Spirit on earth — we can never become "living stones" in the temple of Heaven.

Does Christ dwell in our hearts by faith, and do we feel the presence and the preciousness of such an indwelling Savior? If we do, then have we daily evidence that we are of his chosen ones, and that before long, after a few more strokes from the axe and the hammer — he will raise us to glory! But if not, oh wait not another day — but, while the Spirit of God even now strives with your soul, embrace the offers of his abounding grace, that you also may so look for, and long for his appearing, as to be constrained to say with the enraptured spirit of the banished apostle: "Amen. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!"

This sermon can be found in a book edited by William Bacon Stevens titled "The Bow in the Cloud: Springs of Comfort in Times of Deep Affliction" published by Solid Ground Books. I would highly recommend this book, nothing can comfort the soul in the midst of affliction, or prepare him for it, better than seeing God's purpose behind it and Christ's glory in it.

http://www.gracegems.org/E/stones_of_the_heavenly_templ.htm

Feast on Truth

“It is a principle of the gospel never to be lost sight of, that gracious affections, both in their commencement and progress, are all exercised in view of truth.

 ‘Sanctify them through thy truth.’

One of the more obvious ways in which truth is presented to the mind, is the direct contemplation of it, by the increase of divine knowledge. The Apostle Paul, in writing to the Colossians, says,

‘We do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; so that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work.’

 The Apostle Peter expresses the same sentiment when he says,

 ‘Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ;’

and also when he enjoins,

‘As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.’

The knowledge of divine truth is, to the renewed mind, what food is to the body; it is the native and proper aliment of every gracious affection. There is high and holy joy in a clear perception of the nature, connections, consequences, and glory of the truth of God. The sensations of a devout mind in the contemplation of divine truth are like those of a hungry man when he sets down to a feast; he is fed; his hungering and thirsting after righteousness are gratified. Let him possess enlarged views of God, and just conceptions of his excellence and loveliness; let his thoughts be turned toward the ineffable glory of the divine nature, as it is manifested in the works of creation, providence, and redemption; let him dwell on the glory of God as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ; let him become more and more acquainted with the harmony and beauty of the divine design, and the great end which God has in view in all that he does, and his holy desires will be enkindled and flow out, his heart will become enlarged, his affections elevated, and his piety will become manly.

One reason why Christians are not more holy, is that they do not read and converse, and think enough about the great truths of the Bible. There may be excitement and fervor without Christian knowledge; but there can be little growth in piety. By confining the thoughts to a narrow circle of truths, the mind becomes impoverished, and its piety languid and declining; while if we would raise the tone of spirituality and devotedness, we must raise the standard of Christian knowledge, and become more deeply imbued with the precious truths of the gospel. It is thus that the soul, instead of starving and pining away, is nourished; it lives in holiness, and is comforted in hope, and advances toward the stature of the perfect man in Christ Jesus.”

Spring, Gardiner. First Things: Lectures in the First Lessons God Revealed to Mankind. Vestavia Hills: Solid Ground Christian Books, 2004. 113-15. Print.

"God judgeth not of his servant's work by the success of their labour, but by their faithfulness to deliver his message." ~ William Gurnall