Dear friends, turn to the Word of God, to 1 Peter chapter 2. As you know, this is the second part of a half message. As it has been my recent practice to not finish my sermons, you have now the privilege of listening to the second part of the message previously. We are in a series regarding the church of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of the church. We have tried to both think about it in a general sense, the doctrines of it, but also the practice of it. What does it mean? And we said that we don't want to just follow a certain pattern. We don't want to simply say, well, this is how a reformed church works. This is how a Baptist church works or whatever. We want to be guided by the word of God. That's what we want. And so the last time we looked at the text from 1 Timothy 3 and verse 15, and looking at the various examples and descriptions in the New Testament that the Word of God shows us, what is a church? And we saw from 1 Timothy 3 and verse 15 that the church is the house of God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. That is what the apostle says. But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. And we said, what does it mean by being a house of God? We discussed that. We thought about the fact that this house, this is the church of the living God. What does that mean? By the word living. And we describe what does it mean by it being the pillar and the ground of the truth. I don't want to cover those points again, but I want to move on to what was supposed to be the second point of it. And looking at the verses in 1 Peter chapter 2, especially verses 3 to 5, But I have to say that we'll be touching on many passages in 1 Peter, but here we read that the church of Jesus Christ is a spiritual house made of living stones or lively stones as it says here. So 1 Peter 2 and verses 3 to 5, let me read them to you. "'If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious, ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Now here Peter describes the New Testament church as a spiritual house that God is building with living stones, not with bricks and mortar, but with things that are alive. He is made alive. And we see here the chief cornerstone of this spiritual house. God always begins with Christ. Christ is the chief cornerstone. Every true church is to be Christ-centered. This is not about us. It's about the Savior, Jesus Christ. It's about the Lord. And that is what the apostles brought. And this apostle, the high priest, the chief shepherd, the bishop, the king, the elder brother, the head of the body, the bridegroom, the chief cornerstone, the foundation stone, that is Christ. And we are told here that Christ is disallowed, disallowed indeed of men. And it is something that the builders disallowed. In verse 4, "...to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious." Verse 7 says, "...unto you therefore which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed." The same is made the head of the corner. You see, Jesus Christ was disallowed by Israel. They said that he was demon possessed. They said that even though he performed miracles, but it was demonic, that he was Beelzebub, that he was using Beelzebub. They called for his crucifixion. He was being disallowed. He was being pushed away to be destroyed. He was disallowed by the nation. The nations of this world disallow Him. For 2,000 years or so, Christ has been preached to the nations. And the response, how has it been? You could say in national ways, the response has been one of rejection. And yet in the midst of all of this rejection, the Lord draws His own people from amongst all of these nations. There will be no boundaries. Christ cannot be bound. But in a general way, in an outward side, there is rejection in the view of the public. And the age will culminate to this worldwide rejection. And so this is what we see in the scriptures. In Psalm 2, we read these words. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. That's the response. And yet, in the midst of all that, the Lord laughs at them. and He still saves sinners in the midst of all this rejection. But also Christ is called the chosen of God in verse 4. Christ is God's chosen, God's elect, God's anointed. That's the meaning of the word Christ. It means Messiah in Hebrew. The Father chose the Son to be incarnated as the last Adam. He chose the Son that in Him all things will be one, as it says in Ephesians 1 and verse 10. He chose Christ to be the Savior, the firstborn Lord, King and head of the church. And He is precious, we are told. He is precious. He is precious to God. You think about that. This is the head of the church. He is precious to God. And that word precious, it means estimable. It means dear. It means costly. It means valuable. That's what the word means. Precious. Christ, you see, is the eternal Son of God in whom the Father has always delighted. So when you come to worship the Savior, remember who you are coming to worship. He's the precious Son of God. Isaiah says this in Isaiah 42 and verse 1, Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. In Christ, God delights, and we ought to delight in him too. He says, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. And Jesus is called God's dear son. That's a wonderful term, his dear son. In Colossians 1 and verse 13, you have these words, who has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. Not just his son, but his dear son. All of these things we are saying to show how wonderful Jesus Christ is. This is the head of the corner that has been rejected. And yet, if we are going to be a true church of Jesus Christ, we ought to know the Lord Jesus has been precious to us as well. Certainly, Jesus Christ is precious. to His people, to the believers as well. Christ is precious to God and precious to the believer. He is precious, the scripture says, to the elect angels and precious to all of God's creatures too. He is precious to the new believers. When you were first born again, when you were first, you came to trust in Him and the burden rolled off your back, the burden of sin. Jesus Christ was precious to you. And how sad it is that at times we go through seasons of not seeing Him as precious as He used to be. But the Lord Jesus is precious, precious to the aged saints and will be ever more precious throughout eternity as we grow in understanding of his infinite character. It needs eternity for us to appreciate how precious Jesus is. And it says in verse 8 that Jesus Christ is a stone of a stumbling and a rock of a fence. Here Peter describes the judgment of all who are disobedient to the Lord Jesus by rejecting the gospel. Christ is the stone of salvation for those who believe and the stone of judgment for those who disbelieve. is a stone, it says, which means a small rock, small rock, and not a big thing. And in that sense, Peter was called a stone, not the kind of a thing that the Roman Catholic Church has based so much of their teaching on, but no, just a stone. But also Christ is called rock. which means a sort of a projecting rock, a cliff. And Christ's tomb, dear friends, was hewn out of this kind of a rock. In this life, when someone does not trust in Jesus Christ and rejects Him, it appears to be a little consequence, of a little consequence, like stumbling over a stone. The individual seemingly goes on as if nothing has happened, but in reality he has thereby determined that he will appear before the judgment of God and will be crushed. But Jesus Christ is that rock. we see the living stones and the occupants of the spiritual house as well. The Christians are called living stones or lively stones. What am I calling that? We are made like unto our Savior, Jesus Christ. He lives, He is that living stone and He makes His people to be alive as well. Before we had no relationship with God, we were born in sin and in iniquity. We were dead in trespasses and sins. But now Christians have been made into a spiritual house, His house. And in Christ, the redeemed sinner is lifted up to heavenly places and made great in the sight of God as it were. And it is all by the amazing grace of God through the blood of the Lord Jesus. And it is all obtained by the coming, by our coming to Christ. To whom coming? It says in verse four. But the church is built. It says built up in verse five. Ye also as lively stone are built up a spiritual house. Churches are built. They're built. They don't just suddenly happen. They don't just suddenly appear. They don't evolve. The house is built by God. It is God's plan. It is God's program. It is God's business. So the greatest thing that the Lord is interested in this world, if you're interested in what God is interested in, He's interested in His church, in His people. And He's building them. And He's using means to build them. is using weak vessels. And it is these weak vessels who are preaching the Word of God, sowing the seed of God, and the Spirit of God comes and blesses that, the Word, to the hearts of sinners, and they are built, they become suddenly alive, and they are turned to be part of the house of God. Paul himself calls himself a wise master builder and describes the believers as builders too. So we could say, under God, under Jesus Christ, if you're a child of God, you must think, I'm a builder. I'm a builder. The ministers of the gospel, the elders of the churches, we are called builders. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 10 through to 13, let me read them to you. This is what the apostle says. So it says, according to the grace of God, which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builder thereof. So he's saying, I've laid the foundations, but there are other people at work as well in the building process. God uses his own people in this process. We are his workmanship, the scripture says. He says, but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. So there could be for us, we could be building wrongly. And that's why we are doing this series. We want to make sure we are building right things. It says in verse 11, for other foundation can no man lay down that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, Would haste double, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire." It will be tested. It will be shown up by fire. And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. So what sort is our work? I mean, what way are we building? Remember, you're a builder. And so you can't change that as a Christian. What kind of things are you building in your life? What kind of legacy for the glory of Jesus Christ are you going to leave behind? When someone... It may be that I have to preach a funeral sermon for some of you. What can I say? Maybe someone has to preach a funeral sermon for me. What can they say? What kind of a thing did we leave behind? What did we do? What kind of builders were we? The church is called a spiritual house, in verse 5. A church that has members that are nowhere to be found, whose salvation is questionable, who aren't faithful, who aren't serving Christ as priests of God, is not a New Testament church. The apostolic churches had plenty of problems. We're not talking about churches being perfect. You think about Corinth and all of the churches in the New Testament. But the problems were confronted clearly and dealt with zealously. As we see, for example, in the epistles, we see it in the book of Revelation, especially chapters two and three, as a carnal or lukewarm condition was not accepted as the status quo. And that's why there are challenges that come to us from this pulpit. And ministers come, not just myself, sometimes I have listened to some of the sermons that other ministers have come and I thought to myself, oh, I wonder what people thought he said this. And sometimes ministers come and say things that the pastor sometimes doesn't feel he could say. So they come and fulfill the things that I lack. And so sometimes I think, it convicts me, and it makes me think, what kind of a man am I? But I hope, and you would take these things to heart as well, and you think, am I being lukewarm? Where am I in comparison to where I began as a new believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? And the Apostle Paul exhorted the members of the church at Corinth to examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. So don't be surprised or don't take offense when a minister comes and preaches the Word of God and applies these things to your life and to his life as well. Christ warned the lukewarm Laodicea, the church in Laodicea, that he would spew them out from his mouth. And he warned the backslidden Ephesian church, the church in Ephesus, that he would remove their candlestick. It's a serious thing that he was saying. And in the midst of all of these things, dear friends, it's a spiritual house. We are not a business here. We are not a political thing here. We are a spiritual house. We ought to think spiritually. When you come and some of you, well all of you members, you should have received an email of certain things about the church members meeting. You think about it. You think, I need to deal with this in a spiritual way, in a biblical way. My mind should be the word of God and how that applies to us as a people of God. It's not about my opinion. It's not about your opinion. It's about what the Lord thinks about things. But also the church is made of living stones. Each stone of the building is living. And I've already referred to this. A natural stone is a dead thing. It is without life. It can be beautiful, it can be colorful, it can have interesting shapes that people have carved in these stones, but it is still dead. That is the depiction of the sinner in his natural condition. They might have all kinds of nice things going on. but he's dead in trespasses and sins, the Bible says. And there is nothing whatsoever that man can do to make a stone live. And there is nothing that man can do to make a spiritually dead sinner live, but God can. And that's what we are about. We are not here to polish up dead stones, but we are here to preach the Word of God and be trusting God to do His work. And this describes the supernatural new birth that the Holy Spirit gives. Salvation is an absolute miracle of God. Each stone has a divinely appointed place and purpose in God's house. So if you're a true child of God, then there is a divinely appointed place for you. You have a house, a spiritual house here. Each stone is created and shaped by God. And that's important. You don't want to try to mimic somebody else and be somebody else. Be the one that God wants you to be and the gifts that God has given to you. And that's our problem at the moment. Sometimes I think to myself, it would be better off if we didn't have the internet. And people don't listen to all these sort of celebrity preachers and think, oh, well, I want to be like him. I want to be like that. Sometimes I listen to some sermons and I think, oh, I hope I would like to preach like this man. And I would like to be influential like this man and be a blessing to God's people in this way. And then I have to think about what God has given me these things. I need to work with what God has given me. I can't pretend to be somebody else. And you ought to think in that light as well. The believer doesn't choose his calling. I have to surrender to God's calling and seek to prove the perfect will of God by spiritual growth and by ministry. You read Romans 12 for yourself again later on, and you pray over those verses for yourself and say, Lord, apply these things to me. So every born again believer is a living stone. And it is his privilege and opportunity to surrender to this reality and to seek to be the stone that God intends for him to be in God's house. But living stones must be perfected. Living stones must be perfected. We are building things and we could be building wood, hay and stubble. But we don't want that because those things will be burnt up on that final day. So you could be building wrong kind of things. So we must be worked upon, and we must be open to the Lord, and we must be surrendering ourselves day by day. A living stone is the only right material that the builders can use in constructing a holy temple. But a living stone is not born perfect. Only God can make a living stone, but it is the builder's job to shape the living stones into perfect conformity to God's will. And so the preaching of the Word of God goes, Christians ought to be encouraging one another and sparing one another unto love and good works. That's your task, to be doing that. Let me move on. The church is holy priesthood, a royal priesthood. It says as well in verses 5 and 9. In Israel, some were priests, but in the church of Jesus Christ, all are priests. And in Israel, none were royal priests. Israel's kings are in the lineage of Judah, not Levi. Levi's line were the priests. So there are no kings in Israel who were priests. The church is composed of kings who rule and reign with Christ. And so the priesthood of the believer is the major theme of 1 Peter. The priesthood means that the believer's entire life is devoted to the worship of God. That's what your life is, to be a worshiper of God. That's what He saved you for, not simply to make your roots in this world. No, no, but to worship Him in this life, but then everlastingly. To offer up, it says in verse 5, spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. To show forth His praises, it says in verse 9. You have those words in Colossians 3 and verse 17. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. That's our life. So then New Testament priest worships God by seeing his hand in all of life and learning of him and worshiping him in all things. There is no thing that we can say, well, this is my secular work. And then this is my spiritual work. Everything you do is for the glory of God, dear friends. Johannes Kepler, that great astronomer who was a believer in the Lord Jesus said this, Since we astronomers are priests of the highest God in regard to the book of nature, it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather above all else of the glory of God. So if a Christian scientist and astronomer could say that, then what about us? The glory of God is seen in every drop of water, in every detail of the butterfly wing, in every facet of the living cell, in every element of the periodic table that you had to memorize when you were at school. It is all, the glory of God is seen in all of those things. Now, dear friends, I don't want to break up the message again, but please bear with me. I want to say some things in a practical way from this epistle where Peter explains how to be a living stone, how to be a living priest unto God. And don't fear, I have 12 short points. that I want to give you now. It will be very short, very brief. But I just want to highlight these things for you and just give you a taste of it. So we've been talking about being a priest to God, but what does that mean? Peter explains it. So let me give you an outline of it. First of all, by living a stone or a living priest to God, by patience in trials, by patience in trials. So when the world sees the church, when they see this church here, when they see the members of this church, they ought to be seeing people who are patient in trials, not grumbling in their trials and kicking against the will of God, but patient. This is what Peter says in 1 Peter 1 and verses 6 and 7, It says, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. And then it says that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. That's what it is. And you can read other texts even in this chapter that we read together. So by holding fast to God's promises in trials, in your trials, whatever it is, physical, your circumstances, even spiritual things, mental things, you ought to prove the Lord's goodness, you hold on to His promises, what He has said, He will be with you always, even on to the end of the world, He says, without wavering, don't waver. When you want to give up, go closer to Him, run to Him again, Lord, I'm so weak, I'm drowning, I'm falling, Lord, pick me up, take me up, Lord, you might say. without wavering. The believer glorifies God and does the work of a priest. Second thing is this. So it was by patience in trials. The second thing, be priests, be lively stones by holiness, by holiness. That's how we ought to be as a church. It says in chapter 1 and verses 14 through to 16, it says, "...as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." That is your life, in your speech, in your behavior, because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy. Before the Levitical priests could minister in the tabernacle, they had to wash in the laver. We would read that in Exodus 30. And through their sin, Eli's sons disgraced the priesthood and brought reproach upon God's name. I don't want to do that. Oh, you don't want to do that either. We want to be those lively stones, those living priests unto God by holiness, dear friends. That's what it means. But thirdly, be priests by preaching the gospel, by preaching the gospels. Look at chapter 1 and verse 25. It says, but the word of God The word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." The word of God is preached. That's what it is. The priests are also ambassadors. God is glorified in the gospel, in the preaching of it, in the witness of it. And His love is seen, His grace is seen, His wisdom, all of these things are made manifest, are made known in the preaching of the gospel by the believers who are priests to show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness. That's what the Bible says. So my friends, whoever you are, if you're a child of God, you can bear witness of Jesus Christ in your own capacity, in your own situation. Fourthly, you are to be priests by an honest reputation. An honest reputation. Non-believers are watching. And here Peter says in chapter 2 and verse 12, he says, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may be by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. And so here we are told of this. What is your reputation like? What do people think of you, of your character? Unbelievers are watching. What would they say? Can they trust you? We should not be lying. We should not be exaggerating. We should not be stealing. We should not be cheating. We must be keeping our promises. We must be paying our debts and so on. That's the ordinary Christian living is priestly work. So by your honest reputation. Fifthly, be priests by submitting to God-ordained authority. Submit to God-ordained authority. And we read about that in verses 13 to 14. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. God is the author of authorities. We have that in Romans chapter 13. The believer must be a law-abiding person. He must have an attitude of respect toward authority. And he does this by having his eyes on God. For the Lord's sake, Peter says, as unto the Lord, we read in Ephesians 5 and verse 22. And this is how all of God's people submit to authority. Children to parents, wives to husbands, church members to church leaders. This is priestly work. It's not a chore. It's ought to be, I am a priest of God. This is how I live. Well, of course, the only exception is if the lower authority requires the believer to do something contrary to the higher authority. God is the highest authority. And so if these lower authorities, the kings of this world, demand us to go against the Word of God, then we do not submit. We stand against it, as Daniel and his friends did, and as many others have done throughout the history. So we... are priests by submitting to God-ordained authority. Sixthly, be priests by honoring all men, as it says in verse 17. Honor all men. This is to treat all men as creatures made in God's image. as creatures having an eternal soul of value to God. It is to recognize that both men and women are made in the image of God. To honor all men is to treat men equally, knowing that there is no superior races, there is one race. And there is no caste systems with God. All men alike are the sons of Adam. To honor all men is to treat them sincerely, without respect to any kind of covetousness, because we are going to gain something from this person or that person, not trying merely to get something from them and to use them for our own purposes. To honor all men means not to speak evil of them. How difficult that is. James has written a whole epistle about this. It means not to speak maliciously, wrongly, with evil intent, with ill will. Make sure when you say something, you know what you're talking about. You say something about somebody and you only have heard it. You only maybe have read into something. Oh, she didn't say this. So it means that she meant this. How do you know? How do I know? All kinds of things we have had to undo, haven't we? We have had to go back and say sorry because we read into things. We misjudged. So let us not misrepresent. It is a hard thing, but we need the grace of God. We read in Titus 3 and verse 2, Or James tells us in James 4 and verse 11, "...Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge." Christ, dear friends, is the example in honoring all men. He treated the lowliest servants the same as he treated the highest governor. He saves both men and women, Jews and Samaritans. To treat all men in a Christ-like way is the opposite of the way of the world. which is the way of inequality and maliciousness. The way of the world is the way of living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. That's the way of the world. Don't be like that. The church of Jesus Christ must not be known for that. But seventhly, we are to be priests by loving the brotherhood. Again, verse 17, loving the brotherhood. Honor all men, love the brotherhood. God is love and His kingdom is a kingdom of love. And the two highest laws are to love God and to love our neighbor. To love the brotherhood is the one another ministry that is emphasized in the New Testament. So you look at them up, the one another is that the scripture speaks about, to serve one another, to love one another, to pray for one another and so many other things. So you love the brotherhood. That's how you are to be a priest. But eighthly, be priests by being a good worker. A good worker. Peter speaks about this. We read about it in 1 Peter 2 and verses 18 through to 20. Servants be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward, to the bad ones. to the unkind ones. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God." And this teaching is emphasized again and again in the Bible. I do priest work by being dependable by being honest, not stealing time by being late or leaving early or unnecessary talking, by using the phone or the internet for personal use, by just sitting around, wasting my boss's time. Just imagine, just wasting just one hour or half an hour a day adds up to 180 hours a year of a stolen time from my employer, by working more slowly than I am capable of working, by buying something other than what I'm authorized to buy. All of these things you think about, this is priest work. This is what it means to be a Christian and to be part of the church of Jesus Christ. Christians should have the reputation of being best workers, to produce the best of things. Pharaoh searched for men of activity, the Bible says in Genesis 47 and verse 6. And my friends, businesses do the same today, even the world. They look to see. And there used to be times that it was the Christians that they sought after. Ninthly, be praised by Godly living in the home. Peter talks about it in chapter three and verses one through to seven. Being a godly husband, praying with your wife, being a godly wife and follow your husband, being a godly father and mother, and being a godly child. That is priest work. We won't have time to go into all of these things, but you think about how practical these things are. be preached by a separated pilgrim lifestyle. A separated pilgrim lifestyle. Again, we won't have time to read it in chapter 4 and verses 1 through to 4. It teaches that we are only strangers, we are only pilgrims in this world. We are not going to be staying here. The contemporary philosophy of running with the world to reach the world is the opposite of the pilgrim lifestyle. So think on this, dear friend. Wherein, it says in verse four, they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you, it says. But 10thly, or 11thly, You are to be living stones and priests by prayer. You are known by your prayer. It says in verse 7 of chapter 4, But the end of all things is at hand, but be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer, it says. Intercessory prayer is priest work. Are you alive to Jesus Christ? Are you a praying Christian? That is something that marks the church of Christ. It's a house of prayer. That's how we ought to be in our homes, in the church. Things that we do ought to be as we have prayed about these things. Not just go and see what happens. No. So you are to be a lively stone by your prayer. And finally, be priests by ministering your gifts. By ministering your gifts. In 1 Peter 4 and verses 10 and 11, it says, as every man has received a gift, even so minister the same one to another. As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, that is to serve, let him to do it as of the ability which God giveth. That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen. We are to be ministering the gifts that the Lord has given. That means for some of us, we would be teaching. Well, we could say for all of us, we could be teaching in some capacity. You see, teaching God's Word was a major part of the Levites' work. You read about that in Ezekiel 44 or Malachi or 2 Chronicles 17. And likewise, every believer, every priest in the church has the ministry of teaching. Why do I say that? Well, because the Bible tells us this. In Hebrews 5 and verses 12 to 14, I'll read it to you. It says in Hebrews 5, 12, for when, for the time, He ought to be teachers. He have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and not of a strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe." So he's saying, you ought to be teachers, and yet you're still on the milk. And so he says there ought to be some growth that you would be able to open up the Scriptures to somebody else and to be able to lead them in the things of God and help them. It says in Titus 2 and verse 3, the aged women likewise that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, it says. that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children. And so some are called to specifically public roles in this way, but my friends, as believers, we ought to be using our Bibles to be an encouragement to one another. So here were those 12 things, ministering your gifts, by prayer, by living a separated pilgrim life, by godly living in the home, by being a godly and good worker, by loving the brotherhood, and by honoring all men, by submitting to God-ordained authority, by an honest reputation, by preaching the gospel, by holiness, by patience in trials. These are the ways, my friends, you and I in the church are lively stones and priests unto God. So you want to know what is a New Testament church like and how we should be? Then we need to take these passages to heart, pray over them, ponder over them, and on our knees to pray, Lord, work these things out in my life. and surrender ourselves to the Lord, that the Lord will have his way with us. So the church of Jesus Christ is called the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth, and it is called a spiritual house. May God give us the grace for these things.