Living Stones, Living Sacrifices.
Let us turn the Word of God to
1 Peter Chapter 2.
1st Epistle according to Saint Peter, Chapter 2,
we will be reading from verse 4 to
7.
1 Peter 2, 4 to 7.
Let us hear the Word of the Living
God.
Coming to Him as to a Living Stone,
rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God
and precious.
You also, as Living Stones, are being built
up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ.
Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he who believes in him
will by no means be put to shame.
Therefore, to you who believe he is precious,
but to those who are disobedient, the stone
which the builders rejected has become the chief
cornerstone.
This is the Word of Almighty God.
Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone.
He is the Living Stone.
The stone which the builders rejected is worthless.
Jesus said, If anyone falls on that stone,
he shall be cut to pieces.
But if that stone falls on someone, it
will crush him to dust.
It is no small matter to reject Christ.
He is the cornerstone.
Christ alone is the head of the church.
Christ alone is the mediator, the only mediator
between God and man.
The wise man builds his house on the
rock, and the winds can blow, and the
rain can fall, and the storm can rage,
and the floods can rise, but the house
built on the rock will stand firm.
Our foundation matters.
Firm foundations are only found in Christ through
His Word as revealed to us through the
Scriptures.
Jesus Christ is our rock-solid foundation.
In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was
God.
Jesus is the Living Word.
He is the Living Stone.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the
Life.
We are lost.
Jesus is the Way.
We are deceived.
Jesus is the Truth.
We were dead in our trespasses and sins.
He is the Life.
He is the Resurrection Life.
No one comes to Father but by Him.
Christ alone.
Truth conquers.
You shall know the truth Jesus said, and
the truth shall set you free.
In whom the Son sets free shall be
free indeed.
1 Corinthians 3 verse 11 declares, For no
other foundation can anyone lay other than that
which is laid, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Church.
He is the rock-solid foundation for our
lives, our faith, our conduct, our hope, our
future, our families.
It speaks about coming to Him.
We come to Christ in repentance and faith.
The only way we can approach God is
in faith and repentance.
We are God's chosen people.
A holy nation.
A royal priesthood.
A people belonging to God.
Called to worship.
Called to work.
Called to warfare.
Called to work for the extension of God's
Kingdom.
We who were dead in our trespasses and
sins have been made alive by His grace.
Received by faith alone.
Centred on the sacrifice of Christ's own blood
on the cross of Calvary.
We are saved by the grace of God
alone.
Received by faith alone.
Because of the sacrifice of Christ alone.
And so, we who are dead in our
trespasses and sins have been made living stones.
God has taken out the heart of stone
and given us a heart of flesh.
This is what it means to be born
again, to be regenerate.
That God has taken out the stony heart
and given us a spiritual living heart.
So we are now living stones being built
into this spiritual house.
He has taken out our heart of stone.
Now we are living stones as part of
His church.
His family.
His army worldwide.
What a privilege it is to be sons
and daughters of the King of Kings and
the Lord of Lords.
What a privilege to be servants of God.
To be soldiers of Christ.
For the Creator.
The Redeemer.
The Sovereign Lord.
Our Saviour.
The Eternal Judge of the Universe.
The church is a spiritual house.
The church is not actually a building.
As in a physical building, although magnificent church
buildings and cathedrals point us to God and
point to the dedication of people's art and
architecture, hard work and work ethic, in building
monuments to our faith, standing in many cities
around the world, pointing people to the supremacy
of Christ in all the ages, just like
our calendars, A.D. and B.C., show
that Jesus Christ is the greatest person who
ever lived, His birth the greatest event in
history, is the hinge of the ages, so
we date all time as before Christ or
in the year of our Lord.
B.C. and A.D. And so, not
to minimize the importance of church buildings or
of cathedrals, but the church is not buildings.
The church is built up of living stones.
Those who have been regenerated by the Holy
Spirit, who have been redeemed by the blood
of Christ, who are, in fact, the church.
The church are the people of God.
That is why when communists come and burn
church buildings, they are engaged in a fruitless
war against God.
You cannot destroy the church by burning buildings.
You cannot destroy the church by killing Christians.
Death for the Christian is not fatal.
Death for the Christian is not final.
Jesus is the resurrection, the life.
And so, we have seen many a church,
I have seen and ministered in, one over
hundred churches worldwide that have been destroyed, burnt,
bombed, wrecked one way or the other by
communists and Muslims, which have been restored, rebuilt,
and are being used again for the glory
of God.
I can just mention some, like in Kauda,
Kotibi, Loi, Mundri.
All over we see Chiliso in Angola, many
churches that were destroyed.
Think of Calvary Baptist Church in Arad, just
another example of a church confiscated by communists,
turned into a factory, again taken over by
the church.
And liberated from the communists, rebuilt again for
the glory of God.
The church is not buildings.
And the church is even more than our
bodies, because we are living souls.
And even if they kill the body, they
cannot destroy our soul, which is eternal, nor
can they destroy the church of Christ, which
is ever victorious.
This also teaches the priesthood of all believers.
Unlike the Roman Catholics, we do not see
a Pope, a human being as the head
of the church, Christ alone as the head
of the church.
We do not pray through Mary, saints, or
come to the priest or the bishop and
ask them to pray for us.
They can pray with us, but each believer
has the ability and the right, by the
grace of God and the blood of Christ,
to have direct access to the throne of
God.
And so, as Protestants, we believe in the
priesthood of all believers.
We are intercessors, we are called to be
intercessors, to stand like a priest between God
and man, speaking to God on behalf of
man in intercession, speaking to man on behalf
of God, to expounding and explaining and sharing
and preaching the word of God and applying
the Lordship of Christ to all areas of
life.
We are called to offer ourselves as living
sacrifices, living stones called to be living sacrifices.
We are to sacrifice ourselves, our body, as
a living sacrifice.
We sacrifice our time, our talents, our treasure,
in seeking first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness.
We read in Romans 12 verse 2, Do
not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, so
that by testing you may be able to
discern what is the will of God, what
is that good and acceptable and perfect will
of God.
Many Christians today are conformed to this world,
and many think that they must remove their
minds instead of renew their minds.
We are called to have our minds renewed.
R.C. Sproul's radio program for many years
was called Renewing Our Minds.
James Kennedy's radio program was Truths That Transform,
both inspired from this same verse.
We must have our minds renewed, and we
need to be transformed by the truths of
Scripture, as we apply the Lordship of Christ
to all areas of life.
So in this passage in 1 Peter 2,
we can see the distinctives of Livingston Fellowship.
Bible-based, Christ-centered, missionary, evangelistic, reformed, body,
mind, and spirit, head, heart, and hands, putting
feet to our faith, faith in action.
True love is seen in action.
True love is measured by sacrifice.
We are called to offer a sacrifice to
God, a sacrifice of praise, and our whole
bodies and lives to be living sacrifices to
God.
And so we are called to be living
stones and living sacrifices for God.
We have a post-millennial eschatology of hope
and victory, because Christ Jesus is the chief
cornerstone.
He is the head of the Church.
He is the King of Kings, the Lord
of Lords.
He is a conqueror.
It is impossible to wage war against God
and win.
It is impossible for God's Church to fail
in its mission ultimately.
God has not predestined defeat to His people.
The Lord who gave us the Great Commission
will ensure that the Great Commission is fulfilled.
The Lord will not return until His Church
has completed its task and made disciples of
every nation, teaching obedience to all things that
He has commanded by His grace, by His
Spirit, through His Word.
The Lord God has given the prophecies.
He will ensure that they are fulfilled.
We are not working at uncertainty, nor are
we afraid for the result.
Christ must rule and reign until there is
not one square centimeter of the universe not
under the Lordship of Christ.
Satan's cause is doomed.
All those aligned with Satan will be defeated
and ashamed.
Those who stand with Christ and stand for
Christ will experience the ultimate triumph of the
Kingdom of God.
It was this post-millennial eschatology of victory
which inspired Dr. David Livingston, William Carey, and
all the great missionaries of the greatest century
of mission, the 19th century missionary movement.
The most eloquent sermon is not what we
can say but what we do.
It is sacrificial service as we put feet
to our faith.
It is not enough to talk the talk.
We have to walk the walk.
And as Christians, as Livingstones, as Reformed believers,
it is so vital that we do, we
act, we apply in our daily life the
principles that we proclaim and believe.
The whole church must take the whole gospel
to the whole world.
Let the whole world hear His word.
This is the theme of how many of
the Psalms.
We have been set free to serve Christ.
1 Peter 2 verse 9 says, 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.
1 Peter 2 verse 21 says, For to
this you were called, because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that we
should follow in His footsteps.
Christ Jesus is our example.
We are not following the examples of any
normal human beings.
We are following the example first and foremost
of Christ.
He is the standard.
The Bible is our authority and Christ is
our standard and our example.
And He leads from the front.
It has been over 14 years since Livingstone
Fellowship was launched.
As a Christian fellowship, praying the Psalms, the
prayer book of the Bible, the hymn book
of the Bible, the book that is not
only the largest book in the Bible but
the most quoted book of the Old Testament
in the Gospels.
Christ quoted more from the Psalms than from
any other section of the Old Testament.
And so we have been singing traditional Christian
hymns, the treasury of the Church, focused on
Bible teaching, preaching to every book in the
Bible, and singing and praying the Psalms.
So what have we accomplished in the last
14 years?
Well, numerous books have been published containing the
sermons prepared and proclaimed at Livingstone Fellowship, including
two editions of the Ten Commandments, God's perfect
law of liberty, which has also been translated
into Afrikaans, Die Tiengeboer Kutse voor Mark Tibet
van Vrijheid.
We have also produced Answering Skeptics, which has
now also been translated into Afrikaans and is
soon to be printed and published.
And this series answered 14 great challenges, attacks
which Christians face.
These sort of things.
And they were first preached in Livingstone Fellowship,
then dealt with on radio, dealt with as
articles, and then became chapters in this book.
What proof do you have that the Bible
is the Word of God?
So glad someone would ask that question.
How can a good God allow evil?
Why does God not stop all the suffering?
But aren't all religions the same?
There is no God.
How do you know there's a God?
How can a loving God condemn anyone to
hell?
How do you know that Jesus is alive?
How can I know that Jesus is the
Messiah?
Is the doctrine that Trinity really taught in
the Bible?
What about the Inquisition?
What about the Crusades?
What about hypocrites in the church?
Isn't religion just a crutch for the weak?
These are just some of the 14 key
questions that I've come across time and again
in the field, on the streets, universities, radio
financial programs.
And so we crafted condensed, effective responses to
each of these attacks, and these are now
available in audio, MP3, and as a book,
Answering Skeptics.
And then there was practical discipleship, which has
been translated also into Afrikaans, and is just
awaiting funds to print and publish.
Practical discipleship, working our way through a whole
range of practical issues that affect our daily
life, leading all the way up to four
chapters on revival at the end of the
book.
A series of firm foundations for our faith
booklets, including the Apostles' Creed, Biblical Faith and
Modern Counterfeits, The Authority of Christ on the
First Day Sabbath, and The Wonders of Water,
particularly designed to have a point of contact
with people standing in line, collecting water at
these water points during Cape Town's water restriction
crisis.
And we've produced booklets on these various things.
The First Day Sabbath, The Authority of Christ,
very important because the amount of people who
are trying to argue that Saturday should be
the day of rest and worship, and not
Sunday, has increased.
It's vital that we get back to giving
the biblical answer to these.
And so audiovisual box sets of all these
preaching project series were also produced.
But the largest project, the Livingston Fellowship, was
preaching through every book in the Bible.
Very ambitious, as part of the Reformation 500
Back to the Bible project.
This was a six-year project involving studying,
summarizing, and producing sermons in every book of
the Bible.
Some books are quite small.
Others are colossal, like Psalms and Isaiah.
Some are really difficult, like Revelation.
But this six-year project resulted in sermons
shaped into chapters for the Old Testament Survey
book and the New Testament Survey, and audiovisual
box sets with sermons in every one of
these books, summarizing them.
And these have also been uploaded on Sermon
Audio.
And we now have over 800 sermons and
lectures on our Sermon Audio page on the
web.
And the Livingston Fellowship website, just last year,
had 1,477 visitors.
Our social media, far more than that.
Social media, Livingston Fellowship Facebook page reached 10
,353,000 people, with 15,774,000 total
impressions or views, with over 3.5 million
engagements, that's likes, comments, or shares, from 1
,429,000 engaged users, that's people who comment,
react, or share.
So, we've definitely taken our preached sermons, the
printed, and we've gone on to the World
Wide Web, we've gone on to social media
platforms, and so we've reached people as far
afield as Mongolia, South Korea, Trinidad, and places
that many people have struggled to find on
the map.
I remember laughing about Mongolia, and out of
Mongolia, but we've even had correspondence from people
from Mongolia.
Livingston Fellowship integrated Way of the Master, Ten
Commandments-based evangelism, and evangelism explosion, into our
program.
The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting
the soul.
In fact, so much so, that even Ray
Comfort, Kirk Cameron, and Todd Freel, wrote endorsements
for my Ten Commandments books, enthusiastic at the
expansion of that, because they've shown the way
of using the Ten Commandments as a basis
for evangelism, the schoolmaster that leads us to
Christ, that we can be justified by faith,
and they've found our Ten Commandments series very
helpful in laying an even more solid foundation
to bring conviction of sin, to show people
the need of a saviour, and how we
should live our lives in gratitude after our
salvation.
James Kendi's Evangelism Explosion has been a key
part of our work from the beginning.
Most of our members completed the Biblical Worldview
Summit and the Great Commission Course, and most
Livingston Fellowship members took part in March for
Life to Parliament, I don't know if there's
any other congregation that can say that, and
Missions and Memorials each year.
And we integrated Sanctity Life Sunday and the
International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church
service into our calendar.
Every year we observe Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday,
Ascension Day, Pentecost Sunday, Reformation Day, and Thanksgiving.
And many times I've had people contact me
from different parts of the world saying they're
so grateful they didn't know what to preach
on this event or that, and to get
ready, good that they could work on Ascension
Day and Reformation Day and all these others.
And of course many pastors, if they've been
in the church many years, trying to find
new ways of looking at vital anniversaries like
Resurrection Sunday and Good Friday and Christmas, they
were delighted to see some of the resources
we put out.
Many of our Christian Action Network churches all
over Africa said how helpful they found having
these Bible surveys and these sermons, which many
of these people, most pastors in Africa, have
no formal Bible college or theological training, and
so to provide them with accessible materials is
helpful.
In this, I was inspired by first of
all Bishop Stephen Bradley, who used to make
simple sermons available and used to mail them
to Church of England pastors throughout Zululand and
South West Africa, Rhodesia, to guide them.
And of course that's what Heinrich Willinger did
back in Switzerland.
When entire Catholic dioceses were converted to the
Protestant faith, what do you do with the
priests?
Here they've only been taught Catholicism.
How can they be integrated into a Reformed
church?
And so Heinrich Willinger preached and published 52
sermons called his Decades.
So if you preach to each one of
these sermons each Sunday, they cover all the
main doctrines of discipleship and the Reformation.
And so to be able to take people
already in the pulpit and give them a
grid, of course there are the Confessions, of
course there's the Catechisms, those are all very
helpful.
But the Decades of sermons of Heinrich Willinger
and the sermons of Bishop Stephen Bradley were
very helpful.
And so I've seen a key part of
our work to make simple Bible-based sermons
applicable to every area of life available to
pastors throughout Africa.
And there's no doubt that's very used on
the William Carey Bible Institute page, Livingston Fellowship
page, and others.
Not only that, but regular outreaches and work
parties, especially Fellowship of Africa, were a regular
part of our program, as were the prayer
vigils and outreaches outside the board trees.
So we praise God for His grace, for
His mercy.
We have celebrated the Lord's Supper, wedding services,
dedications, and baptisms.
We have conducted funerals and memorial services.
We have enjoyed carol services and samba members,
like Daniel Andronorafsang, Handel's Messiah, and other classics,
at special events.
We have assembled boxes with love for pensioners
in Zimbabwe, and we've mobilized work parties and
donations of clothes and food and blankets to
the needy in the Cape Peninsula.
We've sent out missionaries to Mission Field, as
far afield as Mozambique and Angola, Zambia and
Zimbabwe, Congo, Sudan, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania.
Some of our previous members have spent years
in the field, like Tim and Ashley Keller,
based up in Kabwe and Zambia.
We've celebrated the Calvin 500, Livingston 200, and
Reformation 500 events, using these momentous milestones to
teach church history, to inform and inspire and
involve Christians in working for Reformation, praying for
revival, calling churches back to the Bible, and
to seek to motivate and mobilize more believers
to make Christ's great commission our supreme ambition.
In 2005, as the vision for Livingston Fellowship
Reformation Society came to me, I was on
a five-week, 11-country mission to Europe,
which included everywhere from Northern Ireland through to
Romania and Poland, Germany, and the highlights are
getting to Wittenberg in Germany, and to Geneva
and Zurich in Switzerland.
And standing at the Reformation sites, it started
to gel in my head.
We're not that far away, just 12 years
away from Reformation 500, the 500th anniversary of
the Reformation.
So for 12 years before 2017, I was
promoting Reformation 500, and I got to Geneva
and saw John Calvin, born 1509.
We're only four years away from 2009, 500
years since John Calvin was born.
And so, interestingly enough, the Calvin 500 did
get traction.
We had Americans, Canadians, South Africans, people from
South Korea, even coming together in Geneva, and
a very good week there, really special time.
The Livingston 200 involved more ambitious activities, traveling
to the 12 countries where Livingston had ministered,
we had pioneered the Gospel, as far up
as Rwanda and Burundi and Nicaragua and Tanzania.
Although our team cheated, we drove and flew
where Livingston walked.
But still, we distributed three and a half
tons of Bibles and books in remote villages
and areas where Livingston had ministered, retracing much
of his steps, and ended with a Livingston
200 admissions conference at Victoria Falls, at the
town of Livingston, covered by Zambian national TV,
Livingston local TV, with the mayor's office present
at Victoria Falls on the 16th of November,
which is the anniversary of Livingston's discovery, naming,
sketching, measuring Victoria Falls.
And that was a great and inspiring effort.
And I must say, the Livingston 200 did
catch a lot of enthusiasm.
There was a lot of people throughout Africa
who were, we had people from as far
as Nigeria coming to join us for the
Livingston 200 event in Zambia.
The Reformation 500 in Wittenberg, Germany had the
chance of conducting Reformation 500 events and conferences
as far afield as Zululand and Zambia, all
the way over to America, Belgium, Netherlands.
The best turnout on our Reformation 500 year,
what surprised most people, it was in the
Netherlands.
960 people came for a weekend camp to
celebrate the Reformation 500.
I thought the people in the Netherlands were
closed to the gospel, but when I mentioned
this, they said, oh, but you're in a
Bible belt here.
I didn't know the Netherlands had a Bible
belt.
Very strong, dynamic Christian community still going strong
in the Netherlands.
To be part of that was very special.
And to have the Eurochoir, not only in
Cape Town, but also at Wittenberg, at the
end of our conferencing, very special.
Through special services, radio broadcasts, articles and postings
and publications, we educated and we enlisted many
to focus on our Christian heritage and to
be inspired by examples of excellence.
One great quote that we learnt from the
1859 revival in Ireland was, can you not
do something more for God?
Can you not do something more for God?
That was the challenge that led to the
prayer meeting which led to the revival outbreak
in Northern Ireland which spread all over.
And that's been a constant challenge.
On the night that I was converted, the
preacher, Reverend Rex Matthews said, Christ died for
you.
What have you done for him?
And this kind of challenge needs to be
given again and again.
The cross is a symbol of our faith.
The vertical beam can represent our relationship to
God.
He speaks to us through the Bible, Old
and New Testament.
We speak to him through prayer.
Like the wings of a bird, there's two
aspects to prayer.
There's prayer and praise.
It's not just a shopping list.
It's not just a request.
It's adoration, thanksgiving, worship, praise.
Prayer and Bible study.
We're rooted in the Bible and we should
respond to God in prayer and praise.
The horizontal beam of a cross represents our
relationship to others.
We should reach out to believers in fellowship
and reach out to unbelievers in evangelism.
So these are the four essential aspects of
any balanced scholarship.
Bible study, prayer, evangelism, and worship.
And worship should unite it all.
It's at the heart which holds it all
together.
Everything should be done to the glory of
God alone.
Soli Deo Gloria.
The fifth solo of the Reformation Battle Chorus.
So inspired by the sacrificial service of missionary
pioneer Dr. David Langston, let us strive to
be faithful to our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ.
Steadfast in his service.
Inspired by the eschatology of victory.
Putting feet to our faith.
Making Christ's great commission our supreme ambition.
To make disciples of all nations, to teach
obedience to all things he has commanded.
Reformed in our doctrine.
Missionary in our vision.
Optimistic in our view of the end times.
Praying the Psalms.
Praying against evil.
Reading and preaching to the whole word of
God.
Singing the great hymns of the faith.
Christ shall have dominion.
Jesus shall reign.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus.
Fight to get a part of faith.
Who is on the Lord's side?
From Greenland's icy mountains, a mighty fortress is
our God.
These are foundations.
This is what God has called us to.
And so as we look at this passage
that we started with, it comes more alive
when you think of it in this light.
Coming to him is to a living stone.
Rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God
and precious.
You also as living stones are being built
up a spiritual house.
A holy priesthood.
To offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ.
I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone elect
and precious.
And he who believes on him will not
be put to shame.
Therefore to you who believe, he is precious
but to those who are disobedient the stone
which the builders rejected has become the chief
cornerstone.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus we thank and praise you for
the solid rock foundation that you are for
each one of us.
We thank you Lord God for your word.
It is the truth that sets us free.
It is the rock solid foundation of our
faith.
It is our shield.
We thank you Lord God that your word
is the power of God for the salvation
of all who believe.
That faith comes through hearing and hearing by
the word of God.
We praise you Lord that your word never
returns void.
It always accomplishes what you sent it out
to accomplish.
Lord may continue to work through the word
of God preached, proclaimed, printed, uploaded and available
digitally, whether audio, video, or in social media
platforms.
We thank you Lord God for the seed
that has been sown.
And we continue to pray Lord for a
great harvest of righteousness from your word in
our lives and the lives of others.
We thank you Lord God for our friends,
associates, allies, fellow Christians worldwide.
We pray Lord God that you may continue
to strengthen our fellowship with your people worldwide
for the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
We pray this in Jesus precious and holy
name.
Amen.