Yeah, that's true, what Eric
said there. We're not... To the believer,
the Gospel is not offensive. It's to the unbeliever that the
Gospel is offensive, to the flesh. I remember a lady one time sat
in the church I came out of down in Tennessee, and she kept hearing
us talk about the offense of the cross. She told me one day,
she said, you know, when I hear the Gospel preached, she said,
it just makes me so mad. And I sit here and I get so angry.
And she goes, that's how it's supposed to be, isn't it? It's
supposed to be offensive. I said, not for the believer. She was describing what it is
to an unbeliever. Poor, poor, poor thing. She didn't
come much longer after that either. Let's turn now to Isaiah 54.
Isaiah 54, verse 11. This is the Lord God our Redeemer
speaking, and the one that He is speaking to is His Church,
His Bride. He says, verse 11, O thou afflicted,
poor, lowly, needy, tossed with tempest, like a ship tossed on
the waves of a troubled sea by fierce winds, and not comforted. This applies to Christ's church,
to each believer in particular, in so many ways. This was the
early church's state. They were afflicted. Afflicted
by persecutors, by men who did not believe the gospel. They
were tossed with tempests, by false doctrine, by false preachers,
men trying to lead away disciples after themselves. Ephesians 4,
that we were just in, tells us Christ gave His preachers that
we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro. by every wind
of doctrine. It's the same metaphor of a ship
tossed. That's why He gave the Gospel
to us. They were not comforted. The church can never be comforted
by anything but Christ, only Christ. And this applies to a
local body of believers too. You know, there are times we
go through trials. As a body of believers, we go
through trials and we have troubles and everything Christ says here
applies to us. And then this applies to us when
Personally, when we first begin to believe the gospel, you know,
the Lord began to work grace in our hearts and the first thing
He does is He breaks up all your false refuge, makes you see your
sin and you become afflicted, become tossed like a ship tossed
at sea. And you find yourself not being
able to be comforted by anybody but Christ. That's a good thing,
a good thing. And this is the case personally
for us who believe now. We come into trials, great trials
where we're afflicted. We see our sin, we see our unbelief,
we see our doubt, our fears. And it becomes like this world,
in this world you shall have tribulation, Christ said. It
becomes like a troubled sea to us. And we can't find comfort
anywhere, not in friends, not in family, Not anywhere, just
Christ. Christ is the only place. But
in this passage, the Lord Jesus declares to His church what He
promises to do in us through the preaching of the gospel of
Christ to Him crucified. Doesn't that sound like what
I said in the first hour? Have you noticed we're in two different
places in the Scriptures once again, and they're both telling
us the exact same thing. They're both talking about Christ's
work, the exact same work that Christ does. Ephesians 4 goes
into more detail and gives us a little more Intricate, plain,
clear understanding of what he's doing. And here in Isaiah 54,
he gives us some metaphors and paints us a picture of what he's
doing by the preaching of the gospel. But both of them are
dealing with the exact same subject. First of all, Christ says, Behold,
I will lay thy stones with fair colors. I will lay thy stones
with fair colors. Christ says, I will lay. He says,
I will lay. In verse 12 he says, I will make. I will make. Whenever the Lord
walked this earth, men looked down upon Him as the poor carpenter's
son. They looked down upon just this
lowly carpenter's son. But Christ is God. He's God. He's God in human flesh. And
he is the great, grand architect and builder of his church, of
his temple, his holy temple, his spiritual temple. His temple
is made up of his people. I read somewhere, somebody wrote
this week, it said, God's people don't go to church, they are
the church. And that's true, we're his temple.
And it says here, it says here of this city whose builder and
maker is God, he says, I'll lay thy stone. Our stones, the stones
that make up our building, our church, are living stones. They
are our brethren. The brethren, those He calls
and sets. Look at 1 Peter 2. I want you
to see this in 1 Peter 2 verse 5. Christ sets us. He sets us immovable
in His church and living stones. Look at 1 Peter 2 verse 5. as lively stones, as living stones,
are built up, built up by Christ, a spiritual house. This is not
a house you can see. This is not a house that men
can see with the carnal eye. This is a spiritual house. A
holy priest stood. This illustration is from the
Old Testament. There was a real temple, and a real priest stood,
and a real priest, you know, the whole deal. But now, The
church, and that's what this picture, it's the church Christ
built. This church made of living stone. This built up a spiritual
house. A holy priesthood. And we have
offering to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Scripture says, the
calves of our lips of thanksgiving. That's the offering that pleases
God. The broken and contrite heart, that's pleasing to God.
These spiritual sacrifices, praise and glory and honor to God and
His Christ. He says, and these are acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. He builds it up, He gives us
the thing to sacrifice, and He makes it acceptable. All right,
now we're going to see in this passage. I want you to get this
now. This is important. We're going to see in this passage
also that these stones, they're his people. And these stones
also include every precious gift that Christ gives that he uses
to build us up as living stones. It includes his preachers. It
includes each article of our doctrine. These are precious
stones. It includes the light that He gives. That's a precious
stone. It includes the entrance He gives. That's a precious stone. And
it includes all His works of providence all around us all
the time. All of these are described here
as precious stones for living precious stones. I've titled
this Precious Stones for Precious Stones. That's what we're looking
at here. Christ says, I will lay thy stones. He uses the means
and He lays all the means. It's Him that's making it all
effectual. Now look here, He says, Christ says, I will lay
thy stones with fair colors. This is not a very good translation
right here because the Hebrew word with refers to the means. I'm going to lay your stones
to tell us here's the means I'm going to lay them with. fair
colors. Now this whole phrase refers
to this ancient custom of laying colored stones in a black concrete
cement pavement so that it makes a mosaic. You know, so that the
black background is there to make the colored stones stand
out more. That's what the black background
is there for. The stones are Christ and His
works. and His workmanship, His final
workmanship, His people. It's Christ and His works and
His workmanship. These are the stones. And then
the means He uses to set us with, that's the black pavement. It's
the black pavement. You see, the means are not meant
to be the focus. The means are not the focus.
Christ has chosen means that will make His glory his honor
in setting these stones stand out all the more. That will make
his precious stones stand out as being all glorious because
of the means he used, the black background he uses. So the meaning
here is I'll lay thy stones using means that give me all the glory.
That's what he's saying. I'm going to lay your stones
with means that give me all the glory. All the precious the person
and work of Christ, by which Christ makes living stones and
adorns us with all the unsearchable riches of Christ, all of this
work stands out so much more brilliantly against the black
backdrop of our sin. Does it not? Does it not? You've
all heard the illustration. You've seen jewelers do it. They
pull out the black background and they lay the diamond on the
black background. And man, you've got to have that
diamond because it just looks so much brighter, so bigger,
so much just illustrious with it in front of that black background. Well, all our sin, brethren,
our fall in the garden, it has caused everything Christ does
for us to appear so much more glorious. You want to see Christ
in all His glory? Preach a sinner in all his blackness.
That's where you're going to see Christ's glory in saving
sinners. You see it that way. The last Adam, Christ, He came
not into a perfect garden. He came into a sin, dark, cursed
world. He didn't come here just to be
made under one law. Adam was just made under one
law. That's all. There was no sin in the world.
This was just law, God's way of saying, I'm in authority here.
But Christ came to be made under over 600 and some odd laws. And you know why God gave those
laws? That the offense might abound. He gave those laws to
keep sinners in check just a little bit. And so that we could see
the depths of our sin. Christ was made under that law
and fulfilled it, kept it completely. Did that make Him shine more
brightly and brilliantly? Christ went to the cross and
He didn't go to the cross just to put away one sin. He went
to the cross to put away a multitude of sins. And not just for one
sinner, for a multitude of sinners. And you see in the three hours
of darkness on the cross, there's where you see that pearl of great
price shining brilliantly in all His glory, brethren. He put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. For His people, He made
an end of transgression. He brought in everlasting righteousness.
He made reconciliation for iniquity. He succeeded! He succeeded in
what He did. He shall not fail. That's the
message. That's the message. And I thought of something else
on this too. I was looking this up and studying this word fair
colors. And the word there, it's a black dye. I can't pronounce
the Hebrew word. But it's a black dye that women
use for eyeliner. That's what it is. It's a black
dye that women use for eyeliner. And the same word is translated
paint. Over in the scripture it talks
about Jezebel and it says she painted her face and it means
she painted her eyes. She outlined. Now women, ladies,
you outline your eye. You take your eyeliner and you
outline the top of it and the bottom of it. And you put it
in black. And that's so it makes the color
and the pretty of that eye pop out. And you can see that eye
so much better. That's what it's for. It's used
to enhance the beauty of the eye. Well, in Ephesians 4, Christ
said He gave ministers to preach the gospel. He gave them to preach
these unsearchable riches of Christ to His people. And He
tells us in 1 Corinthians, He said, I will set thy stones using
foolish things to confound the wise. He said, I'll set them
using weak things to confound the mighty. I'm going to set
them with faith's things so that I bring to nothing the things
that are. I'm going to do this that no
flesh should glory in my presence, but that he that glories of glory
only in the Lord. Christ's preachers are to be
unseen. They're to be unnoticed. They're the earthen vessels that
Christ uses that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. That's what they're to be. That's like that black
eyeliner. It's not to be seen. It's there
to make the eye stand out. And Christ's preacher is that
way. We don't preach our word. We
preach Christ's word. We preach His word. We don't declare to men that
they're just a little off and they just need a little help.
We preach men are totally lost and they need Christ to do it
all. We declare Christ's finished work. We don't say that Christ,
He said it's finished but now it's up to you to add the finishing
touches by your faith and your will and your work to make it
effectual for you. We don't preach that. We don't take our church and
present our church to people on the internet and advertisements
and things like that. and say, look, here's how many
prayer meetings we got, here's how many missionaries we support,
here's how many community services we're doing, here's how many
children's programs we have, here's how these things... We
don't market any of that. You know why? Christ said, don't
do your alms before men. He said, don't pray to be seen
of men. Because the moment we make those things the focus,
we've made ourselves the focus. It's just like one man standing
up by himself and saying, look how much I pray. Look how much
I give. You'd say, are you braggart?
Well, Christ says that of churches that do that too. The moment
we do that, we make our ministry to be the focus rather than Christ's
ministry to be the focus. We preach Christ. We preach Christ
and He'll crucify. We don't make ourselves the focus.
You ladies know this. If you put too much of that black
eyeliner on, that black eyeliner becomes the focus and you don't
see the eye at all. Right? Well, that's true of the
preacher. If we do those things, then the
preacher and the church and the people become the focus and Christ
is not the focus at all. So, we don't do any of those
things. We don't do that. And I'll tell you this too though,
but to those who don't need the gospel, to those who don't need
Christ, to those who think the preaching of the gospel is fooling
us, God's preachers, they are the black sooty eyeliner. They don't care anything about
them. But let me show you something
here. This is the second thing Christ says, verse 11. He says,
And I'll lay thy foundations with sapphires. He said, I'm
going to lay your stones with black insignificant nothing.
It means that they're going to give me all the glory. He said,
And I'm going to lay your foundations with sapphires. Sapphire. One foundation that's included
in this plural word foundations is the gospel. Christ in the
doctrine which we preach. I'm not talking about just the
doctrine. I'm talking about Christ in the doctrine we preach. That's
one of these foundations that has to be laid. The Jews called
the articles of their religion foundations and the articles
of the doctrine of Christ that declares Christ and sets him
forth. This is our foundation. This is our foundation. And Christ
uses his preachers to lay that foundation. He said, we're built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3.10,
according to the grace of God which is given to me, I couldn't
do this otherwise. According to the grace of God
which is given me, as a wise master builder, I've laid the
foundation." What does he mean? He meant, I preached Christ.
I preached Him. And another buildeth their own.
Another comes along and he preaches Christ. But let every man take
heed how he buildeth their own. For no other foundation can a
man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Jesus
Christ, the preacher that Christ uses to set forth the foundation,
Christ and the doctrine of the good news, they're unseen nobodies. They're not designed for any
of this glory. But while the rebels and the
enemies of God say they're just that old black sooty island,
I don't care anything about them. Christ says to him and to sinners
in need of Christ, sinners hungry for Christ, He said they're sapphires. They're sapphires. Christ said,
I'll set thy stones with nobody's so that I get all the glory.
But to me and to my people, I'm laying your foundation with sapphires.
I'm laying them with sapphires. There's been times I was so hungry
to hear the gospel. There's been times I was just
starving. My sin was troubling me. I had problems and things
going on. I just needed to hear a word
from my Redeemer. And I went in and sat down and it's like
Christ just sat down beside me and put His arm around me and
spoke His word right into my heart. And I just thanked him
and thanked him and thanked him. And you know what else I did?
I thanked him for using one of his preachers. I thanked him
for using somebody, giving somebody his grace to be constrained by
his love and his love for me enough that he would come and
preach the truth to me. And not make himself stand out,
just preach the gospel to me. Thankful. Thankful. Oh, beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel, that just preach,
no, that preach the gospel of peace, that bring the glad tidings
of good things. A man asked me one time, I was
up in Montana, when I went up there at the first of the year,
I was getting a fishing license, and a man asked me, what's your
occupation? I said, I deal in precious jewels. That's what
I do, precious jewels. More than that, more than the
preachers, though, to Christ and to His people, these sapphires,
brethren, is the foundation. It's Christ Himself. That's what
these sapphires are. The everlasting love of God our
Father in Christ. That's the sapphires. There's
an article that's a sapphire. We don't just preach election.
We don't just preach that God chose the people. No, no. We
preach God chose the people in Christ. That He elected the people
unto salvation in Christ. That He did it that Christ might
be glorified. Because He chose Christ first.
Christ is the first to live. Behold mine elect, my servant,
whom I uphold and whom I delight. He chose Him and He chose His
people in Him. That's a beautiful... Because
when He chose His people in Him, that meant all the everlasting
covenant of grace was sure. Ordered in all things and sure.
Christ is our David. The sure mercies of Christ are
David. All the promises of God are yes and amen in Him. Don't
you like us your thing? You get some salesman, gives
you a pitch, and you look at the product, and you think, man,
it looks as good as it says it is, and then you take the contract
they give you, and the contract looks good, but then there's
that little fine print down there, and you've got to get out a magnifying
glass to read, because they don't want you to see the knife they
stabbed you in the back with. Don't you like something that's
just plain and simple and true and honest? That's what the gospel
is. The gospel is performed by God
our Father, God the Spirit, and God our Savior. The salvation
is of the Lord. The sapphires of this foundation
is Christ's deity. He's God the Son. And yet, the
sapphires of this gospel is that He came down and joined Himself
with my humanity. There He is. He's the living,
walking proof that God alone makes men one with God. There
He is. God and man in one body. One person, the God-man, so that
He can reach up to God and reach down to man and bring us together
in Him. The sapphires of the doctrine
of Christ is His perfect obedience. We're not in here talking about
our obedience. When have you ever been obedient to anybody,
anytime, anyplace, anywhere? When? We have not been obedient. You and I, but Christ was obedient
from the cradle to the cross. It's His blood. Without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission of sin. It's His blood. It's
His righteousness. That's the good news of the Gospel. cast out orphans, cast out with
no clothes, no food, no shelter. But Christ has come and found
us and taken us and gathered us and robed us in the beautiful
King's garment, in perfect righteousness. And He set us down at a table,
the King's table. And He set us there and He's
put the heavenly, kingly bread upon the table. You know the
President is eating better than me and you are. You know He is.
He's got chefs and all. He's eating food that's so pretty
and fancy and just looks too good to be eaten. Christ sets
the best food before His people. He's the King of kings and He
sets the best food at His table. And we're like Mephibosheth.
We're crippled in our legs. We're lame. But we're sitting
at that table and you can't see our lameness. It's hidden under
the table. And He feeds us. Brethren, this
is the good news. The justification by His righteousness,
pardon by His blood, atonement by His sacrifice. Here's the
sapphires of the gospel. They're spelled this way. T-U-L-I-P. I like tulips. And I love this. This tulip is a sapphire. Total
depravity. Unconditional election. God chose
a people not based on anything else. That means nothing in us
is going to change His mind. Limited atonement. Christ came
and made atonement for that particular people. Irresistible grace. Christ finds every one of them
and says, hey, I've saved you. Now I'm calling you to tell you
the good news. It's done. It's finished. And He irresistibly
draws you. You can't reject that kind of
news. Somebody calls you and says,
you've won the lottery. Well, I don't want that. This is Christ
calling you and saying, you have hit the jackpot. Christ has done
it all for you and He saved you. And perseverance of the saints
because we are preserved by Christ. He is about kept by Him, never
to let us go. He will bring us safely into
His glory. I would be thankful if I was some of those people
that just capsized that ferry over there. that we read about
near Korea, you'd be thankful for somebody to show up and save
you. Somebody show up and pull you into the lifeboat and save
you. But I wouldn't be thankful if they just carried me a little
ways from the boat and then their boat sank. I want somebody that
can pick me up and save me and carry me all the way back to
my safe haven. That's Christ. Preservation of the saints. He
saves you, He's saving you, and He shall save you. Christ is
the believer's one foundation and no other foundation can be
laid. And before we can stand firmly in the truth of God, we
have got to have the truth spoken to us. We got to have the truth,
the sapphires of truth spoken to us. And I'll tell you this,
if we have the gospel priest in truth, if you have the gospel
priest in truth, Christ gives the glory for that. How shall
they preach except they be sent? We saw this morning, Christ said,
I'll send them. I'll send them. And if a man
comes telling you the truth, there's nothing about my God.
I preach the only gospel in the world of any religion in the
world that gives man nothing to boast in. that makes man out
to be a no good, nothing sorry, good for nothing, and gives God
all the glory. I don't care what religion it
is, what you call it, what you name it, in Christianity, Buddhism,
whatever it is, I don't care. In every one of them, they're
giving man something to do, and man gets part of the glory. I'm
preaching the only message that tells man's a nobody, and Christ
does it all. The only one. And that message
is not pleasing to men. It's offensive to men. So you
can be sure of this. If you find a man that preaches
this message, God sent him. God sent him. Because you won't
find a man preaching this. Most folks aren't preaching this
message. God sent him. And he gets the glory. He said,
I'll lay thy foundations with sapphires. Alright, thirdly.
Thirdly, Christ says, verse 12, I'll make thy windows of agate.
I'll make your windows of A. You see, it's not enough for
us to merely hear the truth. It's not enough for us to merely
hear the truth preached in truth. Christ has to lay the foundation
in our hearts. A foundation is hidden. A foundation
is under the house. It's deep. It's down in the ground
and you can't see it. You can't just walk up and see
the foundation. Well, the foundation, this gospel
of our Redeemer, it's hidden. It's hidden deep in the Scriptures
and you can't see it unless Christ himself lays this foundation
in our hearts. He told Nicodemus this, it's
the spirit that quickens. The flesh profits nothing. Or
he said this in John 6. It's the spirit that quickens.
The flesh profits nothing. My flesh and your flesh profits
us nothing. He says, the words that I speak
unto you, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and
they are life. You see, I can sit here and preach
to you all day long. It won't do you any good. He's
going to use me to preach it to you, but what he's going to
do is, he's going to come into your heart And the words that
He speaks is going to be life. It's going to be life. You're
going to hear this and go, that's life. That's Christ. That's true. I hear His voice. That's the
Redeemer. That's the Redeemer. See, we came into this world
blind. Blind. Totally blind. We didn't have
any spiritual sight. Couldn't see. We came into this
world and we're led astray by cunning deceivers. You know what
men want? This is what men want. Why do men play rock and roll?
They want a girl. Why do men try to get the best
business and the best job title and get the highest position?
They want the girl. Why do men go into sports and try to become
the best athlete they can? They want the girl. Just ask
them. This is simple. Why do men want to preach? Why do false prophets, false
preachers want to preach? They want to lead Christ's bride
away. They want to make disciples after
themselves. They want to get the girl. That's what they want.
And we were deceived by that. We were totally deceived by that.
Their doctrine was dark speeches to us. And they wanted to be
dark speeches to you. They talk over your head and
talk about things you can't even understand. And it makes you
leave out and go, man, he sure was smart. He's so smart, I didn't
even understand anything he said. That's not smart. If you don't
understand anything he said, that's not smart. The Scriptures
were darkness to us. We'd open them up. It was like
a puzzle with pieces missing. You couldn't make end or tails
of this thing. We were blind. We were just blind. But Christ
says, I'll make thy windows. The word here is light. I'll
make your sun rising of agates like a sparkling gem. In the
creation of this world, Christ said, let there be light. And
there was light. There was light. In the beginning,
He said, let there be light. And there was light. He created
everything. All things are by Him, made by Him. He's the Word
from the beginning. He said, let there be light.
And there was light. Look at 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians
4, verse 3. He said, I'm going to make your
light, your sun rising, I'm going to make it like a shimmering
gem, He says. Now look here, 2 Corinthians
4, verse 3. If our gospel be hid, is hid
to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not." They're blinded. "...lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord." That's who we're preaching. "...and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." for God, for God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. That's talking about that first,
when He said let there be light in the first creation. He said
when He shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Just like the
first creation, light came when He said let there be light, so
in the new creation when Christ speaks in the heart and He says
let there be light, there will be light. An agate, you know,
he said it's going to be your windows, your light, your sun
rising, it's going to be like a shimmering gem. An agate is
not fully transparent. You can't, it's not like you
think of a window right here. It's not like that. You can't
fully see through an agate. That's not the point he's making
here. It's not, windows might not be the best translation either,
but it's saying your light, your sun rising is going to be as
agate. You know, when we're first called by God's grace, You come,
somebody come up and start talking to me about the gospel, you know.
And remember that man the Lord gave sight to? And he took his
hands off his eyes and he said, what do you see? And he said,
I see all men as trees. He could see now, but his vision
was a little blurry. He could make out that there
was men, but they looked like trees walking. Because he couldn't
see clearly. And at best, at best, wherever
we are in faith where he's grown us to, at best we see through
a glass darkly. But here's what this thing is
showing us, brethren. It's sun rising. It's sun rising. Christ is the Son of Righteousness. And when He rises, you know how
you see the sun rise and you see all those rays go out? Those
are the wings of the sun. And the Scripture says He's the
S-U-N of Righteousness that arises with healing in His wings. That
light goes forth and that light shines forth. And when that light
shines forth, He says, I'm going to make your sun rising like
a shimmering gem. What do we compare this gospel
to? What do we compare Christ in the gospel? It's a diamond.
It's a diamond. And you take a diamond and you
turn that diamond and it just shimmers in the light. You can
just see it shimmer in the light. And there's a bunch of faces
on that diamond. All over that diamond. And you can turn it,
you can look at this face. You turn it, you can look at
that face. You turn it, you can look at this face. This morning,
we're looking at one face of the diamond. That's all we're
looking at, one face of the diamond. We're looking at how Christ sends
his preachers, how he calls his people, how he makes it affectionate
in their heart. This is just one face of the
diamond. Tuesday night, Brother Cody will come, he'll turn the
diamond a little bit, we'll look at another face of the diamond.
Next Sunday we'll come, we'll turn the diamond a little way,
we'll look at another face of the diamond. He said, I'm going to make your
light like this shimmering diamond. We can't see it all at one time.
We can't pick up all the faces at one time. One day we're going
to see him as he is and we're going to know him as he is. But
we can't get that right now. And why does he do that? So that
we never become self-dependent. We never become to the point
we can just say, I don't need the gospel. We have to have...
This is how He's chosen to keep us together. If we could all
be mavericks and all see and hear and understand without the
gospel, there wouldn't be a church. One of you would be down sunning
your toes in Florida, and we know who that one would be. The others would be in another
part of the country. We'd be scattered about everywhere.
But this gospel, He keeps us united because We all got to
come to the same table. We all eat out of the same trough.
We all got to hear the gospel. That keeps us dependent upon
Him. Fourthly, look here now. He says, verse 12, in the gates
of Carbuncles, I said to you, the preachers He uses are precious
stones. Let's go back to Isaiah, I'm
sorry, Isaiah 54. He said the preachers he uses,
their precious stones, the foundations are sapphires, the windows, the
light he gives us is a shimmering stone, a precious stone. Here
we are talking about a gate being a stone. Gates of carbuncles. A gate gives us entrance. That's
how you get entrance by a gate. You go into a place by a gate
and a carbuncle Listen to this now. It's a blood red sparkling
gem. A blood red sparkling gem. Probably
like a ruby. Repster says when held up to
the sun it looks like a red hot flaming piece of coal. That's
what this carbuncle looks like. Look at Isaiah 6. Look at Isaiah
chapter 6 and verse 5. Whenever Isaiah was made to sing,
whenever the Lord made Isaiah's windows as agates, and he saw
the Lord in all his glory, holy, holy, holy. He said this, verse
5, Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man
of unclean lips, I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
He said, there is no way I can have any entrance into his presence,
Anybody that holy, I can't enter in. I am undone." And look what
happened. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand. This carbuncle is like
a live coal. When you put the light, put it
to the light, you got to have the light to see, it's a live
burning red hot coal. He said he took a live coal in
his hand and he took it off the tongs from off the altar and
he laid it upon my mouth and lo, he said this has touched
your lips, your iniquities taken away, your sin is purged. in
the blood red shed by Christ Jesus. That's how. And when Christ
lays the foundation of Sapphires in our heart through the preaching
of the Gospel, and then when the Son of Righteousness arises
with healing in His wings and He gives us light to see Him
shimmering in all His glory through those gates of Carbuncle, Through
that blood of Christ, the Holy Spirit comes and He lays this
red hot coal in our heart that tells us Christ has gone through
the cross. He has laid down His life. He
has poured out His blood. He has redeemed us from the curse
of the law. Your iniquity is gone. It is purged away. God
will receive you now. You can come into His presence.
And then through those same blood red carbuncle gates, we enter
into God's presence with joy, heart to heart, and mouth to
mouth with God. That's what these gates are,
these blood red... And it doesn't matter, it doesn't
matter if you're first seeing Him, or if you've been believing
Him a long time, and you've been in a trial, and He brings you
to see His light, and He brings you to see that you have presence
into Him, your sin is purged, whatever the case may be. You're
like those two on the road to Emmaus. They said, oh, He opened
up the Scriptures to us and did not our heart burn within us?
He had that live coal plowing, that red hot blood carbuncle
gate was open to them and they could enter into God's presence
and communion with God and find rest and peace. Oh man, it's
a good feeling when you can lay down your shotgun. What's it
got you? What's it gotten you so far fighting
God? What's it gotten you so far butting,
butting, butting everything and saying no? Where's it got you? Oh, it's so wonderful when you
can just surrender. When you can just surrender.
When you can just cast all your care into the hands of another
and rest in Him. and know that you have access
through the gates of His blood into His presence. This is what
He makes us to see. Look at verse 14. He makes us
to see in righteousness you shall be established. Thou shalt be
far from oppression. Thou shalt not fear from terror.
It shall not come near thee. Where is this righteousness?
Look at verse 17, the end. Their righteousness is of me,
saith the Lord. Their righteousness is of me.
He opens the gates and we have peace with God. Alright. Now,
here's the last thing. And when He does this, this becomes
our case. This becomes a case immediately and this becomes
a case from then on. Right here. Verse 12. And I'll
lay all thy borders of pleasant stones. You know, Christ deals
with us not just in the inner man, not just in His body, in
His church when He has us dwell together. He deals with us when
we're out here on the borders too. And all His providential
dealings with us, they're precious stones. They're all precious
stones and all His works of providence when we're going about our day-to-day.
Now, every foundation is going to be tried. It's going to be
tried. It's going to be tried with fire.
And the one who sends the trial to try it is Christ. That man
who's who's trusting in his own works and what he's done and
his will. Those aren't sapphires, that's
wood, hay and stubble. That's wood, hay and stubble
and it's going to be burned up. The man who lays his own foundation
is a conceited sinner that thinks he can come to God by his...
God will receive him because he's so good. He won't be received.
That dry ground hearer, he hears the gospel and immediately the
trial comes. Christ permits the devil to come
and he just takes the word right away. You hear the gospel in
here and you walk out of here and you won't be out of here
five minutes and you'll be talking about who knows what and everything
you heard will be gone. You won't remember it by this
afternoon. Stony ground hearers, they hear the word and they rejoice
and they receive it. But they don't have any root
in themselves. Christ hadn't laid the foundation in their
heart. And so, when the trial comes, persecution for the Word,
somebody, mama, daddy, somebody comes along and says, don't you
believe that now? Immediately they're offended,
they fall away. The thorny ground here where
his foundation hasn't been laid with sapphires in his heart.
Christ hadn't given him windows of agate. Christ hadn't opened
the gates of Carbuncle to him. And he hears this Gospel. He
receives it. He goes in a little while. But then the Lord gives
him some trial in the form of the cares of this world. And
man, that takes in a lot, don't it? The cares of this world.
So many things we got to care about. So many things we got
to care for. And they become more important
than Christ. And they are thorns. They choke the Word and the deceitfulness
of riches. And they choke the Word. Now
all three of these cases, these aren't precious stones to them.
They find nothing precious about trial. They find nothing precious
at all about having to suffer. Nothing about that is precious
to them. They fall away. But those built on the foundation
of sapphires that Christ has laid, those with windows of agate,
those that the gates of Carbuncle have been opened unto and Christ
has given entrance into Christ's presence. And Christ sends a
storm and He sends the trial and He sends the fire. This foundation
is sure because it's gold and silver and precious stones. It's
precious stones. And it can't be burned up. And
not only that, look over at 1 Peter 1. Not only that, look at this.
We not only can't be destroyed and can't be taken off this foundation,
we find these trials and these works of providence to be precious,
precious stones. Look here, 1 Peter 1, 6. You greatly rejoice in Christ,
though now for a season, if need be, you're in heaviness through
manifold temptations. Manifold temptations. And here's
why you greatly rejoice, though. that the trial of your faith,
the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold
that perishes. It's precious. It's precious.
That faith is precious and that trial is precious. More precious
than gold tried in the fire because it's found in the praise and
honor and glory at the period of Christ. Why? Because Christ
laid it. Christ is the sum and substance
of it. So all the daily events of the believer's life, every
family trial, Every trial we suffer at our jobs. Every trial
we suffer in the church. They are the outer border stones
of all Christ's inward dealings in His precious stones in our
heart. And we find all those stones to be most precious. They're
needful. You know why? I find that when
I have things that I just wish I could put away, I wish it were
plaguing me, I wish I wasn't in it. But you know what I find
most in those times? I'm calling on Christ more than
I ever am. I'm drawing near and begging
God to keep me and save me more than I ever am. And anything
that brings you near to Christ is a precious stone. It's a precious
stone. Let me end with this. Let me
end with this. He says here now that this church
is built up with precious jewels, sapphires, agates, carbuncles
and pleasant stones. And the Holy Spirit compared
the doctrine of the gospel of Christ to precious stones. He
said, if any man build on this foundation, gold, silver, precious
stones. So in case we're not convinced
that Christ is telling us He's going to do all this through
the gospel, He tells us in the next verse, all your children
shall be taught. They're going to all be taught
of the Lord. That's what doctrine is. Doctrine
is teaching. They're going to all be indoctrinated of the Lord. And great shall be the peace
of that children. All the elect of God are going to be taught.
They're going to all be taught. These precious stones are going
to be laid. This is how we're going to be
built up. But what's this piece? Tell me what this piece is. He
said, Great is the peace of your children. Look at John 6. Now
this will be our clue. John 6. What's this piece? Christ quoted this scripture.
He quoted this very scripture and he said this. Look at John
6, verse 45. It's written in the prophets,
they shall be all taught of God. That's Christ speaking. They
shall be all taught of God. Well, there was more to that
verse, though. He said, and grace shall be the peace of our children.
Well, he finishes it. Listen. Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. That's the great peace of his
children. Him. Him. Nothing else but him. He's
the peace. And this is the peace, brethren.
He said, he that comes to me, I won't ever lose him. I won't
ever forsake him. I'll keep him. Let the world
have its millstones. We'll take the precious stones.
We've got to have this Word. Job said, I've esteemed the words
of His mouth more than my necessary food. I esteem the words of Christ
to be better food for me than T-bone steak. I've got to have
Him. I've got to have Him. Look down
at John 6, verse 66. From that time many of His disciples
went back and walked no more with Him. They just couldn't
handle this gospel. They said, that's just too much.
Then said Jesus unto the twelve, will you also go away? Then Simon
Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life. You have the words of eternal
life. These words are our life and
we have to be fed these words of eternal life. And we believe
and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living
God. You know what I always ask you?
I always ask you this when I get through with a message. Who received
all the glory in this message? Did man receive any? Nope. Did
Christ receive it all? Yep. Are you offended at it? If you are, why? You want the
glory. Christ said, God said it pleased
Him that Christ have all the preeminence. And He is going
to have it. Bow to Him and give Him the glory.
That's how you give it to Him. Bow to Him. Believe on Him. Amen.