Join me tonight, if you would,
in the 21st chapter of the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter
21, and we'd like to look tonight as we kind of parcel this passage
up into various subjects, trying to pick the verses out that deal
with particular subjects. And tonight we'd like to look
at the foundation of the city. Just to review a bit, this passage
of scripture here in Revelation chapter 21 is the way God sees
the church. And John was able to truly see
himself and all saints like he had never seen himself before. It is a blessing to see yourself
completed. It's a blessing to see yourself
in perfection. It's a blessing to see yourself
with redemption fully had. And that's what we see here in
this passage of scripture. The foundation of the city, we'd
like to read verse 14, and then 19 and 20. Revelation chapter
21, verse 14, it says, and the wall of the city had 12 foundations,
and in them the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. And
in verse 19, it says, and the foundations of the wall of the
city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The
first foundation, jasper, the second, sapphire, the third,
calacondi, the fourth, an emerald, the fifth, sardinox, the sixth,
sardis, the seventh, crystallite, the eighth, beryl, the ninth,
topaz, the tenth, Porus, and the 11th Jasenith, and the 12th
Amethyst. And we'd like to look at that
tonight. Now I'm not going to explain what all of those various
gems are, but I have complete confidence in what they represent. That's what I want to go over.
complete confidence what they represent. The foundation, the
word itself, implies what expresses the basis or the groundwork of
a building. But when we come to scripture
language, we find the foundation means Christ. And we'd like to
look at a few verses over in the Old Testament that dealt
with the building of the original temple and some of the foundation
that was there, but we'll do that in just a moment. The scripture
language, the foundation means Christ, and he is the foundation
God has laid in Zion. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the foundation of the church. Now, like the temple of the Old
Testament, they, from historical accounts and from what the scripture
has to say, they took those monstrous foundation stones and placed
them on solid rock. And that's what we see as a picture
found here. These beautiful stones are placed
on the solid rock Christ, and they represent several things
for us. But as we've heard in the book
of 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and I'd like to read that verse again,
chapter 3 and verse 11, 1 Corinthians. These 12 foundations that are
mentioned here do not represent 12 different things. They represent
12 different qualities of the same person. And when we study
the disciples or the apostles or even those holy prophets of
old, none of them preached differently than the others concerning Christ. They didn't preach about grace
being somewhat different or mixed with works. You don't find the
Old Testament prophets contradicting what was preached in the New
Testament. And you don't find what the New Testament apostles
and preachers were preaching was contrary to what the prophets
of the Old Testament were preaching. Nobody in the Old Testament ever
preached, keep the law and you'll be saved. They continuously declared
depravity keeps us from keeping the law and therefore we need
a substitute in every sacrifice that was declared. Depravity
keeps us from holiness, therefore we need Christ. Depravity keeps
us from righteousness, therefore we need Christ. We need that
substitute. We need that Lamb, the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world. That's who we need.
And these 12 apostles and the representation found concerning
the gates, the 12 tribes of Israel, which represent the church under
the old economy, and the church of the new economy, Christ, the
church in the New Testament era, they are combined. They preached
the same thing. They declared the same thing.
They had the same reverence for a holy and a righteous God. They
preached, Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and they didn't drop
that one bit. As the Apostle Paul, he could
represent all of the preachers of his era and all of the preachers
of the Old Testament era and say, I fail not to declare unto
you the whole counsel of God. They weren't mamby-pamby about
the subject of God. They knew that the people's eternal
life was based upon honesty with the gospel. False gospel will
bring forth false representatives of Christians. The gospel, God
will use to bring forth His born-again ones. In 1 Corinthians chapter
3 and verse 11, we find, for other foundation can no man lay
than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now there may be some
qualities about him that are represented by these various
stones. The beauty of them is beyond
compare. Not one of us would turn down
a gift of an emerald or an amethyst. They're precious stones. And
these represent the one person, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his
qualities, in his characteristics, and in his attributes. They represent
the glory of God in Christ Jesus. There's no other foundation that
can be laid than this one foundation. And these 12 foundations all
rest upon Christ, and they proclaim some glorious qualities about
the foundation. We find that these represent
the attributes, the characteristics of God Almighty, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Holy Spirit, and not an inch is fudged on when
it came to the qualities of these precious stones. We don't find
any sand mixed in. We don't find any coal mixed
in. We find precious stones. And
everything about the Lord Jesus Christ is precious to the saints
and precious to God. Just as the church in the Song
of Solomon, he is altogether lovely. And every one of those
precious stones represents a quality about the Lord Jesus Christ,
our foundation, that is secure and firm and we're foundationed
on. And the preachers of the Old
Testament and preachers of the New Testament declared it. And
faithful preachers have declared it all the way down to this present
time. haven't fudged on it, haven't
tried to mix in some untempered mortar and make it more appealing. The appeal is wonderful once
you've seen the beauty of those stones. There's no need for anything
else. Turn with me if you would in
the Old Testament to First Kings Chapter 5. In First Kings Chapter
5, Solomon is having that beautiful temple built In his day, his
father had prepared much of the material, but it was to Solomon
and to those under him that built it, and it represents Christ.
There's nowhere in the Bible that tells us that after the
Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, that we're to spend time
worshiping at that physical temple. In fact, God demonstrated, I'm
through with the worship here by tearing open that heavy, heavy
veil from top to bottom. He tore it open. He says there's
no more business going on here. This is a picture. Now we have
reality. This is a type. Now we have the
true. This is a shadow. Now we have
the person that is the maker of the shadow, the Lord Jesus
Christ. When he died on the cross, When
he gave his all and he said, it's finished, the veil of the
temple is rent in twain, and never again was there going to
be a service there that God would have a thing to do with. Now
a lot of the Jews went back, sewed it up according to Josephus,
went on with their temple service, and so forth. And finally, we
find that God said, AD 70, this is enough. We're not going to
have any more of those services. And never in the scriptures do
we find that that temple will ever be rebuilt. The building
of the temple now is the church. It's a spiritual building. It's
a spiritual house made up of spiritual stones, lively stones,
Foundations on the foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ. All right,
1 Kings 5, verse 17. In writing about that great temple,
before they could build the walls, they laid the foundation. And
it tells us about these great majestic, gargantuous stones
that were used there. 1 Kings 5, verse 17, it says,
and the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly
stones, and huge stones to lay the foundation of the house.
And Solomon's builders did hew them, and the stone squares,
so they prepared timber and stones to build the house. There in
verse 17, they were great. They brought great stones, costly
stones, and hewed the stones to lay the foundation. Now, these
stones, there wasn't a sound of a hammer or a saw on the site. It was all taken care of beforehand. And it just tells us how wonderful
this salvation is in Christ Jesus and what glory has always taken
care of before the foundation of the world. It's not us participating
now. It's us viewing and getting to
view the glory that is in Christ. in 1 Kings chapter 7 and verse
10. We read this about this building
of that temple. That temple was dismantled and
hauled off and destroyed and everything else. And it's just
the temple has always been in the building. By that I mean
it's always being built. Since Abel's day, the temple
has been building. The spiritual temple has been
in the building. God has been building it up.
And when the last stone is placed in it, the temple will be complete,
and there will be no need for any more time. The temple will
be complete, and eternity will begin for the saints. 1 Corinthians
chapter 7, it says here, the foundation was of costly stones,
even great stones, stones of 10 cubits. and stones of eight
cubits. These are huge. They represent
a great God. They represent qualities of a
great God. This is no small thing that's
going on. It tells us a little bit about
the greatness of God as the temple is being built. The foundation
is great. The glory of it. It's costly.
And these stones that are brought out in Revelation chapter 21,
they're costly stones. They are valuable, and they're
valuable to the church. They're valuable to the gospel.
They're valuable to hope. They're valuable to security.
They're valuable to our life and our eternal life. They are
of immense value. And it is incumbent upon us to
have them, and nobody that ever has them will give them up. They
become ours. All right? In Isaiah chapter
28, would you turn there with me? Isaiah chapter 8. Now there's
a lot of attributes that can be mentioned, but I'm going to
mention 12 tonight because there's 12 foundations. They have, there's
a beauty about them, there's an endurability about them, there's
a, it beats sandstone. When I met Nancy 41 odd years
ago, there was the Cape Kiwanda stuck out there in that ocean,
and I was over there not long ago, and it's a different cape. The constant pressure and washing
of that Pacific Ocean against that sandstone, eventually, it's
going to wash that cape away. It's just sandstone. That's not
the kind of stone that we're using here, that God's using.
This is durable. This is long lasting. This is
of hope. This is a rock that fadeth not
away. This is a hope that God has given
to his people. All right, Isaiah chapter 28.
And we find the Lord Jesus mentioned this in his own ministry. Isaiah
chapter 28, as we think of these foundations, the foundation is
one. The 12 represent the same thing. Everybody is going to preach
the same thing about the Lord Jesus Christ that is God called
and God produced. They're not going to have various
things about Christ. One's not going to say, well,
he's sovereign in this issue, but he's not over here. One's
not going to say, well, he tries to get things done. Another one's
not going to be saying, well, when he said it's finished, he
didn't mean that completely. God's preachers, God's saints
are going to hold tenaciously to the fact of what the Bible
says about God. He is the sovereign king and
when he said it's finished, it was. He's sitting at the right
hand of the Father right now demonstrating the fact that it
is finished and every sin was paid for, for every one of the
people that he died for. Tenaciously hanging on to that
because that's the hope of the church that he accomplished his
work And not only not hope I hope he got it done. It's a it's a
taken to the bank and deposited deal It's there for draft. It's there for us to use All
right. I intend to read this Isaiah
28 16 it says here therefore thus saith the Lord God Behold,
I lay in Zion a foundation, for a foundation, a stone, a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. This is God laying it down. That's the foundation. And that's
why it says, no other foundation can men lay. He's already laid
it. And all the preciousness of this stone, and all the preciousness
that is there, God has given us the preciousness about it.
It's not ours to gather in the precious stones. They're already
there. And what are some of them? Well,
we could find many definitions of these precious stones. But
one of them that is special to the church how precious this
is, that God himself is self-existent. Now I can't even imagine that. I know the word, and I know God
depends on nobody for anything, but I am dependent upon people
for everything. I'm dependent upon people, and
I'm dependent upon God. But when it comes to God, The
preciousness to the church is he is himself. I am that I am. What a precious
foundation stone to have that God, as he spoke to Moses, as
he spoke to Israel, as he had spoken to the church, I am my
own. I depend on nobody for glory. I was in my glory before I created
the heavens and the earth. I'm existent in myself. I am. I am that I am. And when Jesus said those words,
we find I am the door. I am one with God. He just said,
I am. Ever-present, self-existent. Nobody needs to be bowing to
me for me to get glory. Another wonderful characteristic
of these foundation stones that the church is so dependent upon
is that God does not change. He's immutable. What precious
stone is that? Amethyst, emerald, whatever you
want to call it, is so precious to the church that God has revealed
to his people and it is intended to be preached. that God does
not change, doesn't change his mind, doesn't change his views,
doesn't change, he doesn't change. If we change, we're either going
to change for the better or for the worse. God does not change
because he is 100%, 100% all the time. So he didn't have
to change up or down. He doesn't have to get better
or turn out to be worse. I change not, therefore ye, Children
are not consumed. We're dependent upon it. That's
a precious, precious foundation, emerald for us. And we can go
to the bank with it. He is self-existent. He doesn't
depend on anybody or anything for anything. And he doesn't
change. Our faith is fastened. The faith
that he gives is fastened. It doesn't change. He's not going
to change his mind about us. He's not going to change his
view about us. He's not going to change his love. It's just
amazing. The last three days I've been
subbing for Nancy. She's been home with Jennifer,
and I've had the opportunity of going in there some days.
Out of those three, there's a class or two. One day I love him and
the next day I wish I was somewhere else. I don't know whether it's
what they eat or not. I just don't know. Or the phase
of the moon. I don't know. But I'm thankful that God is
not like that. That he is unchangeable. He is immutable. And he's immutable in his love
toward us. It will not change. We've got people believing that
when they do good, God loves them more. And when they do bad,
God loves them less. That is not true. There's something about God,
another characteristic and attribute about God that is beyond my ability. He is 100% truth. That's one of those stones. He's the foundation and all of
these things declare the glory about the foundation. They're all speaking of the same
person and every representative that God has ever called will
speak the same thing about this one person. There will not be
any conflict. When they sit down, they will
be speaking about the same Lord Jesus Christ in his glory. I
was reading to Mike and Yvonne and I found a book in my library.
I don't know where I found it. In 1917, they were holding the
General Assembly of Baptist Churches in Oregon here in the Dalles,
First Baptist Church. And right at the beginning of
all this stuff, all these preachers are here and all these people
are here in convention. And one of the things that was
brought out is the need for the Baptist churches to be more involved
in social issues. And I thought, my goodness, 1917. We're leaving the first rudiments. Now, it was long before that
that it happened. But to get involved in social
issues, the only thing that will ever change man and his social
views is the gospel. Take it to the bank. That's the
only thing. We can get people to act different,
but they'll never be different towards God until they're regenerated.
And really, down deep in their heart, they want to do the same
thing that they used to do. We've just confined them a little
bit. Boy, sometime that grandson of ours just throws a wall-eyed
fit. The other day, I wanted him to
do something. He didn't want to do it. He just
flopped down on the floor and he's kicking and flailing. I
says, okay. Poured water on him. What's going
on, Grandpa? Didn't change his heart, but
stopped him from going through that. Anyway. Another thing about God that
I find here in this wonderful foundation is that he has perfect
love. I can't imagine perfect love,
but he has it. Now someday I'll understand it,
but he had perfect love from eternity past. Perfect love for
a people that were unlovable. Perfect love for a people that
were, well, they're sheep and they smelled. They had to be,
they just, he had to take control. But he had perfect love for them.
He had perfect love from eternity for the church. They were the
halt, and the maimed, and the blind, and all of this. They
just, nothing about them. And that's why God's choosing
before the world began is so important. There's nothing about
this whole flock of people that God had that would cause him
to move towards them because they're thumbing their nose at
him. They're walking away from him. And so his perfect love. And we find this exemplified
at the cross, this one. He's perfectly holy. We are so
dependent upon the holiness of God. There's not even, and Jesus
Christ never had this problem. He never had the problem of his
own sin. Now he dealt with ours because
he had none of his own. He knew no sin. He was perfectly
holy. The Godhead is in perfect oneness
with itself. There's no division among it.
The Lord Jesus Christ had no thought It wasn't even a thought
of sin that he had. He was perfectly holy. And the
church depends on his perfect holiness. And as a result of
his perfect love, and as a result of his perfect holiness, and
the result of his perfect righteousness, he can give it to us. And we'll
have what he has. That's the only way we'll get
holy, is by his holiness. His oneness. And the only way
we'll get love is by His love. We love Him because He first
loved us. And it's a central part. It's
a very major part. It's one of the ten cubits stones. Ten cubits. That's a hunk of
rock. Immovable. Unchangeable. fadeth not away. That's what
it's representing. All of these have to do with
almost the same thing. They're just looking at things
a little bit different. But there's something about God
that we depend on to the core that I still can't imagine. I
just can't put it into words. His eternality. He has been eternal forever. The church depends on that. We
depend on that. His eternality, that he is the
eternal God of heaven. And Jesus Christ did not become
the Son of God. He has forever been the Son of
God. He didn't rise to a higher standard
or drop to a lower standard. He has always been. And we put
it this way. He's not just the Son of God.
He is God the Son. eternally, the eternal Father,
the eternal Son, and the eternal Holy Spirit without beginning
of days or end of life ever. We are so trapped in time. Why
do we wear these? Where did they come from? Because
we're so trapped with time. We've got to be there. We make
an appointment. We've got to be there. Well,
it's important to be there. But we're trapped with time.
God said it in the beginning. He said we're trapped in time.
What? We're going to have an evening, and we're going to have
the day, and we're going to have night. And we're going to have
24 hours of it. But he is not trapped. We are
so dependent upon his eternality from end to end. He had every
thought was determined before the world began. And it will
be carried out just like that. We have another stone, beautiful,
precious stone. Whatever name you want to look
there for, this fits it. Again, these are words about
God, characteristics about God. things about God that's inexplainable,
but they're true and the church depends on it. And this one is,
he is everywhere at the same instant. Now there are times
I'd like to be in two places at once. But he is omnipresent
and the church depends on that. The gospel is preached way down
there in New Guinea. And God has honored the gospel
down there in Mexico. God has honored it, just like
he does where it's being preached, wherever it's being preached. His entire creation, he is there
at the instant moment. We are so dependent upon being
in one place at one time, trying to get to the second place as
quickly as we possibly can, and yet this precious stone for the
church is, I am omnipresent. I know your heart where you are,
and I know the hearts of all my people wherever they are.
And that just moves us into the omniscient. He has all knowledge,
and we are dependent upon that. He is the foundation, and all
of these foundation stones are based upon His character, His
attributes, and we depend on it. This city is built on this. It's not a small thing. These
are gargantuous truths about God. If He fails in any of these
areas, He is not the God of the Bible, and we must seek another. But since the Bible declares
this about God and about His city, His church is a resemblance
of Him, foundation upon Christ and all of His characteristics
and attributes. And it is then and then only
that we can go in and out and find pasture, that we have been
given faith in this God. And without doubt, now we may
say, I don't understand it. I don't understand any of these
words when it comes to God. I'm human, and I'm looking at
Him through human eyes. But when it comes to God, He
is in every place, all the time, and He also knows everything,
and every thought, and every intent of the heart, all the
time, without exception. And He doesn't take off the Sabbath.
He's always, He knows our frailty. We have a high priest who knows
our frailty. We have not a high priest who
has not been touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but
in all ways was tempted as we are tempted, yet without sin. And we couldn't do without this,
his omnipotence. And under that, we could just
go. His sovereignty, his authority, his kingship, his glory. Oh, to have a foundation without
a God that's omnipotent, it's going to fail. That's building
it upon the sand. That's building the city on the
sand. If we don't have this stone, it's going to fall in. This is
so bad. This is that tin. cubits, by
10 cubits, by 10 cubits. Now people can say, how'd they
move that? That's not the issue. The issue is what's it represent?
It represents the glory of God, His omnipotence. He has all power
and all authority. He is the Lord God Almighty.
And the church from the very beginning has been dependent
upon this very thing. And it's disturbing how many
people want to do without this very most valuable part of the
foundation of the church. This most valuable part of God. Because if He is not omnipotent,
the rest of them are meaningless. How could he be all loving if
he's not omnipotent? How could he be all merciful
if he's not omnipotent? How could he be all holy if he's
not omnipotent? This one is so valuable and every
one that God ever saves, this he convinces them in their new
heart. God gives us a new heart and
it's based upon these qualities about God Almighty. Another one
that we find out of those 12 is his faithfulness. He's never been unfaithful. He's
always been 100% faithful to all his children, all of the
time. He's faithful to go out and find
them. He's faithful to make sure that the gospel is preached to
them. He's faithful to keep them. He's faithful to speak to them,
to comfort them. He is all faithful, and the mercy
of God I can't imagine the mercy of God. I know what it means. And I'm thankful God is all merciful.
But mercy is God withholding what we deserved. And every part
of that city is there because of his mercy. He withheld from
me what I deserved. He gave it to Christ. His grace,
he gave to me what I did not deserve. And that's because of
Christ. and then his righteousness. We
are so dependent upon the blood and righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now I realize that there are
many other attributes and characteristics of God that could be put in here,
but how valuable these are to the church. How glorious. They're an emerald. They're a
sapphire. They're a diamond. They're an
amethyst. They are valuable, and we put
them in lodgment, in our heart, and keep them and look to them
and thank God Almighty for them. There was a man that's spoken
of, the Lord Jesus Christ brought up this issue. He said that he
went down to the rock and placed his house on the rock, on the
rock. The other man put it on the sand.
Well, if we don't have these foundations, we're just building
on sand, and when things come along, life comes along, regular
life comes along, it will not stand. That built on the rock
will stand. Look to me, if you would, in
Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter two in verse
20. We think about these 12 foundations of the apostles. They represent,
they picture the gospel preached by all people and they all agree. We don't have different gospels.
We mentioned this some time ago, maybe it was last week, I don't
know, about the 12 preaching on the day of Pentecost. Only
one message recorded. That was Peter's message. But
the rest of the 11 are also preaching that day. And they're preaching
to another group of language people. And they all concluded,
we do all hear the wonderful works of God in our tongue, our
language. So it wasn't 12 different messages
going on there, trying to get 12 different viewpoints spread
to different people. It was one message preached by
those 12, and that's the way this foundation is. It's the
foundation is Christ. And we see other, so many characteristics
and attributes that are precious to us that are on that foundation
of the Lord Jesus. And the church is built on this.
And if we're not built on this, we're built on the sand, and
that's gonna be a terrible place. Ephesians chapter two, verse
20. Let's read that. Ephesians 2.20. As the Apostle Paul was a secretary
to write to these saints, he said, in our built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself be in the
chief corner. But the message of the apostles
and prophets was all the same. Jesus Christ is the foundation.
None other. No, law isn't. Moses isn't. Levi isn't. Solomon isn't. Joshua isn't these are not the
guys that we want to have our foundation on That's one of the
issues is Mike's been bringing out there in the Bible class
There are people in that Church of Corinth that had other foundation. I like that guy Well, you better
be in love with Christ That's going to change some of that
attitude. All right? And 2 Timothy chapter 2, 2 Timothy
chapter 2, these glorious stones, beautiful stones, foundation. These stones represent the glory
of God in Christ Jesus, attributes, characteristics about him. And
2 Timothy chapter 2 talks about this foundation that we read
over there in the book of Revelation. And here it says in Ephesians,
excuse me, 2 Timothy chapter two, nevertheless, the foundation
of God stand assure having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that
are his. Old Solomon could be there in
Jerusalem and he could talk to his people under him and they
could say, go over there. All of that material is yours. All of it belongs to you. And
the Word of the Lord says all that material, wherever it is
throughout the world, He knows where it all is and it will all
come in to make up this city. Every stone will be brought in,
every living stone The Lord knoweth them that are his, and let every
one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. This is
the foundation. And that word foundation is the
same word that we find over there in the book of Revelation. And
then in Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11, if you turn there
with me, Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 10. Now this is about Abraham, and
it's by faith, Abraham, verse 8, verse 9 is sojourn, verse
10, for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God. What did he look for? Same thing
John saw. That angel says, come, I'll show
you the lamb's wife, the bride. Here's a description of it. Abraham
sought it. Abraham was blessed with this. And it had these foundations,
these precious foundations. And then, in closing, turn with
me back to the book of Luke, Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter
6. Once again, this foundation. Foundation, if we're just looking
at it as a building, that's the part that goes, attaches to the
ground. And if it's good, the building
will be good. If it's not, time will tell. I remember Greg Elmquist up here
talking about the church building down there that was built some
years ago. And they shorted on the cement
for the mortar. And it was falling down. That's
one place you really don't want to short. Don't have a three-tier
chandelier. If you're going to short someplace,
short someplace that's going to show. But to short on the
cement for the mortar that holds the rocks together, that's not
the place to do it. And now there are witnesses of
it. All right, Luke chapter 6. And verse 48, Luke chapter 6,
verse 48, the Lord Jesus mentions this. He says, he that heareth my sayings, verse
47, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is
like a man which built a house and digged deep and laid the
foundation on a rock. There it is. And when the flood arose and
the stream beat vehemently upon that house, it could not shake
it for it was founded upon a rock. The foundation was on a rock.
These represent the wonderful, gracious qualities about the
Lord Jesus Christ. These are the things that Paul
said, I shall not declare unto you the whole counsel of God.
We're not just going to spend our time talking about the love
of God. We're going to talk about his
immutability. We're not just going to spend
our time speaking about the mercy of God. We're going to preach
on his omnipotence. His sovereignty. We're going
to talk about His eternality. And before the world began, He
had a purpose. We're not going to spend those
things that are real palatable. We're going to spend our time
on preaching the whole Council as it's laid out in the Word
of God, because that's the foundation for the Church. all of these
beautiful stones that were gathered together representing the characteristics
and attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ, Him being the foundation
stone. We're not looking at different
Christ, we're looking at the same Christ and His beauty. As those, or as the bride said
in the Song of Solomon, I stand back and look at this foundation
all the way around and see all these beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
stones that were put there. Guess what? He is altogether
lovely. I don't want to, doesn't matter
on which side you're going to be. You know, go around the back of certain
houses, you find out where they were cheap. Well, this building,
no expense was spared. It was the blood of Christ.