I'm going to re-read the last
verse of where we were at in Bible class this morning, because
it does apply to the message this morning. Actually, verse 20 and 21 of
Philippians 3. For our conversation is in heaven,
from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what we're doing here. That's what Enoch did. We're
just looking. We're looking for the final redemption of our bodies. Who? Christ. shall change our
vile body," this one right here, "...that it may be fashioned
like," that was conformed, that was jointly formed, "...similar
unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is
able even to subdue all things unto Himself." Of course He can,
He's sovereign. That means He reigns in righteousness. None can stay His hand or ask
Him, say, what are you doing? So, he's going to change these
bow bodies. He's in the process of doing
that. Growing grace. This body is dying. It's getting
older. It's getting weaker. But it's
not always going to be so. Turn first of all to Zechariah
6. I'm going to read a couple verses
first and then we will get into the text. Zechariah 6, verse 12, and we'll look at verse
13, that's the text I want to look at before we get to our
main text. And speak unto him, saying, Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is
the branch. Now that's Christ. he shall grow
up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord."
Now, he's not necessarily, this is fulfillment of prophecy about
the temple, but he's talking about these temples, these bodies.
Okay? Even he, that's the Lord, that's
the branch, shall build the temple of the Lord. And he shall bear the glory."
He's going to build it. He's going to bear the glory.
It's going to be His responsibility to take us from ruin to redemption
to resurrection to glory. It's all on Him. Because He said,
He's going to build the temple and He shall bear the glory.
John chapter 14. Bruce was here last Wednesday
and I made a phrase that one of the
old writers said and I'll say it again. John chapter 14 in
verse 2. In my father's house, says Christ,
are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. But it doesn't end there. Look
at what he says. I, myself, me, the great I am,
the preexistent one, the eternal one, I go to prepare, predestinate,
preplan, foreordain a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself,
that where I am, there ye may be also." He said it. It's got to be true. He goes
to prepare a place for you. But I made a comment, one of
the old, some of the old writers would say, but that is, though
He's prepared a place for us, He's preparing us for the place. So I'll go back to the Philippians.
If you don't like talking about Christ, if you don't necessarily
care to mind heavenly things, if you would rather mind earthly
things, the warning in Philippians is pretty scary. If you don't
know Christ, if that's what your concern is, what your desire
is. Because he says, we're fellow
citizens. This world's not our home, we're
just passing through. So He prepares us for the place. Now, I may just read it, I don't know.
I always say that and I never do. Turn to 1 Kings chapter 6. I've got it circled in my Bible,
so I've looked at this before, but I don't know if I've ever
saw it like this, or if I've ever preached it. Or maybe somebody
else preached it, and I circled it. Because I've got it circled
in my study Bible and I've got it circled in this Bible. So
it caught my attention and now we're going to look at it a little
more fully. I'm going to read verses 1 through 10. Verses 1 through 10. And it came to pass And the 480th
year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of
Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel,
the month Ziph, which is the second month, that he began to
build the house of the Lord. And the house which King Solomon
built for the Lord, the length thereof was threescore cubits,
and the breadth thereof 20 cubits, and the height thereof 30 cubits.
And the porch for the temple of the house Twenty cubits was
the length thereof according to the breadth of the house.
Ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house. And for the
house he made windows of narrow lights. And against the wall
of the house he built chambers round about. Against the walls
of the house round about both of the temple and of the oracle
he made chambers round about. The neither most chamber was
five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the
third was seven cubits broad. For without, in the wall of the
house was made narrow rests, round about, that the beams should
not be fastened in the walls of the house. And the house,
when it was in building, was built of stone, made ready before
it was brought thither, so that there was neither hammer nor
axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in
building. The door of the middle chamber was in the right side
of the house. And they went up with winding
stairs into the middle chamber and out of the middle into the
third. So he built the house and finished it and covered the
house with beams and boards of cedar. And then he built chambers
against all the house, five cubits high, and they rested on the
house with timber of cedar. Psalms 127. Verse 1, except the Lord build
the house. We're talking about us. Except
for the Lord save this temple, because he said our bodies are
the temple of the living God. And he likens us to a house,
when in the New Testament, when someone goes in and sweeps and
garnishes the house as clean, but until that's stronger than
he binds the man of the house and casts him out, it's the same
as it was. People are swept and clean with
religion, but if they don't understand Christ, then they're really as
bad as they've ever been. They don't understand the truth,
at least they have religion. Except the Lord build the house, they
labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman waketh in vain. But I want to look at except
the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
Now back to Kings. One verse. Here our Father, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the builder of this house, this temple. Look at verse
7. We are the stones and the house
when it was in building. was built of stone, that's us,
made ready before it was brought thither so that there was neither
hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while
it was in building. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
architect. We're the stones. You mean to tell me, before the house was ever set, the architecture
had every jot and tittle, corner, door, Stone here, stone there, it was
already made ready. That's amazing. That's amazing. Because I look
out at you, you look at me, you see dead dog sinners. But, we're being worked on. We're being whittled upon. For
that one day, that will finally be set as living stones built
up together for His glory. The work's going
on. The work was, well, we'll look
at it. We are His stones fitted together in His house of grace.
We do not work upon ourselves to accomplish this growth in
grace. Did the stones chisel themselves? It's foolish. Did
the stones polish themselves? It's silly. It's stupid. You know, it doesn't happen.
Did we have anything to contribute to how we fit into the house? It's called free sovereign grace. We don't work upon ourselves
to accomplish this growth and grace, as I said. He does all
the work upon us here, so we are being made ready for the
place in heaven. Made ready. What a word of truth. What a word of grace. What a
word of outside agency. We're made ready. But this work, just this verse,
I got to looking at it and it tells me three things, at least
three things. It tells me something about the
architecture. It tells me something about the
architect. We're going to talk about the architect, God himself
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've built a few buildings. I've been in construction now
and again. I don't know if it was Bruce
or Don Cross, but they bought one of these pre-made Sears shits. I wasn't a part of it. I don't
know if they cussed or cursed, but every person I've ever talked
to about those buildings They have a whole bunch of nuts and
bolts left over. They're like, well, they're supposed
to go there, but we couldn't find out where they went. Okay,
that's just a shed. That's just a mere shed. Now
you take the whole of the elect of God, you take from the beginning
of time, as time was so called, you take the beginning from Adam
and Eve to the last elect sheep is brought in to architect to
architecture, to construct a person's life in the most smallest minute
detail, times the number that no man can number, as Bruce says,
the number is the sand on the sea. You take all those and the
end product is they bring it in there. Oh, we need another.
You don't need the hammer. You don't need to chisel anything
off. It just slides right in. And then the next piece, well
this is a brother from Africa, from Abidjan, where Jean-Claude's
at. It's a little bit different,
it's a little, maybe a little bigger, maybe a little smaller.
It needs to be chiseled, sometimes if you ever watch people work
in that kind of stuff, I used to work with a guy in masonry,
and sometimes he would do the blocks, and you'd just chisel,
just a couple flakes here, and then sometimes he'd score, bam! Oh, that hurts. We needed it.
Because he's the great architect. I don't know why this is going
on. BAM! We need to be made more like
Christ. BAM! A little here, a little
there. Polish it. We got to polish it.
That doesn't feel good. That's okay. It's all going for
His glory and His grace. And then you got this brother
over in California. You got this guy named Gene Harb
or something. You know, it's kind of... But it's a corner.
It's not shaped like the other ones. It's like a little corner
piece. It's not the cornerstone, because Christ is a cornerstone,
but there's cornerstones. And he's got to work with that. So each to his own, each by his
own, but all by the hand of the great architect. I cannot understand,
my mind cannot comprehend the sheer difficulty in constructing
a building this way. When I was I was doing landscaping. I didn't
always get a lot of time for some reason. The architects,
when we did a couple of businesses, like the bank, it used to be
Mercantile Bank at the end of Broadway and Kings Highway, that
one. And the guy, I got to know the
head foreman, and he was responsible, and he showed me the plans. And
I kind of thought I used to know how to read blueprints. They're
like that thick. Somebody's got to, well they've
got charts and templates and they do all that. But our great
architect, the house, when it was in building, it's not built,
we're not in the glory yet, it's in building, was built of stone, made ready. Why are you right
here, right now, in this moment? It's according to God's purpose
of grace. Before we got so much baggage, we got to be made meat
to be partakers of the saints in life, is what he says in another
place. To build a building this way, construction,
the architect, the blueprint, all these different things, yet
with God, it's easy, it's possible, it's accomplished. The pure, unchanging Jehovah
God in Christ Jesus has pre-made, pre-planned, pre-destinated all
pieces as it pleases Him. He trims here a little, He trims
there a little, He trims as needed, turned a little bit to accomplish
His purpose of grace for each elect child of grace. And they
fit exactly when and where He deems necessary to erect us as one individual in his son,
one church, one faith, one truism, one baptism. So we're all being
fit in this one building, the temple. What planning, what sovereign
direction, and a minutest detail to bring about the most glory
for himself and for his body of the church. This is the best
for us, but it's going to bring him the most glory. Here a little
group in Jackson, here a little group in Newcastle, here a little
group in Florida, Ethiopia, Australia. But there's something else. The
architect is beyond compare. Because the house when it's in
the building The stones are made ready. The stones are made ready. So, rest assured, it's not according
to luck. It's not according to chance.
Not according to happenstance. Time is, circumstances are, situations
are because He has purposed it. But it's for the temple. We're being conformed
to the image of His Son. We're just along for the ride. It goes up and down. I know it. But there's a second thing I
notice here. It's the stones. It's the stones. It's us. Whether we think so or not, every
stone needs to be trimmed and polished and turned and chipped
here, a little chip there, a knock here. Who went to North Dakota
and seen Mount Rushmore? And people say
it's ugly. Okay, what they did to the, you
know, oh whatever. But we went there the second
time and they had a tribute to veterans. That's like bawling
my eyes out. It was so, it was beautiful. We sat there, and they all came.
Anybody that served, and it was impromptu. We always honor whatever,
first Friday of the month. They said, anybody that served,
any veteran, now, after whatever, come on down. And they just came
down, and they had to take the flag, and they had to do the
thing. And in the background, there's those men. It was amazing. Well, we kind
of interested in history, Do you think that guy from, I think,
Germany, do you think he got there, just chiseled a little
bit of the nose, chiseled a little bit of there? Man, sometimes
they drilled holes and they set dynamite. Now, you go over to
Crazy Horse, which is gonna be another hundred years before
it's finished, but you can at least kind of see a little bit
about, like once a month they have an explosion. All people
come, boom, and they'll just blow off a bit, and then they'll
get to work on it, but I mean, they take off big pieces. And
I'm sorry, in Adam, we all die. There's a lot. We messed up.
We got problems. And so some 60, some 80, some
100-fold fruit. Well, how do you get fruit? Well,
you got a dung about the tree. You got to trim it. Sometimes
you got to trim it pretty hard. You're going to kill it. Well,
I thought we were going to kill those bushes, those evergreens
on each side of the bandshell. at Cape, they were real high,
they were way out of line. And I said, let's just tear them
out and start new. Well, the boss, he knew a little bit more
about it, and I didn't get him credit. But he goes, no, you
just cut them back real hard. Well, there's live wood and there's
dead wood. And a lot of species, if you
trim into the dead wood, it's gone. It can't recuperate. Well,
apparently this type of juniper, it was very, it wasn't very sensitive
to trimming. You could trim them really hard.
Because I trimmed them back really hard. They were like, We had
to get a step ladder. They were like 12 feet tall.
I trimmed it back to like 7 feet. And I got him where he could
see in between them. And he came by and he goes, no, I didn't
trim back. I said, well, I understand. He goes, but I worked in a wholesale
nursery. He did a lot of trimming. I had
to do a lot of trimming. I worked in retail, did landscaping.
He took those shears and cut. I mean, they were sticks. And
we were laughing. We're like, eh, we're just going
to pull them out. A month later, they were the most beautiful.
I had to admit, the most beautiful. He cut, you're not supposed to
cut over 50%, he cut 70% of them off and it came back thick. If you're looking at it when
it's just trimmed, why him? He knows a little bit about Jesus
Christ. Who is he thinking? He's not even a DD. He's not
a doctor of divinity. He never went to school. What
does he know? Well, come and listen. Oh, Matt
knows a little bit about geography and stuff, but he didn't listen
to him. He'll tell you how God saves sinners. So, the gospel
What is this, don't despise the day of small things? So these stones, every stone
needed to be trimmed. Every stone differently, according
to God's hands as these needed, trials, tribulations, afflictions.
And by the time it's done, which is done apart from our own selves,
because he says in the New Testament, Timothy, not according to our
works of righteousness we have done, By the time He's done with
us, we fit perfectly, and why not? Because who's doing the
faithful work? It fits correctly, it fits perfectly,
it fits in unison with all the others in the temple. All the others in the temple.
It's like gems in a crown. They just all shine. But he says,
and Linda brought this to my attention, and the house when
it was in building was built of stone made ready before it
was brought thither, so that there was neither hammer nor
axe nor any tool of iron heard. Heard. Now, a lot of people talk
a lot because they want to be heard, much speaking. Isn't that
the problem with the Pharisees? They wanted to be seen of men,
wanted to be heard of men. Well, whatever happened to being
content and quiet and just living the life of faith. Okay, so back
in the quarry, there's stuff going on. There's
racket, there's noise, there's all this other kind of stuff.
But I believe this alludes to when we're in heaven, when we're
in Him, And we're in that final, that
stage of complete sanctification, complete glorification. There's
going to be absolutely no noise of works, of our own righteousness,
of anything like it. It's going to be just pure peace. A peace that He calls that passes
all understanding. There's no more work to be done.
He's done it all. But here, there's a little noise. Sometimes the preacher gets a
little opinionated, and it's like, you just kind of, okay,
I hear what you're saying, just kind of, We're maybe bringing
up politics from the pulpit. It's a little noise. We don't
need to be doing it, but we feel like we got something to say.
It's a little noise. But remember, the architect,
the chief architect, the chief shepherd, is going to make sure
all the sheep are herded and worked and wined into the sheepfold. and the master architect, the
master builder who builds the house and not we ourselves is
going to make sure that everything fits perfectly according to his
creation. Now this is the gospel, this
is the God that we worship. Nobody can tell him what to do,
nobody can question him, his authority. It's the potter and
the clay. It's Melinda Broughton. It's
the potter and the clay. We could have went to Romans. Does the
potter say, why did you make me thus? It's ridiculous. You
don't do it. Spinning. Working that clay. Stretching it. A little water
on there. Bruising it. But his hands I go to prepare a place for you,
and the hands of the potter are perfect. The hands of the
potter are full of purpose and grace and truth, and he's not
going to make an error. You know, you go, you fire one
up, and then, well, there's a crack in it, and you start, you break
it, and you start, it's not going to happen. And the house, when it was in
the building, was built of stone and made ready before it was
brought thither so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor
tool or iron heard in the house while it was in the building.
Now, I worked in construction when I was doing a little bit
of stuff with the city, and after we would build these playgrounds
from Miracle Company out in Monette, Missouri. We'd build these things.
We put a fence around it so nobody could get into it because the
kids were always trying to jump the fence and they want to play before the concrete's
dry. You know, swinging around. I understand that. So we'd have
a fence around it and then when it was done, we'd bring in the
mulch and we checked everything and
then we opened it up. Okay, but before we opened it
up completely, we went back with all the tools to make sure that,
I mean, because there's hundreds of these things. They're so intricate.
That's what man does. Can we improve on the work of
grace? That's why there's no hammer,
no ax, no tool of iron, not even heard in the house. It's amazing grace. It just amazes
me. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. Peter chapter 2 and verse 5 and 6 you also as lively stones are
built up a spiritual house a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ wherefore also
it is contained in scripture behold I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone elect precious and he that believeth on him shall
not be confound." You're not going to be tore back out. You're
not going to go, well this fit. We thought, we thought this is
the way it was going to be, but something happened so we had
to get back out. Now this isn't the wonderful life gospel. This
is the gospel of God's grace. were lively stones built up. And what does the scripture say?
He that builds a house, the Lord builds a house. It is not in
vain because he builds a house. The last thing, it's just very
short. I cannot get over the phrase I'm not making this up. Look it up in the Hebrew. This
is one of those things. It's not like, oh, he's making
this up. I cannot make this stuff up. You get a hunch, and you
look at it, and you look at the Hebrew. I don't know Hebrew.
I didn't write Hebrew. I look at it, and I just, I told Melinda,
I just said, this is what it says. I just started laughing. She's pointing to Colossians.
So turn to Colossians chapter 2. Turn to Colossians. She beat
me to it, because I'm reading in Kings, and she says, well,
look at this. And then I looked at the Hebrew.
There you go. Colossians chapter 2. Let me read you the passage.
This is the last point. It speaks of the architect, the
stone, and it speaks of pure, sovereign grace. In verse 7 of
1 Kings 6. So that there, I'm sorry, was
built of stone, made ready. Underline that, made ready. Okay. Now turn to Colossians. And you know what that word means
in the Hebrew? Complete. It's complete. Colossians chapter
two, verse nine and 10. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. That's Christ. and you are complete
in him. Paul did write, he wrote nothing
new. Which we know that, that the
gospel, this is the everlasting gospel. He didn't write anything different
than Abraham. See, people are changing their minds and changing
it all the time. If we preach the gospel, we preach
the same gospel that Abraham, that Isaac, that Jacob, Benjamin,
Moses, Paul, Timothy, and the house when it was in building
was built of stone complete before it was brought. Hitler. Made ready before it was brought.
That literally means complete. And we are completing him. So
this is an Old Testament story that illustrates what Paul has
been talking about in every word he writes. We're completing him.
Now I know we still sin, because we're still in the core, we're
still being fashioned. But we're being brought to that temple. Some people, they may live 90
years old. Some may live 50. They're unique. They're unique. But all are being worked upon
and being crafted and constructed by the sovereign architect's
hand who does nothing wrong. Matter of fact, so perfect. I
don't know how far these quarries were. I could have looked at
it. I guess there's historical documentation. But it wasn't
next door. But to have it numbered, I don't
know what they did. Also, I know it was made ready.
It was already complete. And when they put it in, they
said, you know, like what we do, we'll do trusses or whatever
for the roof. It's like, you get a measurement,
you know, you measure twice, cut once, as they always say,
you do that and you cut it. And it's like, now it's, you
know, throw it back down, cut it again. But not God. With God,
salvation, sanctification, glorification, perfect. Made ready. And no sorrow. What does he say about it? There'll
be no sorrow in heaven. That's noise. Weeping, crying. There'll
be weeping and crying and gnashing of teeth in hell. But in heaven? He takes his tears. They're all
collected. Sweet comfort. And sweet peace. Designed by
the architect, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the God we serve,
and I wouldn't have it any other way. Nathan, would you close us in
prayer? Heavenly Father, we have heard two messages today to glorify
you and humble us. It's so true that we can fall
into pride. Those people we read about in
2 Timothy, they would run after the world. They would boast about
their own things. They would be treacherous and
traitors and unforgiving. Lord, You have taken some of
those very people and turned them right around. You have called
them and You have made them complete. You have made them fit for the
mansions in heaven. Lord, we can't see how that could
happen.