What mother or father hasn't
been a little bit perplexed when a young child will ask daddy
or mommy, where does God live? And you try to figure out a way
to answer them this truth. Where does God live? In our text
this evening, Ephesians chapter two, verses 19 through 22, We read about a place that's
called the household of God. The household of God. That's my subject tonight. But
before we get to our text, it is needful for me to deal plainly
with some things that need to be dealt with in this age of
spiritual ignorance and horrible idolatry. promoted by folks who
ought to know better. People these days who profess
faith in Christ seem to worship at the altar of luck or chance
or something worse. I have one very dear to me. Every
time she starts to say something, she'll knock on wood. And I want to
say, are you worshipping the wood? Because that's the reality
of it. That's the reality of it. And
this first time I get a chance to do so in private, I'll ask
her that. Are you worshipping wood? People
have the idea that somehow there's something that can be made to
be spiritual or holy. about carnal ordinances of religious
worship. They somehow had the idea that
a building like this is a holy place, or that this auditorium
is a sanctuary, or that this desk is a holy desk. Judging
by the language of most people about religious things, The sparrows
who build their nest in church steeples would be considered
holy things, because that's where they stay all the time. In the
Old Testament, God had physical symbols. physical pictures, physical
places used by divine order and by divine decree for the purpose
of representing spiritual things in Jesus Christ our Lord. In
the Old Testament, there was a place called the tabernacle.
You remember when it was finished? God's glory so filled that place
visibly that Moses couldn't stay in there. the mercy seat in the
Holy of Holies overshadowing the broken law or the angels
overshadowing the mercy seat that mercy seat covering God's
broken law in the Ark of the Covenant there between the cherubs
where the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat picturing atonement
by Christ picturing the putting away of our sins by the sacrifice
of Christ the Shekinah glory of God dwelt there dwelt there
There, God said, I'll meet you on the mercy seat between the
cherubs. And God's glory dwelt in that place. When the tabernacle
was moved aside and Solomon built the temple, then all the magnificence
and glory of that physical structure was just outstanding. And then
the temple was destroyed. and was rebuilt a second time.
So the second temple was built and you'll remember that the
old men who were alive during the days of the first temple
were a little downcast because that second temple was nowhere
near as grand, as large, as glorious in outward appearance as was
the first temple. But the Lord God said by his
prophet, The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the
glory of the former house. And that seemed to contradict
things because God was talking about something spiritual, not
carnal. He was talking about the coming
of Christ and Christ appearing in the temple in human flesh.
And now the glory of God is right there in that latter house. That's
really insignificant now because Christ has come. You understand
that? All of those Old Testament pictures
All of those Old Testament carnal ordinances, all of those Old
Testament carnal furnishings in the tabernacle and in the
temple, all the sacrifices, all the priesthood represented that
which is spiritual and that which is fulfilled in Christ Jesus
the Lord and in the gospel of his grace. Listen to our Savior's
words. Believe me, he said to the Samaritan
woman, The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain,
nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour cometh,
and now is, when true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. God seeks people to worship Him
in spirit and in truth. and all who truly worship God
worship him in spirit and in truth. We are the circumcision
which worship God in spirit and have no confidence in the flesh
and rejoice in Jesus Christ the Lord. The father seek as such
to worship him. God that made the world and all
things therein seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth
not in temples made with hands. This building, I am guilty. I am guilty. I live in this world
where folks use language I pick up too. I sometimes, I often
say, I shouldn't say sometimes, I commonly say to my wife, I'm
going over to the church. There ain't nobody here. Just
this building. Just this building. This is not
the church. Now, this is. This body of believers here,
this is the church of the living God. We make almost papist idolatry
out of religious things, and we ought not do so. I recall
several years ago, when my daughter was working at Central Baptist
Hospital there, they acquired the property of Central Baptist
Church. You remember the church building
down there? And they couldn't tear it down. Doug had the job
of tearing the thing down and building a parking lot or whatever
they were going to build over there. He had the job of tearing that
thing down. And they couldn't tear it down until they got somebody
to come in from headquarters and desanctify the place. My daughter, she's got a little
bit of me in her, she said somebody there said, my dad will take
the job. And I'd have been glad to do so. Desanctify the place? Make it now which was once holy,
unholy, so you can make a parking lot out of it. That is nothing
but idolatry and superstition. Let us seek the grace of God
always to avoid thinking in such terms. But does the Word of God
tell us of any place where God is, where God dwells? Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
2. Ephesians 2 and verse 19. Now therefore ye are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together. I love those words, I'll get
to them in a minute. All the building fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are
builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Now, the doctrine of God in this
text is very clear. The church of Jesus Christ is
God's habitation through the Spirit. The church of Jesus Christ
is God's habitation through the spirit. Let's look at these four
verses. And I want to show you three
things in these four verses. Number one, verse 19. And this needs to be stressed
in central Kentucky more probably than anywhere else in the world.
All true believers. All true believers. are members of the household
of God. I should, I suppose, answer this
question. Folks ask, what is the church? There are many who claim to be
exclusively the church of God. Papists, of course, claim that
the church of Rome is the true church. If there's ever been
any whore church in the world, it's the Roman church. But her
no worse than any others. The Campbellites, they call themselves
Church of Christ, they affirm that they alone are the true
church. Russellites, Jehovah Witnesses,
claim that they alone are the true church. Mormons claim that
they alone are the true church of Jesus Christ. And regrettably,
in central Kentucky and Tennessee, this part of the world, There
are a large number of Baptists who spell Baptists with a great
big capital B and they insist that they alone are the true
church and at that only certain kinds of Baptists. The fact is
each of those groups make the fatal mistake of thinking that
the trueness of the church is to be seen in things carnal and
physical, not spiritual. The foundation for those churches
is history, not a person. Do you get the difference? The
foundation of those churches is history, not a person. Among
landmark Baptists, those folks who think that Baptist church
is the only true church and they trace their lineage all the way
back to the days of John the Baptist, there's a book that's
very, very popular, written by an Armenian who didn't know the
gospel from buttermilk. And it's called the trail of
blood. And now you talk about a warped
piece of history. It is twisted and warped and
bent and shaped. It's a worse job twisting history
than the papist ever thought about doing to try to prove something. And they based the whole of their
church doctrine on that warped history. The trueness of things
spiritually has one foundation. And that foundation is not a
creed or a confession of faith or an event in history. It is
a person. And that person is Jesus Christ
the Lord. The church of Jesus Christ is
not a denomination. It is certainly not a physical
building. The church consists of all those
people whose names were written in the book of God's eternal
election called the Book of Life of the Lamb. Those men and women
who were purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ and those who
are the called of Jesus Christ by His Spirit and given life
and faith in Him. Do you mean, preacher, that you're
saying that all who are saved are in the church? Well, yeah.
That's what I'm saying. All who are saved are part of
the church. All who are born of God are part
of the church. All who trust Christ are members
of his body. All who are chosen of God were
chosen in Christ. In Christ. Many, many years ago,
Brother Daniel Parks' dad was my pastor, Brother E.W. Parks.
I have high regard for him. And he tried to convince me of
the landmark doctrine. And I said to him, I said, Brother
Parks, Was Abraham chosen in Christ? And he said, well, yes. I said, if he was chosen in Christ,
when did he get out of Christ? Abraham was in Christ, a part
of his body, a part of his church, a member of Jesus Christ, and
so it is with all who are gods. We are all members of one body,
and that's the body of Christ. The Lord Jesus, we're told in
Acts 20 or 28, purchased the church with his own blood. That's
not talking about a local church. That's talking about all those
for whom Christ died. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
one who promised, who tells us he loved the church and gave
himself for it, that he might sanctify it and present it to
himself a spotless church, a holy church, an unblameable church.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Look at verse
22. When you read scripture, always
try to carefully read the scripture as it is given in its context
in the very tense of the words that are used. What is this? Hebrews chapter 12, verse 22.
Ye shall come unto Mount Zion. Anybody have a Bible that reads
like that? I'm not talking about something that's going to happen
in the new heavens and new earth, something's going to happen when
you die, something's going to happen someday. No, no. But ye
are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God. What
on earth is he talking about? He's talking about us gathered
here right now tonight to worship God. When we come to this place
and come together in the spirit of God, Merle, we don't just
come here to worship at a material altar. We come together with
God's saints around the altar of God, Jesus Christ, the Lord
in heaven itself. Is that what the book says here? Ye are come unto Mount Zion and
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. and to
an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly in church
of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God, the judge
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to
Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of
sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. We
now have come, if we have come together by the Spirit of God,
If we have come together by the work of God, if we've come together
in the name of Jesus Christ, we have come together to God
on his throne with all the saints of God worshiping at his throne. We were all once strangers to
the household of God. Under the Old Testament economy,
all Gentiles were strangers to the household of God, and all
men and women by nature are strangers to the spiritual house. We were
like all others, dead in sin, walking in the course of this
world under the dominion of sin and of Satan, and were by nature
children of wrath, even as others. We lived all the days of our
lives aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the
covenants of promise. But here the Apostle Paul, having
stated those things, moves delightfully to turn our minds and our attention
away from what we once were to what we now are and what we realize
God has done for us by his grace in Jesus Christ. You who were
strangers and foreigners and aliens, you Have you ever been
someplace where you just knew you weren't part of it? You just
didn't really belong there. You didn't really belong there.
I recall many years ago down in Kingston, Jamaica, and Brother
Aaron left me in a section of town in Kingston that was pretty
rough, and he didn't realize it. I was a pretty good-sized
fella, I realized that I could be in a peck of trouble in no
time because I just didn't belong there. I just didn't belong there. And you don't dare go to any
door. You don't dare go down any street
because you just don't belong there. That's the way we were
by nature. But now, now, we are members
of the household of the royal family of God, members
of the household of God. The Lord Jesus has torn down
the wall that separated us from God. He's removed the mountain
of our sins by his precious sin-atoning blood. He's broken down the law
that was against us by his sacrifice, and he's removed the wall of
our unbelief by his grace. But that's not all. The Lord
Jesus, by his grace, has removed the wall that separated us from
one another. One of the sweetest words in
the English language is that word brethren. Brethren. Brethren. I never had a physical brother.
I had three sisters, but I never had a brother. And somehow or
another, I just know, dear as those sisters may be to me, somehow
or another, I know I just miss something, not having a brother.
There's something special about that link between brethren. But
in Christ Jesus, we who are gods are brethren. And in this text,
Ephesians 2, 19, God the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to use this
very endearing term to describe God's church. We are called the
household of God. What can that mean? As the household
of God, we are the place of his rest. If there's any place in the world
where I can rest, right back there across the driveway. Generally, by the time I go home
at night, once I walk in the door and put my feet on that
easy stool, I might get up if I just sat down. But once I sat
down and put my feet on that easy stool, she's not likely
to get much more out of me. That's where I am until time
to go to bed. I just rest, rest. where work ceases and there you
can rest because the work is accomplished. This place is the
place of Jehovah's rest. And we're told in Isaiah 11,
his rest is glorious. His rest is his glory as the
household of God with a place of his delight. A man's house
is the place where he reveals himself. There he sets his children
on his lap, hugs them up to his chest, takes them to his heart,
and reveals the depths of his love. There he opens his heart. There he tells out his secrets. There he makes his plans and
purposes known. As the household of God, we're
the center of all that God does. The singular object of all his
work and of all his care. If we are God's household, will
he not defend, protect, and preserve us? Oh, my soul, cast all your
care on him who careth for you. Last week down in Rocky Mountain,
Brother Bruce Crabtree told us about a fellow he knew who on
the bus line laid our manager of the bus line, and there was
a lady on the bus one day, one of those where you stand up and
hold on to the straps, and she was standing there for a good
while holding her bag. It was apparently heavy, heavy
bag. And she'd stand and hold it for
a little while in this hand, then she'd put it in this hand and hold
on like this, and then she'd switch again, put it in that.
She did it about half a dozen times. The fellow standing beside
her said to her, lady, if you'll set that bag down on the floor
there, this bus can carry it. All children of God cast your
heavy burden on him who cares for you. He who is God our father
will defend, protect, and provide for his own all the days of our
lives. What trouble we make for ourselves
in this world of darkness and woe. We fret about so many things
that matter nothing. All the cities all the states
and all the nations of this world. I chose my words deliberately. All the cities, all the states,
and all the nations of this world are just a mist. Just a mist. Just a vanishing vapor. All of
them together are described by God as being less than the small
dust of the balance, less than a drop in a bucket, less than
nothing, less than vanity. And for these things, we fret
and fight and war and die. Would to God. Would to God, by
his grace, we might be as zealously affected. We ought to be infinitely
more zealously affected by heaven and eternity as we are by these
things that are nothing. Nothing, just nothing. Here, the apostle is describing
a holy city, a holy nation whose builder and maker is God. The
New Jerusalem, the Heavenly Jerusalem, the Israel of God, the Church
of the Living God. Ours is an inheritance that's
eternal. In a city with gates of pearl,
walls of jasper, and streets of gold. The Church of God is
the household of God. And ours is the citizenship of
that household, a citizenship in heaven. in the household of
God. In the household of God, we live
in sweet communion and fellowship with the father and with his
son, the Lord Jesus. We're not strangers, but living
constantly upon the love of God. the person of his son, the glory
of his son, the Lord Jesus, and the renewing influences of his
spirit so that we live constantly upon our God. Well, might we
cry out as Hawker did. I read this today, I thought
it was fantastic. He said, Oh, the felicity even now of an heir
of heaven, all the glory that soon shall be revealed. We who
are gods, are the household of God, the household of God. Second, we're taught in verses
20 and 21 that the church is built upon Jesus Christ as its
only foundation. Look at verse 20. And are built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed
together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. Our foundation
is not the apostles and prophets. The Church of God is not built
on Peter or any other man. The Church of God is not built
on John the Baptist or any other man. The Church of God is not
built on John Calvin or any other man. And it's certainly not built
on those drag queens in Rome. The church of God is built upon
the doctrine of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself. Did you get that? On this rock, our Savior said,
I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. On this rock, talking about himself.
The foundation of the apostles and prophets is Jesus Christ
himself. They taught and believed the
same doctrine we teach and believe. Ruined by the fall, redemption
by the blood, regeneration by the Holy Ghost. We are all built
upon the same foundation. And that foundation is Christ,
the only foundation. He is the foundation of his church
in all ages and the only foundation there is. We don't build ourselves
on the foundation. We're built on the foundation.
Faithful men, if you read 1 Corinthians chapter 3, build upon this foundation
by the preaching of the gospel. Gospel preachers don't build
God's church with the wood, hay, and stubble. of philosophy and
entertainment and stuff. Stuff. I went to Bible colleges that
were well-known for evangelism, and we were taught how to build
big churches. You do things a certain way. You canvass places. You go to
this place, that place, and you do certain things. And you can
build a church. And you know what you can do?
I'll tell you what you can do. If you work at it, you can build
a church. You can do it. All you got to do is work at
it. I don't mean you have to study, you just got to work.
Just work at it. You can build a church with wood,
hay, and stubble. Entertaining people, giving folks
what they want. I recall some years ago, I don't
even know the name of the church, some church up in Chicago in
the belt going around there. Years before they went there
and built it they had a crew went through the whole area and
asked folks I'm just took a canvas had us did a survey had a list
of things. What would you like to have in a church? What would
you like to have in a church? And I heard one of the preachers.
I heard him with my own ears. He said we uh, we just gave him
what they wanted We just gave him what they wanted. You can
do that. You can do that but God's servants build his church
with the gold, silver, and precious stones of the gospel. Now I know
lots of folks seem to think that won't get the job done. That
alone will get the job done. Everything else is wood, hay,
and stubble, and sooner or later you're going to watch it burn.
Everything else. Everything else. We build God's
house by the preaching of the gospel. But it is God himself
who by the preaching of the gospel builds us upon the foundation,
Jesus Christ, the foundation he laid in Zion before the world
was. Christ is the foundation upon
whom we are built. He's the basis, the foundation
of our faith. He's the undergirding, the foundation,
the basis of our righteousness. He's the foundation of all comfort,
the foundation of all hope. the foundation stone that supports
his church, the chief cornerstone upon which that church is joined
together and which determines the formation of that church.
Christ is the tried foundation and the sure foundation. The
household of God, the church of God, is here described as
a building of the Lord. We are built upon Christ by God
himself. Now this is what that means.
God drew the plans for the house before ever the world was. He
chose every stone for his building. Jesus Christ purchased and purified
the stones which the Father had chosen. And God the Holy Spirit
goes to the quarry and cuts out the stones. He breaks them out
of the rock bed of fallen humanity with the law and he forms them
into the proper shape by the gospel. and places them in his
kingdom by omnipotent grace. Hold your hands here and turn
back to the book of 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 6. 1 Kings chapter 6. There is never the sound of a
saw or a hammer in the building of God. Never the sound of a
saw or a hammer. You remember in Exodus chapter
20 right after God gave the law to Moses. He said, if you worship
me, you worship me on an altar of earth. Not an altar that you
make out of wood. And if you worship me on an altar
of stones, it must be an altar where there's no steps going
up to it, but just an altar where you can go up without your nakedness
being exposed. It must not be an altar of human
stone. Why is that? Because your works can't enter
into the worship of God. Look here, 1 Kings 6, verse 7.
It's talking about the building of the temple. And the house,
when it was building, was built of stone made ready before it
was brought thither. 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 stones. were cut and fitly joined together. Fitly joined together. I don't know how to sufficiently,
properly, adequately stress this to you and to everybody who hears
my voice. Every stone in the building needs
all the rest. Every stone in the building needs
all the rest. Otherwise, everything is out
of joint. Everything is out of joint. Every
now and then, no, not every now and then, everywhere I go, I
meet with stones that are out of joint. And they're easy to
spot. They're easy to spot. They've
got opinions and questions and questions and opinions. Opinions
and questions and questions and opinions. And ask questions. Ask, I had a fellow just the
other day ask me, and he'll probably hear this and get upset, but
that's all right, I've already upset him. He said, he said, I want to ask
you a question. I know already what I believe, I just want to
hear what you've got to say. I have no point in me telling you what
I've got to say. I'm going to answer your question. I'm going
to stand here and argue about what I believe. Well, where does
he go to church? Nowhere. How come? Because that's what he wants.
That's what he wants. Nowhere. Because that's what
he wants. He doesn't need anybody. He doesn't need anybody. Doesn't
need a pastor, doesn't need a teacher, doesn't need a preacher, and
he sure doesn't need another stone to rub against. Now understand
me. Jonathan, you've got to have
me to rub against. And Bill, you've got to have
Bobby to rub against. And Bobby's got to have Mark
to rub against. So we knock off the rough edges
one another and you fit together. You fit together. I've said this
to you just recently, it's worth repeating. I get questions all
the time. All the time folks write to me
or call me and want to ask questions. I'll tell you what I have never,
never observed in 45 years pastoring. I've never had it happen. I've
never found a man or a woman who regularly sat under a faithful
gospel ministry who ask a lot of questions. How come? Because a faithful pastor deals
with the questions in context of scripture and you learn. You
got that? They're fitly joined together.
As Christ is the only foundation of the household of God, he's
the only door by which we can enter the house. You come into
that house one of two ways. Actually, you come in both ways.
You come in by birth, born into the kingdom, and you walk in
by faith, but you enter in by Christ the door. The church,
the household of God, is also described here as God's holy
temple. Look at verse 21. A holy temple
in the Lord. A holy temple in the Lord. Look what God has made us to
be by his mercy Love and grace. Oh, my soul, rejoice and sing. We are by the power and grace
of God built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, our Lord, built
as the temple of God. The place of God's dwelling. That's the third thing. In whom
you also are building together a house of God and a temple of
God, for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. Built together. Built together. This is what
we profess in our baptism. We profess in our baptism righteousness
fulfilled by the obedience of Jesus Christ our Lord unto death. We confess in our baptism identity
with Christ and his gospel in newness of life walking with
him. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. In our baptism, in our baptism,
we confess not only our union with Christ, but our union with
his people. Look at verse 12, 1 Corinthians
12. In this chapter, Paul begins to talk about spiritual gifts.
And it says, as the body is one and hath many members, and all
the members of that one body being many are one body, so also
is Christ. Now, verse 13. For by one spirit
are we all baptized into one body. And we're made to drink
of that one spirit. We're baptized into the family
of God. Baptized into the body of Christ. All who are saved by the grace
of God are one body in Christ. all who are saved. We have a terrible, terrible,
terrible, terrible practice of which I dare say everybody here
is more guilty than not, including the one talking to you. When
we find something disagreeable in a man or a woman, we just,
well, he needs to be saved. He's lost. And I know one reason for it
is this. It's much easier to deal with
Mark Henson as a lost man who's hard to get along with than as
a brother in Christ who's hard to get along with. Much easier. That lost man, I
preach the gospel to him and pray for him and leave him alone.
That brother I've got to live with and get along. That brother gotta live with
and get along. Now hear me, all who are in Christ
are one body in Christ. Everywhere in the world. Everywhere
in the world. When I first came to be your
pastor, I started pressing the issue early. As a body of believers,
our responsibility is much bigger than what you see inside these
four walls. Our responsibility is the church
and kingdom of God throughout the world in our day. So that
wherever there's a need, wherever there's something that can be
done and we can do it, that's our privilege and that's our
responsibility. And that's true of all God's
people. And all the men and women of any local assembly is one
body in the Lord. One body. That which is true of the church
universal is especially true of the church local. Lindsay,
we are one body, one family in Jesus Christ. I do this deliberately in public
prayer and talking. I do it deliberately and I pray,
I'm sincere when I tell you that I do it privately. When I speak
or think of your children, I speak and think of our children, our
sons and daughters, ours. We're one family, one body. The name of God's church is Corpus
Christi, the body of Christ. One body, Christ is the head. We're members of one another.
There should never be any division in the body. We all have our
proper place to feel in the body. Not everybody's hand, not everybody's
foot, not everybody's head. We all have our place. Some have
this gift, some have others. Each his or her place in the
body. We should tenderly sympathize
with our brother's needs and help whenever we can, wherever
help is needed. And we should esteem one another
very highly in love for Christ's sake. Walking in love as members
of the same family, the same body. Forgiving one another,
forbearing one another, in love for Christ's sake. Each congregation is built together
for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. So when we come together, Paul
says you are the temple of God. The temple of God. The Spirit
of God dwells in you. This is the place where God meets
with his family. This is the place where God speaks
to his family. This is the place where God feeds
and instructs his family. This is a habitation of God through
the spirits. Where the spirit of God is, that's
the church of God. What we need is God. What we need is God, the Holy
Spirit, in our midst. What we need is the triune God
to visit us every time we come together. He has promised, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them. This is the household of God.
Treat it like that. And when you come to the house
of God, come expecting to meet with God. Come bringing the spirit
of God with you. Come asking God to speak to you. This is the house of God. Take
care of it. Take care of your brothers. Take
care of your sisters. Take care of one another. And
soon. Oh, what glory. what glory awaits
this house. I'm confident the apostle, when
he wrote to the Ephesians, had in his mind the picture of that
wonder of the world in Ephesus called the Temple of Diana. It was a temple built to the
dunghill god idol, Diana, one of the seven wonders of the world.
And Paul's saying to the children of God, you're the household. You're the household of God,
and soon this household shall be presented whole there, unblameable
and unreprovable. I think I can see the heavenly
multitude. Mary, Manasseh, David, Rahab,
the dying thief. Can you see them? Let me help
you. Hail sacred day that shall declare
the jewels of the son of God, designed to deck his crown they
were, chosen of old and bought with blood. To make salvation
free and full, Mary adorns Christ's diadem. Her crimson stains are
white as wool. She signs a bright, distinguished
gem. Manasseh too, through sovereign
grace, was not in Satan's den to lie. but in this crown to
fill his place and raise the Savior's triumph high. There
David shines without a stain. Uriah's blood shall ne'er be
known, for like a millstone in the sea, all his black transgressions
are thrown. Rahab the harlot, that fair stone,
sank not in Tophet's endless flame, When Jesus conquered for
his own, his coronet contained her name. The dying thief, behold
him too, this matchless diadem adorner, a pearl of no inferior
hue, though from the gloomy gibbet torn. No wanting gem, no absent
stone, shall e'er be seen when Christ appears. Each in his place
about his crown shall beam and shine to endless years. We are made the household of
God. The household of God built upon
the foundation of Jesus Christ himself. Oh, may God be pleased
to build you on this foundation. And may God be pleased ever to
build us together on this foundation to adore the glory of His grace
and adorn the crown of His grace on His head. Amen.