God’s Construction Project, Part 4

picking up again in a passage
that you only thought I was done with. I did actually, and probably
even a bit of cowardice, actually contemplate not preaching this
and just kind of rolling it into the passage that is in front
of us. And the more I began to study and meditate on this passage,
the more it drew me in, it would not let me go. There is a profound
message here, and I hope that at the end of the day today that
you will agree. Today, we want to look at the
blueprint of the structure that we have been considering. We
acknowledged several weeks ago when we entered into this passage
that God has begun a building program far beyond anything that
man has ever attempted. God is the one that has undertaken
this building program called the church. It’s God’s construction
project. here encompassed in 1 Peter 2,
verse 4 and following. And the whole passage is meant
to be an encouragement to believers. I hope it is. I hope it has been. I want to go back. Let’s pick up the passage in
its entirety, beginning in verse 4. We’ll carry it through, and
then we’ll jump back and deal with this passage at hand, verse
6. 1 Peter 2, beginning in verse 4. And coming to Him as to a living
stone, rejected by men but choice and precious in the sight of
God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual
house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained
in Scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice
stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in Him shall
not be disappointed. This precious value, then, is
for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve,
the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very
cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. For they
stumble because they are disobedient to the word and to this doom
they were also appointed. But you are a chosen race, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. that you may proclaim the excellencies
of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light. For you were once not a people,
but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.” God’s in the midst of a construction
project. And if you remember the context,
Peter had told us all about salvation in chapter one. He even told
us after all the grand themes of salvation were dealt with,
what ought to be our response. Remember, we ought to respond
to God. We ought to live accordingly. The sad reality, not only for
the first century Christians, but for each of us, we realize
that we don’t. We can’t. It’s difficult. In fact, it’s even impossible
on our own strength. And that’s why 1 Peter 2 opens
to His Word, pointing us back to His Word as the source of
strength, the source of grace, the means of grace, if you will,
for us to be able to go and to draw from so that we can live
the life that God has called us to. But Peter didn’t want
to just give some platitude and make people turn there as if
that was all that there was to this Christian life. But Peter
points to the fact here in this passage that we are a work of
God. That it isn’t a matter of us
working up energy and trying harder. It’s a matter of realizing
what God has already begun in and through us. and calling on
His grace to rise to the occasion. We looked at this passage in
full. I’m just going to give it a very cursory look as we
review. We looked at the foundation of
the structure and it is none other than Jesus Christ, who
is the living stone. We’ll touch upon that here in
a moment. But it said in verse four, coming to him as to a living
stone. And this coming we saw was a
perpetual coming. It’s not talking about your initial
repentance. It’s not talking about that moment
that you placed your faith in Christ. It is a perpetual coming. You come to him and you abide
on him. You are not removed from him. Because he is the living stone,
he’s the one that gave you life. We’ll come back. to that image
of Christ as the stone momentarily. But secondly, not only the foundation
of this structure, as we considered the grand building project of
God, but we looked at the materials of the structure. And we’ve already
acknowledged that it’s us, it’s you and I. Look at verse five.
You also, as living stones, are being built up. We are part of
this great edifice that God is building called the church. You
and your giftedness. Exactly how God has made you
to be. He is building you into this
structure called the church. You don’t need to wait. You don’t
need to do anything to get in. God, by virtue of the fact that
you have placed your faith in Christ, is going to use you,
is going to build you into this Great wall. We are the materials for this
building project. We are the living stones that
are mentioned there. Look at the purpose of the structure.
The third little reminder, the point, the purpose of the structure
is that we are to be a spiritual house. You also, as living stones,
verse five, are being built up as a spiritual house. This isn’t
a literal structure. We’re not building a building
that is going to supersede the great and gaudy building on the
West Coast, the Crystal Cathedral. We’re not setting about to do
that at all. It’s a spiritual building that God is building.
It’s not ever going to be seen with the human eye. It’s not
meant to impress men’s minds or bring us to some kind of humility
at the mere sight of it. It’s not that way at all. It’s
a spiritual building that God is building and he’s using each
one of us building into that. Fourthly, we saw not only the
foundation of the structure, We saw the materials of the structure. We saw the purpose of the structure.
It’s a spiritual house. And fourthly, we saw the servants
of the structure. And this is the one that we had
to pause and take, I don’t know, two or three weeks and look at
what what is meant there by priesthood when it says that we are a holy
priesthood. And here, if you get all hung
up in images and those kinds of things, you’re going to have
a difficult time because we are not only the living stones being
built into this wall, but we are the occupants. We are the
priesthood that occupies this spiritual house for a spiritual
function. Look at verse five again. You
also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house
for a holy priesthood to offer up sacrifices acceptable to God.
We dispelled a lot of misunderstandings about that. We are not like the
Old Testament priesthood. We don’t bring in animal sacrifices
anymore. Our sacrifice has been made in
full for all sinners in our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no need
of any literal animal sacrifice anymore. No more offering for
sin at all. But we are priests and priests
bring a sacrifice and we found that out. And there is a sacrifice
that we do bring. We looked in full at this over
the last couple of weeks. We bring our worship. That’s
one of the first things we bring, but before we bring our worship,
we bring ourselves. Remember, we bring our heart
and soul and mind and strength. We bring everything within us
and we lay it at the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ by a great
initial act of worship. That is our repentance. That
is our faith in Christ. That is our absolute commitment
of everything in us. dedicated to Him. Romans 12.1
was our text. Present your bodies as a living
and holy sacrifice. We’re to bring our entire selves
before God in a commitment to Him. Not only that, but once
having done that, we bring our worship. We can’t bring worship
until we’ve repented. We can’t bring worship until
we’ve brought our entire selves and laid it at the feet of Christ.
Pointless to make animal sacrifices and to burn incense and to sing
songs and to pray to God. Pointless until we’ve repented. But once we’ve repented, it’s
our very function to bring Him worship. Hebrews 13, through
Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips
to give thanks to His name. God wants to hear from us. Once
God’s grace has touched us and we’ve come to faith in Christ,
He wants us to praise Him. It was a third thing that we
bring as priests to God. We bring our service. See, most
people forgot all about this aspect of worship. That when we serve, that is an
act of worship. That is what we do as priests.
To come in before God and to serve someone else. That’s what
Paul said. The text we considered was Philippians
2, 17. Even if I’m being poured out
as a drink offering, that’s the imagery that Paul uses. The sacrificial
offering that was poured out on the altar, Paul said, that’s
me in your service, the sacrifice and service of your faith. And
we said. If a few of us. A handful of us began to really
function like that, to know that everything that we did was as
a sacrifice offering to God in gratitude for all that He’s done.
What a transforming mentality would would course its way through
the church. I would even go so far as to
say it already has begun. Not only ourselves, not only
our worship, not only our service, but we saw that as priests, we
bring our material goods. I purposely avoid what Dick Moroff
calls giving the sermon on the amount. Somebody asked me one
time how often I preach such sermons, and I said no more often
than they’re in the text. And this one’s in the text. This
is one of the things we bring. Paul cited that in Philippians
4, 18, where he was often going from town to town, not only caring
about the gospel of Christ, which is a great and glorious ministry,
well worthy of support, but he was also doing relief effort.
And he acknowledged the Philippians who repeatedly and the Macedonians
who had over and over again supported his ministry. Paul said of it,
Philippians 4.18, I’ve received everything in full. I have an
abundance. I am amply supplied. Having received. If it hadn’t
been for that gift, Paul is in want. Amply received. Having received from Epaphroditus
what you have sent, a fragrant aroma. Acceptable to God. Well pleasing. An acceptable
sacrifice. Paul uses the image of the altar
And he says, it is as if you have laid your thank offerings
on the altar of God and the aroma of those, the beautiful, sweet
smelling aroma goes up to God. That wasn’t even the last gift
that we bring. The last one was our prayers,
not only ourselves and our worship and our service and our giving,
but our prayers. Did you ever look at your prayer
life that way? We challenged that several weeks ago. What
a radical transformation would be true if we knew that our prayers
ascended like a fragrant aroma to God. Wouldn’t you pray more?
Don’t you want to please God? Don’t you want God to derive
some enjoyment out of your existence? Pray. What a simple equation
that is. And that’s our review. We’ve
seen the foundation. We’ve seen the materials of the
structure. We’ve seen the purpose of the structure. We’ve looked
at the occupants of the structure. We are priests bringing offerings
to God and we have to look at the blueprint. Where did God
get this blueprint for this building? Where else? But from his eternal
counsels dictated in the Old Testament. Look at the quote there in verse
6, where Peter just says, this isn’t me. I’m not making up some
neat new illustration. Don’t commend me for my flowering
words. Don’t commend me because I’ve
come up with this really cool illustration about what God’s
doing in the world. Because I didn’t make it up.
For this is contained in Scripture. All I did was read the Bible
and there it was. And all Peter is doing is embellishing
upon that by virtue of the Holy Spirit. Behold, I lay in Zion
a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in him shall
not be disappointed. It is a loose quote, as you will
see in a moment, and I don’t want you to lose You know, your
salvation or your sanctification over this. It is a paraphrase,
if you will, of the Old Testament passage. In fact, some suggested
that perhaps he was quoting from the Septuagint. Remember, the
Hebrew scriptures at a certain point were translated into Greek. And as they were translated,
there was a little bit of a transition there. There was a little bit
of a difference in some of the wording that shouldn’t cause
us to lose our faith. Some people suggested that maybe
Peter here was quoting from the Septuagint, but he’s not even
doing that. And that shouldn’t cause you
to lose faith either, as I’ll share in a moment. Peter just
kind of alludes to this verse in general. He quotes part of
it. Some of it he quotes verbatim and other things he just seems
to allude to. The quote, as I said, is a loose
paraphrase of Isaiah chapter 28. And for your help, what I’ve
done, if you’re looking at the notes in the text, there’s a
little box dropped in there, right? And that is the quote
from Isaiah. And you will see that there are
some. I mean, I wouldn’t take the liberty personally to drop
some of these words out because you do lose some of the flavor.
But Peter, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, felt that the gist of
what he was getting at was there. We’ll pick up the passage in
its entirety. But look at Isaiah, look at the
little text box there. Therefore, thus says the Lord,
behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone. It’s a certain
particular kind of stone. In addition to the to the adjectives
that are already added in there, a costly cornerstone for the
foundation. In the original, Isaiah even
laid out the specific purpose of this stone. As if we don’t
already have it in the cornerstone, the word there giving us some
detail. And he notes here that it is
a foundation firmly placed. You’ll see here in a moment that
that is a it’s a play on word. It is a foundational foundation. He who believes in it will not
be disturbed. And you may be disturbed reading
that because you say, well, that’s substantially different than
what Peter quotes. You know, I don’t know what version
Peter was using. Don’t panic. The context of the
passage, I want to go back to Isaiah, turn there, if you would. We’re not going to read it in
full. We’re not. I’m just going to skip along the high points
here and touch upon a few things to kind of set the context. of
what was going on there when this verse was originally uttered.
The prophet here in verses 1-8 essentially warns the kingdom
of the ten tribes about the judgments that were coming upon them for
their sins. I mean, that’s the purpose of a prophet, right?
Gloom and doom and judgment and all those things. And then at
the very end, this glimmer of hope that is God. And so they’re being prophesied
this doom that was going to come about. They were soon after was
executed by the king of Assyria, who came in and took them captive
and just destroyed their country. And then in verses nine through
13, the prophet Isaiah here basically complains of the utter stupidity
of the people. That they were unteachable, that
they were stiff-necked, that they were thick-headed. They
made no improvement by the means of grace that they had by God’s
grace. They continued stubbornly, just
as they were. They never rectified their mistakes. Their hearts weren’t changed.
Their lives weren’t renewed. They just stayed where they were,
regardless of what God said to them. Isaiah goes on trying to awaken
them out of their sleep. And he tells them that what they’re
trusting in is so foolish and vain, so empty. And it isn’t
unlike even people of our own day and age who maybe trust in
their wealth or trust in their health Will they trust in their
own wisdom or in their own strength or in their own political strength
or in their own might, physical or otherwise? It’s not unlike
that. It’s exactly what these people
were. I’ve said it before. The one thing that frightens
me about our country now is we put so much faith, so much pride
in the strength and the weaponry that we have at our disposal
in the military. Whatever happened to pleading
and praying to God? That’s exactly what’s going on
here. The people that put their hope, their security in other
things and Isaiah calls them back. He says, don’t do that. Here’s where you need to place
your faith. This is where God is calling you. Isaiah 28 is essentially a prophecy
of against all of those who had a false ground of confidence.
These people were, in addition to being misguided, they were
arrogant. They were just sure that they were just fine the
way they were. I mean, don’t you meet those
people every day? I saw a bumper sticker the other
day. I was born right the first time.
I mean, how shocking is that? False grounds of confidence.
They desired to basically create this allegiance with Egypt as
a defense against the Assyrians. So they’re going to side up with
ungodly people to fight another ungodly group. And God says that
he’s laid a much more secure foundation for them. Pride, pardon
me, a tried, precious cornerstone and that those who trusted in
it would not be shaken. What a great promise. One Puritan said of this passage,
these words, he said, Isaiah now comforts the godly and threatens
against the wicked such punishment as they deserved. In the first
instance, he brings forward consolation because the godly were a laughingstock
to those crafty men. Do we know any different? Is
there any less temptation for us to trust in some wacky thing? To place our confidence in anything
other than our Lord Jesus Christ, there is. We see at the present
day, many irreligious men laugh at our simplicity. They reckon
us to be fools because amid such deep adversity and sore afflictions,
we still hope that it will turn out to our advantage. As Christianity
wanes in popularity, and you’ve seen it over the last few years, Those now, it’s almost like they
smell blood in the water. It will become increasingly unpopular
to name the name of Christ. It’s no different than here in
Isaiah’s day. And in opposition to this insolence
of the reprobate, the prophet encourages and supports the heart
of the godly to pass by with indifference and to reckon of
no account their jeers and reproaches and to believe firmly that their
hope will not be confounded and it will not be in vain. What
a great message this was, what a great passage it was, now you
see why I couldn’t get away from it. Isaiah here gives them the only
hope that there is. The hope of a Messiah. The hope
of one who is to come. And you know what? This passage
is so good that not only did Peter quote it, Paul quoted it.
Turn to Romans 9. Quick. Real quick. In Romans 9, Paul is dealing
with the Jews and dealing with their lack of faith. Dealing
with their rejection of Christ. And Paul ends up quoting this
same verse. Look at verse 32 of Romans 9. Why? Because they did not pursue
it by faith, but as though it were by works. They didn’t trust
Christ. They didn’t trust faith alone
in Christ alone as the means of salvation. I’ve got to bring
something. I’ve got to come with my works. They stumbled over the stumbling
stone just as it is written. And here, Paul, you talk about
Peter quoting loosely. Paul basically just mixes two
passages up together and rolls them out on the table. Behold,
I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And he
who believes in him will not be disappointed. Paul there tells His believers,
that the Jews had essentially done just that. They had done
exactly what Isaiah pleaded with them not to do. They placed their
confidence in something other than Christ, something other
than the Messiah. And they reaped the consequence. That’s the background. It’s the
background of Isaiah 28, but let’s look at the passage as
Peter quotes it. He’s quoting it in the context of this great
construction project, this spiritual structure that God is in the
process of building. And he uses it as I mean, this
isn’t unique with me. He uses it as pointing to the
blueprint of the structure. Where did he get this idea? Where
is this blueprint? It’s contained in Scripture.
Behold. And, you know, I was so tempted
to skip over this word. But I think I probably skipped
over it almost every time I’ve ever preached the passage with
it in it. Behold. And I know you’re shuddering.
You know what? I even contemplated preaching the entire message
today just on this word. Don’t think I wouldn’t. With the very first word of this
sentence, God calls us to attention. He says, and I used to listen
to Charles Stanley, and one of the devices that Charles Stanley
uses when he gets to a really important point, remember, have
you ever heard him? Listen, now listen. In a very real sense,
this is exactly what Isaiah does here. Behold, look, listen. The very first word of the sentence
God calls us to attention. To a special and specific attentiveness
to acknowledge, to observe, to wonder at a remarkable work of
God. You know what this first challenge
of this passage is? The sure foundation of Christ.
The awe of Christ. Whatever happened to our awe? Why should we have to be told
to behold Christ, to pause from our busy worlds, from all the
stuff that we’re engaged in, to pause and to fall on our knees
and to give Him awe? In fact, awesome, awesome has
become a word that we use to describe the latest version of
Slurpee, right? We don’t even know what awe is
anymore. We certainly don’t have time
to do it. There is nothing wrong. In fact,
I would even say it’s a means of worship to look on upon the
beauty, the fall that God’s given us. Emily and I were doing it
the other day, looking at the beautiful trees. I don’t even
remember a fall like this one where the trees are so bright
and yellow. To behold, to stop and to look. But is God content that we just
pause and look at trees? Doesn’t He want us to pause and
to reflect upon Christ and all that Christ has done? To think
about ourselves and to think about how wretched and hopeless
we were. And to think about Christ who,
while we were sinners, laid down His life for us. Behold. This word, behold, is used more
than 1,200 times in Scripture. I figured we could go through
each one this morning. Don’t tempt me. It is often used
of God calling our attention to something that He has done.
That’s most often how it’s used. Behold, look. In fact, in Jeremiah, you want
an interesting Bible study, just look at the behold, I am statements
almost 50 times. Behold, I am doing this. Behold,
I’m about to do that. Where God wants attention, He
wants you to look at what He’s doing or what He has done. And
it’s never more poignant than to what He’s done in Christ. I am going to go through a few
of these. Genesis 1.29 starts right at
the beginning. Then God said, behold, look about
you, Adam and Eve. I’ve given you every plant-yielding
seed. And He tells them to look at
the garden. In Genesis 6.17, God said, behold, I, Eve and
I, am bringing a flood of water upon the earth. God wants us
to see when He’s doing something Incredible and miraculous. Exodus
17, 6, Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock of Horeb
and you will strike the rock and water will come out of it.
God wanted Moses to pause and to look and to observe at the
mighty hand of God. Exodus 19, 9, The Lord said to
Moses, Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud. Exodus
20, behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard
the way and to bring you into the place I have prepared. God
wants us to pause and wants us to look. Exodus 34, 10, then
God said, behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all
your people, I will perform miracles which have not been produced
in all the earth nor among all the nations. God says, stop! Look! Listen! Numbers 18, Behold,
I myself have taken your fellow Levites. And it’s that way with
every juncture where God does something awesome. And here He’s
instituting the priesthood, a means of grace, a means of mediation
between sinful man and himself. Behold. Isaiah 7.14, and here’s
where it really starts to get good. Because now the focus turns
to the Messiah, the Redeemer. Therefore, the Lord Himself will
give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will be with
child, will bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
Isaiah 28. Behold, the Lord has a strong
and mighty agent, has a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction. Isaiah 32. Behold, a king will
reign righteously. And princes will rule justly.
Isaiah 40, verse 10, Behold, the Lord will come with might,
His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him
and recompense before Him. If there was anything in all
the world that God ever wanted us to pause from our busy, ridiculous
days and our mundane lives and to stop and to meditate on, it’s
Christ. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ and
all that He’s done and all that He is. Stop from our foolishness. Stop from all of our ridiculous
activities. And focus on Christ. Isaiah 42,
verse 1, Behold, My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one,
in whom My soul delights, I put My Spirit upon him. He will bring
forth justice to the nations. Look. Isaiah 43, behold, I will do
something new. Now it will spring forth. Will
you not be aware of it? Stop and look. That’s what makes me say, folks,
we’ve almost lost the ability to pause. Not only do we skip
over this word, we skip over the concept, we skip over the
practice. I would say that every time we
neglect the opportunity, to go before the Lord in some devotional
time. And I’m not going to tell you
how long or how many hours it’s got to be or how many verses
you’ve got to read, but go before the Lord and just meditate upon
Christ. Is there anything better? Anything? Isaiah 59, Behold, the Lord’s
hand is not so short that it cannot save. Isaiah 62 11, Behold,
the Lord has proclaimed the ends of the earth. Say to the daughter
of Zion, Lo, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him,
his recompense before him.” You know, it doesn’t stop there in
Isaiah. All of the minor prophets practically use this same concept. Joel 2.9, the Lord will answer
to His people, Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine and
oil. He wants them to see the magnanimous God that He is. Nahum. Behold, speaking specifically
of Christ. Behold, on the mountains, the
feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace. Zechariah
6.12, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, a man whose name is Branch,
for he will branch out from where he is. He will build the temple
of the Lord. And it carries forth right into
the New Testament. And you walk into the early chapters of Matthew,
Mark and Luke, and the same concept is carried forth. The same imagery.
Behold, I’m going to send my messenger. He will clear the
way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will
suddenly come to the temple. Matthew 1.23, Behold, the virgin
shall be with child and shall bear a son. Mark 1.2, Behold,
I will send my messenger ahead of you. Luke 1.31, Behold, you
will conceive and bear in your womb a son. Luke 2.10, The angels
said to them, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of a great
joy which shall be for all the people. And John the Baptist,
conducting his ministry there on the shores, saw Christ. He said, behold, the Lamb of
God who takes away the sins of the world. And you know what?
It carries on down to the very last chapter in the Bible. And it’s all about Christ. Behold,
Revelation 22, 12, I am coming quickly and my reward is with
me to render to every man according to what he is due. God wants
us to focus on Christ. And we’re focused on everything
but. We’re focused on all kinds of nonsensical, ridiculous stuff.
God says, pause for a minute. Take time to reflect on Christ. One Puritan said it this way,
the Lord is marvelous in the least of his works. I mean, isn’t
it fun to just kneel down sometimes and observe a bug, how it operates
and moves and ambulates from here to there and what color
it is and how it functions with other bugs? The Lord is marvelous
in the least of His works, but in this He has manifested more
of His wisdom and power and let out more of His love to mankind
than in all the rest. You think the fall trees are
beautiful? Look at Christ. Yet we are foolish. And we childishly gaze about
upon trifles and let this great work pass by unregarded. We scarcely afforded half an
eye. Turn your wandering eyes this
way. Look upon the precious stone and behold Christ, not in mere
speculation, but so behold Him as to lay hold of Him.” That’s
what Isaiah wanted. That’s what Peter wanted. That’s
what God wants. to look at Christ. And once you begin to look and
meditate upon Christ, you can’t help but fall on your knees in
repentance and in awe. Jesus Christ is the sure foundation. That’s what Peter was saying
in this passage. And in it, we see not only the
awe of Christ, but secondly, the divine work of Christ. The
divine work of Christ. Look at the passage again. This
is contained in Scripture. Behold, I lay a stone. That’s the simple sentence. I
lay a stone. The stone or the rock, the sure
foundation is laid by God Himself. That’s exactly what Peter intended
to communicate in this whole thing. This whole section is
about what God’s doing. It’s about how God is building
a structure and God is using you and I. And God has begun
something that he will continue. One old pastor said it this way,
this is a stone of the Lord’s laying, which he has been laying
in his eternal purposes and decrees as the mediator, savior and redeemer
of his people. and whom He was about to lay
by sending Him forth in the fullness of time to be incarnate, to suffer
and die.” God did it. They didn’t sneak up on Christ. They didn’t catch Him off guard.
This is exactly according to God’s plan. God did it. When
He says, I lay this stone, God declares it to be His own
work. And you know what? That theme is carried through
throughout Scripture. Psalm 118. The stone, same thing. The stone which the builders
rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s
doing. And it is marvelous in our eyes.
Isaiah 9, 7. There will be no increase. of
his government or of peace or on the throne of David and over
his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness
from then on and forevermore. And get this, the zeal of the
Lord of hosts will accomplish this. This is a program that
doesn’t depend on your faithfulness or my faithfulness or our inventiveness
or our creativity. This is the Lord’s doing and
he’s not going to stop. He’s not going to give up. He’s not going to run out of
steam or energy or interest. God is building his church and
he’s not going to quit. One Puritan said it this way,
it is not without good reason that Isaiah represents God is
speaking whose peculiar work is to found the church. As we
have already seen elsewhere, and as the prophet will afterwards
declare in this statement very frequently in the Psalms, for
if all men devote their labor to it, they will not be able
to lay the least stone. And he’s not telling you not
to exercise your giftedness, people. He’s saying adjust your
attitude, adjust your thinking, remember who’s doing the work.
It is God alone, he continues, therefore, who founds and builds
his church, though he employs for this purpose the labors and
services of men now by whom Christ was given, but by the Father.
So then it was the heavenly Father who did accomplish these things
and who appointed Christ to be the only foundation on which
our salvation rests. God did it. God laid the stone
of salvation, who is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ, as
we’ve seen. It is a mighty work of God that
He’s doing. And this blueprint contained
in the Old Testament prophecies is so rich. It’s so rich. And we’re but halfway. and we’ll have to pick it up
next time. May I challenge you just to stop
this week and cultivate awe. Cultivate awe in your life for
Christ. Can there be awe for anything
else? Can there truly be that dumbfounding sense of awareness
at viewing an object? Can there be anything that brings
awe to our mind other than the Lord Jesus Christ? There shouldn’t
be. Can I encourage you this week to stop and pause every
time that you can and focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ and all
that He’s done on your behalf? Let’s examine our hearts before
Him. Oh, merciful God. We thank you
so much for this passage, because just like those first century
Christians, we were somewhat disheartened, seeing the high
standard of what we had to live up to and how we were to respond.
That we were even to be holy as you are holy. Lord, even though
you pointed us to your word, we were still somewhat despondent
until we began to hear these words that you are doing the
work. You are building your church. Oh God, and you’re doing it all
upon the rock who is our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
be pleased to cultivate in each one of us a return to a biblical
awe of Christ and of what He’s done. Lord, help us by your grace to
focus upon your work in placing Christ as the means of salvation. Be glorified, we pray, as we
meditate on you. In Jesus name, Amen.