In 2 Corinthians, Paul says, “You are our letter, written not with ink on paper, but written on your hearts.”
We are considering the sapphire today. The jasper is the twelfth stone on the breastplate, representing Naphtali. Most reckon that the first foundation of the New Jerusalem is jasper, and that this was spoken of Peter. Most would agree with that.
In the city of New Jerusalem, the whole city wall is made of jasper. In Revelation 4, John saw the glory of God like a jasper stone.
Jasper symbolizes God’s deliverance. God delivers us to such an extent that we can have His character and be like Him. Jasper also represents satisfaction—how God satisfies us, so that today we can also satisfy our God.
Peter is such a one. Peter is one who has been saved, and in Christ he found satisfaction. God worked on him to such an extent that God Himself was satisfied in Peter.
Are we considering God as our satisfaction?
Really speaking, with men this is not possible, but with God it is possible. This is a wonderful, delivering salvation. We who originally were dust, God caused us to become like stones.
But God said, “It is not enough. I want to transform you into various and different kinds of precious stones, so that the glory of God may be manifested in the church.”
We thank and praise God. Let us bow our heads and pray.
O God, we worship You,
because Your will is indeed perfect,
because Your will is indeed glorious.
We worship You because how marvelous is Your work: You work according to Your satisfaction.
O Lord, we would be satisfied today if our sins were forgiven. We would be satisfied if we had Your life in us today. But You will not be satisfied even if we have Your life in us. Lord, we thank You because You are not satisfied with this alone.
You continue to work in us, so that what Christ has done could be done in us; so that we can truly be transformed and conformed to the likeness of Your Son; so that Your glory might be manifested.
We do not know why You did this, but we are going to say, “Lord God, You love us. We worship You.”
O God, as we come before You today, we are willing for You to transform us into precious stones—not for our own sake, but for Your glory. In the Lord Jesus’ name. Amen.
And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church;
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house,
to be a holy priesthood,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners,
but ye are fellow-citizens with the saints,
and of the household of God,
being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner stone;
in whom each several building, fitly framed together,
groweth into a holy temple in the Lord;
in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
All these were of costly stones,
even of hewn stone, according to measure,
sawed with saws, within and without,
even from the foundation unto the coping,
and so on the outside unto the great court.And the foundation was of costly stones,
even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits.And above were costly stones,
even hewn stone, according to measure, and cedar wood.And the great court round about had three courses of hewn stone,
and a course of cedar beams;
like as the inner court of the house of the Lord,
and the porch of the house.
Let us bow our heads and pray.
O Lord, indeed we praise and thank You that You have guided us even through this morning. We thank You for Your presence with us in the past few days. We believe that You are present with us this morning.
Because of Your presence, we realize that this is holy ground. Therefore, we need to remove our sandals and stand before You. You are God, and You are our Lord. You are worthy to speak to us. Your servants are listening.
May Your words pass from Your throne unto us. Through Your Holy Spirit, bring us into the reality of Your word. May You have all that You desire. We give You all the worship, praise, and adoration. In the Lord Jesus’ name. Amen.
We thank the Lord that He has brought us to this last full day of the conference. Tomorrow we have only a half day. We hope that the Lord will complete the work that He has not been able to accomplish in us today.
God never does anything incomplete. Whenever God works, He works through to completion. We hope that we can be coworkers with God.
We know that originally we were dust. Because of God’s salvation upon us, He enabled us, as men of dust, to become stones. Christ is the only Stone, but He has imparted His life into us so that we can become living stones.
As stones, we no longer live the life of Adam. This was our past history. But now that we live, it is no longer Adam who lives; it is the Lord who lives in us.
In Christ, we are dead to sin. In Christ, we are to live forever for God. We are people who live before God, and we live for God by the life of God.
We praise and thank God that He is not satisfied with just this. Our God is like a precious stone; He is full of glory. He wants to transform us, the living stones, into precious stones.
Not only did He give His life to us, but He wants to develop this life in us into character, so that we may be saved by His life and have not only His life but also His character. Then His glory might be manifested through us.
That is why Paul says in Romans 8 that those whom God foreknew, He predestined; those whom He predestined, He called; those whom He called, He justified; and those whom He justified, He glorified.
The work of God in us continues unto eternal glory. Glory means the manifestation of God. Whenever the character of God is manifested through us, that is glory.
Although God has changed us from dust into precious stones, the work of God has not yet been accomplished in us. God has an eternal purpose in saving us and doing so much work upon us: to build us up together into a holy temple, a spiritual house.
The will of God is not individual; it is corporate. God is such a great God. Regardless of how much work He has done on each one of us, our vessel is ever so small.
All the nations are but dust on the scales. You can imagine how small we are in His sight. Our capacity is very limited. Even if God does much work in each one of us, we can manifest only a little of God.
God needs an uncountable number of people in order to manifest all His glory. It is not individual; it is corporate.
The purpose of God’s work is to obtain a house, to obtain a building, and to have a habitation. One piece of stone cannot become a habitation. We need many stones to be built together in order to become God’s habitation.
This is a very important principle: although God has His work in each one of us, the purpose of His work is corporate. God wants to deliver us from our individualism.
Each one of us was created by God. Each one of us is God’s masterpiece. Do not grumble because you are not as gifted or as excellent as another brother or sister. God has created each one of us with a different beauty.
Each one of us is a masterpiece of God, and God has provided each one of us with a special place and a special task. His work in each of us is not the same. The combination of all the elements is different.
Some are like emeralds, some are like sapphires, and some are like jasper. God does much work on the individual. God will never destroy our individuality.
God does not eliminate our individuality, but our individualism must be dealt with. Otherwise, we will not be able to be built together.
Our individuality will last forever. Even in the city of New Jerusalem, our individuality will still be there. Peter is still Peter, and John is still John. Peter does not change into John, neither does John change into Peter.
If everyone were the same and uniform, it would be quite boring. You have your characteristics, and I have mine. Our individuality lasts forever. God respects our individuality.
But on the other hand, our individualism must be broken, because God wants to build us, who are different precious stones, into His spiritual house.
If a person in this world picked up a precious stone, he might use it for exhibition or display. Everyone would come to look at it and praise the stone: “How glorious is this jewel!”
Another person might use it as an ornament, so that the person who wears it may be admired. This is the way people in the world use precious stones.
But God’s purpose in using precious stones is different. God has no purpose to use you as an exhibition. God does not want to use you so that others may say, “How precious is this spiritual person!”
Neither does God make you precious so that you may feel proud of yourself. This is not what God wants.
What, then, is God’s purpose for all these precious stones? If these stones are not built one upon another, they cannot fulfill God’s purpose.
Remember the temple in Jerusalem. Solomon’s temple was destroyed. When the Israelites returned from Babylonian captivity, they desired to rebuild the temple. At that time their numbers were few and their resources limited, so the temple they built was very small. It could not be compared with the temple of Solomon.
Later, King Herod enlarged the second temple in Jerusalem. It was built with many costly stones and materials. It was a very glorious and beautiful temple. The Jews felt honored by it, including the disciples of the Lord.
When our Lord entered Jerusalem for the last time, He came out of the city with His disciples to go to the Mount of Olives. The disciples turned and looked at the temple.
When the sun was setting, the sunlight shone upon the temple, and the light shone throughout the sky. It was a very glorious sight. The disciples were moved, and they said, “Lord, look at this temple. It is built with precious stones and beautiful stones.”
But the Lord Jesus answered in a very solemn voice that one day there would not be even one stone left upon another.
The disciples were astonished. Later, when the Lord was on the Mount of Olives, they came secretly and asked, “When will this happen, Lord? How can it be that not one stone will be left upon another?”
The Lord had wept over Jerusalem:
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
how often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not!Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Because the Jewish people had rejected their Lord, God said that He would destroy the temple in Jerusalem. Not one stone would be left upon another.
According to man, this was not possible. The stones of the temple were enormous. But history tells us that in A.D. 70, the Roman army surrounded Jerusalem.
When the Romans finally broke into the city, the Jewish people retreated to the temple because it was built with great stones, like a fortress. The Roman soldiers attacked the temple.
Josephus, the Jewish historian, had surrendered to the Romans. He pleaded with Titus not to destroy the temple. But when Titus gave the order, it was too late. The soldiers had used fire to burn the temple.
The whole temple burned. The wooden parts were destroyed, but the great stones remained. However, the temple had been covered with gold. When the fire burned, the gold melted and ran between the stones.
The soldiers, in order to obtain the gold, dug into the walls and took out the stones one by one. Thus, according to history, there was not one stone left upon another.
Not one stone being left upon another indicates ruin. We also are stones; indeed, we are precious stones. But if we are not built together, even though we are precious stones, we represent ruins.
Even if you are very precious and very special in yourself, if we are not built together, we are still in desolation.
Even if the ground is full of precious stones, it still represents ruins. This indicates the desolation of the church. Some say, “I belong to Paul.” Others say, “I belong to Apollos.” Others say, “I belong to Christ more than you do.” Still others say, “I belong to myself.”
In such a condition, you can see the desolation of the church.
In the Old Testament, Jacob and Laban made a covenant in Genesis 31. Jacob and Laban gathered stones into a heap. This heap of stones became a witness that neither would harm the other.
But this heap of stones testified not to the Lord, but to their boundaries. They had drawn a boundary: “You cannot come to my place, and I cannot go to yours.”
A heap of stones can only crush a person to death; no one can live in it. Many of God’s children are like these heaps of stones. We are not scattered stones everywhere, but neither are we being built up. We are merely piled together.
There is a heap of stones here, and another heap there. This is what Christianity and the churches are often like today: heaps of stones everywhere.
You may be in a heap of stones for one hundred years and still remain unchanged. Your corners have not been dealt with. If the stones have not been polished, all their corners remain. There are still holes in the stones.
Sometimes circumstances pile us together. We may meet for twenty years, but your corner is still there and my corner is still there. They have never been dealt with.
Why? Because we are just members of the church in an outward way. We spend one hour on Sunday morning, come to worship, sing in the choir, listen to a message, shake hands, and say, “See you next week.”
Yet all our corners remain. We are still the original stones and have never been fitted together with other stones. If this is our condition, it is impossible to become a habitation.
We must see God’s most important purpose. He wants us to be built up together.
There is a design for every building. It is not just a random piling up. There must be a design, and we are put together and built together according to that design.
The corner of one stone must be cut in order to fit another stone. If a stone is too large, it must be cut down in order to fit the design. In this way, the stones become a building, and through the Holy Spirit, God may dwell in that place.
Dear brothers and sisters, God has done so much work in us. But has God found His habitation among us today?
According to His great mercy, you are a precious stone. But what is your function and use in the hands of God as a precious stone? Have we been built together to become the habitation of God in the Spirit?
We have a great responsibility here.
What is the design? The desire of God is that He may dwell among His people. When God created man in the beginning, it was for this very purpose. He created man according to His image so that He could dwell among people.
Isaiah 66:1–2 says:
Heaven is My throne,
and the earth is My footstool:
what manner of house will ye build unto Me?
and what place shall be My rest?For all these things hath My hand made;
and so all these things came to be, saith the Lord:
but to this man will I look,
even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit,
and that trembleth at My word.
God will not dwell in a temple made with hands, because He is the Creator of heaven and earth. Heaven is like His office, but God was not able to find a place of rest. His desire is to find rest among His people.
When God created Adam and put him in the garden of Eden, God desired to commune with man. He wanted to bring man to the point of eating of the tree of life, so that He could dwell among men.
But Adam failed. Adam was not able to give God a house of rest. Rather, he created many difficulties for God.
That is why our Lord Jesus said in John 5:17:
My Father worketh even until now, and I work.
Originally God had rest, but because of the sin of man, God began to work again. God has no rest, and He continues to work. For what reason does He work? Because He wants to build a house.
The Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church upon this rock.” When He came into this world, He came to build the house of God and to prepare a house of rest for our God.
For this reason, our Lord came to the world. For us, He died on the cross. Through His death and resurrection, He accomplished redemption. He became the foundation of His house.
From this foundation, He builds His house so that God can dwell in it. This is the purpose of our Lord’s coming into the world.
When our Lord was on earth, He preached the word of God and let people see what kind of God He is. He gathered people to follow Him. He corrected them and guided them so that they might become precious stones.
On the day of Pentecost, there were one hundred and twenty who had been worked upon by the Lord. They were like one hundred and twenty precious stones. Although they gathered together, they were still like a heap of stones; they had not yet been built.
But when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, those one hundred and twenty were transformed by the Holy Spirit. They became one body.
Our body has members; it is an organic body. In the same way, the building of God is organic. The house of God is an organic house. Its organization is an organization of life, not an outward addition.
It is not as though you attach an arm to my shoulder. Rather, it is something derived from life. The Lord organizes us and joins us together in life, building us into His dwelling place.
This work is the most mysterious and wonderful work. When God created heaven and earth, He simply spoke. Our Lord Jesus is God’s Son, and He is the Master Workman of God’s creation.
Proverbs 8:30 speaks of Him as One who was “by Him, as a master workman.” All things were created in Him, through Him, and for Him.
All creation was completed by the Lord. We did not help Him; He created all things by Himself. But now He is doing something even greater: He is bringing forth a new creation.
Can you or I do this? We cannot even create ourselves. Only He Himself can do it. He said, “I will build My church.”
The church is not merely a place where God is served; it is God’s house. In this house there is love, understanding, comfort, and rest. In a true home, you can relax yourself. It is home, sweet home.
The house of God is His eternal home.
Who builds the New Jerusalem? Hebrews tells us that it is God who builds it.
What is our problem today? We, as men, want to build the church. We use our own wisdom and our own ability to build the church. But whatever we build, God cannot live in it. Perhaps only we ourselves can live in it.
After a while, two or three others may begin another church. Before long, each one is living only for himself. We as human beings are not able to build. Only the Lord Himself is able.
But here is the wonderful thing: when God created heaven and earth, He did not invite you to help Him. You were not there; and even if you were there, He would not have needed you.
Now God is creating His new creation. He is the One who is building it, but He wants you to cooperate with Him. There is a great difference between building for God and cooperating with God.
Today, when God is building His own house, He wants to use you as building material. Not only does He want you as material; He also wants you to cooperate with Him.
It is indeed He who works in you. Do not hinder Him. Allow Him to work in you.
I do not have a better illustration, so I will use this one. Suppose you are six feet tall and weigh two hundred pounds, and there is a table here that you are going to move. It would be very easy for you to move it.
But there is a five-year-old child in your house, and he really loves his father. When he sees his father wanting to move the table, he says, “Father, I will help you.”
As a father, what would you do? Would you say, “No, I will do it myself. You may hurt yourself”? No. You might say, “Yes, come and help me. Your father needs your help.”
In fact, the father carries the weight of the table. The child may add a little weight rather than help, but when the table has been moved, the child says, “I have helped my father move it.” The father says, “Yes, you helped me.”
This is the way God works. The work of God is not your work or my work. It is not merely because you preach or because you visit that God’s house is built.
Many of our activities may add a burden rather than help. But God knows our hearts. He says, “I will build My church, but you are My coworker. You cooperate with Me. Let Me work on you. Let Me work so that you may be a precious stone.”
It is in this way that God is able to build up His church.
If it is He who builds, the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. But if it is we who build, then Hades can swallow it. Whatever is built by God, Hades will not overcome.
God is building. How does He build? Let us use the example of Solomon’s temple.
David was a man after God’s heart. In other words, David realized what God wanted in His heart. What does God want?
Psalm 132 speaks of David’s burden:
Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house,
nor go up into my bed;
I will not give sleep to mine eyes,
or slumber to mine eyelids;
until I find out a place for the Lord,
a tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob.
David had this burden in his heart: “I cannot enter into my tent. I cannot go into my bed. I cannot close my eyes. I cannot sleep, until I can find a place of rest for my God. I want to prepare a house for God.”
This was the will in the heart of David.
Remember how David was persecuted by Saul. He fled and ran in the wilderness. He had no home to go to. At that time, when David was homeless, he realized that God also had no home.
Therefore he felt, “How can I live in a palace? I must prepare a house of rest for my God.”
This is how God begins to build His house. First, He gains people who love God—people whose hearts realize the desire of God. They pray within themselves, “I am willing to prepare this house for You.”
This is the first point.
Secondly, because David was a fighter and had shed much blood, God told him that he was not to build the house. The house of God is a house of peace.
But David desired the house of God, and God showed him the pattern of the temple. God gave David the design of the temple.
To build the house of God, we must first please God. We must build according to His pattern. We need the pattern; otherwise, God cannot dwell in what we build.
What is the pattern of the church today? The pattern of the church today is Christ, as Paul saw by revelation from heaven.
God must give us revelation and enable us to know that Christ is the pattern of the church. The pattern of the church is not merely regulations or a system. It is not that you have a church simply because you have elders and deacons.
The pattern of the church is the living Christ. When we see Christ, and when Christ is in us, then we know the pattern. Therefore, we need to know Christ more.
Thirdly, David said that because of his love for God, he had prepared many materials. During his affliction, he prepared much material. It was not sufficient merely to prepare material; he offered himself also because he loved God.
If you read 1 Chronicles 29:2–3, you can see how David prepared so much material for the house of God. If we truly love God and love the house of God, we ought to prepare much material.
We must allow the Holy Spirit to prepare us, and we must help other brothers and sisters to know Christ. In this way, there will be building materials.
Solomon built the house through wisdom. The Holy Spirit is the wisdom of God. When the Spirit moves among His children, we are built up together.
The temple was built with many great stones. Yet when the stones were put together, there was no sound of iron.
When you hear a building being constructed, you usually hear much noise. But when the temple was built, there was no sound of iron. Why was this? Because all the stones were prepared in the quarry.
The stones were cut, sawed, polished, and shaped according to the pattern before they were brought to the building site.
They prepared the stones very carefully and put numbers on each one. Each stone had its place, its neighboring stone, and its proper position. When the stones were transported to the temple site, all they had to do was put the stones in place. There was no need to use iron anymore, because the work had already been done secretly.
Brothers and sisters, if we allow the cross to do its work in us secretly, then when we are built together, you will not hear the sound of iron.
Otherwise, when brothers are put together, you hear the noise of friction. You may see not only noise, but smoke.
Each one of us needs to receive the work of the cross. Precious stones need to be cut and shaped in order to be built together.
In this way, the Lord will be able to build us into a place where He can dwell.
Are you willing?
Let us pray.
Our Lord and our God,
how glorious and wonderful is Your word.
You are so gracious to us. You want to dwell among us. You want to find rest among us. We have given You much work, but You will not be disappointed.
You are continuously and patiently working to build us up into a habitation where You can dwell. We can only thank You today. We are willing.
In the Lord Jesus’ name. Amen.