November 2000

[Part Thirty-one]

               In Part Thirty of this series on STONES and ROCKS, we saw the revelatory words given to Peter by his heavenly Father, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” and that it was to these ten words Jesus referred saying, “UPON THIS ROCK, I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH!” (Mt 16:15-18) We call your attention to His last five words: “I will build My church!” God sent this Master Carpenter to erect a House of Prayer (Mk 11:17) and He needs no help from any man! The true church is built upon the Rock of Salvation, which is Christ! Only this Son of the Living God is Anointed for this job! “Unless the Lord builds the House, they labor in vain that try to build it!” (Ps 127:1) The only edifice religious men can build- apart from Christ - is a replica of the original monstrosity constructed by the fleshy vanity of “The mighty hunter, Nimrod (lit. rebellious one)” of whom it is said, “The beginning of his kingdom was BABEL (lit., confusion or silly babble)!” (Ge 10:9-10) Then all men enlisted in this loathsome endeavor as “The whole earth came to speak the same language [that it, had the same desire to erect a Christless kingdom of SELF]...saying, “Let us make brick and *burn them thoroughly. So they used brick as stone; and slime (bitumen) as mortar, saying, ‘Come let us build a city for ourselves, to not be scattered over the earth!” But the reason they tried to forge themselves into a strong coalition, a united self, was the very cause that God scattered them over the whole earth! Men trying to outsmart God, only outsmart themselves!

[*Burn (Heb 8313 saraph) is translated:“Set on fire and kindle”; calling to mind Jas 3:5-6, “The tongue is a small part of the body, yet it boasts great things! What a forest fire a little flame kindles! The TONGUE IS THAT FIRE! It is also a world of iniquity that defiles the whole body as it sets on fire the whole course of nature; for it is set on fire by hell...and no man can tame the tongue; for it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison with which we bless God the Father; and then curse men made in His likeness!”]

              Natural minds are predisposed (from Nimrod’s day) to build towers of self-glory! [Interesting: the word tower is also translated, castle, a royal residence in a kingdom!] As the mind of spirit burns with unquenchable holy desire to exalt the Self-existent Jehovah (Heb 3068); so too the mind of flesh burns with unquenchable, unholy lust to exalt himself-apart-from-God! So when a Work of God is initiated that will redound to His Glory, the mind of flesh lurks in the nearby shadows seeking to interject himself and divert glory away from God and redirect it to himself! He “fashions bricks” into a “congregation” and a self-building enterprise. Like the building crew of the tower of Babel , carnal minds cannot humble themselves to become “Living stones” for the House of Prayer; but choose to make bricks (Dict. root lit. means: “break”; defined: “A handy sized unit of building material traditionally formed of moist clay hardened by heat into a compressed mass!!” [God made His rebellious ones sick of brick-making during their 400 year enslavement to Egypt!]
               The word, clay, has a Dict. root meaning “glue”; defined, “An earthy substance that is plastic (pliable, capable of being molded) when kept moist, but hard and rigid when put to the fire!” [See: Jb 10:9; Is 29:15-16; 45:9; 64:5-12] Our Potter wants a clay substance that is perceptive, flexible and responsive to His loving touch; not a hardened self-religious people that appear to Him and to His beleaguered world as a Tower of ‘Babble’ with their uncertain sounds of confused doctrines! He says, “My Doctrine shall fall as rain and My speech distill as dew and showers on the grass!” (Dt 32:2) “I give you good doctrine; so do not forsake My Law!” (Pr 4:2) Only carnal minds would spurn God’s Life-giving doctrine to contrive doctrines of devils! But He says, “Babylon the Great is fallen...it is a habitation of devils; a residence for every foul spirit; a cage of every unclean and hateful bird...her sins have reached to heaven!” (Re 18:2, 5) No wonder Father tells His sons, “Come out of her, My people, and be no more partakers of her sins!” (v.4)

[TO BE CONTINUED]