nant theme of it was “praise” as Judah means praise. You see, God always put praise first, for in the Book of Psalms, Psalm 50:23, we come upon this say ing “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me . . .” saith the Lord Himself. Now we are going to turn back to the Book of Genesis and read in chapter 49, verses 8-12 inclusive where we will find a glimpse of the individual of God builds no churches. By His plan That labor was left to man. No spires miraculously arise; No little mission from the skies Falls on the bleak and barren place To be a source of strength and grace. The humblest church demands its price, In human toil and sacrifice. Men call the church the house of God, Toward which the toil-stained pilgrims trod In search of strength and rest and hope, As blindly through life's mists they grope. And there God dwells. But it is man Who builds that house and draws its plan; Pays for mortar and the stone, That none need seek for God alone. The humblest spire in mortal ken Where God abides was built by men. And if the church is still to grow, Is still the light of hope to throw Across the valley of Despair, Men still must build God's house of prayer, God sends no churches from the skies— Out of our hearts must they arise! — Edgar Guest whom this blood-red stone, the sardius, is representative. We read: “Judah, thou art he whom thy breth ren shall praise: thy hand shall be in Dr. Anderson is pastor of the Bethany Bap tist Church, West Covina, and is a member of Biola's Board of Directors. 4 THE CHURCH
Message One (continued) sus Christ who now bears you and me in intercession before the throne of God in Grace. The breastplate, worn by the High Priest, was foursquare in shape. It is a point of interest to note the meanings lying here; for example: gold repre sents the eternal Godhead and you and I, according to Ephesians 1:4, have been set into Jesus Christ, by God himself, just as these precious stones were set in gold and then placed on the pouch that was upon the chest of the High Priest of the people of Israel. We read that these stones were always set ac cording to a definite order, as far as God was concerned. There was a tre mendous variety of the stones on the breastplate — no two stones were alike. The same variety is true of believers, they may look alike but they act dif ferently. God’s children have varying talents and gifts according to His wis dom. But let us not forget to look at the onyx stones — there weTe two of them; one stone resting upon each shoulder of the High Priest. Graven upon each stone were the names of the Twelve Tribes of Israel; six names were graven upon each stone and note, they were graven according to their birth (Exo dus 28:10). The shoulder stones of onyx were alike for we are all born of God in the same way — we have a common acceptance. Perhaps you have never given thought to the fact that there is a mes sage about the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is a message about the believer, and there is a message about the sons of Jacob in these twelve lovely stones of the breastplate. The first stone to which we want to direct your study is, of course, the beau tiful sardius stone which is the first in order of the twelve stones. The name sardius comes from the Hebrew word, adorn, the root meaning of which is red — the color of the sardius stone, which was in harmony with the char acter of Judah. This stone was given the honor of being the first gem in the priestly breastplate and the predomi
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