{"id":2008,"date":"2012-05-06T12:26:10","date_gmt":"2012-05-06T12:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=2008"},"modified":"2012-05-06T12:26:10","modified_gmt":"2012-05-06T12:26:10","slug":"lay-your-foundations-with-sapphires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=2008","title":{"rendered":"Lay your foundations with sapphires."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c<strong>Lay your foundations with sapphires<\/strong>.\u201d Isaiah 54:11<\/p>\n<p>Not only that which is <em>seen <\/em>of the church of God\u2014but that which is <em>unseen<\/em>, is fair and precious. <em>Foundations <\/em>are  out of sight, and so long as they are firm\u2014it is not expected that they  should be valuable; but in Jehovah\u2019s work, everything is costly,  nothing skimped, nothing cheap.<\/p>\n<p>The deep foundations of the <strong>work of grace<\/strong>, are as  sapphires for preciousness, no human mind is able to measure their  glory. We build upon the covenant of grace, which is firmer than  adamant, and as enduring as jewels upon which age spends itself in vain.  Sapphire foundations are eternal, and the covenant abides throughout  the lifetime of the Almighty.<\/p>\n<p>Another foundation is the <strong>person of the Lord Jesus<\/strong>,  which is clear and spotless, everlasting and beautiful as the sapphire;  blending in one the deep blue of earth\u2019s ever rolling ocean\u2014and the  azure of its all embracing sky. Once might our Lord have been likened to  the ruby as He stood covered with His own blood\u2014but now we see Him  radiant with the soft blue of love\u2014love abounding, deep, eternal.<\/p>\n<p>Our eternal hopes are built upon the <strong>justice and the faithfulness of God<\/strong>,  which are as clear and cloudless as the sapphire. We are not saved by a  compromise, by mercy defeating justice, or law suspending its  operations. No! We defy the eagle\u2019s eye to detect a flaw in the  groundwork of our confidence\u2014our foundation is of sapphire, and will  endure the fire.<\/p>\n<p>The Lord Himself has laid the foundation of His people\u2019s hopes. It is  matter for grave inquiry whether our hopes are built upon such a basis.  Good works and ceremonies are not a foundation of sapphires\u2014but of  wood, hay, and stubble; neither are they laid by God\u2014but by our own  conceit. Foundations will all be tried before long\u2014woe unto him whose  lofty tower shall come down with a crash, because based on quicksand! He  who is built on sapphires\u2014may await storm or fire with equanimity, for  he shall abide the test! C.H.Spurgeon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cLay your foundations with sapphires.\u201d Isaiah 54:11 Not only that which is seen of the church of God\u2014but that which is unseen, is fair and precious. Foundations are out of sight, and so long as they are firm\u2014it is not expected that they should be valuable; but in Jehovah\u2019s work, everything is costly, nothing skimped, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-h-spurgeon","category-pictures-and-types"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2009,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions\/2009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}