From Clocker Valley in County Tyrone we present Let the Bible Speak. It's good to have you join us as Gospel Minister the Rev. Peter McIntyre is here to Let the Bible Speak and preach Christ in all His fullness. There is one verse of scripture I would like to leave with you today. It is found in Luke chapter 19 and the verse 40. And Jesus answered and said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. The title of the message today is, if only stones could speak, the stones would immediately cry out. if only stones could speak. Some years ago I visited Achill Island in County Mayo, a wild and beautiful location on the edge of Ireland and on the very ledge of Europe. We walked along a mountain path where the mountain sloped away to the vast Atlantic. There we saw rows of old stone houses There was once a village in this remote place, perhaps as many as three villages. The Stones are here, but not the people. If only Stones could speak, what story would they tell? They prompted me to write a few words. I entitled the piece, The Lonely Irish Hillside. on a lonely Irish hillside along a winding mountain path, rows of ruined houses stand silently, a haunting memorial to a terrible past. People once populated this hillside. These old stone walls were the pride and joy of Irish peasant stock. These stones were simple homes. Oh, if only stones could talk. with the mountain to their back and with the wild Atlantic on their face, these people worked their humble bog, cutting turf for winter warmth, growing potatoes for hungry mouths, living for necessities, never luxuries. The dark winter settled on the Irish hillside, The gales blew up from the ocean below. The comfort of burning turf filled the air. Grubby faces, ragged clothes, betrayed a dire poverty. Contentment was found in the simple potato. I hear laughter on the Irish hillside. I see barely clad children among the hither. The women chatter aimlessly. Old tales. Young men talk of life beyond Ireland. Oh, if only stones could talk. hundreds of people on a patch of Irish bog. Look, the very rigs where they gathered the precious potato, whatever drove them to this dreary hillside. Too many people, too little land, unscrupulous landlords, impossible rents brought them to this lonely hillside. The simple life on this Irish hillside was halted by the great famine. Oh, if only stones could talk. I now see broken fathers, tears of stricken mothers, starved children crying. The potatoes are rotten in their drills. That pestilence, the terrible blight has come. There is work, but we are too sick. There is money. What is money? There is food. We cannot afford. The potato is all we ever had. The potato is gone and we are dying. That lonely Irish hillside is now a deserted village. A sad and painful memorial to the plight that brought them to this place and the horrors that emptied these homes of stone. Let's just move away from Achill and those stone houses. Let's come to what Jesus was talking about here. As he approaches Jerusalem for the final time, the people were praising him, treating him as the king. He was approaching the holy city. In their murderous rage, the Pharisees told the Lord to rebuke the disciple. The Saviour said, If they do not glorify me and praise me, the stones would cry out, If only stones could speak, it seems to me as I read the scripture, there is something important, something symbolic about stones. What if the bricks with which our homes were constructed could speak? What message would they convey? If there were recording devices in every brick, in every block, what would be the story? Would those stones cry out against us for what we are doing in the private place? It's a pertinent question. It speaks of accountability. It speaks of a God who hears all things. If only stones could speak. Let's just think about the picture of stones. Stones represent memory and testimony in the scriptures. The first religious use of stones was for constructing altars. The very definition of an altar is that it must be made of stone. For example, after the great flood, Noah came out of the ark and he built an altar. And there he offered a sacrifice to God. And the altar was a place that you could go back to again and again. A testimony to gratitude, to the importance of sacrifice. When Abraham entered the promised land, he erected an altar. And he returned back to the altar again and again. It was a place of rededication, a place of restoration. And so the altars in the Bible, made of stones, they spoke of a testimony. But stones also speak of memorials. We erect statues today, a memorial to an event or a person. In the book of Joshua, they built a memorial using 12 stones. One stone represented each tribe. And they put that memorial up as they crossed over Jordan into the promised land as a testimony to what God had done, a memory aid teaching lesson. Above the city of Bristol today, there are stone buildings that are still in use. Those stone buildings were built in the 19th century by a man called George Muller. He looked after orphans and he prayed in every brick in his knees and he prayed in all the food for the children that he looked after. He did it on his knees and he cried to God. And those stones are still there, a testimony to A man's prayer. The orphans have come and gone, no longer is there that necessity. But still the buildings are used because God answers prayer. And so there is a testimony in stones. But let's also think about the permanence of stones. Stones are permanent. They outlast generations. We grow old, we die, the stones remain. Noah's and Abraham's altars were there after they had lived their illustrious lives. Places where great men served and preached and won stoles still stand to attest the money. Places where great people served, where they made sacrifices, where they won victories, those places are still there attest the money to the work that they did. Jesus here is referring to the stones of old Jerusalem, all carefully set in place under the supervision of Nehemiah. The stones of Jerusalem are a testimony to Nehemiah who rebuilt those walls after Babylon knocked them down. The temple first built by Solomon was rebuilt by Zerubbabel. These old stones, they represent what God did and they're permanent, they're still there today. The very stones that the Lord referred to as crying out are still there today, all these thousands of years later. We are a frail people, we're fragile, we're dying, but yet the stones, they are still there. We are fickle and we are changeable, we cannot be relied upon, but the stones are still there. The Bible says that the heart of man is deceitful at all times and desperately wicked. There's something very sinister about the heart of man. But these stones that represent a testimony, that represent memorial, that represent good things that were done in the past, these stones, they represent the unchanging truth of God that never dies. You see, whenever we think of stones, we think of a foundation. If you're going to build a foundation, then you need to get down to the rock. And when you're on the rock, then you can start building up. The Lord talked about the foolish man building his house in the sand, the wise man building his house on the rock. And the rock is solid ground. That's something you can build your life upon. That's something that never fails. The great thing about the Bible is this, we have truth. We have truth. The Bible is not a mere philosophical statement. The Bible is not a mere religion. The Bible is truth. It's God's truth. If you today do not believe the word of God, if you are trying to say Christianity is just another religion amongst many, then I challenge you today, open your Bible, read it, try and disprove it. Try and discredit it. Study it out. Make every effort. You will fail in the attempt. The book will conquer you if you approach the scriptures correctly, because it is God's word. The importance of truth never diminished. The importance of truth. The stones, they speak of permanence and truth, memorial and testimony. Let's also think about the punishment by the stones. What if stones could speak? What if God by nature has put recording devices into every brick, every piece of stone? And what if all these recordings will be played in the last great day? What if he has placed cameras in every stone and the camera will run? And then as your life is played out, you stand condemned. You see, if the stones indeed are able to cry out, then they will cry out and condemn every sinner who turns away from Christ. And the truth is, if the records of my life were to be played out, if my thoughts were to be played out, then I would be condemned too. But I know that the record of my sin has been erased. How so? Because Jesus shed his precious blood in Calvary in order that my sin might be blotted out, in order that my sin might be erased. That's what he did on the cross. And therefore the stones are silenced. One day you will stand before God. And if you stand before God and you're not prepared and you haven't trusted Christ as your saviour, I want to tell you, the stones will cry out against you in the day of judgement. The stones will condemn you because they speak of accountability. They speak of accountability. It's interesting when we think of the stones and the stones crying out. because we can go to Revelation 6 and we discover people talking to the stones. It sounds like a pretty daft thing to talk to stones, but yet the great men, the rich men, the chief captains, the mighty man, every born man, every free man, they're hiding themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains and they're saying to the stones to fall down on top of them, hide them from the wrath of the one that sits on the throne because they can't bear the accountability. We're talking to the stones because the great day of God's wrath has come. The great day of God's wrath will come. It will fall upon this world of sinners lost. That's why you must be prepared for that day. Come and trust Christ as your saviour because there will be a day of reckoning. There will be a day of accountability. That's why you must make this day your day of preparation. Come to Jesus Christ and trust Him as your Saviour. I thank you so much for listening. you've been listening to Let the Bible Speak. If we can be of any further spiritual help, or if you would like to receive some free gospel literature, we invite you to write to us. Our mailing address is Let the Bible Speak, Rev. Peter McIntyre, 13 Willand Crescent, 5 Mile Town, County Tyrone, BT75OQL. That's Let the Bible Speak, Rev. Peter McIntyre, Thirteen, Willand, Crescent, Five Mile Town, County Tyrone, BT75, OQL. You may hear Mr. McIntyre preach each Lord's Day here in Clocker Valley Free Presbyterian Church at 11.30am and 7pm. For further information you may phone us at 028 8952 1611. 028 8952 1611. We assure you of a very warm welcome at all the services and look forward to having you visit with us. Thank you for listening today. May the Lord richly bless you, and don't forget to tune in on this same station at the same time next week, when once again we turn to the scriptures and let the Bible speak.