Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the book of
Isaiah, chapter 28, the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah. Some commentators
call this the gospel of Isaiah because it's so full of gospel
truth and prophecies and pictures of Christ. And of course, what
I'm going to preach today is entitled Christ, the Sure Foundation. Christ the sure foundation. And
Isaiah in his time, and I've mentioned this several times
before on this program, preaching from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah, he prophesied in Jerusalem,
mainly in the city, some surrounding areas, the Southern kingdom of
Judah, the kingdom of Israel was split after Solomon, the
Northern kingdom and the Southern kingdom of Judah. And he prophesied
around 700 years before the actual arrival of Jesus Christ into
the world. But he had a lot to say about
Christ coming, the Messiah, the Anointed One. Many of the New
Testament passages that you'll read are quoted from Isaiah concerning
the glorious person and the finished work of Christ as the only ground
and way of salvation for sinners. by the grace of God. And here
in this portion, Isaiah is bringing an indictment against the false
preachers, the false prophets, the false shepherds of Israel
and Judah, who were leading the people astray, claiming to preach
the law of Moses. Now this is something that we
all need to really understand. about the times that we live
in. Isaiah prophesied during the
time that the old covenant law, the law of Moses, given to the
Hebrew children on Mount Sinai through Moses, was in effect
that old covenant. It's what it's called, the Mosaic
law, the Mosaic covenant. And that was a covenant that
was given to this nation And God had many reasons to give
them this covenant. One of the main reasons was to
keep this nation intact, especially one particular tribe. Now, not
only this one particular tribe, but there was one particular
tribe. You know, there are 12 tribes of Israel. Actually, it
became 13 later on because Joseph, the tribe of Joseph, was divided
up into Manasseh and Ephraim, Joseph's children. So, but the
one tribe of Israel that had to stay intact until the Messiah
came was the tribe of Judah. And the reason is, is the tribe
of Judah was designated by God early on as the kingly tribe. We'll see that, you can see that
in Genesis chapter 49. where Jacob, or Israel, as his
name was called then, on his deathbed, blessing his children. And when he came to Judah, he
said, the scepter, the king's scepter, the king's rod, would
not depart from Judah until Shiloh come. And that Shiloh, I believe,
is a way of speaking of Christ, the Prince of Peace. So in other
words, the tribe of Judah would be the kingly tribe, the royal
tribe, that's the tribe from which David came, the tribe that
Solomon was from, all the way through the human tribe, that
kingly tribe would stay intact until the time of the Messiah,
and then it would all be gone away because the old covenant
would be over. The old covenant is abolished
by way of fulfillment. Hebrews tells us about that. That which is old is taken away,
passeth away. This is new, we live in the new
covenant age. And so, I'm not gonna talk a
lot about that, but just to let you know that Isaiah was probably
a member of the tribe of Judah, the royal tribe, and he prophesied
under the reigns of four kings, But anyway, what he was doing
here is he is bringing an indictment from God's word given to him
against those who were leading the people astray. And this is
why we need, as I said, we need to be careful in our day. There
are many, many false preachers who claim to be preaching the
gospel, claim to be preaching the Bible, claim to be Christian. And we need to test the preachers. The Apostle John was adamant
in that. He said in 1 John 4 and verse
1, test the spirits, whether they be of God. Because not everyone
who comes claiming to preach truth is telling you the truth. And so if you look at Isaiah
28 verse 14, listen to what Isaiah says to these false preachers,
false prophets. He says, wherefore hear the word
of the Lord. Now there's the key. The only
way you can expose a false preacher is by preaching the word of the
Lord. And I know now, I know false preachers claim to preach
the word too. But I'll tell you something,
this is something you and I, all of us need to be careful
about. How do we interpret this word?
Somebody said, well, I don't interpret it, I just read. No,
you interpret it, you read a verse, you're gonna, in your mind, if
you tell it or not, in your mind, you're gonna say, now, that's
what this means. And that's interpretation. What does that verse mean? When
you read a line, for example, like I quoted from Genesis 49,
the scepter will not depart from Judah until Shiloh come. What
does that mean? How do you interpret that? Well,
you've got to go to the number one rule is context. Now, I wrote
a book on that, on interpretation of the Bible, rightly dividing
the word. And we offer that free of charge.
And it gives you what I believe are the solid rules for interpreting
the Bible. And you need to understand that. So if you're interested, order
that book. We'll send it to you free of
charge. Here he says, hear the word of the Lord. And listen
to what he says, verse 14. You scornful men that rule this
people, which is in Jerusalem. The rulers. Now he's mainly talking
about the priest. Because the priest were the main
teachers of the law, of the word of God. Now there were prophets
too. Isaiah obviously was a prophet.
So you have those offices, prophet, priest, and king, which picture
and typify the office, the mediatorial offices of Christ. He's our prophet,
he's our priest, he's our great high priest, and he's our king,
the king of kings. But he says, hear the word of
the Lord, you leaders who rule this people in Jerusalem. And
look at verse 15, he says, because you have said, we have made a
covenant with death. And with hell are we at agreement. Now, what does that mean? You
made a covenant with them. Well, look on. He says, when
the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come
unto us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood
have we hid ourselves. Now, Isaiah is exposing their
false hope. their false refuge. Their refuge
was a refuge of lies. And when they say, because we
have made a covenant with death and with hell are we at agreement,
what they're actually saying is what, just like people today,
if I were to ask you, are you saved? And you would say, yes,
I'm saved. And I'd ask you, how do you know
you're saved? Whatever those reasons you give,
that you know that you're saved, that you've made a covenant with
death, that when I die and an agreement with hell in the sense
of when I die, I know I'm not going to hell, I know I'm going
to heaven, or I know I'm going to live forever with Christ.
All right, are you saved? Okay. And I ask you, what makes
you think you are? What is your ground? of assurance. And your answer will reveal what
your refuge is. And you keep going and of course
people will sometimes people can use the right words they'll
have a wrong meeting by those words. So that's why it's so
important for us to examine ourselves according to the Word of God
and that's what Isaiah is saying here. Now these false scornful
rulers False preachers, they didn't stand up and say, we've
made refuge our lies. But Isaiah, the prophet of God,
is exposing that their refuge was a refuge of lies. They thought
they were telling the truth. And I would venture to say that
most false preachers, they think they're telling the truth, but
they're deceived themselves. The people that listen to them
are deceived, and they are deceived. It's like Christ spoke of the
Pharisees and the scribes. He said, they're the blind leading
the blind, and they'll all fall in the ditch together. So how
do we expose these false refuges, these refuges of lies? Well,
the answer is this. We preach Christ in the glory
of his person, who he really is according to the word of God,
and we preach Christ in his finished work on the cross, what he did,
what he was doing, why he did it, what he accomplished for
the salvation of his people. And that's the gospel of the
grace of God. Now, I'll give you an example.
My wife received a letter in the mail the other day, and it
was a religious person asking her to contact this group concerning
salvation and heaven and all of that. And at the end of the,
I said, well, what group are they? And at the end of it, they
had JW, that stands for Jehovah's Witnesses. Now, I'm not just
picking on Jehovah's Witnesses. But my understanding of the Jehovah's
Witnesses is they deny the deity of Christ. Now if you deny the
deity of Christ, you deny Christ, period. The Christ you follow
is a false Christ. The Christ of the Bible, the
Christ of the Gospel, is both God and man in one person. And even Isaiah knew that. Back
in Isaiah chapter 7, he spoke of it. He said, a virgin will
conceive and bear a son. Talking about the virgin birth
of Christ. And over in Isaiah 9 and verse 6, listen to this.
He says, for unto us a child is born. That's the sinless humanity
of Christ. Unto us a Son is given. That's the deity of Christ as
the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God. And again, the
Trinity is not three gods. It's one God in three persons,
and it says the government shall be upon His shoulders. So understand
that. Who is Jesus Christ? What I need
to know, if I have a right refuge, Christ, the refuge, the right
refuge, the only good refuge. I need to know that the Christ
in whom I believe is the true Christ of the Bible and not a
counterfeit, a false Christ. And the Lord Himself said that
in the last days leading up to His second coming, there'll be
many false Christs preached. There'll be many counterfeits
preached. But I need to know that the one
that I preach, the one I believe in, the one that I follow is
the true Christ. And then consider what he accomplished
on Calvary. What did he do when he died? Why did he die? Well, he died
for the sins of a people whom God chose before the foundation
of the world and gave to him in sovereign, electing grace,
adopting grace, and that's who he died for. He said, I lay down
my life for the sheep, John chapter 10. He said in John chapter six,
verse 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He said,
this is the will of Him that sent me, that of all whom He
hath given me I would lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. And in dying on that cross, He
satisfied the justice of God by paying their sin debt in full. That's redemption. He redeemed
them with His blood, His death. and brought forth a righteousness
which is the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel Romans
1 16 and 17 and that's the very righteousness of God that God
has laid to the charge of his people their sins were laid to
Christ's charge and he went under the wrath of God satisfied justice
drank damnation dry and brought forth that righteousness which
God has laid to their charge, imputed, accounted to them, by
which they are justified before God forever. To be justified
is to be forgiven of all my sins by the blood of Christ. To be
justified is to be declared righteous in God's sight. Now that's based
upon the righteousness, the work, the obedience unto death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so what did he accomplish
on the cross? He saved his people from their sins. He didn't make
salvation merely available or merely possible if you would
do your part. The salvation that Christ worked
out on the cross includes everything that salvation is. Our justification
before God, our sanctification by the Spirit. If Christ died
for you, the Holy Spirit's gonna give you life under the gospel,
and you're going to believe in His name. Yes, faith is necessary,
but faith doesn't come from us naturally, or out of our free
will, as they say. No, faith is the gift of God
to his people. And that's what the scripture
says. Well, look at Isaiah 20, 28 again. He says in verse 16,
now this is how he exposes the false refuges. He says, therefore,
thus saith the Lord God. This is verse 16. Behold, I lay
in Zion for a foundation. All right, Christ the foundation,
the sure foundation, a stone, a tried or tested stone, a precious
cornerstone, a sure foundation, Christ the sure foundation. And
he that believeth shall not make haste. Now think about this. These are words that can only
apply to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you'll find these words quoted
in the New Testament. Peter quoted them, and others
quoted them. Lay in Zion. What is Zion? Well, Zion was a mount outside
of Jerusalem in which David built his home. And Zion is a picture
of the heavenly Zion, which is the church. And what he's saying
is Christ is the foundation, the precious cornerstone of the
church. He's a stone, he's a rock, He
said, I'll build my house upon this rock, not Peter, but himself
and his work of salvation, his work of redemption, work of righteousness. And it's a tested stone. Christ
was tested. He was tested on the Mount of
Temptation. He was tested all through his
life. Tempted, the scripture says.
Not like as we are, he was tempted without sin. He never sinned.
He's the sinless Savior, the impeccable Savior. But He was
tested, and He went to the cross. What a test, and He passed every
test. You and me, we fail at all. When
it comes to salvation and a right relationship with God, we're
failures. But Christ is not a failure.
He did not fail to save even one person for whom He lived
and died, was buried, and arose again the third day. And the
fact that He arose the third day in His resurrection is a
testimony that He passed all the tests. He was taken up into
glory and ascended unto the Father and is now seated at the right
hand of God ever living to make intercession for His people because
He finished the work. He passed the test. He's a precious
cornerstone. You know, a cornerstone back
then was the one stone by which everything had to be fit and
everything had to be measured. And that's the way it is with
the church. Every stone in the church, every true believer,
every sinner saved by grace, every child of God is fit together
in that building, spiritual building, according to Christ and measured
by Him. He is the measurement. He's the
measurement of salvation. He's the measurement of righteousness.
Because God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained. And He's
given assurance unto all men in that He hath raised Him from
the dead. You see, to be part of this salvation, to be right
with God, I must be as righteous as Christ, the precious cornerstone. And how is that possible? Not
by my works, not by my decisions, not by anything I do with or
without the help of God. The only way that I can be as
righteous as Christ is to be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the righteousness of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ. the
righteousness which is of God by faith." In other words, it
has to be His worthiness, His meritorious work, His obedience
unto death, His righteousness imputed, charged, accounted to
me. That's why Paul wrote in quoting
David, In Romans chapter four and verse six, he described how
God justifies the ungodly, using Abraham and David as examples.
And he quoted David when he said that David spoke of the blessedness
of the man to whom the Lord imputeth, biblical word, imputeth righteousness
without works. That is, without the sinner's
works. It had to be worked. There's a work to be done, but
Christ did all the work. That's why he said, it is finished. As Daniel said, he put away sin,
he made an end of sin, he finished the transgression, and he brought
in everlasting righteousness. So he's the precious cornerstone,
and he's a sure foundation. Now if you come before God at
judgment, on any other ground, on any other foundation, you
will be sadly, sadly rejected. Because there's no other foundation,
none other foundation. Peter said that in Luke chapter
four, he says, there's none other name given among men whereby
we must be saved. There's no other foundation.
Christ spoke of that in Matthew chapter 7 when He was talking
about the foundation. You remember He spoke of those
false preachers who appeared before God at the judgment, saying
in Matthew 7, 21-23, Lord, Lord, haven't we preached in Your name?
Haven't we cast out devils? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? That was their foundation, you see, in their minds. But
it was a refuge of lies. It was a false foundation. And
then he went on to say that the wise man builds his house upon
a rock. Well, that rock is Christ Jesus.
And when the winds come and the hail comes and the overflowing
scourge, as it said here in Isaiah, comes through, it will not topple
that house because it's built upon the rock. And that rock
is Christ. But now any other ground is sinking
sand. That's why I sing that song all
the time. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock,
the sure foundation, I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. So understand that. And that's
why he says a sure foundation, one that cannot be rocked, cannot
be destroyed, cannot be shaken. And he that believeth, that is,
that's that God-given faith that brings a sinner to look to Christ
and rest on him and see Christ as his only sure foundation and
true refuge. shall not make haste. In other
words, you don't have to flit here and flit there, worry here
and worry there about, have I done enough? You know, that's what
a lot of preachers, when they're preaching, they kind of indicate
to their people, they'll say, well, you know, have you done
enough? Done enough for what? Well, have you done enough to
be saved? Or have you done enough to earn rewards in heaven? People
walk out and say, well, have I done enough? Let me tell you
something. There's no such thing as a sure foundation based upon
you or me having done enough. Because I can tell you right
now, and Christ taught this in what I call a parable, the parable
of the unprofitable servant. And here's what he said in that
parable in the book of Luke. He said, if you've done all that
you could do and more. You're still an unprofitable
servant. You've only done what is your duty to do. And so I
ask people and they say, have I done enough? Or have you done
enough? Enough for what? Enough to be saved? No. That's
why salvation is not by works, but it's by grace. Have you done
enough to earn your rewards in heaven? No. You can't earn your
rewards. That's not even in the Bible.
There is a reward, singular, but it's the reward of grace
that Christ earned for His people. And they're blessed with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. If you
think you're gonna have a bigger mansion than me in heaven, you
don't know what you're talking about. You're on shaky ground
there. You're in a refuge of lies. My
friend, salvation is by grace. And you know what that means?
That means neither you nor I have earned it or deserve it. So whatever
God gives me by way of blessing, I didn't earn it, I didn't deserve
it. All my preaching doesn't give me any leg up on anybody
as far as my works making me righteous or sealing my salvation,
it's all Christ. So don't make haste. Look to
Christ, the sure foundation. He is the righteousness of His
people, and there's no other way. There's no other ground. All other foundations are not
sure foundations, but Christ is the sure foundation. And that's
who we look to, that's who we rest in, that's who we put our
faith and trust in and follow. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.