And I direct you tonight to words
that we find in the book of the Prophet Isaiah. Turning to Isaiah
chapter 28 and verses 16 and 17. Isaiah 28, 16 and 17, Therefore,
thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone, a tried stone, a precious corn, a stone, a sure foundation.
Neither believer shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay
to the lie, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail
shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow
a hiding place." I don't really need to say anything with regards
to the original context, the historical setting of this portion
that I've just read, because it is clearly a prophecy that
was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, we see
that in the portion of Scripture that we were reading just now
in the New Testament, there in 1 Peter chapter 2. and verse
six, wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, says Peter.
And then we have this very passage, or at least the 16th verse that
we've just read there in Isaiah 28. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion the chief cornerstone,
elect preciously that believeth on him, shall not be confounded
unto you therefore which believe He is precious, that unto them
which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed,
the same is made the head of the corner. And the stone of
stumbling and the rock of offense, even to them which stumble at
the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed."
This stone, this foundation stone, is Christ. For other foundation can no man
lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ, says another
apostle, Paul. It is the Lord Jesus Christ,
then, that is being spoken of. He is that one who is the stone
or the rock, the rock of offense, as Peter puts it. He is that
one who is also referred to by Moses back in his song in Deuteronomy
32. He is the rock, says Moses, his
work is perfect. And it's interesting, this morning
at home we were continuing reading there in the second book of Samuel
and we came to chapter 22. And that chapter is David's great
psalm of thanksgiving when the Lord had delivered him out of
the hand of Saul and of all his enemies. And you're probably
aware that 2 Samuel 22 is repeated in Psalm 18. So, we have it twice
in Holy Scripture. And as David comes before the
Lord with his thanksgiving, The very opening words of that psalm
is, The Lord is my rock. The Lord is my rock. And then, even as he continues,
he goes on to speak of the God of my rock. Oh, this is the one
then that he's being spoken of here in our text. It is that
one who is the God of Moses and the God of David. It is that one who is God, the
Eternal Son, the only Savior of sinners, both in the Old Testament
and in the New Testament. And so, as we come to consider
these verses for a text tonight, I want to speak of Christ as
a tried stone and a strung rock. Christ, a tried stone and a strong
rock. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies. and the water shall overflow
the hiding place first of all to say something with this rock
as a foundation stone and the foundation really is to be understood
in all that the Lord Jesus Christ is and all that the Lord Jesus
Christ has done in his person and in His work. He is that One,
of course, who is God, and yet He is God, manifest in the flesh,
He is God, Man. And He comes into this world
to accomplish a great work, even the work that was committed to
Him by the Father in the Eternal Covenant. All that Christ did
then, His coming, the miracle of His birth, the life that he
lives, the ministry that he exercises, the death that he dies, his resurrection
from the dead, his ascension on high, all these things that
are recorded in so much detail in the Fourfold Gospel, in Matthew,
in Mark, in Luke, and in John. It is there that the foundation
of salvation is laid. That is the foundation, and it
is the fulfillment of God's purpose as Peter on the day of Pentecost
preaches to those who were gathered together at Jerusalem for that
great feast. There were Jews and there were
proselytes, Gentiles who had converted to the Jewish religion
and remember as the Spirit of God is poured forth. It is Peter
who preaches so boldly and speaks of Christ whom they so recently
had crucified, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, he says, you have taken them by wicked
hands and crucified and slain." Oh, it is God's great purpose
that Christ had accomplished, and yet these whom he is addressing
were culpable, they were guilty of the murder of Jesus of Nazareth. He is that one then that we have
here, a tried stone. Our God tried the Lord Jesus
Christ, tried the strength of Christ. That was no small thing.
When we think of all that He had to endure as He came to make
that great sin-atoning sacrifice. When we think of His sufferings
in His life, And then as we come to the end, as we see him wrestling
in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, "'Twas here the Lord of life
appeared, and sighed, and groaned, and prayed, and feared, but all
incarnate God could bear, with strength enough and none to spare,'
says the hymn. Oh, the Lord Jesus, so sorely
tried, We're told how he was crucified through weakness. And what was that weakness? Well,
the weakness surely is to be discerned in his human nature
in comparison with his divine nature. In his divine nature
he is never anything less than true almighty God and yet he's
also a real man. He has a real human nature. And how he feels all that he
has to endure. the contradiction of sinners
against himself but not only that it is God who is trying
him when he comes to the end and speaks to his disciples he
speaks about really the whole scene of his life from the beginning
of his public ministry right through to the cross it's one
scene of trials and troubles "...ye are they which have continued
with me in my temptations," he says to those who were his disciples. All gods tried this foundation,
this stone, this rock, and as gods tried him there is a sense
in which believers also come to try that stone. The hymn says,
I know it's not in Gatsby but we're probably familiar with
the words of that hymn, O make betrayal of his love, experience
will decide, how blessed are they and only they who in his
truth confide. Now we have to make betrayal
to those who do come and trust in him and rest in him. He is
that one who is spoken of here as a precious cornerstone, a
sure foundation a precious cornerstone doesn't Peter say unto you therefore
that believe he is precious he is precious and as he himself
was tried in all his life so those who are in him are also
going to be a tried people there is ever that similarity that
sameness he is the head they are the body As He was in this
world, so must be His children also in this world. And again,
as Peter speaks of so many precious things, he speaks of the precious
trial, doesn't he? The trial of your faith, being
much more precious than the gold that perishes, though it be tried
with fire, is found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ. Every believer is a living stone.
Every believer is a tried stone. in that great superstructure,
that building which is the church of God. And again, it's Peter
who addresses those believers in chapter 4 of that epistle
that we read from. And verse 12, Beloved, he says,
Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that is to try
you as though some strange thing happened unto you. Is the Lord
Jesus a tried stone? all those lively stones that
are built upon him, they also will know something of the trial. But as they are tried and as
they are brought to rest and to settle more and more in the
Lord Jesus Christ, we see that it is Christ who not only gives
support and strength, but He is the one who also binds and
knits that whole building together, because he is the chief cornerstone.
This is the language that we have here. Behold I lay, it says,
for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, but then it's also referred
to as a precious corner stone, or the chief cornerstone, as
we have it there in Peter's reference to this verse Christ is the cornerstone,
the importance of that because all the building is is bonded
really into that cornerstone and it's interesting to remember
something of the importance of the bonding when a bricklayer
is laying his bricks. I suppose now if we observe buildings,
and it is interesting sometimes just to look at buildings, modern
buildings, often we see that the men who
work on those buildings, they just lay the bricks lengthways
side by side. If you look at old buildings,
we discover that there were in fact in previous times, various
bonds were used. The bricks aren't always laid
just lengthways, side by side. But there's different bonds.
There's one called the Old English Bond. There's another called
the Flemish Bond. And these bricks are so laid
as to give the building some extra strength as it's erected. And How Christ as our chief cornerstone,
this precious cornerstone that we have in the text, is that
one who sees that the whole building is firmly fashioned and framed
together. All we read of the church, of
course, in the Old Testament under various names, it's Zion.
Zion is the church. Or Jerusalem is another of the
names that he's given to the church. And there in the 122nd
Psalm we have that statement, Jerusalem is built as a city
that is compact together. It's compacted together. And
again, the language of Peter that we were reading, ye also
as lively stones, he says, are built up a spiritual house. And it's not just Peter. Look
at the language also of Paul, these apostles, they really speak
with one voice. There in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 20, he speaks of the household of
God, the saints of the Most High, built up, built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself, being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are
builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." It's
not just a foundation. There's also to be that framing,
that forming. What is it that binds the whole
building together when we think of the church? And of course
when we think of the church We don't just think of the whole
company of the election of Christ, the total body of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we can think of the local church as a microcosm, as it
were, of that great true church, the whole election of Christ.
And local churches are to be formed that to be grounded in
Christ, that to be fashioned after the Lord Jesus Christ,
and what is it that binds all together? Is it not that Christian
love? In Colossians 3.14, Paul speaks
of charity or love, he says, which is the bond of perfectness. Charity, love, the bond of Perfectness. And again, to the Ephesians,
endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit, he says, in the
bond of peace. These Christian graces are so
necessary to binding the local church together. Oh well, here
then we see the importance of the Lord Jesus Christ under these
various figures. a foundation stone, a tridestone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, a sure foundation. In the course of his ministry,
the Lord Jesus Christ preaches numerous sermons, but we often
think in particular of that lengthy sermon that we call the Sermon
on the Mount, recorded in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. Remember
when we come to the end of chapter 7 as the Lord concludes His sermon. He speaks of those who are hearers and obedient hearers
and in contrast those who really are rejecters of His Word. There
at the end of Matthew 7, "...whosoever heareth these sayings of mine,"
he says, "...and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise
man which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended,
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And
everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not,
shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon
the sand, And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the
winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell. And great
was the fall of it." In each case he speaks of the house being
built. And the difference, of course,
is the foundations. And we might say that these houses
could be built in the same place. What is the difference? Well,
one has no depth, it's simply laid upon the sand or the soil,
and the other is one that has a sure foundation, because there's
been some digging, so that one arrives at the bedrock
and can lay a foundation there and build upon it. And then all
is tested, the rain. The rains descend, the winds
blow, and the rain is very much associated with judgment, isn't
it? When the Lord God judged the ancient world, He judged
it by the floods. All the fountains of the great
deep were broken up, we're told. and the windows of heaven were
opened, and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty
nights. We have that record there in
Genesis chapter 7 concerning that great deluge that the Lord
visits. It's a judgment. And we see rain
again associated with God's work of judgment when he comes to
deal with the false prophets. Ezekiel speaks of those false
prophets very much. And there, in chapter 13 of his
prophecy, we read of them, verse 10, Because, even because they
have seduced my people, it is of false prophets, saying, Peace,
and there was no peace. And one built up a wall, and
lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar, saying to them which
daub it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall. There shall
be an overflowing shower, And ye, O great hailstones, shall
fall, and the stormy wind shall rend it. Therefore thus saith
the Lord God, I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury,
and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great
hailstones in my fury to consume it." It's exposed. Why? Because it has no proper
foundation. Those men were not the Lord's
servants. You know, when the Lord deals with His people, He
will wipe away all the refuge of their
lies. All elect sinners, they have
to be brought to that place of the conviction of their sins. They must know something with
regards to the ministry. of the Lord of Gods. That ministry
of condemnation, that ministry of death, they must see themselves
in God's Word for what they are. They were made in God's image.
They were created after God's likeness. And what is God's Word? What is the Bible? It's a revelation
of God. It's God, as it were, revealing
himself. When the sinner under conviction of his
sins, he's brought to look into the Word of God, what does he
see? He sees how much that image of God in him has been distorted
and destroyed. He sees himself. He doesn't go
his way and forget what manner of man he is, as James says.
No, he remembers. Oh, he sees what his origin is. He fell in Adam. He was conceived
in sin. He was shapen in iniquity. There
in Job 4.19 we read of those whose foundation is in the dust.
Whose foundation is in the dust. O earth, earth, earth, hear the
word of the Lord, says the prophet of God. O look at the rock whence ye
are hewn, and the whole of the rock when she are dead. We have to come to see what we
are. We have to be brought to that
place where we see all the refuge of our lives, all that we would
take refuge in, carried away. But the psalmist can say, he
brought me up also out of an horrible pit. Oh, the Lord delivers
his people. He brought me up also out of
an horrible pit. He set my feet upon a rock. And
what is that rock? It's what we have here in the
text. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it's all the work of God. Behold, he says, I lie in Zion
for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation. It's what God has liked. There's that verse, isn't there,
in Job. Remember, our late dear friend
Sidney Norton would often refer to that verse concerning God,
He hangeth the earth on nothing. He hangeth the earth on nothing. And he found great comfort there,
I think, with regards to the beginnings of the work of the
Banner of Truth, when Ian Murray was speaking on the beginnings
of that work, he mentioned that particular verse that Sidney
Norton would often refer to. They had nothing, really, or
very little to begin that work with. But it was an exercise
of faith. This is a God, you see, who hangeth
the earth upon nothing. He lays its foundation in space. Well, cannot that God also make
a Christian out of a sinner? Cannot that God lay that sinner's
foundation in the Lord Jesus Christ and so ensure his salvation
for time and for eternity? When Paul writes to the Corinthians,
he reminds them they are God's building. That local church at
Corinth. The people are God's building,
the people are those lively stones. And that trite, just as the foundation
stone and the chief cornerstone is a trite stone. Every believer
is trite. The city which has foundation,
whose builder and maker is God. That's what the church should
be. So it's God who forms it, it's God who fashions it. But what do we read up here with
regards to those who have an interest in this building, in
this foundation that is being laid? They are believers. He
that believeth, it says. He that believeth shall not make
haste. And what is this believing? What
is it not looking to God? Look unto me, he says, and be
ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there
is none else. Looking away from self, looking on to Jesus, looking
only on to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And that's what we're told here,
behold says God. Thus saith the Lord God, this
is the word of God through his servant the prophet to the people,
what are the people to do? Behold he says. In other words,
look, see, consider, It's God's work. I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone, a trite stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. And if we're really looking and
trusting, he that believeth, it says, shall not make haste. Now, as I say, Peter makes reference to this verse,
but he doesn't quote it, does he? Exactly as we have it here
in the Old Testament. Now of course Peter himself is
writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so what he
says, as he makes reference to this word, is as inspired as
it was when he came from the lips of the prophet Isaiah. And maybe what Peter was doing
was actually quoting the words as they are rendered in the Greek
version, the Septuagint. that the Lord Jesus Christ himself
and his apostles were not ignorant of. But it's interesting to make
the comparison between what we have here and what we have in
Peter. Here it says, the believer shall not make haste. In Peter
it says, the believer shall not be confounded. That's how it's
rendered in our Authorized Version, shall not be confounded. Now
there's a parallel passage also in Paul. Paul in Romans 10,11
says, "...whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."
Not make haste, not be confounded, not be ashamed. What do we learn from these various
renderings as it were? Well, Isn't the basic truth is
that we're not to make haste in our own spirit. We're not
to fall into our own spirit. That will only bring confusion. That will only bring shame. We're
not to make haste. Now, it's true, of course, that
there is a need for us not to procrastinate, not to delay.
we have that verse in 1st Samuel 21 the king's business requireth
haste behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of
salvation that suggests the necessity of not delaying but we're not to make haste in
a wrong way in our own spirits either believeth shall not make
haste in that sense. Sometimes you see, make haste
and we misjudge. We misjudge God and the ways
of God and the works of God. Psalm 31, 22, I said in my haste,
I am cast off from before thine eyes. How the psalmist was so
wrong. In haste he couldn't understand
God's dealings with him. God's trying of him and testing
of him. And so he says, and he confesses
it, I said in my haste, I am cast off from before thine eyes. But that wasn't true. But God's
dealings, God's dealings are difficult at times. And we see that in verse 17.
we're told judgment also will I lay to the line righteousness
to the plummet and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies
and the water shall overflow the hiding place when God is
dealing with his people and sweeping away all their false confidences
but we're assured aren't we at the beginning of that 17th verse
that he does lay judgment to the line and righteousness to
the plumage or to the plumb line. It's all the imagery that we
associate with erecting a building that we have here, of course. But God's dealings are always
in judgment. God's dealings are always in
righteousness. Although at times we can misjudge
Him, we can make hasty judgments and mistake his ways. It says
in verse 21 that his work is a strange work, his act is a
strange act. We're not to be hasty in making
our conclusions with regards to the ways and the works of
God. There is always need for that
patience. Or doesn't he remind us of that previously, where he speaks of the necessity
of it being precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon
line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, in verse 10.
That's God's ways. And at the end of this chapter we read Concerning God's
work, concerning God Himself, He is wonderful in counsel, He
is excellent in working, it says. We need to bear all these matters
in mind. We're not to come to hasty judgment,
hasty conclusions. God will appear in His own time.
and God will appear in judgment and in righteousness in all his
work because he's excellent in his workings he is that God who
is good he is that God who does good and we're told concerning
his people God shall help and help right early and so the believer is to learn
what it means to wait upon his gods. To wait upon his gods. The believer is one of those
lively stones that Peter speaks of. He also, he says, as lively
stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. That's what we come to do tonight,
isn't it? In our praises, in our prayers,
we are desirous of bringing to the Lord those spiritual sacrifices,
not the sacrifices that we associate with the Old Testament, or those
Levitical sacrifices, or those bloody sacrifices. There's no
need for those. Christ has come and made the
one sacrifice for sins, whatever, we know that. And yet believers,
as that spiritual house, that holy priesthood, when they come
before God, they do present to Him spiritual sacrifices. Their
praises and their prayers, that's the expression of their faith,
or they desire to come and ascribe to the Lord God all that honor,
all that glory that belongs to His name. Therefore, thus saith
the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet. And the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the
hiding place. Where the Lord Be pleased to
bless His Word to us tonight. Now before we take the opportunity
of prayer and turn to Him again, let us sing together the hymn 141 to
the Tunisian Saviour 228. Behold the sure foundation stone
which God in Zion lies to build our heavenly
hopes upon, and His eternal praise. In 141, Tune 228.