I'm I study and I prepare messages
and well, I couldn't put a message in four verses I Barely get it
in three or four points What an amazing gift these men
had To write these hymns and they are like I said, you don't
have time sit and listen to a whole mess Just read those Wow amazing
And the rock of ages, I mean, Gus is a top lady. I don't think
he lived to be 34 or 37 years old, somewhere around there.
And you listen to just his hymns, not including his volumes of
books that he had answered objections to the gospel. It's just astounding
what God packed in so short a lifespan. Only God's able to do something
like that with a man. Only God is able to do something
like that. I'm thankful that he's done that. Before we begin
the message, we'll go to God in prayer. And I ask for your
prayers on those, this congregation that are sick, those who are
troubled with sickness and afflictions. Remember Jill in your prayers.
Well, there's Sherry. Is Kathy all right? Okay. Okay. Kathy, pray for her. She traveled. I hope tonight's message will
be a blessing to those who are suffering, those who are fearful. Sickness, afflictions make us
fearful. They just do. It's not hard to
make one of God's sheep fearful. It just don't take much. We're
awful bold sailing on the shore. Put us out to sea. And we learn
very quickly we are poor sailors. So pray for these that are in
great affliction. Remember Angela in your prayers. Ask God's mercy upon her. Continue. Prayer for her and her sorrow. God promised our faith would
be tried, didn't he? He swore that our faith would
be tried. And I know this, like I said,
my faith is often bold when nothing is happening to it. But when something happens to
me, the first thing that is shaken is my faith. I can't tell you
why. The flesh, that's why I know
why. It's the old man. He's still there. So I pray that
tonight's message would be a blessing to everyone who is fearful, everyone
who is troubled. And I do pray that this would
be a message of saving grace and power to the lost. Each time I preach, I want you
to know where you stand. I do. I want to be very clear
where you stand. There are only two types of people
lost and saved. Vessels of mercy, vessels of
wrath. There's only two types. And it is good to know your standing,
where you actually stand. And if God make that effectual,
you'll cry for mercy. So pray that God's word is effectual
tonight on the hearts of his people. I guess I better cut
this off. You've got two microphones, but
I'll make sure I get both of them. Is Chuck OK? OK. Pray for them. As I was preparing this message,
you have no idea what goes through my mind and my heart as I prepare
these As I prepared this message, I wish everyone could hear this. I just do. I wish that this message,
because it's not me, it's the gospel, man, I wish the gospel
would be heard. But I'll tell you this, God is
very protective of His gospel and He will only give it to His
people. Those He wants to hear it, those
are the ones that are going to hear it. No one else. It's not
my gospel, it's His. And He'll send it to everybody.
He wants my word. It will go forth from my mouth. It'll prosper in the thing where
into I send it. And so that's my confidence.
But I sure would like for others to hear this. It was a wonderful message to
my heart. I enjoyed preparing it. I enjoyed reading it. I enjoyed
studying it. My heart's desire to you tonight
is that God the Spirit would make it effectual to you. So
let's go to Him in prayer and ask these things. Most gracious Father in heaven,
we bow before your throne of mercy and seek that this night.
Mercy. Such frail creatures of dust
seeking mercy from the living God. We pray, Father, for your
strength for your power and your wisdom that is applied by your
spirit, that we should worship you in spirit and in truth, that
the word of God would go forth in power and demonstration of
your spirit upon the hearts of men, those that believe that they
might continue to believe. those that believe not that they
should believe. Pray Christ would be magnified,
Christ would be honored, Christ should be set forth, crucified
among us as the only hope of saving sinners. Father, for those
that are sick, those we have mentioned and others that we
have not, Father, we do beg you for their healing. We plead for
it, Father. We need it. We beg You for it. Only You can give it. And I pray You will. And I know,
Father, that You will do what is right and good for Your people. I need You tonight. I need You
to give me the liberty of Thy Spirit to preach this Word, and
they need You to apply it. we are utterly defenseless and
helpless without you. Come now, defend us. Come now
and protect us. Come now and manifest thy glory
unto us through the preaching of the gospel, so that we should
give you praise and glory and honor for the salvation that
you have purposed and Christ has accomplished. And I pray
you forgive us our sins. Oh, Father, please, by the blood
and righteousness of Christ, forgive us our sins. In His name
I ask. Amen. All right, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Romans, chapter 9. Romans, chapter 9. I've entitled this message, Christ,
a stumbling stone and a foundation. Christ a stumbling stone and
a Foundation I want you to see this tonight. He's both He's
both Look what he says in verse 33. He says as Let's go to verse
30 verse 30. Let's read verse 30 What shall
we say then that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness
listen have attained to righteousness? even the righteousness which
is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the righteousness
of the law, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Why? Wherefore? Because they sought
it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for
they stumbled at the stumbling stone, as it is written, Behold,
I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, and rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be shamed." Now last time we were
together we studied the three previous verses from verse 33,
we've studied verse 32, and in these verses we see the difference
manifested between the vessels of mercy and the vessels of wrath. We know that there is a distinction,
Paul says, even us who are called. The calling of the Spirit is
the distinction between the vessels of mercy and the vessels of wrath. Here is the manifestation of
that calling. The manifestation of the calling
is this. Vessels of mercy, like the Gentiles,
have attained unto righteousness, but the vessels of wrath who
follow after the law have not attained to the righteousness
of the law. So we who are vessels of mercy
by nature confess we have no righteousness. We by nature are sinners, we
were seeking our own way, our own lust of our own flesh, and
by nature unrighteous and unable to be righteous. Yet, we being
unrighteous, this is the glory of grace, we have now attained
under-righteousness. As you believers sitting there,
you have attained under-righteousness. Now you're not going to look
in the mirror and see it. Paul said, yet I've not attained. You can't see perfection yet
because it's still of the flesh. But we have attained unto righteousness. How? The righteousness, what
kind of righteousness? The righteousness which is of
faith. That's what the Gentiles found,
that's what we found. What is this righteousness of
faith? Look at chapter 1, and I need to go quick because this
is just an introduction. This is just recapping. Romans
chapter 1 and verse 16, Paul said, I am not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth. To the Jew first and also to
the Greek, for therein, in the gospel, is the righteousness
of God, listen, revealed. From faith to faith. Now what does that mean? From
faith to faith. Well, it means two different
things. First of all, it means that righteousness was attained
by faith. Just not yours. Righteousness
was attained by the faith of Jesus Christ. This is mentioned
in several different places. In Romans 3 and verse 22, it
says, Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. It's also in Galatians 2.16 when
Paul said, we know that we are not justified by the works of
the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. You get it? Righteousness
is attained by faith, listen, to faith. In other words, everyone
he attained faith for will also receive it by faith in Jesus
Christ. Both of those two things are
necessary. Righteousness must be attained and it must be received. And so that's how we received
it. This is the grace of God that we attained it, well actually
Christ earned it, and then we attain it by the power of the
Holy Spirit in the new birth. You are now attained to the righteousness
of God. But the vessels of wrath are
different. Look at what they say to the
vessels of wrath in verse 31. He says, but Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, listen, they did not attain to
the law of righteousness. A man by nature is truly born
sinners, yet in our minds and hearts we still hold to some
hope of attaining righteousness by our works. This is natural.
I mean, we wonder at false religion, we wonder at why anyone would
believe that salvation is by their works, that they can somehow
attain to the law of God, and yet we forget that that's where
we came from. This is natural to a man. These
vessels of wrath are pictured by the nation of Israel, those
Jews who were the most sincere about obeying the law. Nobody
in the Gentile world were more sincere than the scribes and
Pharisees. Nobody. I would like anybody,
anybody who wants to be under the law to put themselves up
against those guys. And yet our Lord said, made this
very clear, except your righteousness doesn't, He didn't say except
your righteousness match the scribes and Pharisees. He said
your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees or you're not going to get into heaven. Therefore the scripture is very
clear. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in His sight. Why? For by the laws and knowledge
of sin. All the law can do is show you sin. It can't help you
to atone for it. It can show you what righteousness
looks like, but it can't help you to attain it. In Galatians chapter 3, he says,
whosoever desires to be under the works of the law, are under
the curse. Now get that. That is vital. This should do away with all
of it. It doesn't, but it should. Anybody wants to be under the
law? Does anybody want to be under the law? Tell me. And be
honest with it. If you want to say, well, I think
we should worship on the Sabbath day. Okay. You want to be under
the law. Well, I think we should tithe.
Oh, you want to be under the law. I think we should just obey
the Ten Commandments. Oh, you want to be under the
law. Listen to what the Word of God
says. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, and this is
just, when He says that, there is no move in this. I don't care
what you say or what you think. No move in it. It's written.
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written in
the book of the law to do them. You can't take one. You want
to take one because you think you can obey that. God don't
ever let you take one. And listen, law and faith are
two distinct things. In Galatians 3 and verse 12 he
says the law is not of faith. You got that? If you want to
be under the law, you're not living by faith. The just shall
live by what? Faith. So the vessels of wrath, what's
distinguishing them? They want to earn their salvation.
They want to earn their righteousness. So then the righteousness can
only be attained by faith and through faith and not by the
works of the law. So now look at the text. The
apostle testifies that those who believe that the righteousness
of God comes by the law, listen to what he says, you have stumbled
at the stumbling stone. Look at verse 32, wherefore?
Why didn't they attain to the law of righteousness? Because
they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of
the law, for they stumbled at the stumbling stone. Now, where
does he get this? As it is written, Behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense. I'm going to
let you go to two places and hold it here. First of all, go
to Isaiah chapter 8. Isaiah chapter 8 and look at
verse 14 and then hold your place in Isaiah 28 and verse 16. Look what it says in Isaiah 8
and verse 14. Let's read verse 13. Sanctify
the Lord of hosts yourself, and let Him be your fear. Let Him
be your dread, and He shall be for you a sanctuary. Now listen, every one of you
who believe in Christ, you fear the Lord. You reverence Christ. You honor Him by believing on
Him. Listen to what He said. He shall
be your sanctuary. Now what's a sanctuary? It's
a refuge. It's a place where men commune
with God. And listen, where do we commune
with God? Only in Christ. In Psalm 48,
David said, the Lord is known in her palaces for a refuge. You that believe on Him, He's
your sanctuary, isn't He? He's your place of rest, your
place of enjoyment, where you can actually commune with God. Isn't that wonderful, isn't it?
Christ is our sanctuary. To those, this we know, All who are found on Christ as
a rock, He is a refuge, He is our foundation on which all our
salvation is built. We sing this hymn sometimes,
it says, here we have a firm foundation. Here the refuge for
the lost, Christ the rock of our salvation, He is the name
on which we boast. Lamb of God for sinners wounded,
sacrifice to cancel guilt, none shall be confounded, who on him
their hope hath built. You see, Christ to us is what?
He's a sanctuary. A sanctuary. A place of refuge. But, listen to this, to everyone
who wants to earn their salvation, He is not a sanctuary, what is
He? Look at this, but for a stone
of stumbling and rock offense. To everyone who wants to have
a part in salvation. Now this is religion. Listen
to me. Religion, they accept that Christ has to have a part.
They acknowledge that. Every, quote, Christian religion
acknowledges that Christ has some part. But what makes their
religion false is they also believe that man has a part. And what God says to you is this,
Christ is not a sanctuary to you, He's a stumbling stone. When the kids were young they
used to have Legos. We'd buy a bunch, a big box of Legos.
I think somebody gave us a big huge box of Legos. And they'd
play with those things and they'd leave them out. And sure enough,
I'd wake up in the middle of the night, and I'd be walking
across the floor, and I'd step on one of those things, and I
was offended. It was offensive. I had to bite
my tongue from cursing to let go. It was horrible. I stumbled. I'd fall. It wasn't pleasant
to me. And even so it is, Christ is
to those who would seek salvation by the law. He's not pleasant. He's offensive. I'm not talking
about the Christ of modern religion. He's offensive to nobody. You
found that out that the Christ of this world, that poor guy,
he's so weak, you pity him. He's not reverenced. He's to
be pitied. But the Christ of this book is
not one to be pitied. He is a sovereign ruler. And
it is at this Christ that they are offended. So long as you
make salvation part of their obedience and part of His, there's
no offense. But listen to this. Here's the
offense. That salvation is all of Him. and none of you. That is the offensive part to
them. That Christ is a stumbling stone to the natural man. Salvation
by Jesus Christ alone causes them to fall. It wounds their
pride. It is in opposition to their
natural mind and reasoning. They say, surely we have to have
a part. No. You don't get a part. Salvation is either by works
or by grace. It's not a both. This is why they are opposed
to the election of God's grace. You ask why they hate election.
It's because they want to be saved by works. This is why they
hate, they oppose being justified by grace through the perfect
work of Christ. See, if Christ's work is perfect,
you don't need them. And that's offensive to them.
They stumble at the simplicity of the gospel. What I mean by
simplicity is not that it's just simple, it is, but that it's
single. The gospel is one. It's one person. Christ Jesus is the gospel. He is the gospel. And so people,
I don't know if you've noticed, but people when they come here
and stay for a little bit, they usually leave because they hear
the same thing over and over again. They're offended by it. We're always preaching Christ.
They want to hear about me. They want to hear about themselves.
And so it's kind of like, you know, I've already heard that. Move on to something else. Nope.
No, we don't move on to something else. And that's offensive to
them. Now I preach to sinners and I
tell you this, come to Christ. Now listen, I'm telling everybody
that is a sinner, you should come to Christ. But to come to
Christ, you have to throw away your works. You have to abandon
them. You have to cast out your religious
deeds and count them as they really are. That's what your best is. I don't think I'll forget it.
It was Scott Richardson. I was a teenager when I heard
this. Scott Richardson stood up and
he said, your righteousness. He went with his bony fingers
and said, your righteousness. is as worthless as a warm bucket
of spit. That's offensive to the religionists. They will not tolerate such language. So preacher, you mean that I
don't have a part in salvation, my works before and after in
no measure contribute? Okay, you understand me. I'm
glad you understand. That's exactly what I'm saying.
That your works do not contribute one thing to righteousness. Not
one. You mean that after I believe
and I'm justified by Christ and He's my righteousness and I'm
not supposed to return to the law to be sanctified? Well, I'm
glad you understand. I'm glad you understand. It's
exactly right. Why? For the just shall live
by faith. Do you stumble at this? Are you
offended at this? If you stumble, listen, I want
you to understand this, you're not stumbling at me. You stumble at the stumbling
stone. You stumble at Him. You are beating
your head against a rock that won't move. It won't break. It won't change. And so if you stumble at Christ,
if you kick at Him, I want you to know this is what vessels
of wrath do. They stumble at the stumbling
stone. Christ, listen to this, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. To everyone that believeth. Now listen, you will either fall
on this stone and be broken. That's what happened to us that
believed. We fell on the stone and the stone broke us. Listen to me, if you donít fall
on this refuge, if you donít fall on this stone and be broken,
this stone will grind you to powder. The very law that youíre supposed
to honor will be the very law that condemns you to hell. Why, you stumbled at the stumbling
stone. But all who fall on Christ and
are broken, what do we do? We forsake our works. We forsake all of our religious
deeds and count them as they really are, done that we may
win Christ and be found in the sanctuary. I want to be found
in Him. I want to be found in His righteousness.
I don't want to be found in mine. I don't want to take my righteousness
and combine it with his. I don't want that at all. I want
his righteousness alone to be my righteousness. And I want you to know this,
that we have forsaken the shifting sand of works religion, haven't
we? When we're broken, we fall on
Christ. You ever wonder why I think of the law, people who
won't obey the law, it's like shifting, isn't it? It's always
shifting. Well, we obey this much and not
this because of the culture. Culture changes. What changes? Their law changes. It shifts. It's always shifting. Well, I
can't obey that because of providence, or I can't do this because of
the culture. It's shifting, saying, what do
we do with that? We abandon that. That's not my foundation. Our
foundation is Christ. And notice in our text, go back
to your text, look at this. And I want you to see those two
places that I showed you. You're holding there, but listen,
Paul says, as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling
stone and rock of offense. Whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. Now that text I read you in Isaiah
8, it doesn't say anything about God laying a stone. It doesn't
say anything about who believeth shall not be ashamed. It does
say that Christ is a rock of offense, but look at chapter
28 of Isaiah and verse 16. I want you to see He is combining
these two texts into one. Look at verse 16 of Isaiah 28.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord, Behold, I lay in Sion, not a
stumbling stone, but what? For a foundation, a stone, a
tried stone, A precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, he that believeth
shall not make haste. He will not be ashamed or confounded. Now why would he combine these
two? Listen, because Christ is both
the stumbling stone and the foundation. That's what he's telling you.
To the vessels of mercy he is going to be what? A foundation.
To the vessels of wrath, He is going to be what? A stumbling
stone. Same Christ, but seen in different
characters. And so it is that Christ, the
religionist, stumbles. The Jews stumbled at Him. Those
Jews, when they saw Christ, He came in weakness, He came in
meekness, in lowliness of heart. He came as a servant. That was
totally opposite of what they thought he should be, right?
He died. They thought he was going to
overthrow the Roman government. So what did they do with that
Christ? They stumbled at Him. They saw the miracles, they saw
the things being fulfilled, and it didn't match what they thought
of Him. That's what happens to the religionists. The religionists
think something of God, think something of Christ, and when
the real Christ is revealed, they stumble at it. You mean
God doesn't love everybody? Stumble. You mean God only has an elect
people and he's going to save those people? They stumble. Christ
only died for those people? They stumble. The Spirit's only
going to call those people. Only those are going to believe.
And they stumble. And they stumble because this
is their nature. Their nature is to kick against
God. They cannot receive these things
that we preach. But with the remainder of my
time, now I'm going to set him forth, not as a stumbling stone. I have a heart for you who believe
on him. I want to set him squarely out
as the foundation. To those who are religionists,
they're going to stumble at it. But to you, to you that believe,
I want you to see this, that God has laid for you a foundation. A stone, an immutable stone,
a precious stone that cannot be removed. And that is your
salvation. It is Christ. He is the precious
foundation stone of every believer. He is our sanctuary. He is our
place of refuge. And consider, in Christ, we are
able then to commune with God, for Christ alone is all our righteousness,
all our redemption, all our sanctification, and all our justification. Do you now lay all your soul
on Him? Right now, do you lay all your
soul on Him? Is He all your salvation? Are
you wholly resting, wholly resting on His finished work for all
your standing before God? Then He is to you a refuge. He
is to you a sanctuary. He is to you a foundation stone. Now I know this, you that believe
Him. You are often filled with fear
and doubt. You often fear your security. Another word for this is assurance. How often does your assurance
leave you? Tim James said, the moment you
look for assurance, you've lost it. I thought that was just great. Because if you're looking for
it, obviously you lost it. Believers can lose their assurance. They can lose the feeling of
security. Because we have fears. We have
doubts. Because of our sin, we doubt.
We fear because we are failures. Because of some dark providence.
Man, those dark providences, they come, we don't understand
them. Sickness, sorrow, pain, grief. These things bring doubts
and we fear that we should be removed from it. We fear that
this foundation is not secure enough. What I want to show you
tonight is two things. I want you to show, first of
all, how sure is this foundation? I want you to see just how sure
it is. And secondly, I want you to see
this, that you who believe can never be removed from it. First of all, let's see how sure
it is. Look at this. Go to the text in Isaiah. We're
just going to look at that one. In Isaiah 28. He says, Therefore thus saith
the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone. Now how sure is this stone? And why is it sure? Listen to
me. Because God laid it. The salvation of the elect was
laid by God Himself. God says, I, by Myself, according
to My own will and My own purpose, I lay in Zion. Now, He could
have laid that anywhere, couldn't He? He says, in one place, in
My church. my elect I am going to lay for
them a foundation stone All who are in Christ by faith
you that believe You that trust in this foundation. I want you
to know why you trust in this foundation You believe because
God put you on this foundation before the world began. This foundation, when was it
laid? It was laid before the foundation
of the world. There are two foundations. This
foundation of your salvation was laid by God Himself before
the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1, Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. That's far above anybody
else to get to, right? Nobody can get to those. Nobody
can take those away. They're in heavenly places. In
Christ. You think anybody can get to
them? Now if they were in a bank, in a safe, somewhere, Fort Knox,
maybe somebody could get to it. But that's not where our blessings
are found. They're in heaven, in Christ. Now try to get to
them. You can't. Listen, according as He had chosen
us, in Christ, when? Before the foundation of the
world. Purposing what? That we should
be holy and without blame before Him. In love, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children. Listen, by the foundation, by
Jesus Christ, God had purposed how He would make us holy. By Jesus Christ. So we see that
Christ the foundation was built from eternity. So when God created
the world and Adam, he was the head of all the race of men. Listen, before you were in Adam,
you were in Christ. You see how sure that is? You
were already in Christ before you were in Adam. Now you were
in Adam, and you fell in Adam, but before that you were in Christ.
God put you there, purposed you to be in Christ. And so when
Adam sinned and plunged us all into death, God had before represented
you in Christ. Before Adam represented you,
Christ represented you. So did Adam's representation
change your representation? No. You were always represented
by Jesus Christ. And so then all our righteousness. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30.
But of God are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Why is this foundation
sure? This foundation is sure because
God laid it and God cannot fail. That's just you can fail. That's
why God didn't lay that foundation on you. That's why you're not
the foundation you can fail God says I laid this foundation and
I cannot fail Cannot fail This is clearly evident
by all the promises concerning Christ in the Old Testament How sure is this foundation Have
you considered that all the promises of God were given before Christ
actually accomplished them? All of the Old Testament promises
were hundreds of years before Christ came. And yet in every
promise, listen to me, in every promise, He was victorious. In every promise, He's successful. I'll just give you a couple.
Look at Isaiah 42. Look at Isaiah 42, since you're
here. God says, He says, Behold My
servant, whom I uphold. Who upheld Christ as He walked
upon this earth? God did. I upheld Him. Mine elect. Who chose Christ to represent
it? God did. In whom my soul delighted. I
put my spear within him, he shall bring forth judgment of the Gentiles.
Look at verse 4. He shall not fail. 700 years before the Lord Jesus Christ
was born into this world, God said, He shall not fail. Look at chapter 49, Isaiah 49. Look at verse 7. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer
of Israel, and His Holy One, to Him whom man despiseth, to
Him whom the nations abhoreth. Was there any chance that they
would receive Him? When He came, was there any chance
that the Jews would receive Him? No. He said they will abhor Him. They will hate Him. Kings shall
see and arise. Princes shall worship because
of the Lord that is faithful and the Holy One of Israel. And
He shall choose thee. Thus saith the Lord. In an acceptable
time have I heard thee in the day of salvation. He's speaking
to Christ. Now listen, this is to Christ. In the day of salvation
I have helped thee. I will preserve thee. and give
thee a covenant of the people to establish the earth and cause
to inherit the desolate places." Is there any doubt as to what's
going to take place when He comes? He hasn't come yet, and God says,
I've laid this foundation, and when He comes, He will be successful. He will not fail. Consider all
the promises that He gave The Old Testament saints, Abraham,
listen to this promise in Genesis chapter 22, he said, in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Now is that
questionable? God said thousands of years before
Christ came. shall be a blessing to all nations. In Psalm chapter 89, Psalm chapter 89, God promises
something to David. Let me see, let me get it turned
the right way, it'll be good. Psalm 89, and verse 3, He says, I have made a covenant
with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant,
thy seed will I establish forever and build up thy throne to all
generations. Was there any question that Christ
was going to take the throne? Any question? No, God says, I've
laid this foundation. He will be successful. He will
be king. hundreds of years before He actually
came into the world. And so because God had chosen
Christ and sworn His victory, His success, that He would save
His people. Listen, it was utterly impossible
for Christ to fail. It was utterly impossible for
Him to fail. And consider this, that all of
the elect who lived before Christ came were saved. Now get this,
God promised that Christ was coming. And though Christ had not yet
accomplished their righteousness, Christ had not yet died for their
sins, Christ had not yet risen and ascended to heaven, yet God
counted it as though it was already done. Every Old Testament saint lived
before it actually was accomplished. And yet, God swears, they were
saved. All of those Old Testament saints
rested on this foundation that had not yet come. And so sure was God that Christ
would not fail. He saved them before He actually
did it. How did He save those Old Testament
saints? The same way we are saved. Don't let anyone confuse you.
The Old Testament saints were saved by faith, just like you
are. They by faith looked forward
to the rock. to Christ. And they believed
on Him. Abraham rejoiced to see My day
and saw it and was glad. He saw it by faith. You know
what God did for Abraham? He saved him as though it was
already done. He saved him by faith. And yet behold the faithfulness
of God and His Word to all who rest in Christ, that Christ's
salvation was so sure before He appeared, He said that it
was already done. Look at Romans 3. Paul mentions
this. Paul mentions this fact that
they were saved before He came. Look at Romans 3 and verse 25.
It says, Whom God has set forth to be the propitiation through
faith in His blood. Christ is the propitiation. He's
the mercy seat. He's the offering. To declare
His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past. Listen,
through the forbearance of God. All of those sins in the past,
before He came, God bared long with them and deferred judgment
until Christ came. He deferred their judgment. He deferred the judgment of their
sins, of those before Christ came, until He came. And so what
do we say about those Old Testament saints? Do we have any question
about the surety of their salvation? No, God said these all died in
faith, not having received it. Yet, where are they? They're
in heaven. Now, considering that God had
laid this foundation from eternity. Considering that God had counted
all of those saints before Christ came, promised His victory, how
much more sure should we be after it's already been done? I can see how they would doubt.
What I have trouble with is why do we doubt? It's already done. Christ has come. Salvation has
been accomplished. So let us stand on this foundation
that this, God laid it. God promised it. And the Old
Testament saints are a witness that it's sure. And we that are
after Christ has come, how much more benefit do we have than
they have? Second of all, this foundation
is sure because it's been tested. Look at that, look at that back
in Isaiah 28. Look at that. Isaiah 28, look
at it, it says, He is a Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation,
a stone, a tried stone. How sure are you that Jesus is
the Christ? Now I want to give you just a
little bit here, This was astounding. How many prophecies are there
of Jesus Christ before He came? Well, I looked it up for you,
so if you don't know, the most conservative estimate is 300
prophecies. Some say 570. Now, to be the
Christ Jesus actually had to fulfill
all of them Some scientists put this down.
I'm gonna just I'm gonna just kind of throw it out there The
probability of him being the Christ to fulfill eight prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17th power. You know what that means? 10
with 17 zeros behind it. They don't even have a number.
There's not even a name for that number, it's so much. That's
only for 8. Now, I did some math, and I figured
out what is the probability of Jesus fulfilling all 300? Listen
to this. It is 1 in 10 to the 637th power. That's 10 with 637 zeros behind
it. And yet, listen to me, he did
fulfill all of them. I'll give you just a few. He
was born of a virgin. He was born in Bethlehem. He obeyed the law perfectly.
He was without sin. In order to be the Christ, you
had to be without sin. He's the only one. He had to
die for the sins of His people in a very specific way. He had
to be crucified. Before crucifixion was invented,
He said, they pierced My hands and My feet. In order to be the Christ, Roman
soldiers had to part his garment and cast lots for his vesture.
That was a prophecy. He had to rise from the dead
in three days. He had to ascend to the throne
of God. That's the prophecy. He had to be the Son of Man and
the Son of God. Now listen, I just gave you a
few. There are vastly more than that. Is this not proven that Jesus
is the Christ? Nicodemus said, we know your
man sent from God. We know that. There's no question
to it. I don't need mathematics. I don't
need Josephus, and I don't need witnesses of any other kind.
The Word of God says He's the Christ, and I believe Him. I
believe Him. And God has proven that to be
true. Secondly, He has not only tried,
listen, He is a precious cornerstone. Believer, the whole Word of God
is dependent upon His success. I want you to know, If Christ
was not successful, take this and throw it in the garbage. The cornerstone of this word
is Jesus Christ. Like a cornerstone, a cornerstone
holds the weight of the whole building. If the cornerstone
is broken, the building falls. If Christ failed, this is worthless. My text says he is not a failure,
he is a precious cornerstone. A precious cornerstone. Why? Because the weight of my
soul rests on his success. That's why he's precious. Because
he was successful. Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders.
What does that mean? The weight of the government,
the weight of his church is totally resting upon his success. If I'm able to stand before God
in the day of judgment and be accepted, it has to rely on his
100% success. Otherwise, I have no hope. If
he is not 100% successful, we're all doomed. But he is. How do I know that? He said, it is finished. And in three days, God raised
him from the dead, just like he said he would. He ascended
into heaven and left his word for us, and send His Spirit to
us. He is a precious cornerstone.
So why are we sure? I'm sure because God laid it.
In eternity, God laid it. I'm sure of this. He is the Christ,
proven to be the Christ, and He is a precious cornerstone
because He did not fail to save us. And fourthly, Look at this,
God says He is a sure foundation. A sure foundation. Have you found
this true, that there's nothing sure in this life? That is just
so. That is a maxim that you can
take to the bank every single day. Boast not thyself of tomorrow,
for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. In this life,
we can be sure of nothing. That's just so. Except this. This you can be sure of. That for all those that God chose,
all those that Christ redeemed, all those that the Spirit gives
life and faith, He is a sure foundation and it cannot be moved. This foundation, who can move
it? Who can move this foundation? No one. God laid it. Christ is
the foundation, and He's proven, He's tried, He's precious. He's
the cornerstone. You say, well, preacher, I believe
that. I do. I believe that He cannot
be moved. But, are we not so easily moved? Are we not tossed about? Are we not so frail and bear
the rotting corpse of our flesh still? Yes, we do. Well, preacher, how may I know
that I will not fail to remain on this foundation? Asa had trouble with that, didn't
he? He said, I know God's good to Israel, but as for me, What
was he saying? I know the foundation's good,
but I fear lest I'm moved off of it. Can I be moved from this foundation? The answer of the gospel is simply
this, no. If God puts you in Christ, and
God called you and gave you faith, listen to me, You cannot be removed
from the foundation because you are in union with the foundation. You are in union. Listen to what
I quoted earlier. But of God are you in, Christ
Jesus. You are in the foundation. Not just on it. You are in it. You are tied to it. Just like
your head is tied to your body. inseparable. How come? Because God put you there before
the world began. You were in Christ when He lived.
You were in Christ when He died. You were in Christ when He rose
from the dead. You were in Christ when He ascended
to the throne. And now by faith, you are in
Christ. And Jesus says this of you. He
says, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And this is the
will of him that sent me, that of all he hath given me I should
lose nothing. But raise it up again at the
last day. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, No
man, I give unto them eternal life, and no man is able, not
that they ain't going to try, but they're not going to be able
to pluck us from His hand. If you want to read Romans 8,
the last part again, you can. Who's going to lay anything in
charge of God's elect? God justified me. Christ died for me. Christ
rose again from the dead to prove that He was successful. Christ
ascended to the throne of God. Christ ever lives to make intercession
for me. Therefore, who shall separate
me from this foundation? Paul said, I am persuaded that
neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate me
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Who can move
you from this foundation? No one. No one. All who are laid on this foundation, they shall not be moved. Look at what the last part of
the text says. Isaiah 28 verse 16, he says,
He that believeth shall not make haste. In Romans it says, He
that believeth shall not be ashamed. That word ashamed means confounded,
confused. On Judgment Day, there are going
to be a lot of people confused. There are going to be some people
confused. Our Lord is going to separate
everybody, one on His right hand and one on His left. The sheep
on His right hand, and the goats on His left hand. And I always
like to think about that. If you're a goat on the left
hand, you appear to be on His right. If you're a sheep on his right
hand, you appear to be on his left. That's how it appears,
doesn't it? All the goats think I'm shooing. All the sheep are
afraid. It's not your hand, it's his
hand. His right, his left. Not your right, not your left. And all those that are on his
left hand, they're going to be confounded. They're going to
be confused. Lord, when did we not do these things for you?
We preached in your name. We cast out devils. We did many
wonderful works. And he will say to them, to their
confusion, depart from me, you that work iniquity. I never knew
you. Why? They stumbled at the stumbling
stone, but to the sheep. They'll say, come you blessed
of my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you. When? Before the foundation of the
world. Inherit the kingdom. Why? Because
He laid that foundation for you. He put you on that foundation.
Christ accomplished your salvation without fail. And the Spirit
of God put you there by faith and He'll keep you there. So is this salvation sure or
what? Is it sure? It is to all who have the righteousness
of God by faith. But it is a stumbling stone and
offensive to those who go to God by law. There's no surety in that. There's
only surety to those who are laying on Christ. Are you laying
on Christ? If you aren't, may God, even
now, cause you to fall down on Him. I suggest you stay at His feet
until He gives you mercy. Don't get up. Don't get up. Stay
there. And I know this, everyone who
comes to Christ for mercy has found it. Anybody that has mercy,
not found it? Anybody wants mercy, not found
it? You want works, you won't find it. You want mercy, you'll
find it. I do pray that God will bless
this to your hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Holy Father, dismiss us with
your own blessings, with your own mercies, your own kindnesses. I beg you to let us take this
word home in our hearts and our minds. I plead with you to let
us mull it over in our hearts that we should see how sure this
foundation is that it can't be moved, not in life and not in
death. I pray, Father, you bless your
people, raise the sick, heal those that are suffering, and
forgive us our sins. We beg this in Christ Jesus'
name and for His sake. Amen.