All right, go with me, if you
would, back to Isaiah 26. Isaiah 26, and let's read verse
four again. Trust ye in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. I read this while I
was studying for last Wednesday night's message, which came from
verse three of this chapter. I read on down to verse 4, and
as soon as I read it, I knew that I wanted to bring a message
from this verse by itself. And here's the reason why. If
you have a center margin in your Bible, you will see that everlasting
strength translates the Rock of Ages. Trust ye in the Lord
forever. For in the Lord Jehovah is the
rock of ages. He tells us who to trust in. He tells us who it is we're trusting
in. And he tells us why we can trust
in him. He said, trust in the Lord. If we could ever get a hold of
what that means, If we could ever honestly get a hold of what
that means. Trust in the Lord. Who is the Lord? He said, Jehovah. God Almighty. God Almighty. Why can we trust in the Lord
Jehovah God Almighty? Because He is the Rock of Ages. That's the reason why. He is
the Rock of Ages. Now I'd like for us to just look
for a moment at what that means. Why is he called the rock of
ages? The everlasting strength. Why is he called that? Our Lord
Jesus Christ is referred to as a rock all through the scripture. All through the scripture. And
I love thinking of him that way. While so many people think of
him as such a soft man, Isn't that how they think of him? Just,
he wore robes. You know, he was a carpenter, but I'm sure they
don't see him to have calluses on his hands. Just a weak, kind,
you know, that kind of thing. He was the rock. He is the rock. Our Lord is referred to all through
the scriptures as the rock. And I want us to see that, all
right? Just stroll with me through the scriptures and let's see
this. Go with me to Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32 verse 1 says, Give ear, O ye heavens,
and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine
shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as
the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon
the grass. because I will publish the name
of the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto our
God, he is the rock. His work is perfect, for all
his ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is he. Who is he? He's the rock. He's the rock. Look right here
in Deuteronomy 32 at verse 30. How should one chase a thousand
and two put 10,000 to flight except their rock had sold them? Capital R. How could one man
put a thousand to flight? You know, things seem to be so
impossible with man. You know, we, we view things
in man's way and think this is impossible. It's not possible.
Well, how could two men put 10,000 to flight? Here's the only way
the rock of that one man or the rock of those two men sold them
to them. Verse 30, how should one chase
a thousand and two put 10,000 to flight except their rock had
sold them and the Lord had shut them up for their rock is not
as our rock. We have a rock. Their rock is
no rock at all, but we have a rock. Look with me at first Samuel
chapter two. 1 Samuel 2 verse 1, And Hannah
prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. Mine horn, that
means my strength, is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged
over mine enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none
holy as the Lord. For there is none beside thee,
neither is there any rock like our God. There is no other rock
like our God. No other, neither is there any
other. Look with me at Psalm 18. Psalm 18 verse 1 says, I will
love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress
and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust,
my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high tower. Right here in Psalm 18 verse
31 says, For who is God, save the Lord, or who is a rock, save
our God. Verse 46 says, The Lord liveth
and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. He is the rock. He is the rock. All right, let's remember that.
He is the rock. Now this verse is critical. This one right here
is critical. Turn with me to Luke chapter
20. Luke 20 verse 17, and he beheld
them and said, what is this then that is written? The stone, the
rock, which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of
the corner. The nature of man, the natural
flesh of all mankind has rejected the rock. All of mankind, all of the flesh
has rejected God's rock. Man does not know that he and
she has rejected the rock. Man has no idea. Man thinks,
what do you mean I've rejected the rock? Man has no idea what
that means. But the flesh of man has rejected
the rock. Man has no desire to be built
on and does not trust the foundation of Christ the rock. I want to
repeat that. Man does not desire to completely
solely be built on Christ the rock. Man is not willing to just
trust the foundation of Christ the Rock. He needs an insurance
policy. His own works. He won't just
rest on the foundation of Christ alone. He wants to add his work
to it, just to be sure. Well, yes, I see what he has
done, but I think I'm gonna add a little something to it. Man naturally does not want Christ
the rock alone. He wants to build his own house
on his own foundation. And the only foundation man has
is sand. He's the rock. But this is what man is going
to find out. Even though he has rejected Christ
and rejected His Word and rejected His work from even having any
part of the foundation, God has made him to be the chief cornerstone. God has placed him to be the
head of the corner. And the house is either going
to be built on Christ or it's not going to be built at all.
Verse 18 says, whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be
broken. Here's the greatest mercy that
God could ever bring to any sinner. That he would break the sinner,
break the hard heart, break the stubborn will, just break everything
about a hard, cold, dead sinner. Verse 18 says, whosoever shall
fall upon that stone, just fall begging for mercy, shall be broken. But on whomsoever it shall fall,
it will grind him to powder. We are either going to, with
a broken and a contrite spirit, fall on him for mercy, or he
is going to fall on us in wrath. Either way, He's the rock. Either way, He is the rock. Now that's the truth and we must
know the truth. He is the rock. That's the truth. Here's the
gospel. He is the rock of ages. He is the Rock of Ages. He is the Rock of Eternity. He is the Rock of Life. He is the Rock of Salvation. Look with me back at Isaiah 26.
Verse 4 says, Trust ye in the Lord forever. Forever. We can trust in him
forever throughout the ages. Verse four goes on to say, because
in the Lord, Jehovah is everlasting strength, everlasting sustainment,
everlasting provision, everlasting protection, everlasting salvation. When I read that, I read this
and saw the margin and it said the rock of ages. And when I
read that, three rocks came to my mind. Three rocks that are
mentioned in the scripture. And I wanted to see how Christ
is our rock of ages in these three rocks. All right, these
three different Stones how he will be our strength. He'll be
our protection. He'll be our provision All the
days of our life forever All right, three rocks. Here's the
first one look with me if you would at first Samuel chapter
7. I 1 Samuel 7 verse 1 says, And the men of Kirjath-jerim
came and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into
the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar
his son to keep the ark of the LORD. And it came to pass, while
the ark abode in Kirjath-jerim, that the time was long, for it
was 20 years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the
Lord. And Samuel spake unto all the
house of Israel, saying, If you do return unto the Lord with
all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth
from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve
him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
Then the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashteroth
and served the Lord only. And Samuel said, gather all Israel
to Mizpah and I will pray for you unto the Lord. And they gathered
together to Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the
Lord and fasted on that day and said there, we have sinned against
the Lord. And Samuel judged the children
of Israel in Mizpah. And when the Philistines heard
that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpah,
the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when
the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the children of Israel said
to Samuel, cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that
he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. So the Israel
sinned against God. And they had lost the ark of
the covenant and they were worshiping these false gods. And Samuel
told them, put away all these false gods and look to the Lord
alone. Trust in the Lord Jehovah alone. and He will deliver you from
the hand of the Philistines." And so they cried, pray for us,
because they were gathered together and here comes the Philistines.
Verse 9, And Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt
offering, wholly unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord
for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering
up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel.
But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the
Philistines, and discomfited them, and they were smitten before
Israel. And the men of Israel went out
of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came
under Beth-kar." So the Lord helped them, thundered upon them,
and Israel slew them all. Verse 12, "...then Samuel took
a stone." and set it between Mizpah and Shin, and called the
name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped
us." Samuel took a stone and he set it in the midst of them,
and he called the name of it Ebenezer, which means the stone
of help, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Hither by
thy help we are come. By your help alone, by your doing,
by your provision, by everything being in your hands, here we
are. We are what we are by the grace
of God. Completely by the grace of God.
Every victory that has ever come to us has come by the hand of
the Lord our Rock. Every single victory. Every deliverance that we have
ever received has come by the power and the might of the Lord
our Rock. He has won the victory. And He
is the one who gave it to us. He has given us the victory. Never one time have we gotten
our own victory. Never one time. Over sin especially. Never one time. Our victory is
in Him. We have a lot of enemies. We
have had and we will have a lot of enemies. The greatest one
we've ever faced is our own sin. We were held captive to our own
sin. We were bound by sin. Completely bound. We were the
servants of sin. But Christ came and defeated
it. I love how he is the captain
of the host. You know, you see armies go into
battle. Where is the king? Where is the
king of the land? Way back there in the back. You
know, looking. How are we doing? Who is our
Lord? First in. Captain of the host. Matter of fact, he's the only
one in. That's why when David defeated Goliath, he's the only
man who went out there. He has gotten the victory. He
defeated all of our sin. He said, sin shall not have dominion
over you anymore. Do we still live this life in
the sin of the flesh, committing the sin of the flesh? Yes, we
do. But it does not have dominion
over us. Christ defeated it. He conquered it. Our rock came
and led captivity captive, and he set us free. Because of that,
all of his people say, hither by thy help I'm come. By your help in him is everlasting
strength. Where did he defeat our enemies? How did He set us free? Not only from our sin, not only
from the power of our sin, but also from the penalty of our
sin, from the wrath and the punishment that we deserve from God. How
did that deliverance take place? That's in the second rock. Turn
with me if you would to Exodus chapter 33. Exodus 33 verse 12, And Moses said unto the Lord,
See thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and thou hast
not let me know whom thou wilt send with me, yet thou hast said,
I know thee by name, and thou also found grace in my sight. Now, therefore, I pray thee,
if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that
I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight and consider
that this nation is thy people." Moses said, show me how you are
going to deliver us. Would you show me your deliverance?
Verse 14, and he said, my presence shall go with thee, and I will
give thee rest. Verse 18, and Moses said, show
me. He said, I beseech thee, show
me thy glory, show me. Verse 19, and God said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee, And I will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. And he said, thou canst not see
my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord
said, behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon
a rock. You are going to stand on a rock. Moses said, show me the deliverance. Moses represents the law. Show
me the deliverance. He said, you are going to stand
on a rock. Verse 22, and it shall come to
pass while my glory passes by. That's my wrath, that's my judgment,
that's my holiness. While my holiness and my righteousness
passes by, that I will put thee in a cliff of the rock, the inner
part of the rock. I'll put you in the broken place
of the rock. He said, and I'll cover you with
my hand while I pass by. Now, who was that rock again? That rock was Christ. That rock
is Christ. God said, I am going to put you
in Christ. David said in Psalm 27, in the
time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of His tabernacle
shall He hide me. This is the tabernacle that I
live in. You are right now living in a tabernacle. David said,
in the time of trouble, He's going to hide me in His tabernacle.
He's going to put me in there with Him. And David said, He
shall set me up upon a rock. God said, I am going to deal
with you in Him. Your rock of ages is going to
be broken because of you. For you. And you are going to
safely be hiding in Him. I'm going to put you in Him.
You're going to hide. That song says, hide me. Hide me, O thou great Jehovah. Hide me. That's how deliverance is going
to come. Rock of ages, cliffed for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Save
from wrath and make me pure. Christ, our Rock of Ages, has
defeated all of our enemies. The greatest enemy being our
sin. He has protected us from everything that is against us.
He has delivered us from all punishment and all suffering
of wrath that's owed to us by God our Judge. He stands as our
shield and our defender for all eternity, forever. Alright, the
third rock tells us that He will sustain us all the way to the
end. He is going to sustain us all the way to the presence of
His glory. Turn with me to Exodus chapter
17. Exodus 17 verse 1 says, And all the congregation of the
children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin, after
their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord,
and pitched in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people
to drink. Wherefore the people did chide
with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And
Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do you
tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there
for water. And the people murmured against
Moses and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us
up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with
thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lord,
saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready
to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders
of Israel, and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take
in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee
there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock,
and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight
of the elders of Israel. Now, the last time that I told
this story was at the Crossville Conference a few years ago. So
it has been long enough. I'm allowed to tell it again.
I have to space my stories out. OK. Probably about 13 years ago. Hannah and I were at. Luke and
Brandon's sister's house, Carrie. And we were getting ready for dinner,
and they called us to the table. And I sat down, and Cary's daughter
Lucy was five years old. And man, if this does not encourage
us to teach our children the truth of the gospel, if this
does not encourage us to teach our children who Christ really
is, So much silliness is going on
in religion. So much foolishness is going
on in religion. But anyway, she scooted up into
the chair next to me and she had a picture that she had colored
in her Sunday school class. And I saw that picture and I
said, that's a beautiful picture you have there. And she said,
thank you. Do you want me to tell you about
it? And I said, I sure do. So she held up her picture and
it had a man by a waterfall and a bunch of people behind it.
And she said, this is Moses and these are the children of Israel.
And she said they were out in the desert and the children of
Israel were so thirsty. And she said they started whining
and complaining. and whining and complaining.
They said, we're so thirsty, Moses. We're just so thirsty. And they kept on whining and
complaining and whining and complaining. She said, so do you know what
Moses did? I said, what? She said, he struck
the rock. I'm going to go ahead and interrupt
the story. The children of Israel is us. Moses is the law. Who's the rock? All right, we
were the sinners. Who did the law strike? You know
what Moses did? He struck the rock. And she said,
do you know what came out of that rock? And I said, what? She said, living water. And the people drank and they
drank and they were so satisfied. And she said, do you know who
that rock was? And I said, who? She said, Jesus
Christ. And she said, do you know what
that rock did? And that's when she stumped me. I said, what? She said, it followed
the Israelites wherever they went. It sustained them all the
way to the end. all the way to the end. Our text
says, trust ye in the Lord forever. For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength. He is the rock of ages. He's the rock of ages. I believe
there is now only one song to sing. Rock of ages, cleft for
me. All right, let's all stand together.
126.