If you noticed in that hymn that
was just sung, with all these wonderful and
biblical names of Christ, in the second verse it refers
to Him as Jesus, our righteousness, our sure foundation. Our sure foundation. That's what I want to try to
talk to you about this morning, and that is the only sure foundation. And I would have you to turn
with me in the book of Isaiah, And the 28th chapter. Isaiah 28, beginning in verse 14. Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because you have said, we have
made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement,
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. 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. And your covenant with death
shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not
stand, when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, Then shall
ye be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth,
it shall take you. For morning by morning shall
it pass over, by day and by night. And it shall be vexation only
to understand the report." Now every one of us, irregardless
of the things that distinguish us, some male, some female, some
young, some old, and many other distinctions by which we might
personally be distinguished, but every one of us is headed
for a long, endless eternity. Every one of us is facing death. Every one of us will have to
stand before God. And whether we realize it or
not, whether we would admit it or not, We are every one building
on something, resting on something, trusting in something that will
give us hope in that hour, that hour we know that is coming. We're all basing our hopes and
our expectations and our beliefs on something. We're building
just like someone builds a building on a foundation. And we have in the Scriptures,
oftentimes, These warnings concerning this day, or these days coming,
and concerning the foundations upon which we build and rest. There is in these few verses
a clear contrast between the man-built foundation and the
God-built foundation. There is a clear contrast here
between the erroneous ways of men and the only way of God. A clear contrast in salvation
by works or human reasoning and salvation by grace in Christ. And what we have here is something
that we find elsewhere stated in the New Testament. Turn over
in the Gospel of Matthew to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7, and listen
to what the Lord Jesus Christ says beginning in verse 24. He says, "...therefore, whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine, Everything will have to do with
the sayings of God. It's not my opinion or yours. Everything is measured by the
Word of God, the sayings of mine, he says. Therefore, whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, that is, believe
them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon
a rock." Now those who believe the gospel, those who believe
on Christ, everything about them, everything they trust in will
be tested just like everyone else. But notice this, And the
rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and
beat upon that house. But it fell not, for it was founded
upon a rock." The other side of that coin is this. And everyone
that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, believe
them not, trust in them not, not just simply with a head acknowledgement
of them, but with a heart confidence and relying upon them and nothing
else, 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. And it came to pass, when
Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at
His doctrine. This is the doctrine of the Lord
Jesus Christ. For He taught them as one having
authority, and not as the scribes. Not as those scribes and Pharisees
who claimed the authority of God. But what we find is that
those who relied upon what those scribes taught, Those who relied
on that principle that always is the product of man-made gospels,
which is salvation in some measure by who we are or what we do. He says, it is a foundation of
nothing but sand and weakness, and it will surely fail and the
house will fall. The verses that we read there
in Isaiah 28, The verses that precede those
verses speak of a judgment that was to come against the leaders
and the prophets and the priests of the Jews. But it reflected
also this coming day of judgment when all shall stand and face
God based on these things, a foundation of God or of man, that judgment
will come and it will be the test, the final test of what
men and women build on. But if you notice, even in the
midst of this prophecy concerning judgment, even as God tells what
will take place and the basis of it, what will happen to these
individuals, even in the midst of that, He sends forth a word
of hope and a message of the gospel of Christ. And what we
find in that 16th verse is that that was the only hope then in
Isaiah's day, and it's the only hope now in our day. It is the only sure foundation. He hath in these last days, as
He did in that day, in a type and picture and shadow, He hath
in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. He speaks to us in the gospel
of Christ crucified. He speaks the same message, the
everlasting gospel. It is still as it was then, simply,
what thus saith the Lord." What does he say? Well, if you look
back at verse 16, It says, "...therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold,
behold." In my pitiful, weak mind, when I read that word,
behold, in the Scriptures as it comes from God, I see in a
mental picture a railroad crossing and those old signs that used
to say, stop, look, and listen. He says, behold. And he calls
out to sinners like we are saying, stop. and look and listen. And literally what it means here
is something like this, Behold me as Him who has laid the foundation. And this is what the Word of
the Gospel declares. It is a command of God, but it's
also the necessary work of God, because He alone can enable any
blind sinner to behold Him. All those examples in the New
Testament where Christ went to those who were blind. that everybody
else had failed in giving them sight, and they themselves were
never able to achieve it. They sat in their blindness and
in their destitute state until He came to where they were and
opened their eyes." I am so glad that when this Word
is spoken to blind sinners, And they are told to behold something
that they cannot see, that they cannot know, that they cannot
understand. God, when it goes forth to His
people, goes forth in power, and that enablement, that sight
of faith is given as the gift and power of God, and lo and
behold, they behold. What they never could behold
before, they behold. What they'd never seen, though
it's clear and plain and all around them, may be proclaimed
to them many times, and then all of a sudden, they behold
something. It's whenever we come to understand
something that we've not ever understood before, and somebody
comes along and explains it, and we say, oh, I see. He says,
behold. That word, behold, I think is
in the Scripture something like over 1,300 times. We'll see it on Wednesday evening
there in John chapter 1, Behold the Lamb of God. In Isaiah 40
where he says, Behold your God. Or 1 John 3, Behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Behold the Lord comes
quickly. God says, look and listen and
hear what it is that I'm saying. See what's being set before you
in the gospel. He says, look, that is, listen
to this word of hope and grace that I'm about to proclaim to
you even at the same time when I'm prophesying judgment. Hear
my saying. He says, Behold, I lay. And that ought to just awaken
us to the reality of something that by nature we do not know
and do not want to know. And not only that, that which
false religion comes along seemingly knowing what we don't know and
what we don't want to know, and so they tell us the very things
we want to know. But the truth is salvation doesn't
start with you. It doesn't start with me. It
doesn't start with my choice, or my decision, or my work, or
my personal goodness. He says, look, behold, I lay. In other words, the good news
of the gospel has to do with what God has done. He's talking about building something. He's talking about laying this
stone, this foundation, which is the foundation of all salvation,
and hope, and life, and grace, and mercy, everything pertaining
to God and our acceptance before God. He says, I did something,
and this is the Word and the work of the Sovereign Almighty
God. You remember Nebuchadnezzar?
He began everything before God with the eye that reflected His
doing. This is that great Babylon which
I have made for my glory. I did all these things. But you
go and read Ezekiel 16. where a sinner is pictured as
an aborted dead infant lying in an open field with no one
caring for it and no one able to help it, and then he says,
I pass by thee, and it was the time of love. And I washed you, and I cleaned
you, and I anointed you, And I clothed you, and I crowned
you, and you were covered in My righteousness, and you became
renowned for your beauty." God says, I did that. I, I, I, I. And this is so contrary to what
these preachers say in our day, and so contrary to the self-righteous
nature of fallen men and women. Paul stated it this clearly and
this succinctly in 1 Corinthians 3.11. He said, "...for other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is
Jesus Christ." You can't build any other foundation. You can build a crumbling structure
of human works. You can build something that
is something you may stand back and brag on, but when the flood
of God's judgment comes, when the hail of His wrath falls,
it will crumble like a cracker. Paul said it's fear for his own
people. And this week, for some reason,
I've thought so very much of all the people around me that
I grew up with, and that I knew, and that I still know, and that
I like, and that I have some communication with, some relationship
with. And my fear for them is the same
fear that Paul had for his native people. He said, for they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. Here's this song-sure foundation. The righteousness of God. The
righteousness that He gives as a gift. And then over here, said
in contrast to that, is the righteousness of man. That is that which they've
gone about in their own selves trying to establish. Which is
not a solid foundation. It's merely, he says, filthy
rags. So God is saying, stop trying
to do. Stop trying to figure out what
God would have you to do. Stop listening to these false
prophets. Stop listening to your own self
telling you what to do, and listen to God as He tells us what He's
done. Whenever Moses led those Israelites
down out of Egypt, And He gathered them as they went in that way
into Exodus, and all of a sudden, there they are, mountains on
both sides, the Red Sea in front of them, and Pharaoh's army in
hot pursuit right behind them. There's no way of escape. There's
no way of self-salvation. And that's where God has to bring
His people. We're so hard-headed, we're so
self-righteous, we're so blinded, we have to be brought to an end
of ourselves just like these Israelites were. What did Moses
say to them? He said, stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. That's what God is always saying
in mercy. Stand still and see my salvation. Stand still and see my foundation. Salvation, as Jonah cried out,
is of the Lord. It is the work of God. It is
the glory of God. It is by His grace to the praise
of the glory of His grace. It is a work that is already
accomplished so as to make Christ our Sabbath rest. He said, and I looked, and there
was none to help. And I wondered that there was
none to uphold. Therefore mine own arm brought
salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me. There was not anybody
to save my people. I looked, and there was none
amongst them. But he said, by my own hand,
My own hand. I got salvation. The Lord God has borne all of
the weight of that building, that glorious superstructure,
if you will, that is called Zion. He is the one foundation. We
sang that hymn a few minutes ago. The church is one foundation. is Jesus Christ the Lord. That means you cannot then turn
after you've sung something like that to priest or preacher or
whoever it is or whatever it is. The church's one foundation
is Jesus Christ the Lord. And that's the way it was from
the beginning. That's the way it was before
the beginning. That's the way it was before
the foundation of the world. The foundation of Christ was
already laid. God laid on Him, or laid Him,
set Him forth this stone as the surety, as the covenant head
of His everlasting salvation. Salvation is not an afterthought
with God or a contingency plan wherein When they took Christ,
He had to come up with something else because they rejected Him.
No, that is God's salvation. He was the foundation of all
that the prophets said. He laid His only begotten Son
in the womb of a virgin. He laid Christ, this foundation
stone, in a manger in Bethlehem. And most of all, He laid on Him
the iniquity of all His people. He imputed all their sins to
Him. Blessed is that man! Happy is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Blessed and happy is that man
to whom the Lord imputes righteousness, the very righteousness of God
in Christ, without man's works." That's a happy man. He's resting
on a sure foundation. He laid Him in an earthly tomb
after He had laid Him on that cross stretched between heaven
and earth. He laid that sword of justice
into His bosom. Whatever second means there was,
whatever second causes, God Almighty Himself, He was the first cause
of it all. He said, Awake, O sword, and
smite the shepherd. Like a stone laid for a building.
It is all His work. It is all to the glory of His
name and all for the accomplishment of His eternal purpose of grace. You go back and you look at all
the old cathedrals and so many religious structures in this
country and all, and there they've laid this chief cornerstone. We're just going to lay this
cornerstone. We're just going to put the date
that this was founded, along with who the pastor was, along
with who the deacons were, along with who the board of buildings
was. But the true building, which
is His body, has just one foundation. And everything is because God
laid it all on Him and made Him responsible totally for all the
salvation of His people. He laid all His eternal purposes
and His decrees as the Mediator and the Savior and Redeemer of
His people, all responsibility on Him. He laid this foundation
stone by sending Him forth in the fullness of time made of
a woman to be incarnate and to suffer as their substitute and
die for them? And the one He lays as the foundation
in this calling of each one of them is the one that they are
called to build all their hope and faith and trust in, and nothing
else?" The triune God. engages himself in his entirety
in order to assure that his purpose of grace and glory, the salvation
of his people, would not fail. He said, I laid. I did it. Which means he's not offering
it. The gospel is not about an offer. It's about an offering. Once and forever he laid and actually accomplished
and assured the whole structure because he knew that such sinners
as we are in such weakness could never avail. Psalm 40, he says, Then said
I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of
me, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within
my heart. Who's that? The foundation. He
said, I come to do thy will. This is the will of Him that
has sent me, that of all He's given me, I lose nothing. I'll
raise them up at the last day." He says, Behold, I lay in Zion. In Zion. Not in earthly Zion,
but in that Israel, that Zion, that Jerusalem which is spiritual. That Jerusalem which is above.
Zion is that word in the Old Testament Scriptures that's spoken
of as the dwelling place of God. And the foundation and this city,
they're one. Psalm 76, he says, "...in Judah
is God known, His name is great in Israel, in Salem also is His
tabernacle, and His dwelling place in Zion." People talk about going to the
house of God. And I'm not trying to belittle
that. But the dwelling place of God
is Christ. Not in a big structure. Not in
an ornate edifice of some kind. God dwells with His people in
Christ. His church, His head, His body,
the foundation, and there the building. Paul said, for we are
laborers together with God. Yea, you are God's husbandry,
you are God's building. Somebody is always talking about
how the church is crumbling in their day, how that a recent
poll was taken and there are fewer people who believe the
Bible is the Word of God. Do you think that matters? If everybody joined together
and took a vote, and 99.44% of the people did not believe the
Word of the Scriptures, the Bible is the Word of God, that wouldn't
change one thing. It would simply reflect that
God is still true and man is still a liar. In Ephesians 2 Paul says, "...in
whom in Christ all the building fitly framed together groweth
unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together
for a habitation of God through the Spirit." That church will
never fall. That which the true church is
built on, will never fail. Psalm 132, For the Lord hath
chosen Zion, He hath desired it for His habitation. God's
not going to live in any crumbling structure. And the ransomed of the Lord
shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy
upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." That's the Lord's
church. Isaiah 51, Therefore the redeemed
of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion,
and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain
gladness, and joy, and sorrow, and mourning shall flee away. Behold, I lay in Zion, not in
religion generally spoken of, not in organized denominations, Behold, I lay in Zion." Lay what? A foundation. I lay in Zion for a foundation. You know, do you ever think about
how as you get older in life, as time passes by, so many things,
as a matter of fact, Everything that you once trusted in crumbles
away, disappears. All your help. You're so robust
and strong. Where is it now? Your mind. You could always count on your
mind. Count on your wits. But as every day passes, I have
less wits. That one you love, that one you
could always depend on. They're going to be gone one
day. That's the way it is. We need a sure foundation. And God has already laid in Zion
the only sure foundation. You may feel pretty good about
yourself. Well, I didn't curse as much
today. I didn't drink as much today.
I didn't think wicked thoughts as much today. I'm feeling pretty
good about myself. I read my Bible today. But you'll have that to come
before God as nothing but sin. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Can you not be honest and look
at yourselves and your doings and all that and say, there's
no hope here? Why does God bring us today?
Why do His true preachers, why are they, as men say, always
putting us down? So as to lift Christ up. Lift
Him up. A foundation must be solid. and strong. It must be tested. And it has been. But not only in the sense of
a building, but in the sense of any legal matters. It has
to be just. We'll say, well, we'll just draw
us up a little document here. You sign it and I'll sign it.
We'll all be in agreement. We've made this covenant with
death. We're sure of heaven as if we
are already there. What is it based on? Well, when
I was in that religious service as a young person, that revival
meeting, whatever it was, and I had this funny feeling, and
I did this, and I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior. I did
all these things. It always goes back to us. I remember reading a story a
long time ago about a man who, at some priest or preacher's
instructions, sat down and on a piece of paper he wrote about
his conversion experience. And he'd go back again every
once in a while when he was in doubt or fear, and he'd read
his conversion experience. It was kind of like when I was
growing up, they would say this, if you walk down that aisle,
shake the preacher's hand or are baptized, and you accept
Jesus, make your decision, they said, now don't ever let anybody
make you doubt you're not saved again. Go back and read that
thing. And he laid there on his deathbed. And he began to face the realities
of eternity and judgment and sin and meeting God. So his sons were around him and
he called to his sons and he said, go look in the top drawer
of this cabinet and bring me that writing that I wrote of
my experience in conversion. Son left and he didn't come back
for a while and finally came back. He didn't have anything
with him except some crumbs and his dad asked him, he said, where's
my paper? He said, the rats ate it. That's all that can ever happen
to our own covenants with death, agreement with hell. He said, I lay for a foundation
a stone. And that stone is Christ Jesus,
the Rock of Ages. I lay for a foundation a stone. One. The stone which the builders
refused, the psalmist said, has become the headstone of the corner. Just one stone. Boy, that must
be some stone to support the weight of a multitude of sinners
that make up the church. It's a one-of-a-kind stone. My
little granddaughter, she goes down the driveway. We've got
a gravel driveway, and she can find a rock and say, well, this
is a fossil, or this is a special stone. It looks like what my
dad used to call a dog rock. And that was the only thing it
was good for was a rock you could throw at a dog to chase him out
of your yard or something like that. This is a unique one. He's the Son of God. He's the
Counselor. Wonderful. Romans 9, he says
the same thing, "...as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion
a stumbling stone and a rock of offense." He's not just a
foundation stone, he's a rock of offense to all who'd saved
their selves. He was to those Jews by nature.
Paul said, if I preach works like all these fellows that have
drifted in here at Galatia and other places, if I preach salvation
by works, then would the essence of the cross be gone. There's an offensiveness about
the gospel of Christ crucified. And that offense lies in this.
He came to die for sinners. And the only way that they could
ever be saved was through Him becoming human flesh and going
to that cross and dying in their place. You couldn't give a list
of rules and get enough obedience out of them for them to have
one inkling of salvation. You couldn't pay enough money.
You couldn't sacrifice enough things. You couldn't inflict
bodily pain to yourself to a degree to be able to put away one sin. To a proud, self-righteous religionist. To a proud, self-righteous irreligionist. He's a rock of offense and a
stone of stumbling. But he said, and whosoever believes
on him shall not be ashamed. They'll never be disappointed.
Ephesians 2, Paul says, Now therefore you're no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household
of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets. What was the foundation of the
apostles and prophets? Wasn't Peter. Jesus Christ Himself
being the chief cornerstone. a stone. You see, the foundation
and the building are one. They're in union, inseparably
joined to each other. He is the head, they are the
body. He's the foundation, they are
the building. I've told you this before, but
the first time that Biddy and I ever traveled to Scotland,
we wound up in at Waverley Station there in Edinburgh and of course
the first thing you do when you go to Edinburgh, Scotland is
to see Edinburgh Castle. And so we, like a good tourist,
we made our way to find out what this Edinburgh Castle was all
about. And we went up the way into the
castle and I'll never forget the thing that struck me first
because it was built on a big A bunch of rock, a mountainous
mound of rock. And where the castle started
and the rock stopped, you couldn't tell. It just looked like the
castle was kind of growing up out of the rock. That's the way
it is with Christ and His people. He's the foundation, they're
the building, but they're one. As He is, so are we in this world. Then He says, "...a tried stone,
tested, proved, tempted in all points, such as we are yet without
sin. Obedient to the Father in word
and deed and motive, harmless, holy, undefiled, before the law,
before man, before angels and devils, He knew no sin." His enemies had to confess, I
find no fault in him. This man hath done nothing amiss. But most of all, the Father spoke
audibly from heaven and said, this is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Well pleased. No man ever heard that but Christ. the tried stone who stood beneath
every requirement of divine law and justice, and by God and by
the devil and by men, able to bear all the Father laid on Him,
all man did to Him, all necessary to save His people from their
sins, so as to be able to cry out from that cross." That sweet
word. It is finished. It is all finished. No one who ever has believed
and relied and trusted and rested in Him have found Him to fail. I may fail you. The potential,
the tendency is there. He never fails. He's the same
yesterday and today and forever. And some render it a stone of
trial, or a trying stone by which men are tried, and discover to
be what they are, whether believers or unbelievers, whether truly
Christians or hypocrites. If you make morality a test,
there are some good moral people in this world. If you make sincerity the test. These are things I hear used
all the time, even by people who claim to believe grace. If you make zeal the test. If you make not failing in anything
the test. No, it's the tried stone and
a precious cornerstone. God manifests in the flesh. 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
builted together for a habitation of God through the Spirit." He's
that stone uncut by man's hands. He's already withstood. the overflowing
scourge on the cross. And therefore all His people
have gone through it too. You may not remember I brought
a message some years ago and I entitled it, The Worst is Behind
Us. The worst is behind us for the
Lord's people. He's already endured the worst
Wouldn't that be a really consoling thing if we could take it to
heart? All these problems we got, all these things we face,
and I know how you are. You think the person who has
the worst problems in this world is you. I know that because I
think the same thing. It's part of our natural self-righteousness. Oh, we get a few, we get a little
spell once in a while where we get a little relaxed or something
like that. Then something happened. Oh,
it's bad. But the worst is behind us. He's
already endured it in our place. Paul, when he wrote concerning
some who were apostates and idolaters, he said, they've gone this way,
but nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure. Having this seal, the Lord knows,
the Lord loves them that are His. And let them that name the name of Christ depart
from iniquity. You look back in Isaiah 28, verse
19, it says, "...from the time that it goeth forth, it shall
take you. For morning by morning shall
it pass over, by day and by night." This judgment of God is sure.
certain coming, coming especially upon these who made their little
agreements and covenants hidden in a refuge of lies." And look
at that last phrase, and that shall be a vexation only to understand
the report. For those who have heard the
truth, the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ,
salvation in Christ alone, and died in unbelief, it will only
be a vexation, an eternal vexation to them to remember the report. What is the report? The Gospel. Isaiah 53, he said, Who hath
believed our report? That's what the Gospel is, a
report. What's the report? God's already laid the foundation. There's just one. Rest in it. That's why we sung that hymn
this morning. 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
I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Years ago I read of an open air preacher in Ireland
who was preaching in the open air. I think it was at what was
called the Shamrock Races or something. And there was always a heckler. And a heckler cried out to this
open air preacher. He said, Hey mister, what do
you know of the Shamrock? After a while, the preacher had
kind of had enough of it, and he responded, Well, sir, on Christ
the solid rock I stand, and all other rock is shamrock. My hope is built on nothing less,
nothing more than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's the
only sure foundation. Our Father, we thank You this
morning for Your grace and mercy to us in Christ. Bring our hearts
to leave every other hope and to rest in Christ alone. To plead
His blood as the atonement for our sins, to plead His righteousness
imputed to us, as our only righteousness. Help us to rest on the sure foundation
where we pray in Christ's name. Amen.