Be turning with me, please, to
the book of Acts. Acts chapter 4. Mike mentioned
those folks in bunny suits and how we would be just like them if it were not
for God's grace. We would be much worse than that
if it were not for God's grace. would become the thing that we
despise most. I guess for me, that would be
a pedophile. And if you don't understand the
depth of the evilness of your heart, that there is nothing
that you're not capable of. And if God takes his hand off
you, you've not yet seen yourself for what you truly are. Acts chapter 4, we'll read the
first 12 verses. Now this is after Peter and John
had gone to the temple and healed the lame man. And back when they
walked the earth, it was truly a true saying that no good deed
goes unpunished. And as they spake unto the people,
the priests and captains of the temple and the Sadducees came
upon them, being grieved that they taught the people and preached
through Jesus, the resurrection from the dead. And they laid
hands on them and put them in hold until the next day, for
it was now eventide. How be it, many of them which
heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about
five thousand. And it came to pass on the morrow
that the rulers and the elders and the scribes and Annas the
high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and as many
were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together
at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in
the midst, they asked, By what power or by what name have ye
done this?" Speaking of the healing of the lame man. Then Peter,
filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people
and elders of Israel, if this day If we this day be examined
of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he
is made whole, be it known unto you all and to all the people
of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom
ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth
this man stand here before you whole. This is a stone which
would set it not of you builders, which has become the head of
the corner. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved." I want to focus on this
verse 11, the stone which the builders set at naught. There's
two other scriptures I want to read. You don't need to turn
there. Psalm 118.22. Says, the stone which the builders
refused is become the head of the corner. And our Lord quoted
this same text in Mark 12 when he said, the stone which the
builders rejected is become the head of the corner. This was
the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our sight. I've titled this message, Christ
the Rejected Stone. Now in our text, our Lord is
called the head of the corner or the cornerstone. Now a cornerstone
was the first stone that was set in the construction of a
masonry foundation. All the other stones of the building
were set in reference to this cornerstone and thus determining
the site and the entire structure and position of the building.
Now the cornerstone was always the first stone set in place
in ancient times. Careful measurements were taken
of the shaping and forming of this cornerstone because it would
influence the entire rest of the structure. And in modern
times, many times, we have a different meaning of the cornerstone. It's
a visible stone. Many times, the date that the
building is built is carved into it. But in ancient times, the
cornerstone was the very first stone set in a masonry foundation,
and it gave support and stability to the rest of the building as
it was constructed. And if that chief cornerstone
were removed, many times the entire structure would collapse. An entire structure based on
a cornerstone. Now, a perfect description of
this we find in Isaiah 28, 16. It says, therefore, thus saith
the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation A stone,
then he describes him, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste. Now God, the father here declares
that he set that foundation stone, the cornerstone on which his
church was to be established. He calls it a tried stone. Now,
there are several meanings to this word tried. One meaning
is that someone or something had been thoroughly tested and
proven good, trustworthy, and reliable. What a perfect description
of our Savior. God the Father entrusted God
the Son with the task of bringing into the fold all that the Father
had given Him in eternity past. And during his lifetime on earth,
and even when he hung on that Roman tree, he proved himself
trustworthy and reliable in that he accomplished all that was
necessary to satisfy every single demand of God's law on behalf
of his people. Now, we know this from what we
read in Ephesians 1, starting in verse 11, it says, In whom
we have obtained an inheritance, speaking, of course, of Christ,
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will, that we should
be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. God the Father was the first
one to put His trust in the ability of His Son to accomplish all
things necessary to bring His chosen ones to Himself. And another
meaning of this word tried when it speaks of Christ being a tried
stone, It means made to undergo severe trials or distress. Again, this is exactly what our
Savior was called upon to do, to undergo severe trials. There
has never been anyone in the history of this world who underwent
a trial like our Savior. Having the fury of an angry God
poured out upon him without any measure of mercy, And we know
the reason that had to occur. Our blessed Savior was found
with our sins laid upon Him. Billy just sang of it. By imputation,
and I want to emphasize that, not by deed, but by imputation,
our Savior died as the greatest sinner who had ever lived. Because
all of the sins of all of the elect were carried by Him to
Golgotha's hill. And there He bore the punishment
due to those sins. Now there's a term that we use,
Debbie and I were talking about this on the way to church, word
origins. There's a term that we use. We
say that someone went through a trial by fire, which means
that they experienced a challenge that was so severe it tested
the very limits of their strength, willpower, and endurance. And
the outcome of that clearly measured the person's character, competence,
and ability. Now I did a study on this and
this term finds its roots in the middle ages. And it refers
to things that were sometimes practiced to determine a person's
guilt or innocence. The accused would sometimes be
required to walk over hot coals or walk through fire. And if
they weren't harmed, they were deemed to be innocent, which
of course was completely insane, but they did things differently
back then. There's a reason they were called
the Dark Ages. But when our Savior suffered
his trial by fire, he was made to endure the equivalent of an
eternity in hell for his elect. And if we use the standard that
if the accused was innocent, they would suffer no harm, our
Savior was clearly shown to be guilty beyond a doubt. Not guilty
in and of Himself, but by imputation, as I said before. Because the
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And His trial by fire
proved two things. Number one, that He was indeed,
by imputation, guilty of violating God's holy law. and therefore
worthy and deserving of the punishment that was meted out to Him. And
the second thing He did, without a doubt, proved Himself to be
completely and fully capable of seeing the task through to
the end. This is how He was able to cry
from the cross, It is finished. And it's also why the Father
raised Him from the dead and has highly exalted Him as we
just read, and given him a name above every name, that at the
name of Jesus, every knee should bow. He endured his trial by
fire and came out completely triumphant. In this same verse
in Isaiah 28, 16, we read that the stone laid by God the Father
was a foundation stone and a tried stone. And next it is called
a precious stone. The meaning of this word precious
means of great value, highly esteemed and cherished, extremely
rare. Be turning with me over to the
book of 1 Peter. Our Savior is the precious stone
spoken of here in this text in Isaiah. He is of extreme value. because He is the only name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There is salvation
in none other. Now Peter wrote of this in this
second chapter of 1 Peter. We'll begin reading in verse
4. This is, of course, speaking of Christ. 1 Peter 2 verse 4. To whom coming as unto a living
stone disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. He also is lively stones are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also
it is contained in the scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion, a chief
cornerstone. He's quoting Isaiah here, elect
precious, And he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Unto you, therefore, which believe, he is what? Precious. But unto
them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed,
the same is made the head of the corner. A stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word,
being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. Now,
Peter tells us that you either hold Christ in high esteem, hold
Him to be precious, or you hold Him in contempt. There's no middle
ground. It's one of the two. And it's offensive to natural
man to be told that this rock, this cornerstone, is the only
thing upon which salvation is built. It's only the work of
Christ, the chief cornerstone that God will accept. So this
stone, Christ Jesus, becomes a stone of stumbling to men,
and they trip over it and fall into hell because they will not
bow to Him as their foundation stone. Peter also wrote of the
preciousness of Christ in the first chapter as well. Flip over
just one page. First Peter, chapter one. In verse 18, he says, for as
much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish. And without spot, the blood of
Christ is exceeding precious to his redeemed ones because
it is the only thing that can purchase their salvation. It
is their only hope. And then in this text, in Isaiah
28, 16, Christ is referred to as a sure foundation. Paul talks of Christ as the only
foundation that is to be trusted on which to build our hope of
salvation. In 1 Corinthians 3.11, he said, For other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And he
wrote in Ephesians chapter 2, Now therefore, ye are 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 Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. In whom all the building fitly
framed together unto an holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye
also are built together for the habitation of God through the
Spirit. Now throughout the scriptures,
the word stone and the word rock are used in the same way because
pretty much they're the same thing. Something sure, something
solid, something unmovable. Just a couple of verses, Psalm
182, it says, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler and the horn of my
salvation, my high tower, referring to those towers that were built
so high that the enemy could not even shoot an arrow to the
top of them, a place of safety. And in Psalm 89, 26, it says,
thou art my father, My God and the rock of my salvation. That sure bedrock on which the
salvation of all of God's elect is built. That foundation stone,
that tried stone, that precious stone, that sure foundation. Now instructions are given in
Exodus 20 concerning the building of an altar and the material
that was to be used. And that material was a picture
of Christ. being a stone. And it says, and
if thou will make an altar of stone, thou shall not built it
of hewn stone. For if thou lift up thy tool
upon it, thou hast polluted it. Now stone was a material that
was used for the altar. It was to be the stone that the
Lord had formed and created and furnished. Man was to have no
part in the forming of the stones used in that altar. That's a
picture of Christ and a picture of works versus grace. It was
forbidden because man is an unclean being. And we know from reading
in the Old Testament, when you were unclean, anything you touched
was deemed unclean. Therefore, it's a clear declaration
that man has no part in anything having to do with the sacrifice,
not the shaping of the stones, not the creation of the animal
offered, and certainly not the growing of the wood that was
used to burn the sacrifice. All these were provided by God
as was Christ Jesus, who was provided to be the ultimate sacrifice
for the sins of his people. Christ is pictured many times
in the scripture as the altar. But he is also pictured as a
sacrifice offered on that altar. Now there's one other place that
I want to look at. Turn with me to 1 Samuel. One more picture of Christ being
a stone. 1 Samuel 17. This, of course, is a familiar
story of David and his slaying of Goliath. 1 Samuel 17, let's
begin reading in verse 2. And Saul and the men of Israel
were gathered together and pitched by the valley of Elah and set
to battle in Array against the Philistines. And the Philistines
stood on a mountain on one side and Israel stood on a mountain
on the other side, and there was a valley between them. And
there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines
named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits in a span. And he had a helmet of brass
upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the
weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of brass. And he had
jeeves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between
his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was
like a weaver's beam, And his spear's head weighed six hundred
shekels of iron, and one bearing a shield went before him. And
he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them,
Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine,
and ye servants of Saul? Choose you a man for you, and
let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me,
and to kill me, then will I be your servant. But if I prevail
against him and kill him, then shall you be our servants and
serve us. And the Philistines said, I defy
the army of God this day. Give me a man that we may fight
together. And Saul and all Israel heard
these words of the Philistine, and they were dismayed and greatly
afraid. Now, we know how the Philistines
were arrayed in battle against Israel. And Goliath would come
out day after day and challenge Israel to send him a man. And
we need to understand, I looked into this, the average height
of a man back then was about five and a half feet. And from
different accounts I've read, Goliath was stood between seven
and eight feet tall. But regardless, he was a frightful
sight, even the strongest and toughest of the soldiers of Israel.
And I imagine they had some good warriors among them. But none
of them would go out against this giant. He seemed to be an
impossible enemy to conquer. And so it is with our sin when
God begins to show us the enormity of our transgressions against
Him. We learn that our sin must be done away with before we can
ever hope to be saved. But we have no hope, as these
men of Israel had no hope of ever slaying this enemy of men's
souls. But as David showed up and took
up the challenge of slaying Goliath, so our great Savior appeared
when there seemed to be no hope. And He declared, I am He who
is mighty to save. But in the same way that the
men of Israel looked upon David as useless as a means of going
against Goliath, so we find that when Christ walked the earth,
men looked upon Him the very same way. Is not this the carpenter's
son? You can just hear the disdain
in that text. Is not his mother called Mary
and his brethren, James and Josie and Simon and Judas? I've known
this kid my whole life. I know where he comes from and
I know who he is. In that text that we read, when
we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
him. He is despised. and rejected
of men. He is the stone which the builders
rejected. Now looking at Christ as he walked
the earth, no one would have guessed that this was a man who
would one day redeem a number that no man can number. We have
to understand that our Savior was so plain looking, so unassuming
looking, so much like his disciples, that Judas had to actually kiss
him on the night he betrayed him to make sure they got the
right guy, because he looked pretty much just like his disciples.
And in the same way Christ was held in contempt, you can just
imagine the reaction when David walked down to the brook and
picked up five smooth stones. Now try to picture this. You've
got these two mountains and a valley between with a brook running
between them. And you know the story. They were arrayed in battle. Forty days, it said, Goliath
came out and cursed Israel and cursed their God. Think back
what you were doing at the beginning of February. That's how many
days that these men were arrayed in battle. And, of course, David
showed up. at the direction of his father
and brought some food to his brothers that were fighting with
the army of Israel. And, of course, he tried on the
armor that Saul gave him and it was not going to work. And
Saul said, you know, what are you going to do against this
giant? And David told him the story of the lion and the bear
that came when he was watching his father's sheep and took a
sheep out of the fold. And David said he pursued both
the lion and the bear and slew them both. And I imagine after
going through that, I seriously doubt there was a man in the
army of Israel that could make either of those claims. But after
going through that, I don't think Goliath was quite as intimidating
to him as he was to some of these others. But you can just picture
the conversation after all this. And Saul says, has anyone seen
David? And somebody says, yeah, he was
down in the brook sorting through some stones. And I imagine Saul
probably thought, does he not know that he is about to face
this giant of a killer, and he's down in the brook looking at
some rocks. And the men of Israel were probably
thinking, all of our weapons of war are of no use against
this giant of a man, and David thinks he is going up against
him with a sling and a stone. Now remember, we're looking at
Christ throughout the Scriptures as being a picture of a stone. And in telling this story, most
every preacher I've heard says David is a picture of Christ.
And he certainly is. But I want to look at that stone
that David used to slay this giant. It was no doubt a small
stone, probably no bigger than a grape. Seemingly insignificant. Much like Christ was looked upon
by man when he walked this earth insignificant. Yet that little
stone did what no spear or sword or arrow of the army of Israel
could do. It slew the giant who was threatening
to destroy them. All of the weapons in the hands
of Israel that day were crafted by the hands of men. But you
have to remember that this little stone was created by our God
and placed in that stream Ages before David ever picked it up
and used it to slay Goliath. And so we're told that Christ
existed from the endless ages of eternity, but in due time,
He came forth to slay our sins. So you can figure, as these men
of Israel watched David make his way to Goliath, they thought,
this guy ain't coming back. But God had something else in
mind. So we read in 1 Samuel 1749, it says, And David put
his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slung it,
and smote the Philistine in his forehead. And that stone sunk
into his forehead, and he fell upon the earth, upon his face
to the earth. Now as David sent forth that
stone into the forehead of Goliath, and slew this seemingly undefeatable
enemy of Israel, So God the Father, we're told, sent forth his Son,
made of a woman, made under the law. To what purpose? To redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. To redeem
them that were under the law, those of us who appeared to be
hopelessly outnumbered by the sheer enormity of our sin. the
overwhelming magnitude of our transgression against the holy
God. Seemingly impossible to overcome,
yet his deliverance from Goliath came from a seemingly insignificant
stone. So our deliverance comes from
a source that men held in contempt and due to this day, the carpenter's
son. And in the same way that David
used a stone created by God, so it is when it comes to the
weapons of our warfare against sin. Paul told the Corinthians
this when he wrote to them. He said, for the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal. They're not man-made. This is
not a battle that we fight with our wits. and a good strategy. Paul speaks of putting on the
breastplate of righteousness, the breastplate of faith, the
helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, and having our
feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. So we
see that our hope of salvation, our only hope of salvation, is
built upon a solid rock, a sure foundation, unaffected by circumstances
of time or anything that men can do. That chief cornerstone,
that sure foundation, when something is referred to as sure, it means
that it will without a doubt come to pass. And since Christ
told us that all power was given unto him in heaven and earth,
we can be sure that what he wills will indeed come to pass. It
is a sure thing. His promises were told stand
sure. So go through God's word line
by line and mark all the promises that you find in that text. And
you can be confident that they will all come to pass. None shall fail. And lastly, just a word to those
who might be sitting here or hear this message in the future,
but are yet without faith. Those who have not bowed the
knee in the heart to the Lordship of Christ. As I just said, all
of the promises of God are sure, but not all those promises are
delightful to hear. So when you read in God's Word
that He will by no means clear the guilty, that the soul that
sinneth, it shall die, that no ungodly man shall inherit
the kingdom of God, you can be positive that those things will
indeed come to pass. But there is a way to escape
the sure wrath of God. You must trust that stone, that
stone that was rejected by the builders, that stone that was
said it not, that stone, though, that was chosen by God, that
man called Christ Jesus. Peter refers to him as Jesus
Christ the righteous. So if you're sitting here today
without faith, If you can, from your heart,
at blind Bartimaeus, petition God to have mercy upon you, and
maybe, if maybe He might do so, you have to understand that it
is His prerogative to give you the gift of faith or to leave
you in your sins. Either way, He is right and righteous
and holy in all that He does. His holiness and his majesty
is not diminished when he leaves men to perish. We're told in
his word that the judge of all the earth shall do right. Billy, come lead us in a song,
please.