Our text is found in Ephesians chapter 2, again, if you'd like to turn there. When it comes to building a building, you have to have a solid foundation. Everything must be plumb, everything must be level. Plumb is this way, level is this way. Everything has to be just right when you build a building. Blueprints have to be followed. There's architects, there's engineers, there's electrician, there's carpenters, there's plumbers, there's painters. What's my point? The house that God built was built by one, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all in all pertaining to the house that he built.

I've titled this message, The Chief Cornerstone. The Chief Cornerstone. Let's read together Ephesians 2 verse 19 through 22. Now, therefore, you're no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built up on the foundation, the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together for habitation of God through the spirit.

First question I have for us is, what is a chief cornerstone? I didn't know what it was. I learned a long time ago, but I didn't know what it meant. In ancient times, the cornerstone would be the foundation stone. It's the first and most crucial stone laid for a structure. Its placement determined the alignment and direction for every other stone in the building. It was the most critical stone. It's the one that they would get. Imagine this big stone. They're putting it there. And it's the one that everything is built around that stone. That's who the Lord Jesus Christ is. His church, salvation, Zion, heaven, everything is built by Him, upon Him, around Him, all because of Him. That's what we're looking at this morning.

The cornerstone helped ensure the entire structure was square, stable, and strong. It bore a vast majority of the weight. The Lord Jesus Christ is called the chief cornerstone. He didn't bear a vast variety of the weight. He bore it all. He bore all the weight of all the sin of his people. He bore that weight. Because he is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, because he, which was, which is, which is to come, because he's our cornerstone, there is no other way made. There's no other cornerstone to build upon or to look to. There's no other place to find salvation. We didn't find salvation anyway. Salvation found us. You get what I'm saying though. There's nothing to build upon other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything will crumble. Everything else will burn.

Lord was talking and I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit, but that's okay. Lord was talking, giving parables. And he said to him, a foolish man built his house upon sand. And the rain came down, the floods came up and the house fell, fell down. He said, the wise man built his house upon the rock and the winds came and the floods came up and the house on the rock stood firm. It's a picture of us being in false religion, building upon the shifting sands of religious practices and traditions of men. And whenever the time comes for the wrath of God, we're not going to be able to stand. He's going to say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I didn't ever do you. But if you are standing by his grace, if this house that you're in, spiritually speaking, and you're standing in Christ Jesus, then you're standing on the rock. You're standing on the chief cornerstone. All your hope and all your trust is in what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished on the cross of Calvary for his people, being the chief cornerstone. Understand this is important. He's the foundation. He is the plumb line. He's what's used as a plumb line, as the level. He's the standard of God. He's the standard of God. He's the judge of the world. He's the chief cornerstone.

Most choose to trust in the sinking sands of false religion, just as we just talked about. Most, by nature, choose to trust in the sinking sands of false religion. But God's people, we rest upon the rock. David said, the Lord hath pulled me out of the mire, put my feet upon a solid rock and establish my goings and put a new song in my mouth even praise unto God. The Lord puts his people, he gets us out of the muck, out of the mud, out of the dirt and the sin that we were in. He puts us upon a rock. He establishes us in Christ, on Christ, causes us to have no other hope other than no other hope. We rest on the rock. We rest on the rock.

Moses asked the Lord one time, he said, Lord, I want to show me your glory. I want to see your glory. Lord said, no man can look upon me and live. But he said, there is a place nigh unto me. There's a place next to me. He said, I'm going to put, and I've never caught this before until last time I was reading it. He says, I'm going to put you on a rock first. I'm going to put you on the rock first. And he says, then I'm going to put you in the cleft of that rock. So now he's on it and in it. That's us in the Lord Jesus Christ and on the Lord Jesus Christ. And as the glory of God passed by, we got to see his hundred parts. Well, that's us. The only way you're going to see God's goodness, because that's goodness and mercy. That's grace. That's what that is. This is what I've already done for you on the cross of Calvary. That's what that represents. The only way we're going to see that is if we're in the rock, if we're cleaving to the chief cornerstone and not our own righteousness, if we're cleaving to him alone.

In Psalm 118, 22, the Lord is called the stone. The stone which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner. Now he's rejected by most because he's not, has nothing, nothing, no appealing. There's nothing appealing about him to the natural man. Even in Psalm 53 says there was no beauty in them that we could find. Man won't look at Jesus Christ and say, okay, I, I, uh, I want you to be my Lord and my God. It's not going to happen because he's not appealing to the flesh. Most men will say let this man's blood be upon us and on our children away from this man. We will not have this man reign over me. That's what they said when the Lord was on the earth.

I got some information. that we know about from scripture, he already is reigning over them. He reigns over all sovereign, over the inhabitants of earth, the inhabitants of heaven, the inhabitants of hell. He reigns over it all. So to say, I will not have this man reign over me too late. He already reigns. All things were given to his hand, this chief cornerstone by the father. He's the foundation that ensures God is forever satisfied. And as long as the chief cornerstone remains, then salvation will remain. He said from everlasting to everlasting, I'm God. He's never going to change. He can't, never will, never will. He can't lie. He said, I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. This is who our chief cornerstone is. This is what he has accomplished.

Second question I have is what does it mean that he is the chief cornerstone? And again, as I try to speak to you all, I always feel like I repeat myself multiple times. And I think that that's how the Lord has just called me to do it. If I repeat it enough times, maybe I'll get it. You know, that's what I think.

But what does it mean that he's the chief cornerstone? It means everything is built upon him. All my righteousness is his righteousness. All my salvation is his salvation. All my strength is his strength. Scripture says that His strength is made perfect in weakness. So whenever you see yourself in the weakest moment, remember you have a rock. The Lord Jesus Christ, His strength is made perfect. It's always perfect, but it's made perfect to you. He reveals to you His perfect strength is all you need. And it's the only thing that's going to help you. He shuts you up to that cornerstone, makes you cry out, Lord, save me. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. He's never turned away a mercy beggar, ever.

All my redemption was accomplished by him. All my justification is entirely based upon him doing it. All of my sanctification is entirely based upon him sending his spirit. All my righteousness is filthy rags if I don't have his. But if I have righteousness and it's his, I'm righteous. I'm righteous in the eyes of God.

See, everything hinges, everything hangs, everything depends on the cornerstone. cornerstone. Without the cornerstone, there is no building. Now when I mean building, I'm talking about Zion, the city of God. I'm talking about salvation. I'm talking about what God hath wrought with his own hands. It's referred to in different ways, but it's the Lord's salvation is what it is. It's how everything was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of his people. That's what I'm talking about. Christ is the first cause salvation, and He's the last cause. Everything is built upon Him. He's the cornerstone.

Look at what He accomplished for His chosen people. Look at verse 19. Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. You are no longer sinners. You are no longer strangers. You are no longer outcasts. You are children of God. That's what he's saying. You're children of God. You're citizens of glory. The only citizens that are in glory are the ones purchased by the blood of Christ, meaning you're the adopted sons and daughters of God, heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ. This is what he accomplished for his people.

No more the enemies, but the friend. Can you imagine hearing the Lord say to you that he's your friend, that he's your elder brother, that he loves you. That's those thoughts are just too precious. They're precious. That's exactly what he says. That's exactly what he says. No longer enemies to God anymore, but friends. We have a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. We're no longer outcasts, but we're sons and daughters. No more does our sin separate us from God. But because of our cornerstone, taking our sin, nailing them to his cross, taking them out of the way, we're no longer separated from God by our sin. He says, draw nigh unto God and I'll draw nigh unto you. Now you can see me and live because you're in the cleft of the rock. You're on the rock. You're looking to the cornerstone. That's what he's saying. Why are God's people no longer strangers but citizens? Well, look at verse 20. And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. We are built on the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3.11 says, for other foundations can no man lay than that is laid. You know what that means? God laid it. I can't unlay it, I can't change it, I can't alter it, I can't mess it up. It's already done, it's finished, it's over. That's good news if you're a sinner.

So often we think that our, we see our sin, the Lord allowed us to still see our sin, to need him, but so oftentimes we feel so embarrassed, guilty, burdened by our sin, grieved. Yeah, those are some words that I think definitely describe how I feel about my sin. And yet he says right here that we have a foundation. Jesus Christ is our foundation, and it can't be changed. See, he's God, and he did all the work. It's his house, it's his heaven, it's his Zion, it's his salvation, built on the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood, his death, burial, and resurrection alone, all built by him, all built by him, and God was well pleased. God was well pleased.

It's God that chose to elect. It's God that chose to be the architect. He's the architect. Remember we were talking earlier, you have to have architect and engineers, well that's God. You have to have electricians, well he is the light of the world. The light of God. You have to have plumbers. He's the fountain of living water. He's everything. He's everything in salvation. What about the paint? That'd be the blood, wouldn't it? That'd be the blood. The red blood. Yeah, that's it. I didn't write that down. The Lord gave us that. That's something else, ain't it?

The last question I have for us is what are you building your hope on? As we've already said, all of the ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. We're going to sing that song here in just a minute. My faith has found a resting place, not in device nor creed. Why? Because other ground is sinking sand. Christ Jesus is who we rest all our hope on. If I look to my works, my choice, my prayer, anything of me, I am not looking to the chief cornerstone. I am not standing upon the rock. I'm standing upon the sand of false religion, hoping in a lie, and the Lord will disannul that covenant. He'll disannul it.

But if he's caused me to see the Lord Jesus Christ as all in all in his salvation caused me to desire to have him as my Lord and my Savior. Actually, he causes that yes, but he really reveals that he already is your Lord and Savior. That's the point is everybody's Lord. He just reveals that He's your Savior. If He's done that, He gets all the glory. That means I'm in Zion. We're in the city of God. We're with Him now. And we're saved by grace alone. We're there by grace. What a glorious thought.

If I have built on another rock, it's sure to crumble. Why? Well, understand what happened on the cross wasn't an attempt to offer something to you and I. It was Christ Jesus was offering himself to the Father one time for the salvation of his elected people. And the Father was satisfied. The Father was satisfied. Because he is the chief cornerstone God had laid, the city of God is complete now. You know, a lot of religion talks that I heard a man say, I don't even want to repeat this, but I'm going to. He said, God doesn't even know who's going to be saved. That was his words to me. It broke my heart. I thought, man, you don't want to know who God is. Not only does God know, God's the one that purposed it or nobody's going to be saved. But the point I was making, the religionists with that mentality, they're saying that the city of God is not complete because the work's not done. If the work was done, the people that were going to be saved would be saved. They are saved. The people that are going to be saved, they're saved right now. They just don't know. Some of them don't know it yet. God has to call them out of darkness into light.

The point I'm making is, this city is done. It's finished, completed, totally. There's nothing left to be done. Not one brick to lay, nothing, absolutely nothing. It's all purchased by the blood of Christ, formed by the hands of God, and it is beautiful to the Lord's people, His salvation. His salvation is beautiful.

Isaiah 28.6 says, Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone and precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste. I'm going to read that again because I want you to understand what the Lord is saying. He describes it as precious, as sure.

Listen to this. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone. So it's tried. A precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste.

Now what does he mean make haste there? I looked that up. It means that you have stability, you have patience, and you have peace with God. You wait on the Lord because you know He's sovereign. You no longer hastily running around. We use the term like a chicken with their head cut off. I don't know if that's a common thing to say up here or not. But anyways, we don't do that anymore. Why? We're resting on the foundation. We're resting on the cornerstone. We're resting on the rock. We're not worried from day to day. We hear the whispers that say, oh no, you're not really a believer. A believer wouldn't do that. We may hear that, but who do we flee to when we hear that? Do we flee to ourself and say, I did this or I did that? No, we flee to the rock. We flee to the rock. We believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He causes us to come back to him. We don't run around anymore fearful of not being good enough for God because Christ was good enough and we're in Christ. We're not offering ourself up to the Lord and saying, look, here's what I'm bringing. I'm offering this to you. No, we're taking our good deeds and we're taking our bad deeds and we're casting them at his feet and saying, Lord, I've got to have your righteousness. I can't do anything right. I can't do anything right. Save me or I won't be saved.

He's removed the deed for impulsive actions and panic. We no longer have to panic, oh no, what if I'm going to go to hell? There's a time I thought that. I was afraid. What are you looking to? Well, at that time, I was looking at my life and what I was living and thought, okay, I shouldn't have done that. Now I got to do this to fix it. It's like penance. Some of you understand what I'm talking about. It's what he has done. It's what he has done on the cross of Calvary. It's not what I do. I don't like to panic about that because I'm looking to him. We have a cornerstone. We have a city of God. We have a great salvation that he hath wrought and he gives to his people freely by his grace. We are no longer strangers. We are citizens. That's what he told us that we read. We're sons and daughters. Why? Because Jesus Christ finished the work.

God laid it himself, not by my choice or my will or my power. but by God's choice, by God's will, by God's power, by God's own purpose and grace that was given to his people before time ever began. God laid it. See, it's his election, it's his redemption, it's his salvation. He did it all by himself. I love that. just to be able to rest, knowing that he did it all. He's not requiring something of me. He's not looking at me saying, you need to do this, you need to do that. He's looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's well pleased.

You know who's in the Lord Jesus Christ? His people. And so his people, the Lord sees them, and he's well pleased. He's well pleased. Notice verse 20 with me. and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." Who's the foundation of the apostles and prophets? Who's the foundation of the apostles and prophets? Is it not the Lord Jesus Christ?

It was Peter, it was, came to the Lord, and the Lord looked at all the disciples and said, Who do men say that I am? They say, some say you're Elijah. Some say you're Isaiah or one of the prophets. And he said, well, who do you say that I am? Peter said, I believe that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And the Lord said, blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah, flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto you, but my father, which is in heaven. And thou art Simon. And upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

So in religion, it was like, does that mean the Lord's going to build his kingdom on Peter? Because that's kind of how it sounds. No, it was the confession of the rock, the confession of the cornerstone, the confession that he is the Christ. That is what he builds his city upon. He gives us the confession that confesses thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. I have no other hope for salvation outside of you. That's what he was saying. It's the confession of the chief cornerstone as a lord of lords and king of kings.

Now, lastly, I want us to notice that here we have the triune Godhead. We have the father, we have the son and we have the Holy Spirit. If you look, it says God laid the foundation. We can just read it, that's fine. 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 groweth a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for the habitation of God through the Spirit."

So in verse 19 the last word household of God, In verse 20, it's Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. And in verse 22, it's habitation of God through the Spirit. So you have the triune Godhead right there. Everything about this, the Lord did it. Everything about it. Father, Son, Holy Ghost. These three are one. The scripture tells us very clearly.

God elected a people. Jesus Christ redeemed those people. And the spirit regenerates in his time. Spirit regenerates in his time. Scripture tells us that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, ordained in the good works that we should walk therein. This is just a wonderful salvation our God has accomplished. This Zion that he built was all by the Lord Jesus Christ, built freely by his grace for his people only.

Thank God that Lord Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. Let's pray. Father, we are thankful that you are the chief cornerstone, cause us to rest all the hope of our salvation in you. In Christ's name, amen.

Number 278.