If you will turn in your Bibles
today to the book of Isaiah and chapter number 28. For some time, we have been thinking
and praying about The foundation for our new church building,
and I know we were all happy and glad last Monday to learn
that it has been set. I know that we sent those pictures.
I hope that you were able to see those. But every one of us,
we all recognize how important the foundation is to any building,
to every building. And I'm going to take for my
text this morning verse 16. In this chapter, chapter 28 of
Isaiah, God threatens many judgments upon the rulers of the nations
of Israel and Judah. If you notice in verse 14, where
he said, wherefore hear the word of the Lord, you 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. So in this chapter, God threatens
the rulers of both the nation of Judah and the nation of Israel
because of the covenant that they had made with death, assuring
themselves that everything would be okay when God's judgment came. But in the midst of these threatenings,
we see in verse 16 this wonderful promise. wonderful promise concerning
a stone. 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. Now we know that this stone refers
to the Lord Jesus Christ. There can be no question about
that, because as we read at the beginning of the service in 1
Peter 2, the apostle said, wherefore it is contained in scripture,
behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. So I want to mention four truths
about this stone this morning. I trust the Lord will give all
of us hearing ears and a heart to receive the word of God. The foundation stone. There are
four things in this verse that I want to mention. First, if
you notice, this stone is Zion's foundation. Therefore, thus saith
the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation. This stone is Zion's foundation. What is meant by Zion? What is meant by Zion? Well,
we know that Zion was the name of a hill, a very steep hill
in Jerusalem. And it was the hill upon which
the temple was built, the temple which Solomon built. In the history
of the nation of Israel, God commanded two structures to be
built in which he would dwell. And that is, first of all, the
tabernacle. And in the Holy of Holies, there
above the mercy seat between the cherubim, was the Shekinah,
or the manifest presence of God. And then later, of course, Solomon. And this was at God's command
through David. David wanted to build the temple,
but God would not allow him because he had been a man of war, a man
who shed much blood. But his son, Solomon, who was
a man of peace, he was commissioned to build the temple. And yet
when Solomon dedicated the temple, he made that long prayer, and
he made this confession, we know that God, God does not dwell
in temples made with hands. And the Apostle Paul repeated
this in his message on Mars Hill in Acts chapter 17. God is a
spirit. God is everywhere present. And
Solomon confessed that it would be impossible for a man, the
wealthiest man at that time, probably Solomon, with all the
gold and silver and the precious stones that he had, It would
be impossible for any man to make a dwelling place for God. So Zion was the hill upon which
the temple was built, but it serves in two ways as typical,
as types. First of all, it served, this
tabernacle served as a type of the body the humanity of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You remember in the New Testament
in John chapter two, early on in his public ministry, he said,
destroy this temple. And in three days, I will raise
it up. And John explains, he wasn't
talking about that physical temple there in Jerusalem, but he was
rather talking about the temple of his body. It was typical,
Zion was typical of the body, the physical body of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The union, now listen, the union
of the two natures, God and man, and the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ shall never be dissolved. No, he forever is the man, the
God man, who reigns and rules upon the throne of God. A second
thing that this sign was typical of, of course, is the church. The church. Now, when I say the
church, I'm not talking about any one particular local church. I'm talking about all the elect,
all of the saved from all ages, all that Christ redeemed with
his precious blood and are given his righteousness and justified
before God. Zion is typical of the church
we sang about it just a few minutes ago. I like that hymn, don't
you? Yes, the church, and it's one
foundation, Jesus Christ, her Lord. Zion was typical. You say, how do you know that?
Because the scriptures tell us that. In Hebrews chapter 12,
the Apostle Paul writing to believers, he's writing to those who knew
the Lord as their Savior, and he tells them, we have not come
to Mount Sinai that mount that was on fire where God came down
and gave the covenant with the nation of Israel. He said, we
haven't come to that mount, but we have rather come to Mount
Zion. And let me read that verse to
us. It's in Hebrews 12, verses 22 and 23. And the church here
is called by several different names. You, You have come to
Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general
assembly," now listen, "'and church of the firstborn who were
written in heaven.'" The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is the
mystical body of Christ. We know that he is a head and
his church makes up his body. And the head and body are never
considered apart. They're never considered apart.
What would a head be without a body? What would a body be
without a head? A monster. No. My friends, the temple did not
merely set forth the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
it also typified the church, saying that there is a vital
union, just as there is a vital union between God and man in
the person of Christ, so there is a vital union between the
head, Christ, and his church, those who are chosen of God and
redeemed with his precious blood. Zion. God says here, I have laid,
behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation in the church. And the church
is never considered apart from Christ. When a baby, when a being
is formed in the womb, The head isn't formed and the body separate. No, the head and body are formed
together, and in the womb of eternity, the womb of creation,
so is the head and the body one. The Lord Jesus Christ, the head,
and every one of his chosen people, those who are brought to believe
in him and trust in him, who are built upon this foundation
stone are one in Christ. I want you to look at a, keep
your place here, but I want you to turn back to Psalm just a
moment. Psalms 132. You see this word Zion most often
in the Psalms and sometimes, no doubt, It is referring to
Jerusalem and the temple there, the physical temple. But many
times, of course, it does refer to the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And here in Psalm 132, beginning
with verse 13, we read, for the Lord hath chosen Zion. The Lord hath chosen Zion. He hath desired it for his habitation. He dwells in his church. He chose it. First of all, we
see he has chosen Zion. Now men, and you know that religious
people, they hate the doctrine of election. They do. They hate the doctrine of election. And yet you cannot be honest
and read the word of God and not see this teaching here, that
God chose his people from before the foundation of the world.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according
as he hath chosen us in Christ from before the foundation of
the world. Yes, God has chosen Zion. That ought to make, if you're
a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, this ought
to give you a backbone, right? Stamina, strength, you know. The reason you have chosen Him
is because He first chose you. And had He never chosen you,
you would never choose Him. We love Him because He first
loved us. The Lord has chosen Zion. He hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest. This is my rest
forever. In the person of Christ, you
remember, he said, this is my beloved son, and whom I am well
pleased. This is my rest forever. Here will I dwell, for I have
desired it. And notice these next couple
of verses, I will abundantly bless her provision. Her, that's a female pronoun,
isn't it? And the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, not only is a building of which he's the foundation,
but it is his bride. His bride that he loved, the
scripture says. When Adam was here created first
alone and God took of his rib and made unto him Eve, that's
a picture of Christ and his church. She came out of his side. What
happened when that Roman soldier thrust that spear into the side
of Christ? Water and blood came out. blood to cleanse, to justify,
and water to cleanse. Justification and sanctification
both. And when God presented Eve to
Adam, God said the two now, they're not two, they're not two anymore,
they're one. Marriage is such a beautiful
picture, isn't it? Of the relationship between Christ
and His church. The church is his bride. He's
the bridegroom. And we look forward in the future,
one day, to setting down at the supper of the Lamb in eternity. Yes, her. I will also clothe
her priests with salvation. You say, well, what does that
mean? Well, you know the scripture
says that you all, myself, all believers, we have been made
priests who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
this is Revelation 1, verse 5, and made us kings and priests
unto God. Every believer, this is something
very important, something that Protestants, this came out of
the great reformation. And it's something that people
are losing because men are not being taught the truth. But the
truth of the word of God is that every child of God is a priest. We believe in the priesthood
of all believers. We don't offer sacrifices of
blood, of course not. That would be an affront, as
far as I'm concerned, to his one sacrifice by which he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. But we do offer sacrifices. The sacrifices we offer praise. That's what the scripture says,
praise unto God. Show forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. I will
abundantly bless her with provision. I will satisfy her poor with
bread. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of God. Everyone who is part of
this church is made to know our poverty, our extreme poverty,
spiritually. We don't have two cents spiritually
to rub together. We're poor. In ourselves, we're
sinners. But he shall satisfy his poor
with bread. The bread, of course, is Christ,
isn't it? He's the bread. He said, whosoever
shall eat of my flesh and drink of my blood shall live forever.
He's the bread, the true bread that came down from heaven that
giveth life unto the world. And her saints shall shout aloud
for joy. You say, well, who is a saint?
You see this, the world, all the time. If you watch any news,
someone will come on and say, well, I'm not a saint. And most of the people who say
that, they would never be accused of being a saint. But you know
and I know from the word of God, every child of God is a saint. The word simply means set apart. And every child of God has been
set apart by God the Father in election, by God the Son in redemption,
and by God the Holy Spirit in the new birth. Yes, we're made
saints unto God. and we shout for joy. Isn't that
what he said? The saints shall shout for joy.
This stone is the foundation of Zion, the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Remember when our Lord asked
his disciples, whom do men say that I, the son of man, am? And
of course there were several different opinions, some said,
well, some say you're John the Baptist, some say you're Jeremiah.
And our Lord looked at them and said, but whom do you say that
I am? And Peter made that very bold
confession. Thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. And when he said that, the Lord
Jesus Christ responded upon this rock. Not Peter. I feel so sad for the people who
believe that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is founded
on Peter and his so-called successor over there in Rome. No, no. Upon this rock. Peter's confession
that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. I will
build my church and the gates of hell shall never prevail against
it. This foundation is the foundation
of Zion, the church. Now here's the second thing,
back in our text. Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation
A stone, a tried stone, a tried stone. We usually think of this
in these three different ways. The word tried means tested or
proved. And first of all, we think of
the Old Testament believers like Abel, like Abraham, Moses, David,
and all of those that we know about. They tested this foundation
stone. And judging by what John, in
Revelation, what John was allowed and privileged to see, remember
he saw a great multitude, a great multitude, which no man could
number, stood before the throne. Where did all those people come
from? Now John was writing in about 100 A.D. And yet he already saw in heaven
a great multitude. Where did that great multitude
come from? From the believers in the Old
Testament. They tried, they proved, they
tested. And what did they find? They
found an able Savior, an able Savior. Secondly, the devil tried
him with temptations. Remember, we have some of those
recorded in the New Testament. And what did Satan find? Well,
he found that there was nothing in Christ to respond to his temptations. Nothing. Why? Because he is a
holy, harmless son of God. Satan tried. And yes, the Father,
He was tested also by the Father, tried his faithfulness in placing
into his hand all of the chosen, all of his elect people. They
were all placed in the hand of Christ as their surety. And what
did he find? He found that not one sheep,
not one sheep shall be lost. Oh, he's a tried stone. Have
you tested him? That's the important thing, isn't
it? We can read all about these things
in the Word of God, but it has to be applied to you and me. Have we tested, have we tried
this stone? Have we come to Him with all
our sins, no excuses, and just fell flat on this stone? looking
unto Christ and Christ alone. A third thing, this stone is
a precious cornerstone. Two things we see there. First
of all, this stone is precious and we know that he is in every
sense of the word. We think about his person being
both God and man, about his righteousness, his righteousness. Think about
this. Here's a person like you and
like me, all covered, all covered over with sin, inside out, inside
out, nothing but sin. And yet, when God takes the righteousness,
the precious righteousness, the obedience of His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and reckons that, to a sinner like me and a sinner
like you. God says he's righteous. He's just. Oh, yes. This is a precious stone. His
person, his righteousness, and what about his precious blood?
We're not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold,
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. That blood of Jesus, that blood
of Emmanuel, it filled a fountain. We like
to sing that hymn, don't we? There is a fountain filled with
blood. Drawn from Emmanuel's veins and
sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all, all their guilty stains. Yes, that blood's precious. Precious
to God and it's precious to his people too. We like to sing that hymn, there's
power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of Jesus Christ. Peter said, unto you therefore
which believe, he's precious. This is a sure indication that
you believe. There are a couple of things
in the New Testament you can see. Am I a believer or am I
not? Is Christ precious to you? If
he's not, no, you're not a believer. Unto you, therefore, that believe,
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
those who do not believe, the stone which the builders disallowed,
the same is become the head of the corners. See, he's both a
stone, a foundation, for salvation, but he's also a stone of stumbling
to those who are disobedient unto him. He's the pearl of great
price. In the Song of Solomon, the bride
says, he's all together lovely, precious, but it's also a cornerstone. Now a cornerstone joins two sides
together, doesn't it? a cornerstone, and he joins men
to God. He joins the Jews and Gentiles
together. There's no more Jew and Gentile. We're joined together in one
body, and that one body is his church of which he is the head. Here's the last thing. This stone
is a sure foundation. Look with me in Matthew 7. Matthew chapter 7. Our Lord is ending the message which is called
His Sermon on the Mount here in chapter 7. And he makes this statement,
therefore, verse 24, Matthew chapter 7, verse 24. Therefore,
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will
liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. As we read on, we're going to
see that every person is built upon something. Every one of
us here this morning, our hope, our life is built upon something. Our Lord said, wise man, he builds
his house upon the stone. The stone is Christ. There's
a foolish man who builds his house upon the sand. And that's
every person who does not trust, who does not come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He builds his hope of eternity
on sand. Maybe church membership. It may
be just living a good moral life. There's all kinds of sand that
people build on, isn't there? But we know our Lord said the
day will come When the rains, the wind will come and the flood
will come up. And what's going to happen to
that house that's built on the sand? Just like in the chapter where
we began in Isaiah, those men made a covenant with death. They
made a covenant with lies, made lies a refuge. How was that going
to work out? When God sent his servant, that
Assyrian king, into the land, the nation was destroyed. That is, the nation of Israel
taken into captivity. There's going to come a day,
isn't there? A day that is fixed on God's calendar. And every
one of us, we're going to find out then for sure if we're built
upon this stone or if we have built upon the sand. Today is
the day to build upon the stone, isn't it? Three things, and I'll
finish. What do we mean by building upon
the stone? Well, first of all, a person
needs to consider his lost condition. He must know that. must know
that he's lost, that he's a sinful person. A person that just comes
to the stone and doesn't realize that he has a need will not build
upon this stone. First of all, a man recognizes,
he digs deep, digs into his heart and sees what it really is. Out of the heart proceed these
evil thoughts It's not my environment. It's not my parents. It's not
my family. No, it's me, oh Lord. I'm the problem. My heart is
the heart that is desperately wicked and deceitful above all
things. Dig down and see your lost condition
and then see Christ, the perfect Savior. Both God and man, he's
willing and able to save. And then commit yourself, build,
fall upon the rock. I said he's a rock of salvation. He's also a rock of offense.
One day this rock is going to fall on all unbelievers. And what's going to happen? Well,
the scripture says they're going to be ground. ground to pieces. I'm thankful today for this rock,
aren't you? For this foundation. If I've
never built before, I want to build right now. If I've never
looked before, I want to look right now. If I've never called
before, I want to call right now. Because the scripture says,
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. May the Lord bless His word.