How Firm a Foundation
Not From Around Here: The Complicated Life of a Sojourner • Sermon • Submitted
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A sailor in a shipwreck was thrown upon a rock where he clung in great danger until the tide went down. Later a friend asked him, “Jim, didn’t you shake with fear when you were hanging on that rock?”
“Yes, but the rock didn’t,” was the significant reply. Christ is the Rock of Ages.
—Sabbath Reading
A building is only as stable as the foundation upon which it was built. Faith is only profitable if the object of that faith is truly trustworthy. It is all about the foundation.
As we continue our series “Not From Around Here: The Complicated Life of a Sojourner” we come to .
Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
Last week the subject how to develop a healthy appetite for God’s Word by getting rid of the junk food of worldly cravings. Verse three Peter tells us that we should do that if indeed, or since, we have tasted that the Lord is Gracious.
The thought of the Lord Jesus and His grace causes the Apostle to go down a wonderful pathway of thought about Jesus, the foundation of everything that he has been discussing so far. Jesus is the author if salvation. Jesus is the one who secured eternal life and waits for us in Heaven. Jesus is the one who shed his precious blood for us. Jesus, THE WORD, is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Jesus is the reason we can and should lay aside the junk food of lust and feast on His perfect truth. Jesus is the reason for it all. Jesus is the bedrock upon which everything rests, and how firm a foundation it is!
Jesus, the Living Stone
Jesus, the Living Stone
King James Version Chapter 2
To whom coming, as unto a living stone
Living Hope
Living Hope
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Living Word
Living Word
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Constant Communion
Constant Communion
To whom coming, as unto a living stone
The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), .
The words “to whom coming” in the Greek text do not refer to the initial act of the sinner coming to the Lord Jesus for salvation, but indicate a close and habitual approach and an intimate association made by faith when the believer realizes the presence of and seeks communion and fellowship with his Lord.
Foundation Stone
Foundation Stone
The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), .
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
Jesus the Rejected Stone
Jesus the Rejected Stone
King James Version Chapter 2
To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men
The word “disallowed” is the translation of a word that refers to the act of putting someone or something to the test for the purpose of putting one’s approval upon that person and thus receiving him, this act of testing being carried to the point where no further testing is needed, with the result that one comes to the settled conclusion that the one tested does not meet the requirements of the test and is therefore disapproved, repudiated. This Living Stone in the Person of God the Son became incarnate, lived for thirty-three years in the midst of Israel, offered Himself as its Messiah, was examined by official Israel for the purpose of approving Him as its Messiah, and then repudiated because He was not what official Israel wanted in a Messiah. What a commentary on the totally depraved condition of man’s heart.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
The stone which the builders refused Is become the head stone of the corner.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, A tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: He that believeth shall not make haste.
This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus the Precious Stone.
Jesus the Precious Stone.
To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
The word “chosen” is not a verb in the Greek text but a noun, literally “a chosen-out one,” thus “elect.” “Precious” is the translation of a Greek word used in , describing the centurion’s servant as “dear” to him. The word speaks of one being held in honor and as dear to another. “Of God” is literally “in the sight of God.”1
1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 53.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, A tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: He that believeth shall not make haste.
The First Epistle of Peter 4. Christian Identity (2:1–10)
But the foundation, the cornerstone of the temple of God is Jesus, who, far from being rejected, is a choice or select stone, a precious or valuable stone, even if the world does not yet share that valuation. This is the one to whom they have come and whose dual fate they share.