Christ our Firm Foundation

Jesus as our cornerstone

Matthew 7:24–27 ESV

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Last week we talked about this story from Jesus. We focused on the foundation built on sand. We talked about our disobedience to God’s word. We talked about our disobedience being a result of our sinful, spiritually dead nature and the need for a savior. Despite the evidence that Jesus is the savior, we choose to reject him. Our only hope for a house that stands is one built on a good foundation. That good foundation is Christ.

One wonderful passage describing the foundation we have in Christ is in Isaiah 28. The setting of this passage is a condemnation of the rebellion of God’s people. The prophet accuses the priests and prophets of being drunk to the point that they can no longer hear from God and do the work they are called to.

Isaiah 28:7–10 “These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment. For all tables are full of filthy vomit, with no space left. “To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.””

The last part is clearly meant to mock the priests. Different commentaries differ on how they think the mocking occurs. JMac notes the rhythmic way that verse 10 is stated and says it is akin to the drunken slur of an intoxicated person. Pulpit commentary states that v 10 is a quotation from a poem used to teach children their letters. Either way the intention is clear. Truly the call is for them to follow God’s word and they are making no effort to do so. To follow God’s word is something that a child (or your local drunk) should do. Be obedient to Him and him alone.

In the midst of this scathing mockery comes the passage that we want to focus on.

Isaiah 28:16–18 “therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter. Then your covenant with death will be annulled...”

Note that God has laid the foundation. He has brought it to God’s people. This precious cornerstone will bring justice and righteousness. Without this foundation, we will have death, unrighteousness, and injustice.

What do we mean by a cornerstone? This is the first rock laid in a building. In that way, everything else follows naturally after it. If your first block is off, then your second, and your third, and your fourth will be as well. The foundation will not be in the right place, as will the walls, the roof, and every other aspect of it. This stone is essential to the creation of a foundation and to the building of a building.

This idea is built upon in Psalm 118:19–26 “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.”

A couple of key points. Note a few facts here. God is doing something marvelous. This marvelous thing is he uses the rejected stone as the cornerstone.

Last week we talked about Christ being rejected. I talked about Jesus purposely fulfilling a prophecy by riding a donkey into Jerusalem. He was clearly identifying himself as the Christ and ultimately the people rejecting him. Lets look at Luke 19 and that passage again. Here’s something to add to what we learned last week. Look at the song the people are singing. This is Psalm 118:26. They are singing this Psalm. Clearly, they are identifying Jesus as the subject of this Psalm. When we have that line “This is the day that the Lord has made,” we are not talking about any old day. We are talking about that specific day that this precious cornerstone has come.

Tragically, the rejected stone is part of this story. The Pharisees try to silence the people from praising Jesus clearly showing himself to be the promised savior. Yet the evidence was so profoundly clear that Jesus states that if they were silent “the very stones would cry out!” There was no doubt that Jesus is the Christ!

What should our foundation be like?

First things first. Jesus is the first step to our foundation. This sounds simple, but this is usually where things fall off the rail. We have to have an understanding of who this Jesus we speak of is. Every false religion and false teacher has a Jesus. If it is not the Son of God we do not have a foundation that we can rely on.

The way that we distinguish the Jesus from scripture from a false view of Christ is fairly simple. In fact, Isaiah mocked the priests for their inability (or lack of desire) to seek out God in His word. Precept upon Precept, line upon line. This is something that a child or a sufficiently sober person should be able to do. We know who Jesus is by seeing what God’s word says about him. He is clearly identified as the Son of God, born to a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose on the third day. This Jesus is the promised savior and hope. Our call is to repent and believe.We are unrighteous, and we have no hope other than faith in him. If we have this Christ, we have our cornerstone. Christ is the lens through which we read scripture. Scripture also defines for us who Christ is. We must begin there.

Once we understand that our hope and salvation is in Jesus, every other part of our foundation naturally follows suit. Jesus commanded us Matthew 16:24

Matthew 16:24 ESV

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

The call is clear. We first deny ourselves. That means that we reject our sinful ways and replace them with the ways of Christ. Our desires lead to death. Ultimately, we are made a new creation in Christ. We seek out his ways because they are more natural to us now. Ezekiel 36:26–27 says it simply

Ezekiel 36:26–27 ESV

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

A new heart placed within us gives us a desire to ‘walk in my statutes and obey my rules’. That means that we will be obedient to God and progressively seek him out all the more. Understand that we live in a world filled with sin and inhabit a body still stained with the curse of sin, but there should be a noticeable tangible pursuit in the life of a Christian to pursue after Christ and desire (imperfectly) to grow to be more like Jesus. Bluntly put, Christians should be growing to look more like Jesus. That means that we are making decisions to pursue holiness. We should have a joy in following God’s laws. Please note the order. It is really important. We aren’t saved by doing good things. Good righteous acts don’t give us a heart of flesh. Instead, we are given a heart of flesh by God. God puts it in you. His Spirit in us causes us to walk in God’s statutes. It is not walking in God’s statutes causing us to have a heart of flesh. The first is the result of God’s actions. The second is the results of our efforts. Only one saves… As Arthur Pink stated, “Growth in grace is growth downward; it is the forming of a lower estimate of ourselves; it is a deepening realization of our nothingness; it is a heartfelt recognition that we are not worthy of the least of God’s mercies.’ To recognize that is to understand the essential nature of denying our own desires in submission to greater ones. To have a heart that truly understands that is to have one given by God as it assaults own arrogance and pride.

The part in our verse of ‘taking up our cross’ cannot be overlooked. For the reader of this verse during the time this was written, this was a stark reminder of the horrible sights they had seen. The Roman empire made garish displays of their might by punishing law breakers by crucifixion. The intent of this punishment was to inflict maximum shame, humiliation, and pain on a person before death. This death was a cruelty beyond our imaginings of our current ways of looking at justice. When we speak of taking up our cross and following Jesus, we are saying that there is no price to high to pay. We will pursue Christ no matter what pain or suffering we will have to endure. The reward of following Jesus is too great.

Strength during the storm

If we are a wise man who build our house on the rock, we will be able to endure the storms of life. Our foundation has Christ as it’s cornerstone. The foundation is completed by the following of God’s statutes.

There are several ways that we must understand why we are able to endure. The first is practical. We can endure this world’s storms because we follow the rules of the creator of this world. I understand that we may endure tough times because of our faith. However, the principles taught in scripture lead to a life that should be able to keep us out of many of the pitfalls that we face in life. In my life, I have worked at Walmart, the post office, and ministry. I have seen a lot of people. I see a lot of people in tough places. I find many tough times have an element of being self inflicted. Maybe I get a little cynical after years of tackling shoplifters and feeding people at food pantries that drive nicer cars than I do, but frequently people make a lot of unbiblical decisions that makes their life tougher than it has to be. I know this isn’t really deep and spiritual, but I think it has application. I used to try to help a guy that bordered on homeless. His biggest problem was that he couldn’t make it to work more than two days in a row and he genuinely believed that the ‘lady’ he met online yesterday really intended to fly out and see him as soon as he could round up a couple of hundred bucks to send her. Sometimes our problems are pretty fixable. To lead a life based on biblical principles will genuinely remove a lot of tough times out of our path. There is a practical element to leading a Christ honoring life. If we love our neighbors and respect those in authority over us, we will find there are a lot of benefits. Our life here on earth should honor God. There are practical ramifications of that. Many of them cause us to treat our boss and our neighbors well, which leads to us living a life a bit better than it could have been in many ways.

The other reason is a lot more spiritual. The foundation we are building has an eternal component. Jesus said his kingdom was not of this world. His goal wasn’t political victory. Neither is ours. God’s kingdom is not better off because the right guy wins the presidency. Nor is it diminished if the other guy wins. We are working on something greater and more eternal. Our goals