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Please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word as we continue our consideration
of various passages in the book of the prophet Isaiah.
This morning we come to Isaiah chapter 8, and I’ll be focusing on verses 11 through 15
of Isaiah chapter 8.
You’ll find that passage on page 680 in your Pew Bible.
I’m going to begin reading at verse 1 and read through verse 15 to fill out the context.
But friends, this is the Word of God.
Let us hear it with reverence and awe.
Isaiah chapter 8 verses 1 through 15.
Then the Lord said to me,
Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters belonging to Maher Shalal Hashbaz.
And I will get reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest
and Zechariah the son of Jeber Rekayah, to attest for me.
And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived in Borosan.
Then the Lord said to me,
Call his name, Maher Shalal Hashbaz.
For before the boy knows how to cry my father or my mother,
the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.
The Lord spoke to me again,
Because this people has refused the waters of Shalua that flow gently and rejoice over
Rezin and the son of Remaliah, therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them
the waters of the river, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory.
And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks.
And it will sweep on into Judah.
It will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck.
And its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Emmanuel.
Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered.
Give ear, all you far countries.
Strap on your armor and be shattered.
Strap on your armor and be shattered.
Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing.
Speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.
For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me,
and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,
Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy,
and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.
But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy.
Let him be your fear and let him be your dread.
And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense
and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel,
a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And many shall stumble on it.
They shall fall and be broken.
They shall be snared and taken.
Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades,
but the word of our God endures forever.
Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of his word.
Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven,
we thank you that you have spoken to us
and that you have given us in the Holy Scriptures,
your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word.
You have given to us guidance
and you have given to us a sure and certain word
that we can build our lives and eternity upon.
We would ask, O Lord, that you would give us
grace and wisdom and insight
as we consider this portion of Holy Scripture.
We pray that you would open our minds and our hearts
to behold wondrous things from your word.
And we ask that you would set a guard over my lips
that I might speak only that
which is faithful in your sight, Lord God.
We ask these things, Heavenly Father,
in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people’s said.
Amen.
You may be seated.
Dear friends, the title of my sermon this morning
is A Sanctuary or a Snare.
And if you’re following along in your sermon outline,
I’d encourage the young people to listen for
these following words.
The words walk, fear, rock, refuge, offense, and faith.
Well, dear friends, as a Bible-believing church,
one of the important principles
that we emphasize here at Grace Church
is the importance of reading and interpreting
passages of the Bible within their broader
literary and historical context.
You see, friends, understanding and interpreting
Bible passages within their own context
instead of yanking verses out of their context
is essential when it comes to rightly handling
the Word of God and learning sound Bible doctrine.
You see, sound Bible doctrine requires
careful contextual Bible reading and study.
One of the characteristics of unsound Bible teachers
such as, for example, cult leaders
is that they will often quote verses of the Bible
completely out of context
and use out-of-context quotes from Scripture
to support their false doctrines
or their erroneous teachings.
But when it comes to sound Bible interpretation,
as the saying goes,
and I’m sure some of you have heard this before.
It might sound trivial, but it’s not.
The saying is a text without a context is what?
A pretext.
I know you’ve heard it before.
You may be thinking, well, pastor,
what are you talking about?
And how does this relate to the passage
we’re considering this morning?
Well, let me just offer you a few examples
of what I mean about quoting passages
out of context and misusing the Scriptures.
Let’s say that I’m ministering to someone
who’s been diagnosed with a terminal disease.
And so I pay this individual a pastoral visit
in the hospital.
And let’s say that in seeking to encourage
and comfort this individual,
I decide to quote some Scripture to them.
And let’s say I quote from Genesis 3 verse 4.
That verse, part of that verse says this,
you will not surely die.
Now, what if I came to this individual
that I’m visiting and I say,
look, hear what the Word of God says.
The Bible says in Genesis 3 verse 4,
you will not surely die.
And I use that as a means of trying
to comfort this individual.
Is there any problem with that?
I mean, after all, that’s part of the Word of God,
isn’t it?
God’s inerrant, infallible Word.
Well, the problem with that particular quote
is that it is quoted out of context.
The problem is that Genesis 3 verse 4
is a passage that records the words
that Satan spoke to Eve in order to tempt her
to eat of the forbidden fruit.
In other words, it is a divinely inspired
inerrant record of a satanic lie.
The words themselves are a lie,
but they are recorded faithfully
in the Scriptures for our instruction.
Yanking that statement out of its context
and using it to try to bring pastoral comfort
would be a total misuse and a gross misapplication
of God’s Holy Word.
Or to give a more extreme example,
and some of you may have heard this before,
and I’m not sure if this is a true story
or if it’s apocryphal, probably the latter,
but let’s say that there’s a young man
who has to make a really important decision,
but he wants to make sure that he’s being led
by God in his decision.
So he says, Lord, I want you to show me
from Scripture what I’m supposed to do.
So what I’m going to do is I’m going to close my eyes
and drop my Bible on the table
and put my finger on the Bible, on a Bible verse,
and then open my eyes, and that’ll be your guidance to me.
And so the man does that.
He takes his Bible.
He prays for the Lord to show him
what he is supposed to do.
He lets his Bible drop on the table.
He puts his finger with his eyes closed
on a verse of the Bible, and he opens his eyes,
and lo and behold, what does he see?
He sees the verse that says,
Judas went and hanged himself.
Let’s say he says, okay, maybe, Lord,
I didn’t get this right, so let’s try it again.
So again, he prays.
He closes his eyes.
He drops his Bible on the table.
He puts his finger on a verse of the Bible
without looking, then he opens his eyes.
And what verse does he put his finger on?
Go and do likewise.
So we see there, friends,
the reason, beloved, that I belabor this here
at the front end of my sermon
is to make the point that when we are studying
challenging parts of the Bible,
such as the prophetic books,
like the book of the prophet Isaiah,
it’s especially important to read passages carefully
and within their historical and their textual context.
And when we read books like Isaiah,
if the modern Bible reader,
the typical Christian Bible reader today,
will often struggle understanding passages
from books like the book of Isaiah
because the book of Isaiah assumes
that you have a knowledge of the historical circumstances
that Isaiah, that the Holy Spirit through Isaiah
is addressing.
And so that’s one of the reasons why
sometimes in some of these passages
I’ve been taking some time and boring you perhaps
with some historical background information.
But the reason I’m doing that
is because I want to rightly handle the word of God
and want to make sure that you understand
what this passage is saying within its appropriate context.
So what was the historical context
that Isaiah was addressing here
or that the Lord through Isaiah
is addressing here in chapter eight?
Well, remember, friends,
that the date was around 735 BC.
At that particular time,
King Ahaz was on the throne of the kingdom of Judah.
King Ahaz was one of King David’s descendants.
He was a Davidic king.
But sadly, he was a wicked king.
Now, the great kingdom of Assyria to the northeast
was seeking to expand its territory.
So all of the smaller kingdoms of that region,
including the northern kingdom of Israel,
also called Ephraim,
and this other kingdom known as the ancient kingdom of Syria
or Aram, and the kingdom of Judah,
all of these kingdoms were under threat
from the kingdom of Assyria.
So how were these kingdoms seeking to deal with this threat?
Well, Israel and Syria, Judah’s neighbors,
sought to meet this threat
by entering into a military alliance
against the kingdom of Assyria.
But King Ahaz and Judah
had refused to enter into their military alliance.
So Syria and Israel had threatened to attack Judah,
depose King Ahaz,
and put a puppet king in his place
who would bring Judah into their military alliance
against the kingdom of Assyria.
Now, the Lord through the prophet Isaiah
had come to King Ahaz
and had called upon Ahaz
not to fear this military threat
from their neighbors,
the kingdoms of Assyria
and the northern kingdom of Israel.
However, instead of trusting in the Lord,
and instead of trusting in the Lord’s promise of deliverance
from Syria and Israel,
instead of trusting the Lord,
what does King Ahaz do?
He turns away from the Lord of Hosts,
the divine king of Israel,
he turns away from the Lord,
and he turns to the pagan king of Assyria
for help against neighboring Syria and Israel.
Now, the Lord had, as we saw in previous weeks,
the Lord had begun to address this situation
back in chapter seven,
and here in chapter eight,
he continues to address this situation,
and that’s where we find ourselves
in our passage for today.
And the first thing I want to draw your attention to
in verse 11, beloved,
is a warning against a faithless walk.
What we have here, first of all,
and this is the first point on your sermon outline,
notice a warning against a faithless walk.
The Lord here warns the prophet Isaiah.
It says this,
For the Lord spoke thus to me
with his strong hand upon me
and warned me not to walk in the way of this people.
The Lord spoke thus.
I don’t know the exact number of times
this kind of language is used.
I think it’s somewhere around 600 times
in the Old Testament alone,
we read the words,
thus saith the Lord,
or the Lord says this,
and this is one of those times.
God’s signature is found throughout the Holy Scriptures.
The Bible claims to be God’s word.
The Bible shows itself,
evidences itself to be the word of God.
It is self-authenticating,
and what we have here is another passage of Scripture
that reinforces the truth
that this is prophetic revelation.
This is not stuff that Isaiah made up in his own brain.
This is a message that he has received from the Lord,
and again, notice that the term Lord
is in all capital letters.
What does that indicate?
Well, I know many of you know that this indicates.
This is the way the English translators
indicate that the word for God here,
the name for God used here is the name Yahweh,
and Yahweh is the Lord’s covenantal name.
It has in view God as the gracious covenant-making,
covenant-keeping redeemer and savior of his people.
The Lord spoke thus to me,
but not only did Isaiah receive another message
from the Lord that he’s conveying to the people
through his writings.
He goes on to say,
The Lord spoke thus to me with what?
With his strong hand upon me,
and warned me not to walk in the way of this people.
Now, focus in on that phrase,
with his strong hand upon me.
The language here, my friends,
speaks of a special divine constraint.
Dr. E.J. Young explains it as follows.
He says, When this hand of God comes upon a man,
that man is completely subject to God’s power.
This is not ordinary prophetic inspiration,
but a power of God to constrain Isaiah.
The seizure was in order to instruct Isaiah
so that he would not walk in the way of the people of Judah
and bring condemnation upon himself.
Another way of saying this is that
through this divine constraint,
God preserves Isaiah,
enabling Isaiah to persevere in the faith
and not be like many of his contemporaries
who had abandoned their trust in the Lord.
And not only that,
it says this, that he was warned not to do what?
Well, this strong hand upon Isaiah
warned him not to walk in the way of this people.
Not to walk in the way of this people.
Now, what’s he talking about?
What is this language of walking?
We often read this kind of language in the scriptures.
Well, here the term walk is referring to a way of life.
And the Christian life is sometimes described
as walking with the Lord.
We walk with the Lord.
The Christian life is a life of discipleship.
It’s a journey of following Jesus throughout our lives,
day in and day out.
And so when he says,
do not walk in the way of this people,
he is saying, avoid their way of life.
Again, when the scriptures speak of our walk,
they usually are not referring to
walking in the literal sense.
It’s not talking about how you walk,
the sense of your gait,
such as whether you amble or swagger
when you walk or what have you.
No, instead, the image of walking
is often used by the biblical authors
to describe our manner or way of life.
And here the Lord, Yahweh,
the faithful covenant-making,
covenant-keeping God of Israel
is urging Isaiah not to walk.
In other words, not to live or to behave
or to conduct himself
in the manner of his contemporaries.
And how had Isaiah’s contemporaries,
his fellow Judahites,
how had they been walking?
Well, the answer given in scripture
is most of them,
except for a faithful remnant,
most of them had been walking,
had been living faithlessly.
They had been living in impenitence
and unbelief.
They had been living in violation
of God’s covenant.
Instead of trusting in and fearing
the gracious covenant Lord
who had promised deliverance
from the military alliance
of Syria and Israel,
instead of trusting in the Lord
to keep his promise of deliverance,
they, like Ahaz their king,
had turned away from the Lord.
And they trusted in and feared man
instead of trusting in and fearing the Lord.
Now, what are some of the takeaways?
What are some of the lessons
that we can learn from our passage so far?
Well, I want to address us
as a church corporate.
I think we as a church can learn
much from passages like this.
Brothers and sisters,
may we as a church
walk, watch our walk.
May we watch our walk as a church.
Remember, we are a local expression
of the body of Christ.
We should walk like it.
We should behave in the way
that we professed to be.
We should seek to,
in the words of the hymn writer,
trust and obey when it comes
to our body life together
as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that has many, many implications.
But one of the implications
for us as a church is that
we ought not to rely on worldly gimmicks
or worldly methods or worldly fads
to do the work of the Lord.
We ought not to zealously follow
what all of the,
what the church planting experts
and church growth experts are saying.
Now, I’m not saying we can’t learn
some practical wisdom
from some of those experts.
But we must not set our agenda
based on worldly ideas
or business practices or what have you.
We need to instead rely upon the Lord
and upon his ordinary,
unadorned means of grace.
The word, the sacraments, prayer.
These are the means that
though they are simple and unadorned
when they are blessed by the Holy Spirit,
they are powerful to accomplish that
which God intends for them to accomplish.
So let us as a church watch our walk.
But also this speaks to us
as individual believers in Christ.
As individual believers,
let us, beloved, seek to,
again to quote from the hymn writer,
let us seek to walk with the Lord
in the light of his word.
Dear listener, let me ask you,
do you have a gospel walk?
Is your life characterized by a gospel walk?
What do you mean, pastor?
What is a gospel walk?
Well, is your manner of life
rooted in and grounded
in the good news of Jesus Christ, your Savior?
Is your life rooted in your trust in him
as your very own Lord and Savior?
We are, if you are a believer,
if Christ is your Lord and Savior,
then you are, as the Scriptures describe it,
you are in Christ.
You’ve been identified with him.
You are united with him
in his death and resurrection.
And because of your union with him
in his death and resurrection,
which is signified and sealed to you
in your baptism,
you are called upon to die daily unto sin
and walk after a new obedience.
That means live a new life,
a life of discipleship
as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is that your life, dear listener?
Do you trust and obey?
If you’re not sure,
the Lord Jesus in his word calls you
to repent and believe in the good news.
Jesus Christ, the God man,
was crucified to pay the penalty for sin,
and he was raised from the dead
so that whoever believes in him
might not perish but have everlasting life.
So repent and believe upon
the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation,
and the word of God says
that you will be saved.
And having trusted him for your salvation,
begin to live a life of grateful obedience.
He has saved you, believer.
He has brought you into union with himself.
He has promised you
that you are safe and secure in him.
Out of gratitude for his gift of salvation,
seek to live a life that is well-pleasing to him,
a life of obedience.
But that life of obedience requires
that life of faith-filled,
gospel-fueled obedience
is made possible by the grace of God,
and it is only possible
in those who exhibit godly fear.
And that brings me to my next point
as we consider verses 12 and 13.
I want us next to consider
godly fear or ungodly fear.
Godly fear or ungodly fear.
Look at verse 12.
Again, remember the historical circumstances,
and he goes on to say,
the Lord goes on to say to Isaiah
and through Isaiah,
do not call conspiracy
all that this people calls conspiracy,
and do not fear what they fear nor be in dread.
So this is an example of the Lord saying,
avoid ungodly fear,
the kind of fear that was exhibited
by Isaiah’s unbelieving contemporaries.
But who then should we fear?
Is there a good sense of fearing?
Well, verse 13 answers that in the positive.
It says, but the Lord of hosts,
him you shall honor as holy,
let him be your fear,
and let him be your dread.
Now, verse 12 mentions a conspiracy,
and the Lord instructs Isaiah,
do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy.
What is the meaning of this conspiracy?
What conspiracy is being referred to here?
Well, there are different interpretations of that
and how to answer that question,
even among sound of faithful Bible commentators.
Some say that it refers to Isaiah’s counsel
to King Ahaz.
Remember Isaiah had been counseling King Ahaz
to trust in the Lord and not to trust in the King of Assyria.
And that counsel was likely viewed by Ahaz
and his court, his royal court as treacherous conspiracy.
After all, it had become state policy,
royal policy to appeal to the King of Assyria
and to oppose that or counsel against that
would have been viewed as treacherous.
Would have been viewed as a treacherous conspiracy.
But others say that in this verse,
the conspiracy refers to the alliance
between Syria and Israel’s military,
that military conspiracy that was being brought against Judah.
And I think here, brothers and sisters,
that again, remembering the importance of the context,
I think in light of the context here,
that this latter view is likely the correct one.
King Ahaz and the people of Judah, what were they doing?
They were fearing and they were dreading
the military threat from Syria and Israel
instead of trusting in and fearing Yahweh, their God.
They were not believing God’s promise of deliverance
brought to them through the prophet Isaiah.
They doubted God’s word, they denied God’s word
and instead, they feared.
They feared with a godless fear.
And then verse 13, though,
says that there is a good kind of fear.
But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy.
You shall set him apart as holy in your hearts, if you will.
The Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy.
Let him be your fear and let him be your dread.
Now notice how the Lord is spoken of here in verse 13.
He is referred to as Yahweh of hosts.
And though it is not politically correct to say this today,
the Bible often refers to the Lord using military language.
When it says Yahweh of hosts, the Lord of hosts,
who are those hosts?
Sometimes the hosts refer to the hosts of God’s people,
the people of God in their military capacity,
but oftentimes it refers to the angelic hosts.
And certainly the Lord of hosts,
he is the divine warrior who is the captain of the angelic hosts.
And if the divine warrior who rules and governs
and reigns over the angelic hosts has promised deliverance,
you can count on his deliverance.
And because he is the divine warrior who fights our battles for us,
who fights for his people, he alone is to be feared.
He alone is to be dreaded.
Now it’s interesting that the language here in this particular passage
is echoed by the apostle Peter in 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 14 and 15,
where Peter, under the Spirit’s inspiration,
applies this to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Let’s just briefly look there at 1 Peter chapter 3,
and let me read verses 14 and 15.
We read the following here.
But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake,
you will be blessed.
Have no fear of them.
Have no fear of those who would persecute you for righteousness’ sake.
Nor be troubled, just like the ancient Israelites,
the ancient Judahites, rather, were troubled by the threats
from Syria and Israel.
They feared with a godless fear.
We are instructed not to fear those who threaten us with persecution,
nor be troubled.
But instead, what are we to do?
Verse 15 of 1 Peter 3.
But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.
You see the similar language.
Peter is echoing and reflecting upon this passage from Isaiah chapter 8 here.
He’s saying, in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.
Set him apart in your hearts, always being prepared to make a defense
to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience,
so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ
may be put to shame, and so forth.
Well, friends, we see in this passage, in passages like this,
that sometimes the Bible speaks of fear in a positive sense,
and sometimes the Bible speaks of fear in a negative sense.
We see in passages like this one that there is a good, godly kind of fear
on the one hand, but there is also a bad, ungodly kind of fear on the other hand.
And what’s the difference?
What makes the difference between the fear that is good, the godly fear,
on the one hand, and the fear that is bad, ungodly fear?
Well, friends, when we study the scriptures carefully and compare scripture with scripture,
we see that the difference is that ungodly fear
is a fear that is rooted in unbelief and rebellion against the Lord,
whereas a godly fear is a fear that is rooted in faith and trust and reverence for the Lord.
Ungodly fear is that unbelieving dread and terror that drives us sinners away from the Lord.
An example of that kind of fear is the kind of fear that Adam and Eve experienced
when they had eaten the forbidden fruit.
They hid themselves, and when they realized what they had done, what did they do?
They ran away from the Lord.
They sowed, you know, they tried to cover themselves in fig leaves.
The work of their own hands they tried to cover themselves with, their own works.
And they hid when they heard the Lord coming in the cool or the spirit of the day to confront them.
They hid from the Lord.
They ran away from the Lord.
When they fell and sinned, they didn’t go back to the Lord and say,
Father, we messed up, have mercy on us.
They ran away from the Lord because they were
they were possessed at that time of an ungodly fear that drove them away from the Lord.
But godly fear is that sense of holy reverence and awe,
that sense of reverence and awe that trembles with joy before the Lord,
that trusts in his promises, that rejoices in his truth,
and that dreads above all things, displeasing our loving Heavenly Father.
If you are characterized by a godly fear, beloved,
then your worst fear, your worst dread would be the fear of displeasing
and bringing shame and dishonor upon the name of your loving, gracious Heavenly Father,
that Father in heaven who sent his Son Jesus Christ to die for your sins
and to rise again to give you the gift of eternal life.
Oh dear listener, let me ask you, do you fear the Lord?
And if so, what kind of fear is yours?
A godly fear, a fear that reverences and trusts in and delights in the Lord
and dreads displeasing your loving Heavenly Father,
or an ungodly fear that simply is terrified by the prospect of God’s holy wrath and judgment?
We’re told in the Scriptures that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and obviously that speaks to a godly fear, a fear that is rooted in faith.
But remember what our Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10 verse 28.
As he speaks and puts this in its broader perspective, he says this,
Jesus says, and do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul,
rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Praise God, if we are resting upon Christ as our Savior from sin, we need not fear
his judgment, for as the Scriptures tell us, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are
in Christ Jesus. To be in Christ Jesus is to know Christ as your rock, the rock of your salvation.
And that brings me to my final point as we consider verses 14 and 15. We have here
the Lord presented either as a rock of refuge or a stone of offense. This is the final point
in your sermon outline, a rock of refuge or a stone of offense. We’re told this,
and he will become, he, the Lord of hosts, Yahweh of hosts, he will become a sanctuary
and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel.
Again, remember in the historical setting here, God’s people had been divided. This was the period
of the divided kingdom, so we had the northern tribes, the kingdom of Israel in the north,
and then the southern tribe of Judah to the south, obviously. But here they are spoken of as both
houses of Israel, as if they are meant to be united. But anyways, it goes on to say,
he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel,
a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, again, that’s the holy city,
that’s the capital city of the theocracy, that’s the city where the temple of God was,
where God, the symbol of God’s gracious dwelling among his people, that’s where that was located.
And it goes on to say in verse 15, and many shall stumble on it, they shall fall and be broken,
they shall be snared and taken. Now, verse 14, which mentions that the Lord will become to some,
at least, a sanctuary, this implies the theology of the remnant, that there will be a faithful
remnant that God preserves even in the midst of an unfaithful generation. But though a faithful
remnant in Isaiah’s time would honor the Lord of hosts as holy with a godly fear, as we’re told in
verse 13, many others, such as the apostate King Ahaz, trusted in the scheming of man for deliverance
rather than the promises of their faithful covenant Lord. For the former, for the faithful
remnant, those who trusted the Lord, those who feared the Lord, for the former, the Lord Yahweh
would be a sanctuary, a place of safety and refuge. But for the latter group,
those who persisted in their impenitence and unbelief, the Lord would be to them a stone of
a fence and a rock of stumbling. The Lord would be a rock that they would stumble over and fall.
But not only that, another image is used here in this passage, the Lord would be to such
unbelievers, such wicked ones among the covenant community, he would be to them a trap and a snare.
Not only would the ungodly stumble over Yahweh their God, in their case the Lord would be a
divine hunter, a hunter who would trap and snare them in his holy judgment against him.
Again, the apostle Peter, under the Spirit’s inspiration, picks up and echoes the language
here, quotes even partially from this passage in 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 8, which I
read earlier in the service. And let me just read some of these verses again.
1 Peter chapter 2 beginning at verse 4, we read this, as you come to him, he’s speaking of Jesus,
as you believers come to Jesus, who is described how? As you come to him, a living stone rejected
by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones,
are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture, behold, I am laying in Zion
a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.
That’s good news. He goes on to say, so the honor is for you who believe, but what about those who
do not believe? He goes on to say, for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected,
and of course that’s the stone, that living stone is Jesus himself, the rock of our salvation,
the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a
rock of offense. Does that sound familiar? That’s taken from our passage for this morning,
and he goes on to say, they stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.
My friends, what do we learn here from this passage? Again, there’s many things we can
learn, many takeaways, but let me just mention a few here. We learn here, beloved, that the Lord
will be to us either a rock of refuge if by sovereign grace we trust him for our salvation,
or he will be to us a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling in the case of those
who reject him and remain in unbelief and impenitence. He will be either a sanctuary or a
snare. May he be to us, brothers and sisters, may he be to us our rock of refuge, our sanctuary,
or to quote the hymn writer, our shelter in the time of storm. But how do we again know that we
have taken refuge in him? I would leave us with the words of our Lord as recorded at the end of
the Sermon on the Mount. Let’s turn to Matthew 7, and let me just read verses 24 through 27
of Matthew chapter 7. Jesus says, 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. Oh, dear listener, may you
build your life upon Jesus Christ and his word as the rock of your salvation,
lest he become to you a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Believe with your heart,
beloved, as we sing together with our lips in just a minute. We’ll sing that wonderful hymn,
On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. May he be our rock of refuge
and not our stone of offense. May we build our lives and indeed our eternal life. May we rest
in the rock of our salvation, Jesus Christ, for forgiveness, grace, and eternal life. And if you
build your eternity upon the rock of Christ, you will not be ashamed. You will not be disappointed.
Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that by the power of your Spirit you would enable us
to take our refuge in Christ and Christ alone and not in human works, human wisdom, human scheming.
We thank you, oh Lord, that Jesus is indeed the rock of our salvation. May he be to us a sanctuary
and not a snare. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said,
Amen. Let’s close our time together by rising and we’ll sing as our closing hymn of commitment,
hymn 459, My Hope is Built on Nothing Less, 459.