"The Chosen Cornerstone"
[I Peter 2:4-8]
July 8, 2007 Second Reformed Church
If you are a Christian, if you have believed in Jesus Alone for your salvation, you are a part of the Church. What does that mean?
We come to the Lord this morning because we have tasted Him and known that He is Good. This Man, Jesus, is the One God, the Only Savior, our Hope in the days of trial and in the days of peace. This Man, Jesus, was sent from God, but rejected by men, still He is the Man that God chose and sent -- He is precious to our God.
John put it this way: "[Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him" (John 1:10-11). Yet, at His Baptism, we remember that the heavens opened and a dove descended upon Him, and a voice cried out, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17).
The Holy Trinity chose the Son to Incarnate as the Person of Jesus, to live, suffer, and die, and rise again, that we might taste of Him -- that we might receive Him and believe and glorify Him. Jesus' Work on earth pleased His Father, and we are the fruit of His Work -- His people, the Church.
Peter tells us that Jesus is a Living Stone. Unlike the stones on the ground or the stones of the Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus is a Living Stone. When Jesus asked Peter Who Peter and the apostles believed He is, Peter answered, "'You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.' And Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:16-18).
When Jesus said He would build His church "upon this rock,"” He was indicating Peter's confession that Jesus is Divine -- He is God. Jesus is the Living Stone on which the Church is built. Jesus is the Cornerstone, the Chief Stone, the Foundation, the Stone on which the rest of the Church rests and has its support.
Peter explains that all true believers are also living stones -- we are the stones which are laid upon the Cornerstone and built up into the Church. We are placed, one upon another, one next to another, across time and space, to build the One Church of Jesus Christ. Jesus is our Foundation, the Holy Spirit is the mortar Who joins us together, to the glory of the Father.
Our stability, our security, our longevity is based on the Stone, Jesus, Who is the First Placed. Since He is God, our Victorious Salvation, we have comfort and security in Him, in knowing that the Church does not stand or fall by us and our feeble efforts, but it is Jesus Who bears us up. We exist and we are sustained by Jesus and for Jesus. And He is making us into a spiritual house -- Jesus is maturing us, perfecting us, making us fit stones for the house of God. Why? To serve as a holy priesthood and to offer up spiritual sacrifices.
Through Jesus Christ, we are being made a holy priesthood. What does that mean? It means that we are made holy through Jesus, and we can now approach the Father, and even enter into the throne room of God with boldness. We can come before our God and Father and call upon Him and rely on Him knowing that He is our Father and He loves us.
What comfort is this? That we have been made right with God the Father through the Son, so He is forever receiving us as His own, loving us, and keeping us, and, as we already heard, the gates of hell cannot prevail against us. We are safe in our Father.
Our response to this ought to be that we offer up spiritual sacrifices, we bear fruit, as Paul says. We do not offer up the blood of animals anymore, because the Blood of God's Son has been offered up and it eternally satisfies for those who believe -- throughout time and space. Jesus' Blood has covered and redeemed and ransomed every one that will ever come to belief. Every sin that each believer ever commits has already been paid for. So it is not a sacrifice of blood, or a sacrifice of merit, that we offer up, but a sacrifice of thanks. We offer up sacrifices that reflect what has occurred to us spiritually.
We offer up our whole being -- heart, soul, mind, and strength -- in love and dedication to God, that we would keep our whole selves well and dedicated in all things to God. Part of our sacrifice of thanksgiving and love is to care for our selves and to do those things which are pleasing and bring glory to God. We do not do those things which corrupt ourselves and take away from the glory of God.
We offer up our abilities to the service of God. We offer up our blessings to the service of God. We offer up our mercy. God has given us more than we need so we might offer back part of everything that He has given to us, in every area of life,. We offer up our bodies to purity, we offer up our thoughts to those things that are good, we offer up our abilities for God's use -- helping around the property, leading the prayer of confession, providing for coffee hour, praying for each other and for those who have not believed on Jesus, and other ways.
But what surety do we have that these things are true? How can we be sure that Jesus is our Sure Foundation? Just as we have quoted the words of Peter, Peter quotes the words of Isaiah, "Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a cornerstone chosen [and] precious, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame" (Isaiah 28:16). Just as we have quoted Peter and said, "just as it is written," so Peter quotes Isaiah saying, "just as it is written," and that would mean nothing, if these were merely human authors and merely human books. But this is the Word of God, without error and without contradiction. It can be trusted in its entirety, and its authority is that of the Almighty God Who created everything that is.
And this same God who prophesied of the coming of Jesus through the prophet Isaiah and spoke of the prophecy's fulfillment through the apostle Peter, in which He makes this promise to us, "whoever believes on him will not be put to shame." What is He saying? Does God mean that we will never suffer, that we will never be embarrassed? Of course not. What God is promising is that He will preserve us; since our salvation is entirely based and sustained on Jesus, Who is God Himself, noone who truly believes in Jesus Alone for salvation can possibly be lost.
Can we sin? Yes. Can we fall away for a time? Yes. Can we be wrong on this issue or that? Yes. But can we remove ourselves from the Church once we have been sealed in? No. Can we remove our branch from the vine once we have been grafted in? No. Can we pry God's Hand open and leave Him? No. We have neither the ability to save ourselves, nor to frustrate God’s Salvation. If Jesus has saved you, you are saved for eternity
But there are some who will always reject Him. There are some who will never receive Jesus. There are some who will always find Jesus an offense. There are some of whom the prophet speaks: "'The stone that the builders rejected, this has become the chief cornerstone'" and "'a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.'" They stumble [because] they disobey the word, as they were destined." These will not have Him for their Cornerstone and Foundation. They desire to stand on their own. They believe they can earn enough merit to stand before the Holy and Awesome God and withstand His Fire. They stumble and fall, and they shall never rise. And this was God's Plan -- they fulfill the destiny God set before them.
And we read this and wonder if it is fair? And brothers and sisters, it is not fair. The Gospel is not fair. Salvation in Jesus Alone is not fair. If God were fair, not one of us would ever receive Jesus. If God were fair, God would allow us to reap the Hell of our sins that we deserve. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).
"What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory -- even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea, '"Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not my beloved I will call 'beloved.' And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called sons of the living God" (Romans 9:22-26).
If you believe in Jesus Alone for Your Salvation, Jesus is your Cornerstone, your Foundation, just as He is of the whole Church. Jesus Alone is my Salvation, He Alone is my Cornerstone and Foundation. My Salvation is not based on my works at all -- I am saved by the Mercy of Jesus Alone, by the Grace of Jesus Alone, through the gift of faith alone, in accordance with the Holy Bible Alone, and to the Glory of God Alone. Can you say the same?
If you can, then we are the Church. And we are eternally secure and safe in Jesus.
So, let us live out this truth by worshiping our Chosen Cornerstone, Jesus, alone. Let us tell others that He Alone is Salvation. Let us live lives of holiness, giving of ourselves -- everything we have and are -- just as Jesus gave His Whole Self that we might be saved, and may it all be to the glory of God.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we have doubted that Jesus is strong enough to support and save us, much less the whole Church. Forgive us for doubting You. Stir up fresh fires of the Holy Spirit within us, building our trust in You and our whole-hearted reliance on You for all things, both as individuals and as the Church. Let us understand that we are Your Church, and You will accomplish Your Will through us, and Your Will will not be frustrated. Increase our love of holiness and cause us to live lives of love, generosity, compassion, and Christ-reliance. For we only stand by You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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