Jack Graham - Christ Alone Our Cornerstone

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TOPICS: Living Hope

Political division is at a fever pitch, of course, in the United States. The divisions are deeper than ever and the rhetoric is more rabid. And paths forward, what happens next is more uncertain than it’s ever been. Yet in these hostile times there is hope. There is LIVING HOPE IN A HOSTILE WORLD. In a world in which people are becoming more and more hostile towards Christians and people of faith. But we know that there is a way through as we navigate this season of cultural war, with grace and strength, and on the firm foundation which is Jesus Christ. «Christ Alone is our Cornerstone». And that’s the title of this message.

I love the song, «Christ is my firm foundation; the Rock on which I stand». «I put my faith in Jesus». And then the question is asked, «Will He ever fail»? The answer is «He won’t»! And whatever you’re going through in your life, if you build your life upon Christ, the Rock of ages, the solid Rock, «On Christ the solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand». I love the story of the little Irish lady. She said Christ is my solid rock, all other rocks are shamrocks. And we know Christ is the solid Rock. And we’re building our lives upon His truth and His Word. And His truth is marching on. And we want to shine as bright and beautiful lights in world filed with darkness. We want to do as Jesus said, to be salt and light.

«What good is it,» Jesus said, «if the salt loses its saltiness, its savor? It’s nothing good except to be thrown on the pathway and trampled on». No, we are to be salty, and salt preserves and salt protects and salt can sometimes sting when there is a wound, and yet we are a preservative as salt. And we are light in the darkness. We overcome evil with good. And it is our prayer, and our prayer in these days, these important days is that God will enable us to preserve our freedoms and protect our families and persevere in our faith and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s who we are and that’s what we are about. It’s imperative in order to do this that Christians unite and ignite! Unite and ignite in the power of the Holy Spirit. That we be together and stronger together and better together as we pursue these godly goals in prayer.

C. S. Lewis once said, «The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important». I’ll say it again. To quote Brother Lewis: «The only thing that Christianity cannot be is moderately important». It is important! Vitally important and eternally important! This is not a time for confusion in the Church, this is not a time for division in the Church; it’s time to stand up, to rise up, to be bold and strong and courageous with our biblical conviction! To be brave like Esther who saved a nation because she said, or it was said of her, she had come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Because what happens now in Christ, our children and our children’s children, this generation and the generations to come.

Thomas Paine once said, «These are the times that try the souls of men». Indeed! These are trying times. But we as God’s people have the opportunity and the responsibility to influence our culture, to make the biggest spiritual impact that we can as we unite and ignite together. Now is the time to get together right now! Some of you recognize that from the sixties. It is time to get together right now. I love the story in Peanuts when Charlie Brown is watching the program of television, this is the day before remote controls, and Lucy comes in and says, «Charlie, go change the channel». Charlie Brown says, «Well, why would I do that»? She said, «I’ll give you one, two, three, four, five good reasons to do that»!

And so he does it; he changes the channel. And the next frame in the cartoon, Charlie looking at his fingers and saying, «Why can’t you guys get together like that»? So it’s time to get together God’s way. And that’s what this passage in front of us is all about. It is about getting together on Christ alone, our cornerstone. So let’s begin reading. It’s a beautiful passage of Scripture and I want to read all of it from chapter 2, verses 1 through 10. And so stay with me. We’re going to walk through it. «So put away all malice». See, this is a very good word for us as believers right now. «So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy», which means to wear a mask, fake, «and envy and all slander». And do what? «Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk».

Now this is milk for the mind. This is milk for the soul. Spiritual milk. It is the Word of God. It is the Jesus Book. And like newborn babies, we are to crave this pure spiritual milk. It’s not polluted milk. When I was a little boy, I was told I was allergic to milk. I know I didn’t like milk that much; to drink that milk, it was a task. So my mother would buy all kinds of things to put in the milk to try to get me to drink it. Nestle’s Quik. God only knows what was in that stuff. And syrups and strawberry. I still didn’t like drinking milk. But it’s kind of sad in the churches today you have to put a lot of stuff, entertainment, a lot of stuff just to get people to come to church when we’re to crave like newborn babes, like little children, we’re to crave the nourishment and the nurturing of God’s Word. That’s what we’re to do.

And then he says: «if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good». Got milk? Ha, well, «Taste and see,» the psalmist said, «that the Lord is good». And once you taste, once you experience the goodness of God… How many believe that God is good to you? Yes, He is. God is good. The goodness of God follows us all the days of our lives. So if you have tasted the goodness of God, the grace of God in your life… One of the marks of the believer is that you have an appetite for God’s Word. Before you became a Christian you cared less probably about the Bible. You didn’t understand it at all. The Scripture says the natural man, the person outside of Christ, doesn’t receive the things of the Spirit.

So if you’re not a Christian, you have little if no interest in the Bible. But once you become a believer, you have this insatiable appetite to feast on the Word of God. And not only is it called milk but also in Scripture called meat, the meat of the Word. So this is how we grow up into our salvation. This is how we grow in our faith and mature as believers in Christ. Verse 4: «As you come to him», I like that! In just a few moments I’m going to give an invitation and invite you to come to Jesus. We say it again and again. «As you come to him, a living stone».

Now when you think of a stone, you probably don’t think of something as living, even your pet rock is not living. You think of something as being stone cold dead, or dead as a rock. But here Peter who built his life of the firm foundation of Jesus Christ, he said «You are now coming to a living stone». The stone at the tomb was rolled away, and Christ came out of the grave, and He lives, and He is this living stone. And he’s illustrating from the building of the temple and the building of some of the great walls of the ancient world. «As a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious», the precious Stone, the Rock of ages. And then, watch this, verse 5, «you yourselves like living stones».

So now you who were once dead, you were once like stone-cold dead. You know, because of Christ are being built up as a spiritual house. This is why we say at Prestonwood, Prestonwood, the church, is a place to call home. Because this is a spiritual house. Not these buildings, but it is «a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ». We’re doing that today. We’re offering spiritual sacrifices whether it is our person as living sacrifices to the Lord, whether it our possessions as we offer what we have to the Lord, or whether it is not only our person, our possessions, but it is our very presence in the Lord, our praise as we lift up praises to God. It’s the spiritual sacrifices of worship. This is our devotion. This is why we come; it’s our dedication. And then verse 6: «For it stands in scripture», it’s a good word to describe the conviction, the commitment of the Bible. «It stands in Scripture».

This is what stands. Remember, He said, «The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever». It’s stands! It’s always true and trustworthy 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. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense». Jesus Christ alone, cornerstone. He is either the stepping stone into heaven or the stumbling stone into hell, based on what you do with Jesus. Whether you receive Him as the chief cornerstone, build your life upon Him, or you reject Him as He was often rejected.

And this literally happened in Hebrew history where the cornerstone of the temple was tumbled down into the Kidron Valley and when it came time to lay the cornerstone for the temple, they were looking for it. «Where’s the cornerstone»? «Oh, we sent it». They called down to… Well, they didn’t call down. They sent word down to the quarry and «Send the cornerstone! We’re ready to lay the cornerstone». They said, «We don’t have it. We sent it years ago».

In fact, they did, and somebody had rejected the cornerstone and threw it down into the Kidron Valley which is still there, not the cornerstone, but the valley. And so this literally happened. And so the Hebrew listeners would have known exactly what Peter was talking about, how the cornerstone was rejected and how Christ then was rejected. And so He is either the one you build your life upon or reject and lose your life because of it. «A rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the Word, as they were destined to do. But you», now stay with me because this is a beautiful word from God, «But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light», say Amen!

«Once you were not a people», you were not a people! You were nothing. You were abandoned, «You were once not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy», we were on our way to judgment, we have no mercy, «but now (in Jesus Christ) you have received mercy». What a wonderful passage of scripture. So what does this mean, all of this? First, it means that we belong together. I said we need to come together. We need to get together right now. So how do we do that because we belong together, in that we are birthed together. We are born again together.

1 Peter 1:23 says that we are born again by the Word of God. It is vital that the church be filled with born again believers. We’ve regenerated. Church membership should be a regenerated church membership. I do believe in church membership. I believe every Christian should be a part of a local body of believers, the church, serving the Lord in our own community and reaching the world with the Gospel. Some people in life choose to what we used to say shack up and not get married. And just hanging out at church and not being a part of the church family in commitment is sort of like shacking up. I want to challenge you if you are not a member of this church or a church like Prestonwood, exalting Christ, preaching the Bible, growing in faith, reaching the world, that you get yourself engaged in the body of Christ, that you are, because we are birthed together, we belong together.

You know, there’s no such thing as an unchurched Christian. Some of you may say that’s not right. Yes, it is right. There’s nothing in the New Testament that would suggest that you could be an unchurched Christian. There are a lot of unchurched people and there are people I guess who are de-churched, they’re not in church; they’re out of church. But if you are a Christian, then you will love the Bride of Christ who is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. «Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it». No doubt, Peter was remembering the day when Jesus asked in Matthew chapter 16, «Who do men say that I am»? And Peter confesses in the power of the Holy Spirit, «You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God». And then the Lord responded, «Upon this rock I will build My Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against my Church».

So Jesus established the Church. The Church is not an afterthought. It’s not an accident of human history. The Church has been in the heart and mind of eternal God from eternity past and will be the Church triumphant in heaven forever and ever and ever. In the meantime, we’re to give ourselves to Christ and follow Him in His footsteps into the fellowship of God’s Church. I challenge you, if you say you’re a believer in Jesus, that you would connect and belong to the ministry of the local church. So God’s design for the church, we are believing together. We believe together, and therefore, we belong together. Titus 2:14 says, «He has saved us in order to purify for Himself a people that are His very own», don’t you love that? His very own people! And what are we to do? «Eager to do what is good»!

The Bible says is I know something, it’s a good thing and I don’t do it, that’s sin! So we are eager to do what is good. At times we may be disappointed in church or churches. It’s possible even to be disillusioned with the institutional church or churches that we see around us. But in spite of the failures and flaws of the institutional church, the living Church of the living God is alive and well. And we’re to be called and committed. Why? Because we believe together. We don’t get together just because we like each other. I hope we love each other. I want to talk about that in a moment, but that’s not why we’re here. We’re here because we love God and we want to worship Him and we want to welcome Him into our lives by believing Him.

So we are believing and belonging together. But the second thing is, we are built together. Believing together, belonging together, built together. And that’s that whole illustration that Peter is giving us about the cornerstone, building your life on Christ. And when Peter said, «You are the Christ, the Son of the living God», that’s the great confession, and Jesus replied, «Upon this rock», Peter wasn’t the rock, he was a little rock, literally, his name. But the Rock is not the Church, the Rock is not the pope; the Rock is Jesus! And upon this Rock, this confession that Jesus Christ is Lord. «You are the Christ, the Son of the living God»! It is on this Rock, Jesus, the Cornerstone alone that we stand. And we are built together.

Jesus told in His most famous sermon, The Sermon on the Mount, and if you know the Sermon on the Mount, you know He closes it, because He was a good preacher, communicator with a powerful story, He said, «Two men went out to build their house and one built his house on sand, no foundation. The other built his house on a rock that was firm foundation. And then the Lord said the storms began to rise and they always do, the rain falls on the just and the unjust. We all have storms in life. Jesus said when the rains and the winds beat against the house of the man who built his house on the sand, it fell», and Jesus exclaimed, «and great was the fall of it».

Just a total collapse of that man’s house representing his life, because it had no foundation. Love is what holds us together. And that’s what Peter is talking about when he talks about this love that we have for one another in the earlier. Just skim back in your Bible. Go back to chapter 1 and verse 22: «Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love». Not a fake love, not a phony love, but an authentic love, a real love. Not hypocritical love. The word hypocrite means to wear a mask.

So many people put on a mask, a smile, but they don’t love. And so he says let your love be sincere and then he uses the word Philia, brotherly love there. And another kind of love in the New Testament, Agape love which is God’s kind of love, the love of Christ, the love of the cross. «Love one another earnestly» and that is a very muscular word. It means vigorously, with fortitude and restraint. «Love earnestly from a pure heart». A sincere love, a strong love! This is what makes us, this strong love, get out of our easy chairs to walk our streets and pray for our neighbors. But if you are born again, as Jesus looked at Nicodemus, an old man. We don’t know how old he was but he was an aged man, he was a respected man, he was revered man, he was a rabbi, and yet Jesus looked at him and said, «You must be born again, Nicodemus».

And so if you are born again, you have eternal life. Jesus went on to say that famous verse. We’ll sing about it at the invitation. «For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life». And so, we believe together and we belong together. And the mortar is love, it’s the love of God and the love that we have for one another. And I can assure you, the world is watching. What did Jesus say about this? «By this shall all people know that you are My followers, my disciples, that you love one another».

We belong together, we believe together and therefore, we are blessed together. Aren’t you blessed to be a part of God’s church? Just to read those sentences that we highlighted earlier? You’re now a royal priesthood. You’re a priest. I’m a priest and you’re a priest. You don’t need another priest. Did you know that? You don’t need a priest. Jesus is our High Priest. You don’t need me to be your priest. I’ll pray for you; I’m be your pastor. But you don’t need a priest. Because Jesus is the Priest, the High Priest. And you are of a royal priesthood.

That means you are of a kingly heirdom and you have access to God. We can boldly come to the throne of grace, anytime, anyplace because Jesus ever lives to make intercession for His people! You are the people of God. We were nothing as we’ve already emphasized. We had nothing going for us. We were people scattered all over the world. But now we are a holy priesthood. This passage speaks so well of our identity in Christ and our dignity in Christ and our destiny in Christ. And so he says, «You were called, therefore, to be a light in the darkness, to bless the nations».

Because we are blessed, we want to bless others. Verse 10, I just hit it one more time and then we’ll close. «Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy». The main thing we need is the mercy of God which comes by the grace of God. Because of what Christ has done for us. And when we had nothing, we were nothing. He gave us everything: the forgiveness of sin, hope and future with Him, He put us in a spiritual family, His church. And so what are we to do? We’re to battle together for the souls of men. We are to believe together, belong together, build together and battle together and the Word of God is our weapon and the testimony of Jesus and the power of prayer. Amen? Christ alone, our cornerstone.