I. God’s foundation for the eternal salvation of sinners. II. Its properties and excellences. III. The blessedness of those who build upon it.—W. Hancock, B.D.: Sermons, pp. 1–16.
The person and salvation of Jesus Christ are frequently spoken of under the image here presented, the most obvious and expressive image of security, that of a foundation. Our Saviour expressly appropriates to Himself (Psalm cxviii. 22). The same architectural idea appears in Eph. ii. 20; 1 Pet. ii. 4–8.
I. The grand object which God proposed to Himself in all His dispensations to man, viz., the laying of a foundation in which the hope of a repenting sinner might rest, with regard to God and Eternity. We trace this object, 1. In the primal promise (Gen. iii. 15). 2. In the mysterious rite of sacrifice Divinely appointed from the beginning to prefigure “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.” 3. In the whole system of the Mosaic law, "The schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." 4. More and more distinctly announced in the Psalms and Prophecies. The foundation proclaimed by Jehovah in the text is the chief end of all He has done and revealed to mankind; the central point in which all the lines of His providence and His word meet and terminate. Nature supplies the scene, providence the scaffolding, revelation the plan, and that mighty spiritual edifice of which this is the foundation.
II. This foundation was needed. None will dispute this point. So sensible are men that they need a foundation for hope towards God, that every one is disposed to lay his own. Every one feels that without some restitution made to a holy God sin cannot be pardoned nor the sinner saved. The question is, How shall a proper foundation be laid? where shall an adequate restitution be found? The most important question in the universe to be answered and at the same time the most difficult! (1 Sam. ii. 25). Only three kinds of restitution on the part of man are imaginable—penitence, good works, voluntary sufferings; but none of these, nor all put together, can be deemed satisfactory in the case before us. 1. Penitence is no foundation of the soul before God; the most sorrowful remembrance of sin cannot repair it (H. E. I., 4225–4228). 2. Neither are good works, to which the same insufficiency attaches; they are always required, and therefore can never possess a superfluity or redundancy of merit (H. E. I., 375, 1950). And this applies to the best works; but what are ours in the sight of God? 3. The only remaining kind of restitution is by voluntary sufferings: this, by its very definition, is absurd and vain, for if any sufferings are required they become part of our duty; but to invent penances of our own is no part of our duty, and must be contradictory rather than satisfactory to the Divine law. Penitence, good works, voluntary sufferings, may be methods of procuring for us the priestly absolution of a poor sinful man like ourselves; but they will not secure for us the Divine acceptance.
III. Observe, it is in the midst of the false foundations, the “baseless fabrics” of sinners, that God in our text introduces His own, the only true and solid foundation. All who build their hope on any other will be compelled at last to say, “We have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hid ourselves.” See 1 Cor. iii. 10. The wonderful way in which this stone was laid; how a person of the Godhead assumed our human nature, He who was in the form of God took the form of a servant, He became “Jehovah our righteousness.” See 2 Cor. v. 19. He who laid the foundation of the heavens and the earth alone could lay this foundation in Zion!
VI. The excellent qualities of this foundation. It is represented—1. As “a tried stone:” a foundation which has resisted the strongest attempts to shake it,—that has stood the trial of unnumbered enemies and friends. It has been proved in the fiery trial of Divine justice, and the sins of the whole world have tried its strength to sustain an overwhelming weight. The storms of persecution have raged against it in vain, still it stands uninjured (Heb. xiii. 8)! In every respect “a tried stone;” tried by God, by Satan, by man; tried in life, in death, in eternity; tried by all the saints in all their trials; and never tried in vain! 2. As “a corner-stone.” The corner-stone unites both sides of an edifice; and St. Paul represents Christ as Him in whom the whole building, fitly compacted, rises a spiritual habitation of God (Eph. ii. 19–22). 3. As “precious;” precious in respect to the Saviour’s Person as the only begotten Son of God; in respect to His sacrifice; a foundation composed not of corruptible things (1 Peter i. 18, 19). 4. As “a sure foundation:” not an imaginary one like every other, but one real and substantial! In the Hebrew the word is reduplicated for the greater emphasis, “A foundation, a foundation!” Not a transitory but an eternal one. We are dying men; we sojourn in a world of vanity and death; what we want is a “sure foundation.” Behold in Christ this grand desideratum!
V. The happiness of him who rests on this foundation. “He that believeth shall not make haste;” he shall not be thrown into disquietude and agitation of spirit. Never has the strength of this foundation been so well appreciated as when it was most tried, most needed. When our flesh and our heart fail, then is the time to find in God the rock of our heart, in Christ the foundation of our soul!
Conclusion.—But then we must possess the character defined in the text; “he that believeth,” is he that amidst the wreck of nature shall be saved on this foundation. We must see to it that we have that faith which is known by its fruits, which keeps the commandments, purifies the heart, works by love, overcomes the world, resists the devil, rejoices in Christ.—Robert Hall: Fifty Sermons, pp 68–86.
I. God’s foundation for the stability of His Church. 1. This foundation was planned in the eternal counsels of Jehovah (1 Pet. i. 20; Luke xi. 50; Rev. xiii. 8). 2. This foundation was actually laid in the incarnation and sufferings of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. v. 21; Gal. iii. 13; 1 Pet. ii. 22). 3. This foundation is proclaimed in the preaching of the Gospel (Luke xxiv. 47; Acts xiii. 38, 39).
II. The peculiar qualities by which this foundation is distinguished. 1. It is a stone, denoting strength. 2. It is a living stone. Possessing life in Himself, He is able to communicate it (John i. 4, v. 26; Rom. viii. 2). 3. A tried stone. The Father tried it, earth tried it, hell tried it. 4. A precious corner-stone. Corner-stones are generally placed for three purposes for (a.) union; for (b.) beauty; for (c.) direction or example. 5. A sure foundation.