The Eternal Rock

It’s good to be with you again, sharing with you on this week’s vitally important theme: Where to Find Security.

In my two previous talks this week, I’ve pointed out that the quest for security springs from a universal craving of the human heart, irrespective of nationality, or culture, or social or economic status.

In the course of human history, and particularly in our contemporary culture, man has sought security in many different ways and forms. In certain areas, and to a certain extent, he has achieved a limited kind of security. But never has he achieved total or permanent security in any of those ways.

On the other hand, in a completely different way, the wisdom of God, speaking through the pages of Scripture offers man total security. Here is what God’s wisdom says in Proverbs 1:33:

“But whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.” (NIV)

That is a promise of total and permanent security. It comes through listening to the wisdom of God. Once our ears are opened to listen, wisdom discloses to us two different realms of being: the temporal and the eternal. The security which wisdom offers is found only as we turn to the latter realm, the eternal. Since all human efforts to achieve security are limited to the temporal realm, any success they achieve is of the same kind, it’s temporal, it’s temporary, but it’s never permanent.

This contrast between the temporary and the eternal is illustrated by the parable of Jesus about the two men who each built himself a house, but on different kinds of foundations, the one on sand, the other on rock. The foundation of sand corresponds to the temporary; the foundation of rock corresponds to the eternal. In due course, the houses of both men were subjected to the pressures of life, the storm, the calamity, the wind, the stream, the one on the rock stood firm, the one on the sand collapsed.

And then Jesus said that building on the rock is hearing His Word and putting it into practice. That’s the only way to total and permanent security. All other forms of security, ultimately, are like that house built on the sand. They’ll stand for a time, but there will come pressures against which they cannot offer security.

Today we’re going to look at the nature of the rock upon which alone we can build with total security, both for time and eternity. There is no secret about the identity of this rock, it’s clearly unfolded to us in the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 11 Paul says this:

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (NIV)

That’s very clear, very practical. The only foundation that will stand for eternity is the foundation of Jesus Christ. He is the foundation which God has already laid. We cannot change, we cannot find another. We can only accept that which God has provided in Jesus Christ.

And then in 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 4 through 6, Peter says this about Jesus:

“As you come to him [Jesus], the living Stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’” (NIV)

Again, Peter presents to us Jesus, the living stone, the chosen precious cornerstone. And he says that if we come to Jesus in faith and put our faith in Him, we will become living stones, built into a spiritual house upon that foundation. And that spiritual house will provide us with total security. He says the one who trusts in Him, Jesus, will never be put to shame. Notice that word “never.” That covers time and it covers eternity. The one who trusts in Jesus will never be put to shame, never be disappointed, never be let down, never be confronted with some situation for which Jesus cannot make provision.

Now there are two steps to building on this foundation of Jesus Christ. Listen to me carefully as I explain them. They are tremendously important. I’m going to explain them very briefly and very simply, but I ask you to listen.

Step one, renounce confidence in the temporal, in the temporary, in yourself, in all human effort, in all human wisdom. The last resort, they are all sand. You must renounce them.

Step two, you must make a total, unreserved commitment of yourself, your life, all that you are and all that you have for time and eternity to Jesus Christ. Jesus has given us that promise, “He who comes to me, I will in no wise reject.” If you come to Him, He will receive you. You may already be a religious person, a moral person, a good-living person, but nevertheless in the last resort all of that is just sand. It’s human effort. To build on the rock you have to renounce your own self-righteousness, your own goodness, your own morality as a permanent basis for security. And you have to say, “Jesus, I come to You. I trust You to be my Savior. I receive from You, by faith, the gift of eternal life and I put my life wholly and unreservedly in Your hands.” That’s how you build on the eternal rock, Jesus Christ.

Commitment to Jesus Christ produces a direct and personal relationship with Him for which there is no substitute. This relationship is described in many passages of Scripture. One of the most beautiful and the most familiar is Psalm 23, “The Shepherd’s Psalm” and I’m going to read the first four verses in which David so beautifully unfolds the nature of this relationship. He says:

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing.”

Isn’t that total security? That one verse really says everything that needs to be said about security and it’s based on a personal relationship with the Lord. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing.” Everything I ever need in time or eternity will be supplied out of that relationship. Then he goes on:

“He [the Lord] makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”

I would sum that up by saying that once that commitment is made the Lord accepts total responsibility for the one committed to Him in every situation and in every circumstance and He does it for “his name’s sake.” How important that is. He doesn’t do it because of our goodness or our cleverness or our righteousness. But He does it because He is faithful to His name. And for the glory and honor of His name, He’ll keep His covenant and His commitment to us. Then the fourth verse goes on:

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (NIV)

That’s security that goes beyond time into eternity. When the time comes, as it must come in the life of each one of us, when we step out of time and say farewell to the temporal- we do not need to fear any evil. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, for the Lord is with us. He’s there to uphold us, to strengthen us, to comfort us, and to receive us. As a minister it’s been my responsibility to bring many people as far as I could take them, right to the entrance to the valley. And then there comes a point at which the human minister has to hand over to the eternal Good Shepherd and see Him take responsibility for the one whose life has been committed to Him. I had that experience with my own first wife, Lydia, a beautiful Christian and a servant of the Lord. I was with her when she died. I led her right to the entrance to the valley of the shadow and then at a certain point I could do no more and the Lord was faithful to His commitment as He will be to everyone who makes that unreserved commitment to Him. Faithful in life, faithful in death, faithful for time, faithful for eternity. There is no power of evil in the universe that can disrupt that relationship between the Lord and the one committed to Him.

Listen to the words of Paul in Romans 8, verses 38 and 39:

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NIV)

There is nothing in the whole created universe that can break that sacred relationship of the soul that has turned to Jesus, the life that is built on the rock, the eternal rock which is the Lord Jesus Christ. There is true, total and permanent security.

Our time is up for today. I’ll be back with you tomorrow at this same time. Tomorrow I’ll be speaking about the product of this relationship with Jesus: Eternal Hope.