Our Solid Rock Foundation

What is our foundation in our relationship with God?

Do we have a rock to stand on, that will not move or be shaken?

Religion doesn’t offer a positive answer. There is no security in religion.

But in Christ we have the stability of eternal life.

Our God and Savior Jesus Christ is called the Rock.

The Lord is our Rock who cannot be moved; He is the Rock of our salvation.

Part of our personal sense of destiny is our Eternal Security!

Eternal Security is part of our double destiny as believers in Christ.

As members of the Royal Priesthood, we have a destiny in time, and a destiny for all eternity: seated with Christ is heavenly places. Eph 2:6

How do we know this? Because of principles such as 'The Rock'.

As believers, we stand on HIM, even when we fall.

Deut 32:4

4 "The Rock! His work is perfect,

For all His ways are just;

A God of faithfulness and without injustice,

Righteous and upright is He.

NASB

2 Sam 22:2-3

"The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;

3 My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;

My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge;

My savior, Thou dost save me from violence.

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2 Sam 22:32-36

32 "For who is God, besides the LORD?

And who is a rock, besides our God?

33 "God is my strong fortress;

And He sets the blameless in His way.

34 "He makes my feet like hinds' feet,

And sets me on my high places.

35 "He trains my hands for battle,

So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

36 "Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation,

And Thy help makes me great.

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2 Sam 22:47

47 "The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock;

And exalted be God, the rock of my salvation,

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The Lord is also our shield, and it means He is our Protector.

He not only gives us salvation, He PROTECTS our eternal salvation!

And the horn represents power, we are protected by His power for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last days. 1Pe 1:5

I love the Eternal Security we can see in 1Pe 1:3-5.

1 Peter 1:3-5

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (what an eternal security passage!)

4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

NASB

He is the horn, or the power, of my salvation.

Ps 18:31-35

31 For who is God, but the LORD?

And who is a rock, except our God,

32 The God who girds me with strength,

And makes my way blameless?

33 He makes my feet like hinds' feet (swift),

And sets me upon my high places.

34 He trains my hands for battle,

So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

35 Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation,

And Thy right hand upholds me;

And Thy gentleness makes me great.

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Isa 26:4

4 "Trust in the LORD forever,

For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.

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Salvation is strictly the work of the Lord, and it is as solid as standing on a mountain of rock.

Our salvation is an accomplishment of the Lord, not our own accomplishment.

And therefore our foundation is the Lord, the Rock, and His gift to us. It is not our own works.

Religion lies to us. Religion says our salvation depends upon our works, or even worse, upon our faithfulness.

The Bible says our salvation depends on Jesus Christ, our Rock and our Savior.

HE is the One who purchased our salvation, and by faith alone HE is the Rock we stand on forever, the “everlasting Rock”.

Isa 28:16

16 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD,

"Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone,

A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed.

He who believes will not be disturbed.

(why won’t you be disturbed? You are sitting on the perfect Rock)

This costly cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ, is our foundation that has been firmly put in place by God Himself.

He who believes in Jesus Christ will NOT be disturbed.

The believer can stand on the tested stone, on the costly cornerstone forever.

Matt 16:13-18

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He began asking His disciples, saying, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" 14 And they said, "Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." 15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

16 And Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 And Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 "And I also say to you that you are Peter (a piece of rock), and upon this rock (a mass of rock, TLJC Himself) I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.

This is why Peter is not the first Pope. The church was not built on the little rock, but on the mass of rock, TLJC.

1 Cor 10:1-4

10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 and all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.

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GOD is our immovable Rock! Upon HIM our salvation depends! Not upon ourselves!

Why did He bother to come and die??

So whoever believes in Him can have eternal life.

He came to rescue us from our sins.

And when our perfect God does a job, He does it completely.

Thus the picture of the immovable Rock.

1 Peter 2:6

6 For this is contained in Scripture:

"Behold I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone,

And he who believes in Him shall not be disappointed."

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Eph 2:19-20

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, 20 having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,

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The work of Christ on the Cross is our spiritual cornerstone, the solid Rock of our salvation.

The apostles and prophets are other rocks that make up the foundation, but only because they are attached to the immovable cornerstone.

This is how we know the gifts of apostle and prophet are no longer for today, they were part of the foundation of the church, that's why only these two are mentioned in Eph 2:20. (not Pastor and Evangelist as in Eph 4:11)

But without a solid cornerstone, everything else would move. There would be no certainty and no security.

The cornerstone of a building is the main rock upon which everything else depends.

A cornerstone is a stone at the corner of a building uniting two intersecting walls.

Dictionary.com gives 4 definitions for a cornerstone...

All other stones are placed upon the foundation of the cornerstone, which brings strength and stability to the building.

And we have a cornerstone that is perfect and cannot be moved, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so HE is our foundation.

He is the foundation of our spiritual building,

that’s why He is called the Rock of our salvation.

The foundation of our spiritual building IS Jesus Christ, Who purchased the gift of eternal life with His own blood (Acts 20:28), and then He freely offered every man to stand upon HIM as the Rock of his salvation.

And whoever believes in Him will NOT be disappointed.

Not “might not” but “will not”.

Our foundation is the Rock, and the Rock gave us the Gift!

The foundation of our salvation is a Gift!

Let’s take a walk through the New Testament, stopping at the places that reveal our foundation; this gift of life that came from the Rock.

Let’s start in Matthew ch. 1.

Matt 1:18-25

18 Now this is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, her fiancé, being a just man, decided to break the engagement quietly, so as not to disgrace her publicly. (human good, but not divine viewpoint)

20 As he considered this, he fell asleep, and an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. "Joseph, son of David," the angel said, "do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All of this happened to fulfill the Lord's message through his prophet: (we find this predicted in Isa 7:14, 700 years before the birth of Christ)

23 "Look! The virgin will conceive a child!

She will give birth to a son,

and he will be called Immanuel

(meaning, God is with us)."

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord commanded. He brought Mary home to be his wife, 25 but she remained a virgin until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

NLT

The gift of baby Jesus, born to die; God became human so He could take the judgment of sin upon Himself.

That’s how great His love is for His creatures.

Jesus said in

John 15:13

"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

No matter how unfair life seems at times, or how much evil you see in this life, you cannot blame God.

God has proven He loves us beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Evil is a result of free will; not a lack of God's love for you.

He died for all for us, so we could jump on His back.

So we could jump on the immovable Rock.

In Mat 7, we see the analogy of building your house on a rock, not on sand.

This speaks of building your spiritual life on Christ, not on false gods or false hopes.

Matt 7:24-25

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. 25 "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock.

NASB

Is it your house that keeps your house up?

Or is it the rock that keeps your house up?

You stand before God JUSTIFIED.

You have eternal life, because you believed in His Son, the Rock.

Your very life has been “founded” (foundation!) upon the Rock!

Let’s look at a famous verse about the gift of eternal life…

John 3:16-18 (in the New Living Translation)

16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.

18 "There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God.

NLT

So we see that faith is the issue, and there is NO judgment awaiting the man who trusts in Christ.

Why? How can we know?

Because our God and Savior is the ROCK.

He cannot be moved, and He cannot be changed.

If you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you, there is no eternal judgment for you, but you have eternal life.

This is the gift that we receive by faith alone in Christ alone, according to the Bible.

Our foundation is the Rock, and the Rock gave us the Gift.

Look at Joh 5:24

Again I like the New Living Translation here…

In John 5:24, Jesus said…

24 "I assure you, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. (a reference to eternal life)

NLT

The foundation for our salvation has already been established by Christ.

Our works are not the issue, our FAITH is the issue.

Faith is how we accept the gift of God; giving Him credit for all the work involved in our salvation.

John 6:28-29

28 They said therefore to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" 29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."

NASB

Let’s take a walk to the book of Acts; Acts 16 where we see the same principle of faith alone to accept God’s salvation; to accept the work of the Rock.

We are not our own rock. We cannot please a perfect God!

That’s why we must rely on THE Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ.

HE makes us stand before a holy and righteous God.

Acts 16:25-31, here we see the apostle Paul when he was in prison for his faith in Christ… (New Living Translation)

25 Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. 26 Suddenly, there was a great earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off! 27 The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself. 28 But Paul shouted to him, "Don't do it! We are all here!"

29 Trembling with fear, the jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 He brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

31 They replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with your entire household."

NLT

If something is a gift, you don’t have to pay for it.

In fact it is no longer a gift if you pay for it.

If salvation were not completely a gift, then we would be asked to be part of the cornerstone.

But we are not, thank God.

So again we see the nature of our foundation as we continue our walk in the New Testament letters, as in Rom 3:24…

Notice we are visiting the books in order, so we can see how a simple walk through the New Testament reveals the Gift of eternal life from the Rock who is our foundation.

Rom 3:21-24

21 But now apart from the Law (incl. The 10 Commandments), the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

NASB

The Greek word for ‘gift’ here refers to 'a gratuity'.

It also refers to 'a present; especially a sacrificial present.'

The foundation of our salvation has been laid by Jesus Christ; once for all in Heb 10:10.

He has sacrificially given Himself so that we could be justified freely, by His grace.

That’s why the Bible says anyone who believes in Him has eternal life, because the cornerstone has already been laid.

This is why salvation is a gift that can only be accepted by faith, not by works.

Look at Romans 5:15-17. I want you to notice that the word “gift” is used here 5 times.

If salvation were not a gift, then NONE of us would be saved.

I’ll also try to give you the cliffnotes as we go through this passage…

Rom 5:15-17

15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

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Who are those who receive the gift? Those who believe in the Lord Christ.

You see, we all deserve death, no doubt about it.

We are all sinners, and we all deserve to be separate from our perfect God.

But the Rock changed all that!

Rom 6:23

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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2 Cor 9:15

15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

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Eph 2:4-9

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

NASB

Thank God HE is the ROCK of our salvation!