S. The Foundation of the Church of Christ

THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST

TEXT: Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. - Matthew 16:18. We come now to consider perhaps the most remarkable passage in the New Testament: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Here almost every word calls for explanation and occasions controversy. Who or what is the “rock” upon which the church is founded? In what sense is the term “church” used? What is the import of Hades and what signifies “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it?” What signify the “keys of the kingdom,” and the binding and loosing power? The first thought that I would impress upon the mind is that Christ alone founded His church. I mean that the church was established in the days of His sojourn in the flesh; that the work of its construction commenced with the reception of the material prepared by John the Baptist; that organization commenced with the appointment of the twelve Apostles, and that by the close of His earthly ministry there existed at least one church as a model, the church at Jerusalem. We find in the history immediately succeeding the Gospel account that this church at Jerusalem began to transact business by the election of a successor to Judas; that they were all assembled together in one place for the reception of the Holy Spirit, and that to them were added daily the saved. Hence, we are prepared to ask: On what did Christ found His church? What is the rock? After mature deliberation and careful examination of all the opposing views, and after a thorough study of the Word of God, it is clear to my mind that the rock primarily and mainly is Christ Himself. If it seems to violate the figure that He, the builder, should build upon Himself, the violation is no more marked here than in the famous passage in John where He gives the bread to the disciples and that bread of life is Himself. I would have the reader note the scriptural foundation upon which I rest my conclusion that the rock is Christ. The first argument is from the prophecy: “Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste,” Isaiah 28:16). This prophetic Scripture clearly declared God’s purpose to lay in Zion a foundation, a stone foundation, one that was to be tried, that was assured, a foundation on which faith should rest, without haste or shame. We next cite the 118th Psalm, 22nd verse: “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” In fulfillment of these prophecies we cite first the testimony of Peter, unto whom the language of our passage was spoken: “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded,” (1 Peter 2:4-6). The spiritual house of which Peter here speaks is unquestionably the church. The foundation upon which that church as a building must rest is unquestionably our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He claims this as a fulfillment of the prophecies which have been cited. Our Lord’s own words in another connection (Matthew 21:42) claim the same fulfillment: “The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner.” With any other construction it would be impossible to understand Paul’s statement (1 Corinthians 2:11; 1 Corinthians 2:16-17) “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” Here again the church is compared to a building. The foundation of that building is distinctly said to be Christ. It is also worthy of note that any other foundation for the church than Christ Himself would be wholly out of harmony with the Old Testament concept, as given by Moses, Samuel, David and Isaiah, and Paul’s New Testament comment in the following passages, which the reader will please examine: Deuteronomy 32:4; Deuteronomy 32:15; Deuteronomy 32:31; 1 Samuel 2:2; 2 Samuel 22:2; 2 Samuel 22:32; Psalms 18:2; Psalms 18:31; Psalms 61:2; Psalms 89:26; Psalms 92:15; Psalms 95:1; and Isaiah 17:10; 1 Corinthians 10:4. Do not understand me to affirm that all these passages refer to God as a foundation. The thought is that the Bible concept regards God as the rock of His people under every variety of image, and so uniformly that to make a mortal and fallible man that rock on the doubtful strength of one doubtful disputed passage, does violence to the rule of the faith, as well as to the usage of the term. In a secondary sense, indeed, other things may be called the foundation and are so called, but all these senses support the view that Christ is the rock, primarily and mainly. By examining and comparing Isaiah 8:14, Luke 2:34, Romans 9:33, 1 Peter 2:8 and Luke 20:18, we may easily see how the faith which takes hold of Christ may be compared to a foundation. This accounts for the fact that many of the early fathers of the church understood the rock in this passage to be Peter’s faith in Christ, and also explains how others of the fathers understood the foundation of the church to be Peter’s confession of faith. The great majority of Protestant scholars regard the confession of faith as the rock, and it is a notable fact that Baptists particularly make this confession or its equivalent a term of admission into the church. Indeed, in a certain sense, both the faith and the confession may be regarded as the foundation of the church. From Ephesians 2:20-22 and Revelation 21:14, we see that the apostles are called the foundation. But ‘it is only because they teach Christ. They are but instruments in leading souls to Christ, and are not the true foundation. By so much as Peter was more prominent than the others, in this sense the church may be said to be founded on Peter. The scriptural proof of Peter’s prominence is clear. Though not the first apostle chosen, his name heads all the recorded lists of the twelve, (Matthew 10:2; Mark 3:16; Luke 6:14; Acts 1:13). He also leads the movement in filling the place of Judas (Acts 1:15). He opens the door to the Jews on the day of Pentecost Acts 2:14). And he is selected to open the door to the Gentiles (Acts 10:1-48 and Acts 15:7). By noting Hebrews 6:1-2, we see that the primary doctrines concerning Christ may well be called a foundation, and at the close of the Sermon on the Mount, obedience to Christ is compared to building a house on a rock (Matthew 7:24), but all these secondary senses derive their significance from their connection with Christ, the primary and real foundation. To put it in plain English then, the confession upon which the everlasting church of the Lord Jesus Christ is built, is a God-revealed faith that He is the Messiah, the Son of God. As it is expressed in another passage: “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name; who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” The faith upon which the church of the Lord Jesus Christ was to be built was an acceptance, a reception of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, the Son of God, and every church instituted in apostolic times of which we have any account in the Bible, was established on that proposition as spiritually accepted by the men and women that confessed it with their lips. Whatever you may say of it, it is true that when men believed that Jesus was both Lord and Christ they were received into the church; that so long as they rejected that, and did not, from their hearts, accept that, they were not admitted into the church. And as no other was received into the church-whether man, woman or child-so that, without discussing this matter, I merely wish to get the thought of it before you, as the fundamental principle of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, that there shall be a personal, hearty and spiritual acceptance of Him as the Messiah and the Son of God. To accept Him as the Son of God is to acknowledge His divinity. To accept Him as the Messiah is to accept Him as the anointed one, for that is what the word means-Messiah in Hebrew, Christ in Greek, Anointed in English. And it implies all of the objects for which He was anointed; all of the offices to which that anointing consecrated Him, and those offices are expressly set forth in the Word of God as the Supreme Teacher, as the only Savior, as the Supreme King, Sovereign Lord of Heaven and earth. So that when a man, in the scriptural sense, believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, he accepts Him as his only religious teacher. His words are to be law. He accepts Him as his only Savior. He accepts Him as his only Ruler and King. And he accepts Him as a Divine Teacher, a Divine Savior and a Divine Ruler. And less than that is not the faith of the Gospel. Now, let us look at that a moment while I state another proposition: This question of religion is the great question in every man’s life. No other is comparable to it. It is not merely a speculative question. It is an intensely practical one. It enters into one’s home and heart. It touches his life here, his departure from this world, and the world into which that exit introduces him. It touches his children: It touches their birth, their sickness, their death, their destiny. It touches our conduct between each other in the varied relations of life, as husband and wife, as parent and child, as brother and sister, as friends to each other, as fellow-citizens in time and fellow-citizens with the saints of the Kingdom of God in Heaven. There never has been compressed in so few words such a far-reaching and comprehensive proposition as that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of the Old Testament and the Son of God. The first thought that I want to present is this: I go back to the questioning of my own mind and take up a part of the experience of my own life, as that experience began in trying to understand the problems of life. I recall with great distinctness the first time that my mind ever came into contact with what is called “heredity”  what you inherit. That is, when I saw in myself a disposition of temperament that was merely a reproduction of my father’s. I saw that in some way I had derived, unconsciously and irresponsibly, from my father certain tendencies, a certain bias, and that it had moved upon me before I was able to recognize the law according to which it worked. I could even see in me a reproduction of some of the temperaments and characteristics of my grandparents, and I was told by the only grandparent that I ever knew that there were in me some of the traits and dispositions of her grandparents. In other words, I confronted this proposition: That here I was in the world without my knowledge or consent, coming into it under conditions with the shaping of which I could possibly have nothing to do. Coming into the world predisposed, in certain directions, and all of the plastic and pliable part of my life that could be moulded and shaped by other people, so moulded and shaped before I began to be conscious of personal moral accountability. And yet that these inherited instincts and traits and pre-dispositions, when aided by local surroundings, and by influences brought to bear upon me by others before I could possibly know what to do myself, that these had established the trend of my life; that they shaped its direction. And I began to say: “When did I commence? When did myself commence? Just where is the line where I crossed the border of accountability?” I saw that I had inherited many things that to me seemed bad; that I wished that I did not have; that I could not but recognize as evil. A proneness, a susceptibility, an easily yielding pre-disposition in certain cases, and at last the question forced itself upon me: “What is to be the measure of accountability that comes to me as an individual?” And if, starting as I did, conditioned as I was, wrapped about by an environment with which I had nothing to do, would it be right at the judgment bar of God to send my soul to hell? I asked my heart that question. And there is not a thoughtful man that ever grappled with the problem of life that has not at some time propounded just that question to himself, especially after he had studied what is called the law of heredity and environment. Now, I have said these things for a very special purpose. I have said them on account of a difficulty that has lodged right in the way of an earnest inquirer after truth, and my business is not to preach sermons in this meeting, but it is to get the stumbling blocks out of the way of men that they may come to eternal life. I put to an inquirer this question: “From what you have read of the Bible, tell me the difference between an angel and a man.” After reflecting a moment, he very readily saw the difference, to-wit: That every angel that God ever made He made full grown, with full maturity of intellect and without one atom of inherited bias, from the fact that he never had a father and mother, and his whole influence centering in himself, from the fact that he would have no wife, no children. And therefore, coming into existence with full and mature powers of mind and measures of life, and with no inherited pre-disposition, and standing or falling for himself alone, if he sinned he could not have a Savior. There could be no Gospel preached to him. There could be no basis upon which it could be offered, and there is not a word in that book that holds out the hope that any angel that kept not his first estate will ever be saved. Then why was the Gospel preached to me? Think about it. Did I start full grown? Did I start with full maturity of mind? Did I start without any inherited predisposition? Did I not fall far back in the past in an ancestor? And do I not see that the sins of the father have been visited upon the child? Do I not see it every day? Does it not follow that if a father is thriftless and a spendthrift, that his children bear the penalty? That if he is a drunkard, he transmits to his child a pre-disposition to drunkenness? Now comes the thought: The Lord Jesus Christ took not upon Himself the nature of angels, and there was no basis for an offered Gospel to an angel; but He took upon Himself the nature of the seed of Abraham, of a man who had fallen in the first Adam, the first federal head; that he might be made alive in the second Adam, the second federal head. While I utterly disclaim any obligation binding God antecedent to His love, to make this provision, yet I submit that there is a propriety and a suitableness in a substitute for man, in the intervention of a third party, in the introduction of salvation by grace through another, since I find myself starting in this world lost; lost by another. Therefore when a Savior was to come into the world, He was to come and take upon Himself human nature, not angelic. Now, I want to lay down a proposition, not argumentatively. My mind is not running in that direction, but as I see it, as I feel it, as my heart takes hold of it, that Jesus of Nazareth was God, was divine; that He was the God that made this world. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” God incarnate, and why? On what principle? I repeat a Scripture I read to you: “Because the children were partakers of flesh and blood He likewise took part of the same, that through His death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” And that He Himself, having been tempted like as we are, having suffered as we do, having been cold and hungry and full of pain and sickness as we are, might know, experimentally, how to sympathize with us in the trials and difficulties of our lives, and might put Himself in a position where we could get to Him and understand Him. Hundreds of years before He came, four thousand years before He came, on the very day that man sinned and entailed upon his posterity the dreadful evil of inheritance that I have been speaking about on that very day God said: “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head,” and from that day He held out the hope of a Savior, whose mother was to be a woman, and whose, Father was to be God. Hence we read in the annunciation to Mary: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee, and therefore that holy thing that is born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” And the annunciation to the shepherds: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” The record in the Scriptures upon this point is unequivocal. A man cannot accept them at all and reject the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Before every audience He proclaims: “I and my Father are one. I had glory with Him before the world was; I am going back to that glory. I am He that came down from Heaven, and I lay down my life and no man can take it away from me. And if I lay it down I will rise again on the third day.” The first thought with reference to Jesus Christ is His divinity; that He is God. And I frankly say to you tonight that I would have regarded it as an insult if any man had brought a mere human being to me as an object of my worship. Before no man that this earth has ever known would I get down on my knees; would I prostrate myself, nor have I ever known the time that I would. Nor would I worship the brightest angel that stands before the throne of God. And when I bow down to Jesus Christ, I bow down to one of whom the ancient prophet justly spoke: “For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” Now, the second point is this: Why did He come? He came that in His humanity He might stand in the relation to all redeemed people that the first Adam stood to all lost people. That as they died in Adam, they were to be made alive in Jesus Christ; that as death passed upon them through the sin of a forefather, so without obtaining any help at all from us, the Lord Jesus Christ worked out the obedience in which we stand and in His death paid the penalty that we owe to the divine law. Now, we come right up to the question of religion. It has made me sick at heart and I have wept bitter tears during this meeting as I have talked with men and women who have not even a conception of the first principle of the Christian religion, who say: “I am religious; I have always been religious.” Well, so has every other man. There never has a man lived upon this earth that was not religious. It grows out of the fact that he has a soul; it grows out of the fact that he is related to God; it grows out of the fact that by the very constitution of his being he is a worshiper, that he will have some kind of religion. And he will try to have some form to that religion. But is that the Christian religion? I find that people say, “I have been religious ever since I was a little child, and I determined to live right and I determined to do right, and I knew that if I would be good I would get to Heaven. So I joined the Sunday-school and I joined the church, and I was baptized, and I helped pay the preacher, and I helped build the church, and while I have never been satisfied with what I have done, I am going to keep on trying, and if I get to be good enough God will save me.” Never! Never! You have not even touched the first principle of the Christian religion. “Upon this rock will I build my church.” What is it? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Thou art my Savior, thy righteousness is my righteousness; thy death is in payment of the penalty to God’s infracted law. O, I wish I could get you to see tonight what is meant by being saved by faith instead of being saved by works; instead of relying upon your good resolutions. Anything you have done, anything you can do, now or hereafter, as a ground of justification before God, amounts not to a snap of the finger. I, too, try to do right, but I would rather deliberately walk into the jaws of a crocodile, I would rather leap into an eruption of Vesuvius, I would rather plunge into the heart of an earthquake, than to trust my righteousness as a covering at the judgment bar of God. On what are you going to build your church? I am going to build my church upon this: My faith in Jesus Christ. Perhaps you say: “What do you mean by your faith in Jesus Christ? If that is to be the rock upon which the church is to be built, let me see what you mean by it.” Now, let us look at it. Being lost and fallen in the first Adam, having a disposition that is prone to evil, born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward, and then having personally committed sin which I knew so well, there is no use discussing it. As an honest man I am bound to admit it, and I see that my neighbors have sinned, and I believe that God’s Word is true, that there is not a just man upon the earth that liveth and sinneth not, our sinless perfection brethren and sisters to the contrary notwithstanding. What then? Shall I come before God and say: “I am a sinner, therefore acquit me?” What think you of that? What think you of a man, a criminal, standing before an earthly court and expecting to be acquitted on a plea of guilty? That first word that falls from his lips, “I have sinned,” makes it utterly impossible for him to be justified in the sight of God on his own righteousness. Impossible. Now, you may think about it. I want to press it home upon you because some people are being lost in this town on that thing. It appalls me. I tell you that cold chills have swept over me, with my conception of divine truth, when I have seen men and women walking, as I believed, blindfolded into hell. I have no objection to any man trying to be good, but O my soul, let me not stand before the bar of God expecting to be justified upon my goodness. How then can I be justified? We are coming to that. I give you some illustrations I think you can take hold of. I will suppose a case in the lowest form, a commercial form. A man finds upon looking into his books that he is $10,000 indebted beyond all his assets, counting every one of them, and he is $10,000 in debt more than he is able to pay, and a note is made for it drawing interest, and he says, “Give me time and I will pay it. I will work every day, and I will work hard, and I will pay something on it.” And at the end of the first year he looks and he finds that he has not even paid the interest. And he says again, “Give me time.” And next year he makes another payment, and then another little payment, and not withstanding these little driblets of payments that he makes from time to time, the debt compounds, growing larger and larger, huger and huger. What on earth is he to do? He faces the situation: “I am gone! Tomorrow is the day of final settlement. Tomorrow bankruptcy will be written over the door of my business house, and it pains me to think about it.” You begin to see the furrows come into his face. Anguish pierces him and care crushes him. He goes off alone to commune with despair. But a friend comes to him and says: “What’s the matter with you? Something is the matter with you.” “Yes,” he says, “there is a great deal.” “Will you tell me?” “It will do no good to tell you.” ‘But I wish you would tell me.” “Then look here at my books. I am lost! There is no escape in the world for me. Do you see that balance? And it gets bigger all the time. What am I to do? Tomorrow I will be pronounced a bankrupt.” That friend says: “You wait here a minute.” He goes over to where the debts have been pooled and are consolidated in the hands of one relentless creditor, and he draws a check for the whole amount and takes a receipt for the whole amount, and he comes back to that friend, who is groaning when he thinks of tomorrow, and he says, “Look here, my friend, here is a clear receipt, every dollar paid, paid right now. Will you take it? Will you accept it? I don’t want you to pay a nickel on it. I want to know if you will take this clear receipt.” And the debtor looks at it in perfect astonishment. He cannot realize it, but he slips it in his book, yet thinking about the next morning. When the next morning comes he goes up where he knows the judgment is to be rendered, and he hears his case called, and the question is asked, “Did you contract this debt?” “I did.” “Have you paid it?” “I have not.” “Can you do it?” “I cannot.” “Then can you give any good reason why judgment should not be rendered against you?” “Nothing in the world but this receipt.” The judge looks at it. “Why,” he says, “this is payment in full. This case is discharged.” And the man is dazed. As he walks out, the sense of being free comes on him. “Free; the debt paid, all the debts I owe paid  paid and I am free!” So he comes up to the friend and he says to him, “What made you do that; I want to know what induced you to do that?” “Love. I loved you and I could not endure to see you in that situation.” “What do you charge me for it then?” “Not a cent in the world. I loved you, I came and paid it for you.” Jesus Christ so loved us that He took upon Himself our nature and came here as a man, as a man who obeyed the law, and as a man died under the penalty of the law when the law had nothing in the world against Him. He came and said, “I will take that. Put that to my account; put all of it to my account. Mass it up. That cursing; that drinking; that lying; that cheating; that anguish of sin; that anger. Bring it up. I am going to pay it. I come before God. O law of God, I am the sinner’s substitute. I come to take his place. Put the sins on me. Bring them up; no matter how black; no matter how putrid; no matter how many; no matter whether committed by white men or black men, bring them up and pile them on the Son of God.” How it towers; what a mountain; how it blackens; how the poison exudes from it! Sin, loathsome sin, piled on the sin bearer. And when the sins are on Him, stand back; He is there now as the sinner, and God is going to strike Him. Sword of justice, awake, unsheathe thyself, flash in the sunbeams of heaven and smite the sin-bearer! And, ah me! The hurtling and pitiless storm of God’s wrath that fell on Him! So thick and dark the clouds they hid the face of the sun; so dark that moon nor stars could be seen, and still the storm goes on and the devils come to gloat over Him like vampires. They flock about Him as birds of prey, and the devil comes to triumph over Him because He is dying as a sinner. And now, listen: “My God, my God, O my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” “Because you are in the sinner’s stead. You are dying for a sinner and you must die as a sinner; die alone; die in darkness; die while devils gloat on you; die with sins piled on you.” And that is what the Scriptures mean when they say that Christ died for our sins. God made Him to be sin who knew no sin. Why? That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And I take Christ’s pure life, Christ’s sacrificial death, and I go trembling up to the bar, and the law of God speaks to me and says, “Sinner,” and I answer, “Here I am.” “When you lived in yonder world, didn’t you violate God’s law?” “I did.” “Did you violate it many times?” “Many.” “Did you sin against light and knowledge?” “I did.” “How do you expect to be justified here?” And I wrap Christ’s righteousness around me, cover myself from head to foot, and gazing at the law, I say, “Who shall lay any charge to Christ’s elect? I believe in Him. I take Him. He is my substitute. And, O Lord, every farthing of the debt is paid. I did not pay it, but He did. Here is the bill receipted. I believe in Him. I received Him, and I stand not on my record, but on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Now, one other point and I am done. That being so, the man is only judicially clear. He is justified. The law speaks and the sins are removed. But what about that nature you spoke about a while ago  the pre-disposition to sin? Are you going to take him to heaven with that? No, not with that. What then is the provision for that? There comes in what is called in the Bible regeneration and sanctification. A principle of life is implanted within him which we call putting off the old man and putting on the new man, Christ. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, has put within that man a love of holiness, of righteousness, practical righteousness, and now with this new disposition he begins to say: “The things that I once loved I hate. I don’t like them now. They are distasteful and I turn away from them. I love God, Jesus, God’s people, the songs of God’s house; new affections stir within me.” But you do not mean to say such a man is personally and absolutely pure? No, he will have many a fight. Flesh will fight against you as long as you are in the flesh. But when he dies his spirit will be perfected and made pure forever and his soul will be saved, fully saved. But what about his body? The same principle operates there. Though after his skin worms destroy his body, yet in his flesh will he see God. He will rise up in that day, redeemed from the power of the grave through the Lord Jesus Christ, and his body will be glorified. No spot, no wrinkle no blemish, no weakness, no infirmity, no pre-disposition to evil, clean within, clean without, glorified all over, full of glory. That is the salvation that comes by the Lord Jesus Christ. When I try to lead people to God and to salvation, how it does hurt me to hear them say, “I have been trying all my life to be a Christian. I have been trying to be a righteous person all my life, and I am going to keep on trying. I am going to join the church. I want to join the church. I want to be baptized. I want to be in the Sunday School, and I expect after a while that I will be good enough to go to heaven.” O my soul, how I do dread to hear them talk that way. By faith in Jesus Christ and in that way alone are you made fit to join the church. “On this rock I build my church.” “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The church is for believers only. And if you will read the New Testament, you will see that every man that joined the church in apostolic times joined that way. For instance, when the jailer cried out, after the earthquake shock in the darkness of that awful night, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” “On this rock I build my church,” on that rock and no other. He would not build it on the water. The Lord have mercy on a man that will go and look in a pool of water to find the remission of sins. Why, the idea of it! The Lord have mercy on a man that will put a piece of bread in his mouth or a little wine and say, “This is salvation.” “Upon this rock will I build my church.” “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That is what we mean when we say, “Have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; take Him as your divine Teacher; as your King; take Him as your Savior.” Now I have just this last word. I was a sinner. My old comrade who was up here last night knows when we were together in the army how great a sinner I was, and I would not let any man living call me to bow down before a piece of bread or wine or water or an angel, and if I could not have seen God in Christ, I never would have accepted Christ, but when I saw that He was an everlasting Father, the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and that out of His love He came and took upon Himself my nature here in the flesh to live, and in the flesh to die, that through death He might destroy him that hath the power over death, that is, the devil, I Could fall down and worship Him, and like Thomas say, “My Lord and my God!” I hold up the Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever, the immutable, the everlasting God. I hold Him up to you as a Savior and the One in whom to trust. Will you take Him? O, will you seek salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Now, while we sing, I invite you to come to that Savior and no other Savior. Never, never come to the church first. Come to the Savior first. Never come to the water first. Come to salvation first, and when saved by your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, why then decide where to go and what you are to do as a Christian man or woman. But salvation is of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and no other way. The sole question now is, Will you take Him? Will you take Him, without paying a cent for Him, free? By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. Salvation is free mercy, not justice, remission through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. O sinner, don’t go about and busy yourself to establish a miserable, ragged righteousness of your own. That bed is too short for you to stretch yourself on. That covering is too narrow for you, to wrap yourself in it. Don’t come before God in it. Don’t do it. But take the fullness, the sufficiency of the payment made by the Lord Jesus Christ, and then if you want to do good works, you will find a new life put in you by which you can do them. That will give you the true morality. “Created in Jesus Christ unto good works.”