Rock Of Ages Series

1. Illus. of "Rock of Ages"

• Francis Toplady was driving in a storm one day. Back in the old horse and buggy times, so the lightning and fierce winds were a real danger to him.

• Saw a hill. In the side of that hill there was a cleft in the rock, big enough for him to park his wagon in and be sheltered from the storm.

• As he sat there, he thought, "That is just like Jesus!"

• Composed a song, "Rock of Ages."

• "Rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee."

2. Need: There are times in our life when we need a rock. We need an unshakable foundation to build our marriage and family on. We need a haven from the storms of life. We need something that can hold us up when life punches us in the gut. And at the end of our stay here, we need someone bigger than our impending death.

3. Jesus is often pictured as a rock or a stone. In our text, He is the stone that falls and destroys the kingdom of Antichrist in the last days, and then establishes His perfect Kingdom in its place!

4. I want to show you four pictures of Jesus as a stone, with the last one being in Daniel 2.

I. Jesus is the saving stone

1. See Exodus 17: 5-6, 1 Corinthians 10:3-4. Out in the wilderness, Israel was dying of thirst. God told Moses to go out and hit the rock, to "smite" it in King James English. When he did, the rock broke open and life-giving water gushed out!

2. Paul says that rock was a picture of Jesus! We were dying in a spiritual wilderness. On the cross, God laid our sins upon Jesus, and then poured out on Him the full penalty for those sins. See Isaiah 53:5.

3. Illus. of wildfires in California

• Someone had set a fire. With the dry conditions and high winds, it had destroyed thousands of acres of land and timber.

• There was a huge wall of flame 20 feet high roaring through the area, destroying everything in its path.

• Showed a homeowner burning a huge circle all around his house. Now, that sounds stupid. But when the wall of fire reached him, it miraculously parted and roared all around him, but it didn’t touch his house.

• Why? Because the fire can’t come where the fire has already been!

4. What does that have to do with us? See Philippians 1:1 The saints who are in Christ Jesus…The bible teaches that when we become Christians, our spiritual position changes. We were "in our sins" but our new position is "In Christ." When God placed our sin on Jesus, He poured out the fire of His judgment on Jesus. The fire cannot come where the fire has already been.

5. Jesus is the rock of safety.

II. Jesus is the corner stone

1. See Isaiah 28:16. Jesus is the corner stone! What does that mean? Notice that twice in this verse Isaiah talks about the cornerstone being the "foundation." It was where two corners of the first half of the foundation were going to come together. The cornerstone was that part of the foundation that the rest of the foundation was built around.

2. Jesus is the irreplaceable, indispensable, foundation stone for all of life! Until he is in place in your life, nothing else is going to work right.

3. Illus. of puzzle

• Putting together puzzles as a kid.

• Worked on a huge one for weeks, only to discover that the very center piece was gone!

• Drove dad crazy!

4. Well, Jesus is the central piece of our puzzle. Without him, life just doesn’t work right! Your job isn’t going to work right. Your family isn’t going to work right. You aren’t going to work right!

5. Let me ask you something: how is life working for you? Now, I’m not asking, "how were you trying to make it appear that life is working for you?" I’m asking you, "How is life working for you?" If it isn’t working for you, maybe the problem is you’re not building on the right foundation. Is the cornerstone in place in your life?

6. Jesus is the cornerstone.

III. Jesus is the dividing stone

1. See Isaiah 8:14, Romans 9:33. If you have an NIV translation, it says, And He will be a sanctuary, but to both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble, and a rock that causes them to fall… To those who believe, Jesus is a sanctuary, a place of safety. For those who do not believe, He is a stone of stumbling.