THE PASTOR’S POINTS
sermon ministry of
CEDAR LODGE BAPTIST CHURCH
Thomasville, NC
A fellowship of faith, family and friendship
July 20, 2003
But the LORD is my fortress; my God is a mighty rock where I can hide. Psalms 94:22 (KJV)
When Jewish families gather at the Passover meal, singing is part of the ritual. The Scriptures are sung for a two-fold purpose -- it teaches the young the meaning of what they do; and it helps the adults remember. Our hymns are like that. Songs stay in the mind. Music inspires us, and helps us recall the words.
One of the favorite hymns of the church for more than a century has been Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me. (1)
It is entirely possible to sing it to death! That is, because the tune is so unforgettable and winsome, we can sing it so often that it becomes rote, and the words get lost in the tune; we sing without worship. This morning, as part of our celebration of the cross of Christ, shall we worship with our singing? This grand old hymn tells a great story of Jesus, the Rock of Ages. Let’s sing the sermon this morning. Rock of Ages shows us Symbols of the Savior’s love...
THE FIRST SYMBOL OF THE SAVIOR’S LOVE IS THE RECLAIMED HEART
Hearts are amazing -- they can be stopped during an operation -- restarted. A heart can be broken by unrequited love, or unchecked disease. It can be pierced by the compassion one feels when he sees a starving child. But the one most important fact about a human heart is that it can be lost forever without Jesus Christ.
We say the word “lost” because we need to be reminded of our heart’s need for reclaiming. The late Dr. Herschel H. Hobbs used to tell about visiting Hiroshima, Japan in the late 50’s. In a museum we saw a large stone that had once been part of the entrance to a building. The stone was black except for the shape of a man silhouetted against the stone. This man’s body had taken the nuclear rays, leaving the form on the stone. This unknown man was standing in front of the rock. Had he been hiding deep within the rock – in a cleft, a hiding place – he would have been protected from the holocaust. (2)
This suggests that which we all know -- the only security we have for our hearts against the wrath of God is to be hidden in the cleft of the Rock of Ages. What Jesus did, shedding His blood, was the act of making the double cure available to us all. He saves from wrath, and makes us pure. His wounded side was broken for us.
As we sing the first verse of Rock of Ages we remember our Lord in much the same way as with the Lord’s Supper. We remember the sacrifice, born in the heart of God before the foundation of the world.
Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.
THE SECOND SYMBOL OF THE SAVIOR’S LOVE IS EMPTIED HANDS
Cancer is a good analogy of sin. Cancer quietly takes over; it is pervasive; and it is lethal. It is one thing to detect cancer -- quite another to defeat it. Sin is detectable. It is the final turn in the chromosome pool to which all humanity is tied. We are all sinners.
The Bible teaches that the penalty for sin is death. This means since we are all sinners, and the penalty is death, that the universal state of all mankind is death row. Therefore, the chief activity that occupies our thoughts -- or should -- is finding a means of appeal, a way out and off death row. But, the Bible also informs us that defeating sin is not within our ability.
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;
and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Isaiah 64:6
So, what shall we do? The good news of the Gospel is that we don’t have to DO anything. That was done on the cross. Our job is to come to Him with decidedly empty hands. In my hand no price I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling.
His hands have all we need -- nail prints! Through those nail-holes poured the purest blood imaginable -- the blood that cleanses us from all sin. We sing to remember the blood which cleanses the empty hands which we bring to Calvary.
Not the labors of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
These for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone;
In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling.
THE THIRD SYMBOL OF THE SAVIOR’S LOVE IS THE WAITING HOME
The words of Jesus have comforted many a graveside gathering...
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:1-3
The words of the song tell the story clearly. While I still draw breath here -- or when they close in death, and am carried to a place I’ve never been -- I will trust in Him to be my home. Jesus left His home on high for me. I can trust my future to him.
While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyes shall close in death,
When I rise to worlds unknown,
And behold Thee on Thy throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
The way to trust Jesus is to give all you know of you to all you know of Him. You don’t have to know it all, or have your life all in order -- you simply have to be willing to come to Him, trust in Him.
You have a heart, your inner self. Give that to the One whose heart was broken for you.
You have hands -- give them, emptied of all you possess and could do, to the One whose hands were pierced and bleeding for you. Give them by clinging to the cross.
You have a place you call home. Give it up, and call home where He calls home. Become a citizen of the Kingdom.
When Moses led the children of Israel out of captivity, God took him up on a mountain. There Moses received the Ten Commands, written with the finger of God on tablets of stone. Moses wanted to see God. He wanted to know the One True God. God told him, you couldn’t handle it. No one can look at God’s holiness straight on and survive. Moses persisted, so God told him to get into a cleft in the rock for protection. God would pass by, and Moses could look at the spot after the glory passed. He did so, and it changed everything about Moses forever.
The change is what Paul talked about in the New Testament, about how Jesus changed everything:
You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.
Ephesians 2:19, 20 (The Message New Testament)
My friend, that is available to you as well. Do you want to see the glory of God? Get in the Rock of Ages, a cleft for you. Hide yourself in Him. The glory will pass by.
You’ll understand His broken heart for you.
You’ll feel the nail prints in His opened hands toward you.
You’ll know the joy of being at home with Him.
You’ll know.
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FOOTNOTES
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1) Words Augustus M. Toplady (1740-1778) Music Thomas Hastings (1784-1872)
2) Herschel H. Hobbs, My Favorite Illustrations, (Nashville, Broadman Press, 1990), 218
