Building on a firm foundation 531-1 - 6 - 6

"My Hope is Built on Nothing Less" by Edward Mote, 1797-1874

“1. My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand.”

Homes should be built on a solid foundation, preferably bedrock. There seems to be a rash of sinkholes swallowing up homes and roads in the United States. Our physical home is only temporary but our spiritual home is for eternity. Jesus is the bedrock of my spiritual home, anything else is sinking sand.

Throughout the Bible Jesus is analogous to a rock and/ or the cornerstone of our spiritual life. Moses was to “smite the rock” in Horeb, representative of the first coming of Jesus, the suffering Messiah. Later Moses was to “speak ye unto the rock before their eyes” in Kadesh. Moses, however, Numbers 20:11, “And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.” A rejection of the Messiah to come that cost Moses entry into the promise land.

Later in Deuteronomy 32:3-4, “3 Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. 4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”

Both Luke 6:48 and Matthew 7:24-25 speak to a house built upon a rock, the floods came and the wind blew and beat upon the house but it stood just as our faith does when it is built on Jesus, the precious corner stone, a sure foundation.

Ephesians 2:20-21, “20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord”

1 Peter 2:8, “And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.” Here Jesus is the stone of stumbling to unbelievers, harkening back to Isaiah 8:14-15.

Could be any clearer? Jesus is our Rock, the cornerstone of our faith. Luke 20:17, "And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?"