The Solid Rock Jesus — E.A. Johnston

Father in heaven, I pray for your spirit to attend the reading of your word. I pray for the disturbing presence of Christ to be in our midst with solemnity and power. Lord Jesus, remove any hindrance to this message.

Let it be overcome like the scene from Revelation, where all physical elements dissolve before thee as heaven and earth. Flee from your face. Pull back the curtains of eternity and show us heaven and hell.

Let people see where they are going into that eternity. Let some poor sinner here see revealed Christ at Calvary and behold a bleeding and dying Christ on that bloody cross. Let them know for certain that you can wash all sins away.

Let someone within the sound of my voice hear your voice today as it comes with power, authority, and majesty. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. In Luke's Gospel in chapter 6, we are confronted with Christ's parable of the two foundations as seen in verses 46 and to 49.

As Jesus addressed his audience that day in this sermon on the plane, as he came to the close of his message, he had their undivided attention, as his words came with clarity and power, as he issues both a challenge and a warning to them.

He challenged them not to let his words go in one ear and out the other, and he warned them of the dire consequences of not obeying the Word of God in a life of practical application. And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock.

But he that heareth and doeth not is like a man that, without a foundation, built a house upon the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.

I will stop there, friends. Here, Jesus wraps up his discourse with a parable of two foundations. When Jesus taught, we imagine a pleasant scene of peace and tranquility, and solitude, where his listeners are happily listening, and they smile as they enjoy his sermon.

But it wasn't anything like that. When Christ preached, the attending power of heaven accompanied every single sentence, and each word that came from his lips fell with the force of ten thousand hammer blows.

When Jesus closed his message with the imagery of the two men who built on two different foundations, one on a solid rock, and the other on shifting sand, as he spoke, they saw heaven and hell flash before them.

They could almost see that approaching flood, and hear the wind scream and howl, as a big vehemently against that house. He finished his sermon with a resounding crash. As they walked back to their villages, they went back with the imagery of a catastrophic event fresh in their mind.

They could hear the roaring violence of waves crashing against the shore, as sudden flood and calamity struck. The sound of creaking timber, as it cracked, and broke, and crashed, rang in their ears. They saw a great house collapse before them, before the very eyes, as they watched in horror a family being swept away in a roaring current, crying out for mercy, as they drowned before them in utter chaos and destruction.

Building on Sand or the Solid Rock

A man who builds on sand, builds an ignorance to his surroundings. A life spent on the things of this world is a wasted life, built on shifting sand. But a life built on Christ, the solid rock, is a life lived for eternity.

Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. The contrast here between the two is startling. One man lives for the world and the pleasures of the world. He spends his life in a pursuit of accumulating as much of the world as he can.

He boasts and brags about what he has and what he has done. His self-worth is wrapped up in his material possessions. His ambitions are limited to what he can see around him. He lives just to sin, and he drinks iniquity like water.

He can't get enough of sin. His life is a hollow life, drifting with feeble, mundane ambitions. He is utterly selfish and self-absorbed and hell-bent on tasting every fleeting pleasure. His life gives no thankfulness or gratitude to God, nor any service to God.

He is utterly ungrateful to his Creator. He is like a man in a boat, carelessly drifting down a fast-moving stream, tasting the moment, gliding freely down that stream of time, unaware that at the end is a roaring cataract of death, where he and everything he has built will come crashing down.

He is but a fool who has lived as a fool. But the other man is wise. He built his life on Jesus Christ, the solid rock. And all hell can rage and come against him, but he won't fall, because Christ upholds him.

Christ's Saving Power Through the Cross

He is in the ark of safety. His sins are washed in the blood of the Lamb. Oh, how men need to hear the old gospel story about a man who came from glory to come down here so we can go up there. Jesus came into the world, doing good.

Jesus came healing the sick. Jesus came giving sight to the blind. Jesus fed the hungry. Jesus even raised the dead to life. Yet what happened? Men cried, away with him, and nailed him to a cross. Look that man on the cross, friend.

See him there with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. The cross is the place where wicked men sought to get rid of him. But by his death, it becomes the place where his saving power flows out to all who come in repentance, confessing they are sinners and on them as their Savior and Lord.

Oh, look that blessed man on the cross, friend. Look at that bloodstained Savior from sin as he wrestles there under the weight of sin. Look unto me and be ye saved of all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.

Christ's Invitation to Faith and Surrender

Oh, look that blessed man on the cross, friend. He cries, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Come to Christ, friend, and believe on him and build your life on a solid rock of safety. Surrender your all to him. I'm going to sing a hymn now, friend, and as I sing, if God has been dealing with your soul through this message, don't delay.

I want you to come in complete surrender to Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and on him as your Savior and Lord. You come as I sing. 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. All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness fails his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.