Psalm 118:22
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Well, good evening, church. We're going to jump right into it. Let's read our text for tonight. It's Psalm 118, verse 22. It's a short verse, Psalm 118, verse 22. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. So we read Psalm 118 this morning, and in this psalm, the author is facing a very hard time. He sees Israel surrounded by her enemies. he's in great distress the presence of people who hate him is near there's a temptation to put trust in man or princes over against the authority of the Lord there is the real threat of death and he's certainly connecting some parts of his experience to the Lord's discipline in his life and yet there's so much that he's still confident about in a way this evening we're getting the antithesis to Pilate that we heard about this morning. Instead of yielding to the fears in his
life, the psalmist is repeating that the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever. He knows the Lord is answering him. He knows that the Lord has given him strength and will even make him sing. He knows that there's a gate of the Lord to enter and that the righteous will be there. He trusts that the Lord is his God, and he remembers again how the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever. And let me just say, the way that this writer is responding in hard times, it ain't me. I'm much more tempted to respond the way that Pilate did, as we heard about this morning. When things get hard. I mean, I guess over time I eventually come back to where this psalmist is, but usually when things get hard, I get despondent and I mope and I sulk and I stew in it for a while. And there are
lament psalms that speak to expressing grief and sadness before the Lord and sitting with that, but this is not one of them. The psalmist is driving into the face of fears and hard things armed with truths about the Lord, and he's marching forward. In a way, over the past week or so in the life of this church, I've seen so many of you living out the tension from this psalm. You're leaning on truth you're confident in, in the face of a hard thing. And it has been such an encouragement to me to see that.
But hard times do have a way of challenging where we find our strength, don't they? Difficulty presses in on your faith. It presses in on your life rhythms and disciplines and relationships and church membership. I suppose if you asked any Christian why they were a member of any church, or if I asked you why you were a member of this church, I suppose you would get a list of items, right? And depending on the season of life that you're in, maybe some of those values and things that you like are higher on the list than others. And in different seasons, maybe that list gets re-evaluated, but maybe you appreciate having your children be in a particular ministry within the church. Maybe you're here because your friends are here, and so this would just be a natural place for you to be. Maybe this is just what you do. You're a Christian, so on Sundays you put on clothes that are a little bit nicer and then you come here and you go to worship
services with your church family. Maybe you're a student and you just need a place to belong for a little while. Maybe this is a place of refuge for you. It's just a place of normalcy that when things are crazy outside in the outside world, you just need a place to come that looks familiar and there our familiar faces that you see, and that's a source of comfort for you. Praise the Lord for all those things. Those are good things, and all of those things are fruit of us standing on the cornerstone on Jesus. But friends, we know that when any of those things get elevated to a place of supremacy, when hard times come, that's slippery ground to stand on. When trouble comes, a place that's just familiar and comfortable, is not going to stand up when the world falls apart.
And what the psalmist is getting at is he's saying that there is a bedrock that will stand up to anything that's hard in this life. And his name is Jesus Christ, and he is the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Jesus Christ is the stone that the builders rejected, but he has become the cornerstone. What we are doing in this place, in this church, is sitting ourselves, is situating ourselves around the precious cornerstone that the Lord has laid. A cornerstone aligns the entirety of the building. Once the cornerstone is laid, the entire direction of the building can take form. Once the edge point of that stone is situated we can all align ourselves and face the proper direction. Once the cornerstone is laid, all the other stones now have a way to situate themselves on top of that stone so that the walls can be built and the building can
grow and the place can be complete. That's what we're doing here. There are so many of you over this past week that have loved one another sacrificially in a hard season because you know this. Because you know that Jesus is the cornerstone, even in hard times. You are fighting to align your life with Christ and stand with him on his gospel. That shows in all the cards you've written, the cookies you've delivered, the meals you've prepared, the time you've cut out of your busy schedules to spend time with one another and talk each other through all of this, I just want to thank you for the deep encouragement that has been to me over the past couple of weeks.
But let me remind you that even in times where that isn't so, where we recognize sin in our life that shows that maybe we're looking for some other cornerstone to stand on and orient our life around. Jesus is still the cornerstone. He's still in there. That doesn't change. The truth doesn't change. If you're in a season of spiraling or being confronted with sin or even being challenged and realizing that some of your motives in your Christian life or even your life within this church may not be quite in line, Jesus is still the cornerstone. Maybe you're in a season of life where you're on your A-game and you're living out of the gospel and you're loving your neighbor and things are going well and life just blindsides you and all of a sudden you're in a place of confusion and disorientation. Jesus is still the cornerstone. The Lord needed no help laying this stone. There are no outside trappings here necessary for this stone to be the cornerstone.
The only stipulation is that the Lord has laid it. He wasn't waiting on other building materials to organize themselves properly in order for him to proceed with laying this precious stone. In fact, the only stated relation to outside forces in this verse is that the builders rejected it. He doesn't need our perfection in order for this to be true, individually or as a church. He is the cornerstone, and that is so after we rejected him and sinned and wanted to be our own cornerstone or wanted something else to be our guiding point in life. And in the face of that rejection, the Lord set Jesus up as our Savior because he loves us. And that is why you're here, because you know that. That is true today. It will be true tomorrow and on into eternity. Jesus Christ was the cornerstone before you were born. He is the cornerstone of Third Avenue Baptist right now.
And should the Lord tarry in return, he will be the cornerstone of this place long after you and I are dead and gone and we're on to some other color carpet in this building. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. So I want to highlight a few things that it seems like the psalmist is weaving throughout 118. I have three. I have three reminders. Since Jesus is the cornerstone, we can be confident of these three things. So reminder one, eternal love. Since Jesus is the cornerstone, we can trust that the Lord is good and his steadfast love is eternal. Eternal love. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever. Brothers and sisters, there is nothing that can beat that stone out of being the cornerstone. He's in there.
I mean, Jesus is really in there. Have you ever tried to pull a cornerstone out of a building? It is really hard to do. I mean, really hard. You should try it, or ask your friends to try it. Jesus rose from the grave. He defeated death. There is nothing and no one who can undo what he's done, and that means that there's nothing that can undo his unending love for you. Because Jesus is the cornerstone, you can be sure that he will love you today, tomorrow, the next day, and on and on. And the author of the psalm knows that since God has laid the cornerstone, he can still thank him and say that he is good and can reflect on his enduring steadfast love even when the world around him is crumbling. His steadfast love for you will endure forever, even now, even this week. Now, not only does the psalmist reflect on this for himself, but he wants everyone who fears the Lord to say it with him. Let those who fear the Lord say his
steadfast love endures forever. You don't need a sunny sky or perfect harmony in your life to be able to say to your friends the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever. Say that to one another. Encourage one another with that. Find a way to get your anxious friend to say the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever. Reminder two, present help. Jesus is the cornerstone so we can trust that the Lord is a present help. When your neighbor hates you, when you feel like you are surrounded on every side, pursued to the point of falling, maybe sitting under the discipline of the Lord, how is it that you can say in that moment, the Lord is on my side as my helper? How can the psalmist say that here? When I'm facing threat from this world relationally, financially, health, the weight of responsibility. What I want to say is, where is God? Am I sitting in this mess
by myself? How am I going to get out of this? What gives the psalmist such confidence to say in moments like this, the Lord is on my side, I will not fear. Stones are great. Guys, stones are great. They're just there. You sit one on the ground like a really, really big one, like if a 3,000-pound meteor came out of the sky and landed on the front yard at this church.
Do you know what would happen with that big stone? Nothing. It would just sit there. Unless some modern-day machine came and moved it out of the way, it would sit in that yard, and you would walk by it every time you walked into church, and you'd see that big stone, and you would say, man, that stone is big, and it's still there. You remember that day that it came out and landed right there? Man, and then the kids would play around it, and they would throw footballs over it, but it would just be there. It would be a visual reminder every time you walked by it of the day that that weird thing happened.
That's a silly example, but let me offer a few that aren't so silly. I have to think that when the Lord told Israel set aside these 12 stones as a reminder of what happened in this place they could see those stones and remember what happened in that place or when he told his prophet Joshua set this stone here it will be a witness against us say that to Israel when they saw that stone they remembered what the Lord said stones are used as a reminder in scripture and even today cornerstones are often decorated and commemorated with the date the building was built you can't get past the cornerstone and see that without thinking about when that building was built when you see it you are reminded of how the building was built the stone reminds you the only way to be able to say that the Lord is your helper is when you see the gospel Jesus really did come he really did hang on the cross for your sin he really did rise from the grave. And he really did ascend to the Father. And if you need help when things are hard, look at the
gospel. Look at the cornerstone. Look at your brothers and sisters in this church who believe the same thing. I can't tell you how many times I've come into church on a Sunday morning anxious and despondent and weighed down. And honestly, there's a few Sundays that I didn't even want to come in but then I come in and I hear you sing and I hear you profess the gospel and I hear it preached and my heart just melts because I'm seeing the gospel and I'm reminded that the Lord is my helper and he is near we're getting ready to take communion when the elements get past you use that tangible those tangible examples as reminders of the gospel and what that is for you to remind yourself that the Lord will help you. He is on your side.
Reminder three, last one, a strong refuge. Because Jesus is the cornerstone, you can trust that he is a strong refuge. So the psalm calls out that the help of man or even princes is insufficient in comparison with the Lord's refuge. He doesn't say it's wrong to turn to friends when you need help, but he does say that it's better to turn to the Lord. The Lord is the one he celebrates as the one who helped him when he's surrounded on every side. It's the Lord who is his strength. It's the Lord is the one he's saying about. Students, if you haven't already, you will find that friends have limits to what they can provide for you. But because Jesus is the cornerstone, you can trust that he will always give you all that you need husbands and wives your spouse as sweet as that relationship may be will at times hurt you and fail to provide for you at times when you need it the most but because Jesus is the cornerstone he will never neglect to walk with you or be near
you when you are brokenhearted church members there will be times when we fail each other there will be times that you do the failing there will be times that the failing is done towards you but we can keep pressing on in faith in the gospel and trust that this body can be a refuge because Jesus is the cornerstone many of you have asked me what you can do to help this week or how are we to proceed in light of what we're experiencing keep doing what most of you are already doing. Trust that Jesus is the cornerstone and love one another. We continue on because Jesus is the cornerstone. Let's pray.
Father, we praise you for showing us Jesus. Thank you for your Holy Spirit opening our eyes to who he is, what he did on the cross and in his resurrection. Father, we pray that we would ground our lives and all of our behaviors on that truth. And so love one another and love this world and continue to advance the mission of your church in proclaiming the gospel. Lord, help us to build our lives together in unity in this church on Jesus, who is the cornerstone. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.