Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 571
Delivered on Sunday Morning, May 22, 1864, by the Rev. C, H. Spurgeon, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
“As it is written, Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense: and whoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed.” Romans 9:33.
OUR Apostle was inspired of God and yet he was moved to quote passages out of the Old Testament. The Spirit of God might have dictated new words to him. He might have shown him how to confirm the Truth by other arguments, but He is not pleased to do so. He moves His servant to establish the present Truth by Truths formerly revealed and thus He sets us an example of searching the Scriptures and prizing the ancient Oracles of God. The passage before us appears to be composed of two Scriptures woven into one, a method not very infrequent with the Apostles. A part of the text before us is found in Isaiah 28:16.
The Apostle does not quote verbatim, but gives us rather the sense than the words—“Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.” But the Apostle inlays this word of Prophecy with another, selecting this time from Isaiah 8:14—“And He shall be for a sanctuary. But for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel.” I cannot help making an observation or two upon these passages before I come to the text before us.
In Isaiah 8:14 you will perceive a striking proof of Christ’s Divinity. Observe the thirteenth verse—“Sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself. And let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread. And He,” that is the Lord of Hosts, “shall be for a sanctuary” to Believers, “but a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel.” Isaiah utters a prophecy of the Lord of hosts. Paul quotes it in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, plainly intending us to infer that the Lord Jesus Christ is no other than Jehovah Himself!
We learn from the other passage another Truth of God which serves more closely to illustrate our text. In Isaiah 28:16, we read, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone.” The Apostle has omitted the words “for a foundation,” and has inserted the words of the other passage, “a stumbling stone, a rock of offense.” But the original prophecy in Isaiah serves to show us that God’s real object in laying Christ in Zion was not that men might stumble at Him, but that He might be a foundation for their hopes. The real object of God was that Christ might be the cornerstone of human confidence.
But the result has been that to one set of men, renewed by Almighty Grace, Christ has become a sanctuary of refuge and a stone of dependence. And to others left to their own depravity He has become a rock of offense and a stumbling stone—thus the remarks upon the primitive Scriptures which Paul quotes. And now let us come to the verse itself. Our text tells us that many persons stumble at Christ. And, then, secondly, it assures us that those who receive Christ and believe in Him, shall have no cause to be ashamed.
I. The first declaration needs no proof, for observation itself teaches us that MANY STUMBLE AT CHRIST. No sooner was God manifest in the flesh, than mortals began to stumble at Him. “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” was the question of those who looked for worldly pomp and imperial grandeur. “His father and His mother we know, and His brothers and His sisters, are they not all with us?” was the whispered objection of His own townsmen. In His own country the greatest of all Prophets had no honor. Our Lord was rejected by all sorts of men. They looked at Him from different quarters, but all with the same scornful eye.
The Pharisee stumbled at Him because He was not superstitions and ostentatious. Indeed, He did not wash His hands before He ate! Nor did He pray at the corner of the streets! Why, He entered into the company of publicans and sinners! He did not make broad His phylactery. He healed the sick upon the Sunday! He had no respect for traditions and therefore every righteous Pharisee abhorred Him. The Sadducee, on the other hand, much as He hated Pharisaic superstition, despised Christ equally as much. His objections were shot from quite another quarter. To him Christ was too superstitious, for the Sadducee would not believe in angels or spirits, or the resurrection of the dead—all which beliefs the Prophet of Nazareth openly avowed.
Philosophical skepticism detested Jesus because His teaching had in it very much of the supernatural element. All His life long, in the high courts of Herod or of Pilate, or in the lowest rank of the mob of Judea, Christ was despised and rejected of men. They had long ago persecuted all the Prophets whom the Lord had sent and it was little marvel that they now assailed the Master Himself. “We have piped unto you and you have not danced. We have mourned unto you and you have not lamented,” might all the Prophets of God say, for Israel received neither the lonely man, whose meat was locusts and wild honey, nor the more genial Spirit who came eating and drinking.